TBBVA 159: November Planning Session

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Links Referenced:

• Monthly Membership Program – VABOC
• Episode 158 – Where To Go To Get Clients
• The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant Facebook Page

 

On Video:

 

In Words:

Hi and welcome to The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant. I’m your host Tiffany Parson, and you’re watching and listening to episode number 159. I saw a post on Facebook yesterday and it said that we had less than 60 days before the end of this decade.

I had not even thought about it being the end of a decade. Wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

Do you remember when we were excited to like, party like it was 1999? Or when we were headed into Y2K and everybody was nervous about that whole thing?

Now we are at the end of the decade. Wow! Okay, that’s not what today’s topic is about. But it just really struck a chord with me. I’m like, man, that is just wild.

Think about where you were 10 years ago and look how fast 10 years goes by.

10 years ago. Oh, my goodness. 10 years ago. Ah, let’s just say we’re already there. It would have been 2010. Where were you in 2010?

For me in 2010, I was two years into my virtual assistant business. And I was working some out of my bedroom and some from the dining room table, but mostly from my bedroom is where I was working my business from back in 2010, at my parent’s house.

Wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow… amazing

There was no, you know, video was not hot back then. Clients were doing telesummits, teleseminars. It was not about webinars or video. Facebook live anywhere live. Hadn’t even been thought about back in 2010. Not publicly, anyway, so everybody was, you know, you do your conference calls.

It was, um everything was over the phone. You do your training and stuff over the phone. InstantTeleseminar was the hot thing back in 2010. Wow!

That gives me an idea. I need to do a post about the end of the decade and what it looked like back in 2010.

So today I have my journal/planner with me because today’s topic is a planning session really.  And so to think about what is gonna happen for the month of November.

Now, as I was brainstorming different topics for today’s episode, I thought it would be a great idea, since this is the first full week of the month for us to look at planning out our month.

Also, because it’s a holiday month and things really go fast, they get by us very quickly. So here’s the deal.

It is November. I hate to, you know, put months on it because I know someone will be watching this episode months from now years from now. So either way, what we’re gonna do today is still applicable, no matter which month it is.

So I want you to look at your schedule whether you keep it on Google calendar, on your phone, in an actual hand held calendar, whatever. Wherever you keep your calendar, I want you to look at it and note some significant weeks for you.

I’ll give you an example…

For me the week of the 11th. That’s a big week. I call that doctors. Got a lot of stuff going on the week of the 11th.

Then there’s the holiday week, which is the last week of the month. So the week of the 25th is a holiday week. So for me, I’ve got two solid full weeks where I know I’m gonna be able to focus and really dive into what’s going on with my business.

The doctor’s week and the holiday week, I will still be working my business, but it won’t be like, totally focused. And I know that ahead of time.

Same for you.

What’s something that stands out significantly for this month? Where you know you’re gonna be checked out a little bit?

And if you already know that, then it’s probably good to block off that time so you’re not scheduling client calls during that time. Especially getting to know you calls, brand new client calls because you want to be able to fully and completely focus on them and what they’re sharing with you. You don’t want your mind to be divided.

And towards the end of the year, it just makes sense.

I have in past years said, oh, i’m gonna work through the holidays, you know, I don’t have. We don’t do a lot. We spend time with family, but all of our families local. We’re not traveling anything like that. Big mistake.

Big mistake. I regretted it during the times that I did. So now I know to block off the calendar, don’t schedule anything, no new projects, because my mind is just not focused. I’m excited and ready for the holiday. Whatever that looks like.

It’s gonna look different for everybody. Maybe you travel. Maybe you’re shopping. Maybe you’re just getting the house ready for hosting family and friends.

So look at your month and block off those. It might not be weeks for you at my just be days or weekends, whatever it is, block off the time.

Okay, so the next thing is, we gotta look at Black Friday. So Black Friday is the last Friday of the month, which is November 29th. What does that mean for us as virtual assistant business owners?

Well, number one, if you are offering any specials for Black Friday, hopefully, you have already started to plan those things. Hopefully you have.

And if you have never planned anything and you’re wondering how to plan something. What you want to do is look at maybe a new service. Something you want to test out.

I would not put any specials on any services you provide. You don’t ever want to discount yourself. However, if there’s something new you want to try, it’s a good time to do that. Step out, test it out to see how it goes.

I did a whole training for the Virtual Assistant Business Owner Circle that gives you access to the Black Friday training. If that’s something that you’re interested in, just head to the website tiffanyparson.com/vaboc. Or just go directly to the website and click on membership.

You can sign up for one month, get access to the Black Friday, because you get full access to that training and then cancel in December. However you want to do it, but there’s some full training in there to help you with that.

Okay, so that’s what it means. We could offer a service special for Black Friday.

The other thing is that our clients may be putting something as a special offer.

Maybe they’re bringing out something they’ve never brought out before at a deep discount, whatever the case may be, and they may need our help support wise. Be it to post on social media, to create graphics, to answer emails about it, to set it up. Whatever it is that you provide, it may be relative to their Black Friday offer.

I recommend that you send out an email broadcast to your client email list. Letting them know what you’re available for.

You know, whatever your service is, let them know you’re available. If you need some support for Black Friday, here’s how I can help. And here’s how you can sign up for that.

So that is something to look at. You don’t have to. I haven’t always offered something on Black Friday week.

Again after you look at your calendar, you’ll know whether you’ve got something open. And this is not to say that you’re doing work on Black Friday. This is say that you would be helping support them in preparation for Black Friday.

So if that’s the case, I would suggest you get the email out this week to let them know that you’re available. If they need any support, get on it now.

You don’t want to wait to the last minute. And of course, you don’t want your clients to come to you last minute for something like that.

In fact, if you’re helping them set up for Black Friday, ideally, you want to be done by the second full week of November. Because the week before, it’s like crunch time. And that’s where the stress and the worry happens that your client may have because they waited till the very last minute.

I am speaking from experience. It’s not smart. So it’s best if they are ready to go right now so you can get that set up. You’ve already got it. It gives you two weeks to do what you need to do, and they’re ready to go for November 29

Because they’ve gotta send out promotional emails. They’ve got to start promoting it and they might decide to put something out before Black Friday.

Some people have done it before Thanksgiving, maybe the week of. Completely up to how they want to do it. But it’s best that it’s done by the second week in November. Okay, but that’s something out of your control. But put it out there for you to offer them the service.

All right, so what’s the other thing? We talked about our special…Oh… project cut off date.

This is super important.

Look at your calendar and decide when am I going to cut off for the holidays?

You wanna have a set deadline as so when you will take new clients, when you will take new projects up until a certain date before the holiday.

This is something that I started doing during the summer when we would go on vacation again. I have tried to work holidays, work vacations and it doesn’t work out. I end up kicking myself,  being upset.

I can work existing projects but to take on a whole new thing during the holiday or vacation, no. My mind is not focused. And I want to be totally focused on something brand new so I can ask all the questions I need to ask.

So you want to look at your calendar and have a cut off time. When are you going to stop taking new projects?

You decide what that’s gonna look like for you. If you have to cook thanksgiving or you have to travel, you want to have that cut off date well before that time to give yourself time to pack, time to shop. Whatever it is.

Decide what your cut off date is. It’s your business. You get to decide.

Perfect example: My CPA.

So you know we’re out of tax season. So they sent an email and they let us know that you know, since it’s no longer tax season, their office is open Monday through Thursday 9 to 5.  Their office is not open on Friday when it’s not tax season.

When it is tax season, they let us know what those hours are. I think they’re Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. I’m not sure exactly how it all goes.

Now, I’m not telling you to email everybody on your list to let them know what your hours are.

Point being, they set their terms for how they work in their busy season and in their off season. In this case, you’re setting how you’re gonna work for the holiday and then after the holiday.

So if there’s a cut off date as to when you’re going to stop taking projects, then when we get into December, then you know what is your open date. When you’re open again to accept new projects.

And if you’re like, look, Tiffany, I’m gonna work all the way through it. Have at it. It’s your business. You get to work out how you want to work it.

This is to help you look at your month, see what’s going on and make a smart plan for your business because we are in the holiday season now.

We are in it already the first full week of November, because clients are preparing for Black Friday. We’ve got Thanksgiving and then we move into Christmas and then the New Year.

And if you have any personal holidays in between that as well, so that is the whole episode. It’s all about planning.

You had your calendar.

We looked at our special appointments for the month.

We looked at our project cut off date. Deciding when your holiday time is going to be.

If and when you’re gonna promote your services offering support for Black Friday

And then sending out those notices to your clients

So that will get you through November.

And the last thing I want to talk about something I didn’t write down is posting on your Facebook business page, posting on LinkedIn, posting on Instagram. Wherever your places are, go ahead and start planning that in advance.

The best tip I have ever heard for social media content is this… always be recording.

This is what that means. This is how I took that. Now they may always be recording like video. Save it on your phone. You never know when you’ll need content.

But for me, I took it as to be on the lookout everywhere I go. Looking for an opportunity.

Is it an opportunity to take a selfie?

Is it an opportunity to record a quick video?

Is it an opportunity to video something I’m seeing?

Or to take a picture of something I’m seeing?

Or to write a note on my phone that I could use for content later?

Previously, and maybe you’re like me too, you think in your mind well, that’s a great idea, and you think you’re going to store in your mind to retrieve it later like an actual file.

But that does not always happen when you try to go back in your mental file to remember. It’s not always there.

It’s not as clear as it was at the time.

Go ahead, start jotting those things down. Start saving it in your phone.

Save videos,

Save photos,

Save notes,

in your phone. so that you always have constant available to share.

If you’re reading an interesting article online and it is relative to those you serve, share the link.

Share it on Facebook, on your Facebook business page. Share it on LinkedIn. Share it on Twitter, something that you are reading that is interesting, that is relative to the people you serve.

And if it’s not, but you know they would get a kick out of it, maybe it’s just something interesting or something funny, share it, share it, share it!

And don’t worry about whether you get likes or comments or anything like that. Just put it out there.

Get in the habit of sharing information. Get in the habit of sharing yourself.

I posted a tech tip today on my Facebook business page about going live and how I selected a wellness doctor simply because they go live on Facebook. And it helped me to get to know them as a person. Not that they were sitting there telling all about themselves, but just hearing them talk.

I felt comfortable with the person on the other end of the video. And that’s what you want for your clients.

You want them to be comfortable with you as well, which is why we want to share information, share what we know in video picture form, written form and, um, articles and things like that.

So, anyway, that is a full month. T hat should keep you busy for the whole November. In addition to last week’s episode, number 158 about the four different ways and marketing yourself.

So that should keep us all busy through November. And we’ll do a special planning session again, the first podcast in December as well. We’ll do the same thing.

This was fun!

So anyway, I hope you found this helpful.

If you have any questions, I want you to head to The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant Facebook page. Our facebook page is facebook.com/tbbva.

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Also posts comments below the video to ask your question. I’m always willing to answer questions below the comments. I get an email notification and I enjoy hearing from you.

If you don’t have a question, you just want to comment about the episode I want to hear from you as well.

You are the reason why I am encouraged to come back over and over again to do another podcast for you every single week.

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You have a wonderful and fabulous day!