Branding: Becoming Remembered, Respected, and Referred

Earlier this week we hosted a live hangout with Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative. She gave a great talk on branding, titled “5 Simple Steps to Transform Your Business.”

branding-event

If you haven’t heard Jennifer speak before, you’re missing out. She’s a fantastic presenter, full of knowledge and expertise. Besides being an award-winning founder, creative director, and lead designer for Bourn Creative, she has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to build better businesses that produce satisfying, tangible results.

Jennifer spoke at Prestige Conference 2014 on using a design-first approach to build a sustainable WordPress business. She’ll be returning to Minneapolis to speak at our next conference August 1st-2nd, where she’ll be guiding a hands-on, in-depth branding workshop for our attendees.

Speaking of branding - that’s what her hangout earlier this week covered.

Understanding the Language

Are you a little fuzzy on the difference between branding and marketing? Jennifer uses easy-to-understand examples to give us better understanding of branding terminology so we can better communicate with our clients.

One of the great takeaways from her explanation of branding vs marketing is how to transition from a “hire me, buy from me” approach (you chasing clients) to becoming remembered, respected, and referred (clients coming to you). Your branding is what makes the difference. You want people seeking you out for your expertise and service not because they’re shopping around and you provided the lowest quote, but because they already know you can help them, so they don’t need to look any further.

5 Simple Steps

In the video below, you’ll hear Jennifer cover 5 simple steps to transform your business through branding.

Make no mistake - though the concepts behind the steps are simple, there is a lot of work that goes into executing each of them in a meaningful way. That’s why we’re excited to have Jennifer join us at Prestige Minneapolis this August to present a full workshop on branding for our attendees. Tickets are still available for in-person and livestream access to the event.

25 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Save You Time & Money

If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant (VA) can help save you time and money.

25 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Save You Time and Money

What is a Virtual Assistant?

Virtual Assistants help busy business people save time and money by providing professional administrative, technical, and creative services. They are independent contractors that work remotely, allowing for flexible scheduling to meet your needs.

The best tasks to outsource to a VA are ones that they can perform more quickly or efficiently than you or your in-house staff. There are only so many hours in a day, so having a VA on retainer can be a huge benefit when higher-level projects and tasks require your individual attention. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners find that using a virtual assistant frees up their time to focus on more important aspects of their business.

25 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Save You Time & Money

  1. Create an email system of folders and filters to manage your incoming business or personal correspondence
  2. Unsubscribe you from newsletters & mailing lists
  3. Manage your business’s email subscriber list
  4. Create newsletter templates for customer mailings
  5. Blog post or website page SEO
  6. Write headlines for social media marketing
  7. Convert documents to other file types as needed
  8. Add alt tags and image titles to older articles
  9. Set up meetings with prospective clients
  10. Screen and respond to voicemail messages
  11. Find the lowest airfare for your next business trip
  12. Research topics for speaking engagements
  13. Proofread presentations or other documents
  14. Transcribe podcasts or interviews
  15. Build charts or graphs with provided data
  16. Send customer emails for upcoming promotions or sales
  17. Develop workflow checklists to ensure consistency of service
  18. Collect data & write copy for podcast episode notes
  19. Analyze website analytics
  20. Prioritize HelpDesk support requests
  21. Submit your content to republishing sites
  22. Interact with potential clients on discussion boards or forums
  23. List upcoming events on local or national community calendars
  24. Moderate blog comments and manage spam
  25. Build inbound links for internal SEO

This list of 25 ways a virtual assistant can save you time & money is by no means exhaustive. You can hire a VA to do almost any task you can think of that they can accomplish remotely. VA service providers range from generalists to specialists, and rates vary according to experience and expertise.

We’ll share more about how to find a virtual assistant and what to look for when hiring one in the coming weeks.

Image Credit: Adrián Pérez