Standing Out

I’m sitting @ Panera on Peach - I love Panera: great coffee, yummy CinnaCrunch bagels and free Wi-fi. Who could ask for anything more?

Online social networking can never replace the real, face-to-face interaction of traditional business networking. I would love to have an Office Nomads here in Erie or just a place to go on a regular basis and connect with other small business owners in Erie. I know that there are many.

If you’re in Erie and you read my blog, drop me a line via the contact form - I’d love to hear from you and connect!

***psst - a great way to “meet” online LOCALLY is Biznik - strange, but true - there is finally an online network that is locally-based…

In life and in business you get what you pay for, right? If you believe that to be true, and you pay for nothing, what would you get?

Zero.

Correct. If you believe that you get what you pay for and then you turn around and pay for nothing you ultimately get nothing (there are always exceptions to the rule). In order to grow your business, you’ve got to sow seeds of time & money into it.

I believe that you have to put money into your business in order to get money out of it, but it seems that a lot of startups and entrepreneurs hold onto their wallets for dear life. They’ll spend money on gimmicks like memberships to this and that, but skimp on essentials like websites and business cards. Read my good friend Xan’s latest post - You have to spend money to make money - for his real life example of the situation.

As VAs, we fit into the entrepreneur group. We, like everyone else, have to put something into the business so that we can see the results.

No businesses, even those with extremely low overhead, succeed without sowing a little “seed.”

I put money into my business in the following ways and I have seen the benefits time and again:

• Business website hosted by a reputable, reliable web hosting company called Siteground (cost: $6.00/month - paid in advance)
• My own domain name (that’s the URL) (cost: included with my hosting package when I paid in advance)
• Upgraded monthly membership to Biznik, where I connect with other VAs, publish my blog and network with potential clients (cost: $10.00/month)
• Upgraded monthly subscription to Elance - IMPORTANT (cost: $19.95/month)
• E-books and other training material that I find useful, or that I can use as an inspiration for my own (cost: approx. $50.00/month)
• Business cards (cost: approx. $6.00, only for shipping - from VistaPrint - earn 25% off by using that link)
• Use of cell phone for business (cost: approx. $50.00/month)
• Use of Skype call-to-phone feature, so I can listen in on client teleclasses without using my cell phone (cost: $2.00/month)
• A bit of advertising in various places (cost: approx. $30.00/month)

There are of course many other ways in which I sow seed into the business and there are probably some items I’m forgetting here. The lesson is that you get what you pay for, or rather, you get out an amount that is directly proportionate to what you put in. Just remember, you reap what you sow!

–Tia

Well, well, well! It’s about time that my good friend & SUCCESSFUL serial entrepreneur joined the blog community and graced us with his experience, insight and tidbits of good advice.

Leexan Hong (friends call him Xan) is president of CTE Healthcare Communications (formerly X-Marketing), based in Philadelphia. Xan’s blog, My Life as an Entrepreneur, is located at http://blog.leexanhog.com and is also listed on my Blogroll.

Xan is a self-described “serial entrepreneur” but I need to clarify that he is actually successful. That is key - it’s quite possible to be a serial entrepreneur without actually accomplishing anything (some of us are still in the process of “success” - aren’t we always?) He successfully started his own marketing firm (which was initially out of his home) and eventually grew and transformed that into now what is CTE Healthcare Communications. He’s also successful in real estate among other things. I’ll let you read Xan’s story for yourself.

Welcome to the blog club, Xan! And a thousand congrats on the launch of CTE!!

Cheers,

Tia, All American Admin
Join my Biznik Network!

About CTE Healthcare Communications: CTE develops and facilitates patient, patient advocate and caregiver education workshops. CTE works in partnership with a number of organizations to educate patients and caregivers about various medical conditions in order to achieve treatment goals, and to empower and encourage patients to continue treatment. (Adapted from CTE website. Learn more here.)

Thanks to yesterday’s post on one of my favorite blogs (found on my blogroll - Escape from Cubicle Nation), I found out about a great article on becoming a lifestyle entrepreneur, originally found here.

The article outlines three types of lifestyle entrepreneurs - time-minimalist, nomadic, and ones who do it for love.

I am part of the way into it - absolutely entranced by his very detailed outline on how to be a time-minimalist entrepreneur creating passive income…I love this article. You will, too. Go read it now!

Cheers!