My business philosophy has always been this: “If I am not connecting with my clients, consumers and team members, then I am not doing my job.”

A true entrepreneur puts relationships ahead of profits because he or she knows that strong relationships just naturally lead to healthier profits in terms of partnerships and referrals.

Unsure how to build trusting and enduring relationships with your audience? Here are some tried and true recommendations:

• Let your voice be heard. Record videos if you are comfortable in front of a video camera. If not, consider creating PowerPoint videos with voice-overs. Frankly, I prefer the second but that is a personal choice and you should only do what you are truly comfortable with. If you absolutely hate having a camera in your face, your misery will show and your message will not be heard.

• Consider hosting your own FREE radio program on BlogTalkRadio. My weekly broadcast, Your Partner In Success Radio, has become so popular, and I have had the great good fortune to interview so many fabulous personalities and business people that I couldn’t shut the program down if I wanted to, and I don’t!

• Host as many free workshops and teleseminars as you can handle. Of course you have valuable information to share, so share away. Your audience will appreciate it.

• Ask for feedback and suggestions. You will be very surprised by how generous your fellow entrepreneurs can be with their comments, observations and advice.

• Stay in touch with your list! I don’t recommend that you overwhelm people but you must stay in touch by either sending out an automated blog broadcast or set up your newsletter or ezine to publish consistently once or twice a month. You cannot drop off the face of the earth and then just suddenly reappear when you have something to sell or promote. You will shed email subscribers at an alarming rate. And who could blame them?

• Be religious about responding to emails. One of the very WORST things a virtual assistant, or other virtual service provider can do is to neglect this very important means of communication. If your client or customers do not feel like they are being heard, that they are very important to your business, they will quite simply find somebody who does care about their business. Actually, this one probably should have been placed in the number one slot! It is that important. Even if you don’t have good news or are behind in a project, it is imperative that you communicate with your client or customer.

• If you are blogging regularly, ask for comments on your blog post. People will often read your content, but don’t even think to leave a comment or ask a question. This is a very important dialogue and one you need to foster.  If you are not blogging regularly…. why not??

• Send each new client a welcome gift. Both of my companies, Your Office On The Web and Your Virtual Assistant gift new clients with a set of Journaling Jems™ for the Business Professional. These wonderful cards are daily reminders and I use mine constantly. For instance, I just reached across my desk and randomly pulled this “jem”:

My clients love them!

These are just a few things that we consistently do to keep our clients happy and loving doing business us. I would love to hear your thoughts on these suggestions and hear from you what you do to connect with your clients.

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

This week I am delighted to welcome to the show Executive Coach, Brand Strategist and Bestselling Author, Libby Gill.

Libby Gill worked her way through college as a waitress on the Queen Mary. She has been a tap dancing bear, a talking Christmas tree, a soap opera actress and a hand model.

She also headed up public relations and corporate communications at major entertainment studios including Universal Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting and was the branding and PR brain behind the launch of the Dr. Phil Show.

Libby is now an internationally respected executive coach, brand strategist and bestselling author of bestselling YOU UNSTUCK: MASTERING THE NEW RULES OF RISK- TAKING IN WORK & LIFE and founder of MyAccountabilityClub.com.

She’s been featured on the Today Show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, CNN, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, NPR, the Dr. Phil Show, and in Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, O magazine and
many more.

Our topic will be “Staying Accountable to Success”

• Accountability is a big theme in Libby’s work and in her new book “You Unstuck”. We will be chatting a lot about accountability and how Libby defines it.
• What does accountability have to do with personal success?
• As a coach for entrepreneurs and executives all over the country, Libby has gotten a lot of people unstuck. Does she ever have trouble holding herself accountable?
• Why do we get so excited about our goals and plans and then just lose steam over time?
• Libby references a lot of scientific research in her book. I will ask her what data she found most enlightening.
• I will be asking Libby to share some specific strategies we can learn to hold ourselves accountable.
• And much more!

If you have a specific question you would like me to ask Libby Gill please email it to me at info@ virtualassistantindustry.com prior to the show. You can also join us on the line or in the chat room!

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

When: Friday, April 16 , 2010

Time: 9 am PST, 10 am MST, 11 am CST, 12 pm EST

Where: Your home office telephone or computer.

Website: Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Call-in Number: 347-843-4988

Please be sure to login to the chat room to ask questions during the interview.

We look forward to “seeing” you!

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Fabled internet marketer Rosalind Gardner is somebody that I have followed around on the internet for many years. If anybody on the web can teach you how to enjoy financial freedom with an online business (or several!) it is Rosalind. Her story is a fascinating one in that she built her online businesses when there was no text, audio or video or audio-visual tutorials to show new webmasters how to do anything.

But… and this is a BIG but — she saw the opportunity to make money online and was absolutely determined to quit her air traffic controller job (because of the lousy shift schedules), so she got to work and learned all she could.

Her first month after starting her dating site, Sage-Hearts (now renamed 101.Date.com) she received a check for $10.99 which was all she needed to convince her that affiliate marketing did work and that she could master it.

By the end of her first year in business she was clearing $5,000 a month and quit her day job in 2000 by which time she was making over $10,000.

By 2003 Rosalind decided to share what she had learned about the potential for building and sustaining an online business and wrote one of the staples of my entrepreneurial library, The Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online.

The book, which is constantly updated with current information, has become the industry’s primary training manual for teaching new affiliate marketers how to do business right and is on the desks of most affiliate network managers.

This is what Allan Gardyne, one of the most famous affiliate marketers had to say about the Super Affiliate Handbook:

Rosalind is living proof that even with absolutely NO previous business experience anyone who truly desires success and is committed and persistent can succeed.

Although best known for her work as an affiliate marketer, Rosalind also has experience in online drop shipping, online auctions, ebook publishing, product and software creation, merchant and manager coaching and blogger training.

We will be chatting about too many things to list here so please visit us in the chatroom and be sure to send me an email before the interview if you have a specific question or topic that you would like us to cover.

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

When: Friday, April 9, 2010

Time: 9 am PST, 10 am MST, 11 am CST, 12 pm EST

Where: Your home office telephone or computer.

Website: Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Call-in Number: 347-843-4988

Please be sure to login to the chat room to ask questions during the interview.

We look forward to “seeing” you!

Your Partner In Success BlogTalkRadio Show

This week I am excited to welcome to the show business blogging expert, online marketing advisor and founder of The Blog Squad, Denise Wakeman. With more than two decades of business and online marketing experience, she helps authors, speakers, service professionals, and small business owners optimize and leverage great blogs as well as strategically use social media tools to gain visibility, build credibility and manage their online reputation.

Denise has been using the Internet as a marketing tool since 1996; she writes regularly on 3 blogs and has co-authored many blogging programs including “Build a Better Blog,” “Better Business Blogging” and “The Blog to Book Project.” She frequently speaks at conferences and workshops about business blogging and how to create massive online visibility as well as gain expert status through social marketing.

You can learn more about Denise at DeniseWakeman.com.

We will be chatting about the following topics:

What are the differences between personal and business blogs and why should we blog for business?

The 5 tactics that Denise Wakeman recommends for business blogging.

How business owners can use a blog to attract more business.

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

When: Friday, August 21, 2009

Time: 9 am PST, 10 am MST, 11 am CST, 12 pm PST

Where:  Your home office telephone or computer.

Website: Your Partner In Success BlogTalkRadio

Call-in Number: 347-843-4988