Why should we use video on our website?

Here are some facts about the monster site that we know as YouTube 

• More content is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the three major U.S. television networks have created in the last 60 years
• The average user spends between 15 – 25 minutes per day on the site
• Over 2 Billion views per day
• Nearly 2 hours of video are uploaded every second
• The most popular YouTube video has now had over 505 million views
• 10% of the internet traffic is through YouTube – that’s one out of every 10 internet users open YouTube

 You have to admit that is an awful lot of ‘stuff’ going on with that website.

If it’s that popular then surely online video will work for us right?

Online video is so powerful..So, why should we use video on our website?

Gone are the days when a nice looking website will cut it. Your prospective customers want to know who you are and what you are like. They can’t really get that from a nice retouched photo or some well-written copy.

Video helps you get your energy and passion across, and passion is infectious. Who doesn’t want to buy from some who is passionate?

Here’s another fact. I launched my own online TV channel – simonjordan.tv in April of 2009 and within 7 months I had picked up clients from around the globe.

I was speaking in the U.S. and my business quadrupled. I put this all down to my videos and the fact that I was creating relevant content which people were enjoying watching.

So should you use it to grow your business – YES!

We buy from people we know, like and trust. So what better way to have your website working for you 24-7 by using video so your prospective customers can see who you are and what you are about.

 With all those facts about YouTube and so many people online viewing – this is your chance to grab a slice of the pie.

FAQ

1. Is it complicated to setup and record a video? NO – you’ll be amazed at how simple it is. I’ll show you how on the call on 11^th Jan.
2. Is it expensive? NO – I can show you what equipment to buy and use in order to get some great videos
3. Does it take long to record and get a video up on YouTube? NO – Last year I recorded a video, from concept to filming, editing and uploading in just 45 minutes and that video brought in over £10k worth of work. Not bad for just 45 mins work huh!

Still thinking if video could work for you?

Maybe you’re thinking that you don’t know what to say on camera.

Maybe you feel a little shy?

Last night Carmen and I hosted a free teleseminar which was a quick guide to online video we showed you how to do it with confidence and shine like the star you are. 

If you missed it then don’t worry as you can email va@vact.co.uk for a copy of the audio…

…PLUS, for a limited time only you can access this amazing three part online video course worth over £997 at a heavily reduced fee just for contacts of VACT and learn easily and quickly how you too can start your online video marketing..

Click here for the offer..and remember it’s only for a limited time!

To your onward videoing success

Simon Jordan

Business Growth Coach, Author, Host and International Speaker

www.SimonJordan.tv

We are absolutely delighted that BeMyVA.com are once again supporting the National VA Conference this year.  Thanks to them, we can offer attendees a FREE lunch and social media training with the super Jo Dodds, the day before the conference.

For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to come across BeMyVA.com, here is some information about them…

“Since 1999, our parent company has operated as a business consultancy, engaging Virtual Assistants on a regular basis – in searching for specific skill-sets and availability, we became frustrated by many of the Virtual Assistant directories that have existed to date and more specifically, the search result information available.

BeMyVA.com has been developed as an Independent, International Directory for locating professional Virtual Assistants worldwide. Our primary business mission is to actively promote the value, skills and resources of Virtual Assistants to the business community at large.

To this end the BeMyVA team are currently members of entrepreneur groups with memberships in major cities and organisations across the globe, and we have detailed plans to continue to expand the audience reach with entrepreneurs and start-ups being provided with details of working with Virtual Assistants in our marketing activities.

We have access to exclusive on-line platforms to communicate to our business networks the value of VAs to a business, particularly with the backdrop of the current economic status that many of us are now operating within – in our opinion,  flexible workforces are one of the most positive ways forward – and we are actively promoting
that in our day-to-day business consulting activities.

Members with detailed full profiles have already won business from their listings on BeMyVA.com – check out the site www.bemyva.com  and contact us for log-in details if you wish to join or upgrade your profile to full membership.

We also wish to encourage and support the professional development of Virtual Assistants and the VA industry and look forward to working with Carmen and her team for the 6th National VA Conference in April 2012.

In most networking groups, as part of their structure, as a member you will have the great opportunity of providing a ten minute presentation.

What is the purpose? Well this could be to pitch for business OR providing tips and useful information or to educate the members by demonstrating your expertise.

What should your presentation include? Identify ways in which you can provide useful tips and information on how the members can start to work smartly on their business. 

Help them to identify where they could be spending their valuable time and introduce the concept of only focussing on what they are good at or what their clients pay them fees to do. 

Adding to this is to help them identify what they are not so good at and to outsource this to an expert.  This is a great place to discuss the concept of outsourcing to grow your business by Michael Gerber and his book ‘The E-Myth Revisited’.

Avoid telling people that they need to manage their time more effectively or save time, instead carry across a message on how they can manage themselves more effectively…what are they taking on for fear of not wanting to let people down – yet becoming overwhelmed by the workload and not coping effectively?

Give them tips on what they could do with their time and how they can be more productive with their time.  Educate them on how to avoid disruptions, this should include how to avoid watching emails constantly or being interrupted with calls…introducing them to call minding companies also.

By giving them hints and tips on being more focussed with what they do in their time, how to avoid distractions, activities they should be focussing more on to help them further develop their business and to identify what they can outsource so that they can achieve more in a shorter timeframe will help them understand your value more.

Help them to create more awareness of the value of their time by asking them to think about what their time is worth and the impact they can now have on their worth by only focussing on their talents.

Help them to help you: In the presentation round off give a brief overview of how you work, how you help clients to be more focussed and productive so that they can achieve the positive impacts on their business.  Avoid telling people that you save them time and money and avoid telling them what services you will provide them.  This is about how you can have a positive impact on their business by taking away whatever it is that is creating overwhelm in their business and being more productive with their time as well as boosting their income.

In addition, tell people who you work closely with and therefore useful contacts, demonstrate some of the results you have helped your clients to achieve or what you aim to help them to achieve.  People want to know ‘what’s in it for me?‘.

Tell them briefly what is involved if they now want to find out more and ow it all works.

Mention your fees too as otherwise it is assumed you could be expensive. Give examples of retainers and budgets you have worked around.

To end:

• Summarise what you have told them,
• Invite them to ask questions
• Provide a feedback sheet where they can also state their interest in having a consultation. 
• Ask them who they can think of now who would value a brief discussion on how you could impact on their buiness
• Make it wasy for them to know how to contact you

Have a call to action

2012 is meant to be the year of positive change which is great news for everyone! 

How many of you have ever done a huge clutter clear at the end of the year, vowing never to allow clutter to build up again and set a new year’s resolution which you never followed through with?   Well I am guilty of that too (look I’m not perfect you know!!:)).  When you have clutter around you notice how tired you get, when you know you have so much to do, you feel overwhelmed don’t you.

I have used the last couple of days to do a huge clutter clear from a mindset and a physical angle.  Apart from many of the benefits of training as a Master in NLP, is that you have the tools to work on your own mindset and all I will say is “Wow”…I have gained more focus and got rid of some of those cobwebs sneaking around which I had allowed to hold me back in some areas of my life.  It’s been very refreshing, in fact I’ve already started to notice my energy levels starting to increase.  

Having cleared my space I am ready for 2012, and instead of thinking “I hope in the new year I can achieve xxx” I am stating positively I’m looking forward to achieving some big goals this year.   If you are ever going to move forward, it’s so important to create the space, clutter holds you back and this can be from a mindset as well as a physical point of view.  Once you have created that space, you too will feel the surge of positive energy and you’ll feel more than ready to take action.

Having coached and trained hundreds of successful VAs over the last ten years, I have seen many of them soar to great heights.  What has enabled so many to achieve that is the fact that at the start of the VA Mastery Course I get everyone to really focus and visualise specific goals on a long and short term basis and really get into the nitty gritty of the action required.  Yes, I know all coaches will harp on about goals BUT, would you get in the car and drive and have no clue of where you are going?  Or would you get on any plane and see where it takes you?  Of course not unless you are Thelma and Louise .

I appreciate that many of you may be stuck and not know what you want, you may just want to feel secure, have more money, have more clients, be able to pay your bills etc….from this basis you can create the foundation of your goals by ‘chunking down’ into more detail.  For instance…if you want more money, how much specifically do you want?  When do you want it by specifically and what will the more money enable you to do perhaps in your business or from a lifestyle point of view?

However, in order to create results in your VA business, explore what needs to change and what you need to start doing differently.  Perhaps you need to do a bit of a clutter clear and release some energy as clutter creates stagnation!

 
Whether you are aspiring to become a VA or you want to take your business even further forward, here are some areas to think about and put into practice and make 2012 the year of positive results:
 
Write down your answers and have a visual representation as well as to help make this exercise actually work for you:
 
1. What is the exact outcome you want? THINK BIG!
Imagine now being where you want to be, whether it is 8 months, 2 years or 5 years time -
 
·         What are you doing? 
·         Why do you want it?
·         What are your core values?
·         What does having this vision give you? I.e. built your confidence, sense of balance or achievement, more income.
·         What do you notice that is different for you and how (in positive terms)?
·         What will you be feeling, thinking, and seeing when you have it?
·         When specifically do you want it to happen? 
·         What will you be feeling, thinking, and seeing when you have it? 
·         What would be the positive consequence of taking the first step? 
·         What will motivate you to do something about it?
 
 Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail – Robert Schuller
  
2. What are you doing at the moment, for example are you employed, going back to work after having a baby, in between jobs etc.?
 
Notice the gap between where you are now (your current reality) and what you want to achieve (your outcome).

3. Once you have noticed the gap, start to think about the actions you need to take in order to fill the gap.  Who do you know you can help you?  What resources do you need?  What knowledge or tools will you invest in to close the gap?  When will you start?

Today is the first day of the New Year…make a difference, never allow procrastination or lack of know-how to stop you.  Do something positive…if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results!

A Gift For You
If you are worried about your income levels dropping or want to avoid inconsistency in income and client attraction, I am giving you the opportunity to attend a FREE one hour, no nonense, no jargon and easy to follow teleseminar “How to Get More Clients for Your VA Business and Increase Your Income Now”.

Put the date in your diary now for Wednesday 4th January 2012 at 8.30pm to 9.30pm

PLUS a bonus gift of another teleseminar for Wednesday 11th January 2012 at 8.30pm to 9.30pm with my colleague Simon Jordan on “Why You Should Be Using Video as Part of Your Marketing Strategy”.

To register for these teleseminars please email with subject header only, Get More Clients to va@vact.co.uk by no later than 3rd January 2012.

If you have any specific questions you can tweet me @VAtrainingpro and I will do my best to ensure as many of your questions are answered on the teleseminar.

Therefore, If you know you have to make your business work by being able to get more VIP clients and start invoicing higher amounts…then let us help you to make this happen!!

The Law of Attraction states:

 ”What you focus your energy on is what you get”, and “like attracts like”.

Quantum physicists are moving towards proving that those principles work.  So be careful what you wish for!!!!  Be specific in what you want and what you don’t want to happen.  

 

The biggest risk is in never taking opportunities in life.

If you were to imagine now that the years have flown by and you are now an old lady or man talking to the young members of your family.  Do you hear yourself talking with regret about the opportunities you let slip by?  Or do you hear yourself proudly telling people about the life you experienced because you never let any opportunity pass you by.  And even though you may have made some mistakes along the way, the important thing is that you learned from those mistakes and that learning helped you to become the successful person you wanted to be?

Which story will it be?

What is holding you back from achieving what you want?

The list could be endless… procrastination, negative thoughts, lack of confidence, justifications as to why you can’t or won’t succeed, self-criticism, mental dramas, etc.? … Oh, those mental dramas, holding you back before you have even set off on the journey!!

Is it fear? Fear of failure, fear of someone new, fear that there will always be someone better than you, fear of competition, fear that you will not be able to attract any opportunities or that you are not good enough and so on?  You must be very exhausted creating your “fear” list!!

Creating Opportunities

Opportunities are there for the taking. It is just a case of noticing them.  If you are focusing all your valuable energy on worrying that there might not be any opportunities, then of course you will not notice the opportunities that are there.  You will miss the opportunities that you wished for, but you were just too busy worrying.  However, If you don’t know what you want and have no clarity in your intentions for your life or career, then how will you know which opportunities you are seeking?

Seek and You Shall Find

As mentioned previously, it is easy, isn’t it, to give ourselves all the reasons in the world why we cannot do this? E.g. lack of financial resources to pay for a course, not enough time, not confident enough. 

If only things were perfect and we were not in the situation we were in, then we would be able to create better opportunities… right?  Well what if you were wrong?  We all have to start somewhere: Why not here? Right now?

It’s So Important to Know What You Must Aim For

What do you want to achieve this year?  Have you been putting things off due to a lack of knowledge and tools or perhaps anxiety about stepping out of your comfort zone?  Perhaps you are allowing limiting thoughts to go round and round in your head asking if you are doing the right thing, what if it doesn’t work, or even you are not sure whether you can make a success of it.

Breaking the outcome down into bite-sized chunks in terms of time is a great help:

1. What do you want or need to achieve within three months?
2. What do you want or need to achieve within six months?
3. What do you want or need to achieve within ten months?
4. What do you want or need to achieve within twelve months?

  Effective Goal-Setting Questions Which Assist With Action.  

1. Where are you at the moment in relation to each outcome?
2. How will you achieve your outcomes for each stage? 
3. Who do you know that you provide you with the tools and knowledge to support you and guide you and who has your success on their agenda?
4. What are some of the obstacles that you need to have a contingency plan for to overcome them?  These could be procrastination, lack of confidence, not focussed, equipment failure, ill etc.
5. By brainstorming, make a list of all the actions you can do for each stage of your outcomes as stated above so that you can start to make some headway.

Well one action you can take now is to register for my FREE teleseminars on HOW TO GET MORE CLIENTS FOR YOUR VA BUSINESS ..plus.. WHY YOU SHOULD BE USING VIDEO IN YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS with guest Simon Jordan……all you need to do is email GET MORE CLIENTS in the subject header only to carmen@vact.co.uk and you will be sent details of the two sessions taking place on

Wednesday 4th January 2012 at 8.30pm to 9.30pm and Wednesday 11th January 2012 at 8.30pm to 9.30pm…come on..what are you waiting for?!!

How has 2011 been for your VA business? If you’ve had a great year then fantastic news. However, for some of you, you may be a little nervous about what 2012 has in store for you as 2011 could have been better.

Perhaps you would love to start up as a VA but concerned about the news of the recession or you want to grow your VA business but hesitating about investing in your business development.

However, the VA industry has never seen more fantastic opportunities in the last few years, if anything, many VAs have followed a smart marketing strategy to increase their client base and boost their income. It’s certainly something I have noticed with many of the VAs whom I have been mentoring or training.

So where should you be focussing your energy on for 2012 to ensure you can grab those brilliant opportunities for your business? What do you need to start doing more of or doing differently to get the results you expect?

Become more marketing savvy

Become more savvy with your marketing both online and offline, have a sound strategy because with more and more people setting up as a VA, it’s even more important that you’re getting yourself noticed in the crowd. Plus you’ll need to become more savvy with social media whether using Facebook, writing blog posts, communicating on Twitter or online networking groups such as LinkedIn.

Marketing is about building relationships with an audience who are putting their hands up showing an interest in you and your business. Then, by using a unique marketing strategy, you can create awareness of what you do (educating people what a VA is and why using your services are invaluable to their business), who you are and how you, as a unique individual, can benefit the niche you support. By building a relationship with these people using distant and direct communication methods on a consistent basis, they will get to know you, like you and, importantly, trust you. This is not about selling and pushing for business.

Social Media

Social media is a great way of raising your profile online and reaching a wider audience. It is also an important tool to manage your reputation online and have an awareness of what is being said about you. Where people are raving about you is a great opportunity to encourage them tell their audience or followers. If a respected business owner is saying great things about you then their audience will place more trust in you and your business. This is a great marketing tool.

Here are some tips to get you started on the right track for 2012…

(And if you want more in-depth knowledge of the surefire way to getting more clients and increasing the amount you invoice each more, then listen in to a free teleseminar on Wednesday 4th January at 8.30pm on and a bonus teleseminar on Wednesday 11th January at 8.30pm on how to use video to market your VA business with Simon Jordan. Both sessions are one hour long. Just email va@vact.co.uk with the subject header only ‘Get More Clients’.)

1. Clarify what do you want? Create a clear, specific outcome you want to achieve in the next 90 days.

2. Identify where you are in your business right now. How many clients do you have? What is your income level? What is attracting people right now to your business?

3. Positioning: How do people see you? What problems do you solve? Do people see you as an expert?

4. Identify your niche. Describe them in a way they will be able to relate to.

5. Your packaging. How do you explain what you do so people understand.

6. Clarify the benefits of working with you.

7. Identify possible joint ventures. This is a wonderful opportunity to widen your audience.

8. The Marketing Mix. Ensure your clients are aware of all of your skills and that of the associates you have in your team so that you’re not losing out on any income opportunities.

Good luck for 2012 and ensure this is the year you take action!

If you really want to surge forward then have a look at this offer…

Please note copyright is to The VA Coaching and Training Company 2011-12. All rights reserved.

Do you want advice on how to stop feeling nervous about presenting?

Let’s explore how to handle those nerves!

Do you notice that just before your turn to stand up and do your 40 or 60- second pitch or your ten minute presentation, your heart starts to beat faster, you feel a churning in your gut, you suddenly forget what you had planned to say. 

Then you stand up and notice how you are shaking, you feel conscious of everyone staring at you, you jumble up your words and mumble…oh damn you feel you’ve made a mess of it all and now have to wait until the next meeting to get it right …. but …. next time comes around and all you think about is the terrible experience of the last meeting …. oh what to do!!!!

Number 1 – let’s tackle those nerves of yours first

• Actually being a little nervous is a GOOD thing believe it or not as having them allows a peak performance.  I speak at a lot of large conferences each year and I am always a little nervous beforehand, yet I find this helps me to give the best presentation.
• However, the key is in the control of your nerves and feeling confident. How do you do that?  Visualisation.
• If all you tell yourself is that you are nervous and then imagine yourself standing there a bag of nerves, then guess what…you will experience that…you are what you think.
• By visualising yourself as a confident person, giving a sound presentation, imagining feeling calm and relaxed and even visualising people looking at you with keen interest whilst you are standing there thoroughly enjoying the presentation – then guess what again…you will experience that!! 
• Remember that much of the nerves (controlled) will be on the inside.  I bet people have told you that you appeared very confident and you respond with surprise…well, if you take the first three letters of confidence you have ‘con’, it is easy to con your audience!  The visualisation is what will help con your subconscious mind.
• Remember that whatever you tell yourself often enough you will become, change the way you think, act, behave as if you were the person you want to appear to be.

See things from your audience’s perspective

• Have you ever sat in the audience whilst listening to someone’s ten minute presentation and lost interest or became confused with too much information?  Then learn from this…keep it simple.  It is very tempting to try and appear like the expert and talk in jargon but that really is not going to make the impact. 
• What will make the impact is to think about what they want to hear…when you are in the audience do you want to know how the  speaker’s service could benefit you or have a positive impact on someone you know?  Of course you do, so this is what you should be aiming for…getting across how THEY, the audience can start to notice something positive by you working with them or those that they know. 
• Imagine the type of problems you solve…mention some of these problems ‘Do you find that you come to the end of the day and notice you have achieved very little because you have been busy doing time consuming tasks?’, ‘Do you wish you could just focus on the key activities that will enable you to work on just the fee earning work and boost your income?’ etc 
• Tell people the types of results you achieve and even give examples where you can. 
• Be enthusiastic about your business, you will not make any impact on people’s memory of you if you speak with a monotone voice, with no lift.

Ensure you look the part – confidently!

• When we are feeling a lack of confidence we tend to show this in the way we look – in our expression (not smiling and looking worried), in our posture (sloping shoulders and hunched over) – what do you notice about the way you look when you are not so confident? 
• Aim to make a positive change…notice your posture and facial expression when you are feeling great about yourself, when you are feeling in a great mood – look at yourself in the mirror and notice what you notice.  People take more notice on how you sound and the way you look over what you say, so ensure the visual impression you give is positive.
• Include eye contact in this too, as looking down at the floor will not help you.
• You will find that when your body language, posture and facial expression is positive, it impacts on your feelings.  It’s hard to feel sad when you are smiling!!

Speaking with confidence

• The way you sound and making the best use of your voice is just as important…although I appreciate that when you are feeling nervous this impacts on your voice…like someone has taken out your voice box, squeezed it and then put it back again.
• Control your breathing – focus.  When you breathe at a slower rate, you start to feel calm and notice how relaxed you start to feel.
• Avoid trying to say too much, by talking at a good, steady pace is going to allow you to feel much better about your presentation AND people are more likely to remember what you say. Less is more!
• Speak with enthusiasm and emphasise key points.
• Pause in between sections.  This ensures you keep the attention of your audience.

 Nervous about questions that will be asked after your presentation?

• Remember – you know your business, nobody asks you a question to catch you out. 
• Anticipate the typical questions that could be asked and prepare the answers.
• Never guess an answer if you don’t know, tell them that is a great question and will come back to them.
• Practice talking about fees confidently, ideally you should mention your fees in the presentation – never tell people that it depends on what they want – be clear.  If you practice talking about fees with confidence and you have put across the value then you will create a strong impression.

How to stop feeling nervous about presenting? Practice this all beforehand

• If you prepare the night before then of course you will expect to be nervous. 
• The more time you give yourself the more confident you will be and the stronger impression you will make as a proactive VA and business owner.
• Give yourself two to three weeks to prepare and practice your ten minute presentation or 40/60 second pitch.
• If you practice you will notice your confidence soar…and I am talking from experience!

What I can do to help: 

Having been a trainer, presenter and Master NLP confidence coach I have been mentoring and supporting people who want to become more confident and be able to influence through effective presentations.  Sessions for VAs only are £150 for a two hour coaching session via video Skype, plus supporting material.  We will work through your confidence barriers, then put together your actual presentation and practice.  To book please go to www.tungle.me/VACT to book your two hour session.  This includes a 30 minute follow up feedback session.

Suggested Reading:

Do you want more referrals?

I recently attended a networking group where putting forward referrals is not something that is forced upon members.  What I found interesting was that, when it came to the 1-2-1 sessions, people were not forthright in telling me what type of referrals they wanted, in fact many a time I have found people almost embarrassed about asking.  I always ask “What type of contacts or referrals would suit your business?” as it’s always my aim to support others.

So what’s stopping you from getting more referrals?  Is it that you feel awkward about it or feel it’s wrong to ask?  Someone told me that if someone has a referral they’d pass it on, however, on the other hand some people have held back from sending referrals when they believe someone is too busy to take on more work!

Start with your clients

How often to you run a client review session.  Many have told me they don’t conduct one as they have been told by their client that they are more than happy with their VA services.  But that is not the point of a client review.   From the start of taking the client on board you are on a mission to add value to your client’s business and by conducting a client review means that you are ensuring that your services are helping your clients to keep on track with their important goals.

Imagine now that you are helping your clients in such a way that they are now able to focus on the key activities they must focus on in order to start achieving their monthly and quarterly goals.  Imagine the scenario that with your support they have surpassed what their expectations were and much of that is down to you taking away the burden from the running of their business.

Just from the fact that you have been offering great customer service, conducting great client reviews to ensure that they are on track and great ongoing client management…they are going to be a happy client, aren’t they.

Therefore, when it comes to a client review and you have outlined the areas you have supported them on, this would be a great time to ask for a referral.  And if you have sustained a great relationship, of course they will want to support you.

Asking your clients for a referral is the most cost-effective marketing you can do.  Let your clients do the talking. 

Do you want more referrals?  Then you must get over your feelings of awkwardness and get into the habit of asking for a referral from any of your satisfied clients. 

How to Ask for Referrals

• Remember that most people like to help other people (if there is no negative cost to them).
• Remind yourself that the worst that can happen is that the client says, “No”. We can handle that!
• Make asking for a referral part of your routine. With most work you do, there’s a last encounter with the client, a perfect time to ask for a referral.

What to say when asking for a referral?

Be sincere and direct and you can say something along the lines of…

“I’m really glad that you’re pleased with the support I have provided you. Who can you think of now that you would be interest in (what you do), I would very much appreciate if you could pass on my details.  Would you need some more of my business cards?

Ensuring they have some of your business cards makes it easier for them to pass your name and contact details on to someone else.

Another variation on this script is to be even more direct and ask for names when you’re asking for referrals. For instance, you might say:

“I’m really glad that you’re pleased with my services. I have capacity for additional business of around 10 hours per week and wonder who you know who would be interested in speaking to me about how I can support them also.”

Pause and see what they say. Some people will offer some names. Some will say, “Yes, maybe,” and not offer any further information. Some will say, “No”, but at least you tried.

If they do offer names, take them down and ask the person if they mind if you contact the people directly or if they would prefer to pass your information along to them yourself.

Tips for Asking for Referrals

• Referrals ideally should be asked for face-to-face. It’s more effective. People will always be more likely to do something for someone else if the person is standing right in front of them. It is acceptable to ask for referrals by email or phone if you work on a more virtual basis.
• Avoid asking for a referral when issuing an invoice!
• When asking for a referral you can also ask for an endorsement or testimonial and offer to promote their business alongside the testimonial with their website links or contact information.  Give them time to put this together or you could do this and then pass it to them for approval to help save them time.

The More You Ask The More You’ll Get

Make the effort to get into the behavioural habit of asking for referrals and then you will start to notice a positive impact on your business with less cost to you for marketing!  As a little touch, why not have a branded thank you card from your company so that you can send this, hand written, to your client when a referral is made, even if that person doesn’t become a client, it is the act of kindness and thoughtfulness that your client made for you.

If you liked this article please tweet about it and also let me know your comments…what’s been the most effective way of getting referrals for your business?

Sign up to our webinar on how to conduct a great client review for Tuesday 13th December!

The following checklist will help you to comply with the Data Protection Act. Being able to answer ‘yes’ to every question does not guarantee compliance, and you may need more advice in particular areas, but it should mean that you are heading in the right direction.

• Do I really need this information about an individual?
• Is this information all accurate and up to date?
• Do I know what I’m going to use it for?
• Do the people whose information I hold know that I’ve got it, and are they likely to understand what it will be used for?
• If I’m asked to pass on personal information, would the people about whom I hold information expect me to do this?
• Am I satisfied that the information is being held securely, whether it’s on paper or on computer? And what about my website? Is it secure?
• Do I have consent for all sensitive personal data that I hold?
• If I am transferring data outside of the EEA (ie the European Union plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), have I either ensure adequate protection or obtained consent from the data subject?

Lawyers4mumpreneurs is the only business law practice in the UK that focuses exclusively on mumpreneur businesses. We cover the full range of business law services and have over 14 years’ experience at the highest level in providing such services. We provide mumpreneurs with a friendly, cost-effective and flexible service. See our many testimonials from delighted clients at http://www.lawyers4mumpreneurs.com/testimonials-2

If you collect and process personal data, you must (unless exempt) notify certain details (such as your name and address, a description of personal data being processed and a description of the purpose for which the data is being processed) to the Information Commissioner.

If you process personal data without notification (or outside the scope of your notification) you are committing a criminal offence. This offence carries a maximum penalty of a £5,000 fine in the magistrates’ court and an unlimited fine in the Crown Court. Failure to notify is a strict liability offence which means that notifying is mandatory (if you don’t fall within an exemption) and being unaware of the law is not an excuse. 

The main exemption for a small private business is the ‘core business purpose’ exemption, that is, you are exempt if the only reasons you are processing personal data are for:

• Staff administration; and/or
• Advertising, marketing and public relations; and/or
• Accounts and records.

The period of notification is one year. There is an annual fee of £35. Changes to a notification entry must be made within 28 days. Changes are made free of charge.

Beware of bogus agencies sending out official looking warning letters about notification and charging inflated fees to notify on your behalf. Always deal directly with the Information Commissioner’s Office – it is cheaper and better to do so. You can notify on the ICO website (https://www.ico.gov.uk/cgi-bin//dprproc?page=7.html) or by phone on 01625 545740.        

Even if you are exempt from notification you must still comply with other provisions in the Data Protection Act 1998, including the eight data protection principles.

Lawyers4mumpreneurs is the only business law practice in the UK that focuses exclusively on mumpreneur businesses. We cover the full range of business law services and have over 14 years’ experience at the highest level in providing such services. We provide mumpreneurs with a friendly, cost-effective and flexible service. See our many testimonials from delighted clients at http://www.lawyers4mumpreneurs.com/testimonials-2