To generate more business, you need to be putting out great testimonials. If you want to blow your own trumpet, you can’t do better than to create a genuine testimonial in the form of a ‘case study’ – a story about a challenge you have been faced with and admirably met. Once your client has endorsed it, you have a case study that makes a great testimonial! A case study is a story that comprises of three main parts…

It is commonly known that your customer relationships are essential to the growth of the business. So many opportunities are lost through poor management of customer databases, records of past relationships and communications with clients. An effective CRM system, therefore, is not only necessary but can be a vital business booster if well managed. A well-organised, updated CRM system is a solution for all sales, marketing and customer support related issues. It helps a business to maintain a healthy rapport with customers and potential customers and improves productivity by the ‘upselling’ and ‘cross-selling’ of products and services. Just a few practical reasons that a well-managed CRM system is so important are:

A good elevator speech (or pitch) is one that immediately grabs attention and convinces someone you can help them. You need to be prepared with a good one because you never know when you will need it. So how do you write an effective elevator speech? You need to cover a few critical areas in a short space of time – so think of the questions they would ask you:

We don’t need to tell you how important it is to be able to inform and communicate with customers on a regular basis, as this is the essence of growing a good business. It is necessary therefore that you compile and grow a good, targeted database to send e-mail promos and newsletters to. Obviously the first people on your database are your existing clients. The question is have you had the time and systems in place to tabulate and keep track of these? Once that’s done you need to gather a wider database and here are some ways to do it…

Spring is a wonderful time of year. The flowers are in bloom and popping up everywhere. The sun is shining and thawing us out. Babies are being born in the wild and it just feels like a time of new beginnings!

It’s that time of the year when Mother Nature sheds her dowdy old winter skin to blossom into beautiful colours and glorious sunny days. A new season has begun and it feels like a time of renewal. This is the second in our 2 part series about refreshing and restarting your business at this time of new beginnings.

I wanted to digress from our usual articles to make what I believe is an important point. Sometimes, as a business run by women, it is necessary for us to not just tout our business, but to show solid support for our fellow Women.

In this month of honouring women, we want to give a thought to those who face the difficult challenge of being working Mums. Female Entrepreneurs in particular who, knowing the unreliability of remaining employed in the corporate world in South Africa today, have been brave enough to start their own businesses, really have our sympathy.

During this Women’s month V-Assist is highlighting some top Women Entrepreneurs who use Virtual Assistants - and find out why they do.

In this month of August we celebrate Women’s day and it is in fact a full month of recognising women and their great contribution to society as a whole. What I personally would like to emphasise is the role of the woman in the work place and in particular those amazing entrepreneurial women that choose to create their own businesses.