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  • You're Missing the Value Proposition

    Erin Blaskie 12:12 am on November 19, 2009 | Comments Permalink | Reply
    Tags: benefit statements, , business, , , overlooked, Services, unique selling proposition, USP, , value proposition


    Do you ever get the feeling that sometimes people miss the value proposition you are setting forth? Like, it’s the biggest part of your business… the biggest attribute to your clients but because it’s so obvious, it gets overlooked?  That’s what is inspiring this blog post.

    Now, I know it’s YOUR job, as entrepreneur / business owner / CEO / leader, to set forth your value proposition and describe the benefit statements to your clients, colleagues, etc. but do you ever find yourself still trying to show the REAL value?

    Our virtual assistance services / creative, professional outsourcing services are priced in the mid-pricing scale of virtual assistance companies.  We offer excellent services for the online business owner and we have a team of people that my clients can plug into and rely on to get their work done.  We offer more diverse skill sets and services than a lot of solopreneur companies will.  All of these are great benefit statements and selling points.

    But here’s the thing most people miss… I built my clients a team.

    If you are working with a multi-VA firm, that firm’s owner built YOU a team.  You didn’t have to.  The hiring, the process of making sure the talent was good enough, shortening the know/like/trust factor was all done for you.  Hours spent unbillable doing interviews, creating sub-contractor agreements, e-mail addresses, Basecamp accounts, etc. was completed when you got here.

    Now, I’m not moaning about the time spent building a multi-VA team and I certainly know it was my choice in creating a large company but I realized the other day that when people say, “You’re a little more expensive than other virtual assistants” I should respond, “I know!  We should be!”  THAT is our value.

    Our benefit statement is that I’ve created YOU a company with web designers, blog designers, graphic designers, internet marketing support people, administrative support staff, PHP programmers, social media assistants… the list continues so that you don’t have to scour the web looking.  You don’t have to waste your time.

    So, all this to say that if you are working with a multi-VA team and you are complaining about rates (or even gently trying to get even further discounted rates) remember that the time spent building this team was all done so you wouldn’t have to do it.

    Do you have a benefit statement that is so obvious it gets missed?  If so, share it!

     
  • New Video: Ideal Clients

    Erin Blaskie 10:22 am on August 20, 2009 | Comments Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , business, , , getting stuck, ideal client, ideal clients, , struggling, ,


    What are your thoughts? Leave them as comments below.

     
  • Five Year Celebration!

    Erin Blaskie 10:25 am on July 27, 2009 | Comments Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , business, celebration, , five years


    We’ve been in business five years this Saturday and we’re celebrating a few ways!

    #1 – 50% Off Sale in My Store

    We’ve got a store and we’re giving you a 50% discount on anything you want.  Yep.  Anything.  Except for the t-shirt.  We don’t own that and Zazzle might be upset if we undercut them like that.  Although, the t-shirt is pretty rad so you might want one of those anyway.  Just to have it.  If you don’t, it’s totally cool – the store has some great product and such that will help you learn new skills and grow your business acumen.

    Random to business in one paragraph.  I like it.

    Just use FIVEYEARS at checkout.

    Store is here.

    #2 – Friday Celebration on Ask Erin Live

    On Friday, instead of doing just a normal Ask Erin Live, we’re doing a celebratory Ask Erin Live complete with cake, a pink dress (a really pink and really puffy dress), live and video guests and so much more…  We’ll be giving away some product and definitely will be dancing.  You can’t have a celebration, especially for five years, without dancing.  It would be just wrong.  Oh, you’ll have to grab your own cake though – I can’t teleport it.  Yet.

    Sign up for event reminder here.

    #3 – Lifestreaming Webinar — Free!

    This month, we gave a presentation at WordCamp Montreal called Lifestreaming: The New Future of Blogging? and it’s been a hot topic ever since.  We’ll be doing an encore of that presentation on August 5 at 4pm Eastern (3pm Central, 2pm Mountain, 1pm Pacific) that will be a complimentary event for you to attend.

    In our presentation recap, we’ll be taking you through the one hour presentation that we gave at WordCamp Montreal. This will take you through how these lifestreams are structured and why this could potentially be the future of blogging.

    Webinar here.

    The end. ;)

    (P.S. – We really must tell you that the fireworks above were not celebrated in our honor… I wish I could say we had a budget to afford fireworks that big because I love fireworks but alas, we do not.  So… yeah.  Maybe at ten years!  However, the photo credit goes to ACPhoto2007 on Flickr.)

     
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