It's a Chick Thing

When I first decided to become a Virtual Assistant, I hadn't intended on "niching" in anything. I just wanted to provide quality support to small businesses. As I started getting clients and realizing what I liked doing and didn't like doing, finding a niche sounded better and better. It wasn't enough to cater to small businesses as a niche. Many VAs already do that. I wanted my niche to be more specific.

As I pondered what my niche would be a strange and wonderful thing began to happen. I didn't notice it at first but then it hit me. Each new client I was getting was a female. Not just a female but strong, bold, courageous women stepping out and carving their own path in life. At first I was in awe of each new client's creativity, drive and determination. I felt myself starting to feed from their energy in my own business and I loved it!

As I started to learn more about each new client and her business I noticed that many of their clients and contacts were women also. Hmmmm I thought, I'm starting to see a pattern here. Just short of it coming up and hitting me over the head I realized YES! THIS IS MY NICHE! With the exception of two clients, all of my other clients are amazing women who are wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and business owners (some even have multiple businesses).

After having this epiphany I have decided to focus my business on providing virtual support to women entrepreneurs. Now gentlemen, before you start feeling left out, don't worry, I still have a special place in my heart for you too and would never turn away a fabulous opportunity regardless of the gender behind the company, but I just love to see women taking charge of their lives and making a huge difference in the world with their talents and vision and it is exciting, rejuvinating and refreshing to be a part of that vision in whatever way I can.

So, here's to GIRL POWER in all its many forms. I'm proud to be one and proud to serve many.

Have a great week everyone!!!

P.S. I have another exciting niche I am currently carving out and will be revealing in the coming weeks. STAY TUNED!!!

Social Networking or Social Playtime?

Have you met my friend Kenneth Fron? If you haven't heard of him yet, you will soon. He is an amazing jewelry designer in Chicago whose breathtaking creations have adorned the necks of Hollywood A-Listers from Teri Hatcher to Cindy Margolis.

I originally met Kenneth by visiting a business networking site online hoping to learn and possibly find new clients at the same time. I have a habit of reading profiles of people who post questions and answers on these sites and happened to come across Kenneth's. I noticed he was a jewelry designer in Chicago. On a whim I decided to visit his website because I'm a jewelry lover and dabble in jewelry making myself so why wouldn't I? I was highly impressed with his work from the very beginning and not only loved his jewelry but also loved the look of his website. I felt compelled to drop him a line and tell him so. I thought it wouldn't hurt to introduce myself and my business at the same time.

I didn't think anything of it and went about my business but lo and behold the very next day I received an email back from Kenneth thanking me for the compliments and telling me more about himself. We hit it off instantly and the rest is history. All because of a little social networking.

I have since joined several other networks and learned a valuable lesson from meeting Kenneth. I had started social networking because I heard it was "good for growing your business". But I was so busy searching for new clients I had missed the most important part of social networking. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS! Business isn't necessarily what you're selling or what you're buying, it's about building lasting relationships along the way. Even if someone doesn't turn into a client or customer, they may know someone along the highway of life that may need what you have to offer someday and chances are they will recommend you because of your relationship with them, and if they don't you still have one more friend than you did before.

"But Friends Don't Pay the Bills" you say? Think again! In addition to Kenneth, I've met several other people through networking online who I consider very good friends. They write to ask how my day is going, wondering when the next blog post will be or just to say hi. And guess what else? They recommend me. Whenever someone asks them if they know of anyone who does what I do, they give out my name and email address immediately! So you see, even if you meet someone that doesn't turn into a client, you never know where or who your next client may come from!

There is a lot of debate over whether social networking is really networking or if it's just a good excuse to goof off and play online. I say it's a bit of both. I'll admit, sometimes I hit the networking sites just to update my friends on what I'm doing or catch up on the latest with them. Sometimes I learn something new that could help my business from someone who has posted a great link. Sometimes I search for people who might need my services. And sometimes, I spend five minutes online and meet someone like Kenneth who has become a dear friend in a very short time. You just never know. I think it's good to use social networking as an outlet to focus on something besides business once in awhile. Sometimes that's when you just might be surprised!

Have a great week everyone!!

Second Chances

I had planned a completely different topic this week but decided to switch gears.

As some of you may or may not know, I was involved in a terrible car accident on Friday evening. My husband, daughter and I were on our way to dinner and a truck a few cars in front of us lost a mattress that was in the back of the truck. The car in front of us swerved to avoid hitting the mattress and we made a sudden stop to avoid hitting them. The car behind us didn't see us make the sudden stop and plowed into us pushing us into the car in front of us.

Thank goodness my husband and daughter made it through just fine. Out of the three cars involved, I was the only one brought to the hospital via ambulance because I instantly had back pain upon impact. They put a head support on me and strapped me to a board and off I went to the ER.

After 4 hours of lying in the emergency room and a bunch of xrays later they determined nothing was broken and I was lucky enough to walk away with a badly sprained back and neck. I of course was very happy about that news but the pain I've been enduring for the past three days and I'm sure several more days to come is a definite reminder of how lucky I was and how lucky we all were. Things could have been much worse had we not been wearing our seatbelts.

The events of Friday night really got me to thinking about second chances. Normally we don't think about stuff like this until something bad happens. We don't take the time to reflect on what kind of spouse/parent/child/sibling/employee/business person we are. We get so caught up in the day to day "stuff" of life that we don't bother to keep tabs on how we are doing in our lives with what really matters.

I know for a fact that there are many areas of my life I can improve on. Most areas in fact. This accident, painful as it was and is, could have very easily permanently injured or killed me. But it didn't. I got a second chance. I now have an opportunity to take better care of myself and my family, to be a better wife and mother, to put my business on solid ground and help it grow, and to do the things I always say "maybe later" or "someday" to.

I now have a second chance to shine in areas I've been lacking in. A chance to learn and do new things and be the person I really want to become.

Friday taught me that you might not get another opportunity to say and do things you're putting off. Today is all we are promised. I plan to start making the most of every today I am given from now on.

If you had a second chance, what would you do with it? Why not make today your second chance? I'd love to get your comments. I'd also like to take the time to thank everyone for their well wishes during my recovery. I have definitely felt the love and am so grateful to you all!

Until next week, here's to second chances!