I love to network! Of course, I love being around people, so it makes it very easy for me to network. When you are just starting to grow your business, networking is crucial to your success. I know it was mine!

These are the top three ways I network to keep my business growing, meet new and interesting people and keep my sanity as a home-based business owner!

Join Local Networking Groups like:

• Business and Professional Groups
• Groups targeted to your niche
• Local Chamber
• BNI/REO or other organized referral exchange group
• eWomenNetwork Luncheons

Form your own Mastermind Group

• Invite others who are looking for connections, support and brainstorming opportunities
• Build from each other strengths
• Share each person’s business with your list and ask them to do the same
• Look for ways to work together as partners to grow your business, i.e., teleseminars, joint venture partnerships, affiliate partnerships, etc.

Social Neworking (This is my favorite!)

• Establish your profile on as many social media sites as you can effectively manage
• At least, start with Facebook and move to Twitter
• Give and share on these sites
• Don’t come out of the gate, asking for the sale
• Drive traffic back to your website through the many tools available using social media
• Have Fun!

These are just a few of the things I do to grow my business and it has been working pretty successfully. So give it a try!

I had the opportunity to attend a teleseminar this morning by L. Drew Gerber CEO & Partner of PressKit 24/7. It was part of the Big Fish Nation program I am a member of. Big Fish empowers women entrepreneur’s to take their business to the next level through hard core business skills with a spiritual approach to success. Today’s teleseminar focused on Online Press Releases.

Drew shared with us that he defines PR as, Your Relationship with the Public and that you should begin using PR from the onset of your business. It will increase brand recognition, and boost your sales of products and services. 90 percent of reporters are getting their information from the Internet, so an Online Press Kit is essential to your Online Business Success!

As part of his company, PressKit 24/7 he has established a source to bring potential media opportunities right into your Inbox. PitchRate.com is the name of this site and it’s completely free! You can register, include a profile, select your area of expertise, along with subcategories and daily you will receive a digest of media opportunities. You can also search on the site for keywords relative to your business.

Drew loves games, and so do I! So he has offered the participants of today’s teleseminar an incredible prize for the person that gets the most people to sign up for PitchRate. That’s where I need your help! If you would like to get daily feeds of media opportunities and grow your business through online press release marketing, please sign up for this free service. And then send me a quick email to (terri.avirtualbiz@gmail.com) and put your name in the subject line. And of course, I’d love to get your feedback to share with Drew.

It’s very important that you send me an email, otherwise, I won’t know that you signed up and can’t count you in my group. I’ll follow up and let you know if YOU helped me win!

I have such a passion for nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. My background was in nonprofit management prior to starting my own business as a virtual assistant. I know the struggles and hardships that face nonprofits in fundraising. Now with the emergence of social media and internet marketing, nonprofit organizations have so many new doors open to them to find those all important dollars. A Virtual Business Solution offers specialized services to nonprofit organizations by utilizing blogs, enewsletters, social media and other innovative ways to reach your donors.

My client and good friend, Sandy Rees, CFRE was highlighted in an article by the Chattanooga Times Free Press where she commented on using blogs for fundraising. Follow this link to read the article and listen to Sandy’s audio interview.

If you are a nonprofit manager looking for new opportunities to boost your funding, contact me at A Virtual Business Solution and we’ll work together to develop a plan for your online fundraising success!

Terri Brooks is a Certified Internet Marketing Specialist and owner of A Virtual Business Solution. With more than 35 years of professional experience, including eight years of nonprofit management, she assists many nonprofit organizations with their online marketing and fundraising.

Do you love to network, but don’t have time to follow-up? You’re not alone. The majority of networkers love to mix and mingle with potential new clients at various events, but when they get back to their office, they toss those valuable business cards in a drawer and plan to follow up tomorrow. For most busy professionals, tomorrow brings its own new projects and before you know it, several weeks or even months have gone by with no follow up. Hundreds, or maybe thousands, of dollars in potential revenue has been laying in your top desk drawer!

We have the solution to keep you on top of your follow-up and make you a leader in business prospecting. Our Prospect Follow-up Service – Cards to Cash, provides a quick turnaround to those new business acquaintances and presents a professional image of your business.

Our package offers:

• Each business card scanned into a working database
• The design of a real Follow-up card with your logo or business card imprinted on the inside flap
• The card is mailed to the new prospect on your behalf
• One telephone call is attempted to the new prospect to set an appointment
• Business cards and database file will be mailed back to you for future reference
  

And the best part is that this service is very affordable, around the cost of a nice cup of coffee.

Are there business cards right now laying in your top desk drawer? Have you been too busy to follow-up with the contacts you made at the last Tradeshow? Contact us and we will get your name back in front of these potential new clients. Visit our website at www.avirtualbiz.com, or email to info@avirtualbiz.com.

If you are a small business owner or a solopreneur, just how many hands do you have? You have a great product or service and you are an expert in your field, but are you spending all of your time telling others about what you do and not really doing it? That’s called marketing folks! Congratulations, you have just become Director of Marketing for your company, but what about the work that needs to be done to keep the business going?

That’s where most of us get bogged down. We have a great idea or product. We decide to start a business to help others with our services and we begin the process of business cards, brochures, websites, networking groups, signing up for all the social media sites and talking to everyone we know about our great new business! But wait…who is doing the work? You are now in charge of marketing the business, AND doing the work. After a long of day of marketing, you get to put on the worker hat and spend the rest of your night doing the actual work. Sound familar?

There is a solution. You can outsource those marketing tasks and free yourself up to do what you really wanted to do in the beginning. You have an extra hand…just reach out and take it. Visit www.avirtualbiz.com to review virtual services available and for many other resources that can put you back in your business.

I asked my local networking group that question last week and they look at me like I had said a dirty word!! I really don’t remember how I stumbled upon Twitter, but after only being part of this social network site for a couple of weeks I have gained around 75 new contacts. That’s pretty incredible, that I’m connected to 75 people that I have never even met, but we share that one simple question with each other every day, “What Are You Doing?”

I even have a “follower” in Australia. And I’m following him as well. With the new Social Media Boom, you are truly going to be left behind if you don’t join in.

I have connected my Twitter to my FaceBook page and I have a MySpace for the gospel group I sing with and I’m LinkedIn and need to update my Ryze page. Whew, I’m dizzy, I can really understand why my networking group didn’t understand. But I have made it my mission and part of my business to teach them about this social media “thingy.” (More on that in the future)

If you really want to stay in touch, I highly recommend that you Twitter your Facebook and get Linkedin to your MySpace and Ryze, not to mention you should Digg, Flickr, and Pounce. Oh Wow, what would our grandparents say??

Whew, what a difference a day makes. This is for all of us Virtual Assistants, or any entrepreneur, who has been discouraged and fearful about starting or continuing our business.

I lost a very good retainer client recently. He had been with me almost from the beginning. I felt it coming and he was very gracious about it and hopes to hire me back at some point, but nonetheless, I lost him and the regular income. But, I didn’t loose faith. I feel strongly that I’m in the exact place God wants me to be and the next day I spoke with two potential clients and then someone called, completely out of the blue, for a potentially large project!

Then I was talking with another VA about maybe subcontracting with her, which would be great and later in the day I received a call from a direct referral that she had sent me. That one call (about 15 minutes) resulted in an immediate Five New Clients!! YEA!! They wanted me to start immediately and it is a niche that I have been playing around with for a few weeks. I am so excited! I’ll be assisting Women Entreprenuers and Coaches with their Internet Marketing and building their online presence.

So, no matter what field your in, stay in the game, it’s almost your turn to bat. (Can you tell I’m a former softball player??) Don’t give up…that next client is just around the corner.

I love Thursdays, because it is almost the weekend and time to spend with my sweet hubby! But today is an especially sweet Thursday because a fellow VA sent me a Sweet Surprise! (Are you gettin’ the picture?)

One of my clients was looking for an additional Virtual Assistant and I recommended a fellow VA that had the specific skills my client was looking for. It proved to be a perfect match and my friend was hired. She was truly grateful and told me that she believed it was a gift from God that she received the job. I was so thrilled for her and her business and the fact that we would be working on some projects together.

Well, today FedEx pulled into my driveway and produced an incredible box of Ghirardellia chocolates!! It was a thank you gift from my fellow VA and I was completed shocked and excited!

Giving and serving others is what we are called to do in this world. It was my pleasure to recommend her. A network group that I belong to says, “Give First…Share Always.” This is a great motto to live by and you might just get chocolate in return!!