At the first sign of customer resistance, many owners immediately drop their prices for their goods or services.

Art Sobczak's article "10 Tips for Successful Negotiating By Phone" suggests effective ways to satisfy your customers, without giving away the store. Here, in brief, are his suggestions:

1) Define Your Negotiables Other Than Price - Moving up delivery dates, extending warranties and throwing in an additional product are all low-cost ways to give the customer added value, without eroding your bottom line.

2) Analyze Your Strength, Their Needs - Before you pick up the phone, list the needs involved. What you now your customer wants, what you have, and what you want. Although the customer may try to knock down your price, you are in a position of strength because only you have exactly the product that customer wants. Read more

Sylvie Fortin, CEO of www.Workaholics4Hire.com, says that outsourcing is "killing your business."

Ms. Fortin explains that most internet entrepreneurs attempt to learn everything about internet marketing and run every aspect of their businesses themselves, because they can't afford to outsource their tasks. And when they do outsource, she continues, they are spending valuable time searching for freelancers for each job that needs doing, sorting through bids, and hoping that those freelancers do a good job.

Ms. Fortin maintains that there is a better way to outsource, and her proven system has a following of successful internet millionaires around the globe. Read more

Thinking about marketing your small business with a mass mailing, but just too busy to handle the deluge of replies that may potentially clog your inbox? Consider email outsourcing.
Outlook has a tool you can use to set up your e-mails to reply to an alternate e-mail address, for example, your virtual assistant's e-mail address or your autoresponder. Here are the steps to follow to set up your Outlook, courtesy of Cybertary.com: Read more

"There is so much work for VAs…the field is thriving, actually booming," says Diana Ennen, co-author of "Virtual Assistant – The Series" in an article entitled "Lend Assistance" in the Best Business and Finance section of Readers Digest Online at www.rd.com.

Virtual Assistants are professionals who work from their homes, offering business services such as administrative support, transcription, bookkeeping, public relations and website design, as independent contractors. Read more

Running your small business is exciting and exhausting at the same time. While you're living your work-at-home dream, you may also be feeling overwhelmed and daunted by the round-the-clock demands of entrepreneurship.

Nothing stifles creativity and optimism more than the feeling that you'll never get it all done, and nothing thwarts a growing business like the absence of creativity.

Responding to e-mail, prospecting for clients, drafting sales letters, setting appointments – all while managing your personal life – can be more than the most motivated person can handle.

Hiring a virtual assistant can alleviate this burden, and can add a fresh perspective to your business. Read more

Bank statements, business machine receipts, credit card statements for your small business – you're filing them away every month, year after year.  Your filing boxes are filled to the gills, but is it really necessary to hang on to some of these items for years?  How do you know when it's safe to shred it?  Cybertary.com offers these guidelines:

Toss Every Month:

ATM and deposit/withdrawal receipts after recorded in your check register.

Credit card receipts after you've checked them against your statement.

Sales receipts for minor purchases with no warranty attached. Read more

Do you love to work with people, but hate to work with numbers? Are you a meticulous financial planner, but shrink at the idea of talking yourself up to customers?

The Small Business Informer, a website offering advice for owners, recommends a hard assessment of of your personal skills before . Read more

Outsource your life and your business – The Age

9 Jul 2007 at 12:50pm

The Age Outsource your life and your business
The Age, Australia - Jul 9, 2007
We all know that there are major Australian corporations who outsource their call centres, back office , accounting departments and other operational ….

Who is Your Virtual Assistant? – PR.com (press release)

2 Jul 2007 at 3:06am

Who is Your Virtual Assistant?
PR.com (press release), NY - Jul 2, 2007
They are finding that they either need to downsize to be able to keep up with their business or outsource .. They are starting to outsource many of the duties ….

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