Renee Shupe is the owner of Redhead Business Solutions, specializing in Wordpress, 1ShoppingCart & Aweber. Renee provides savvy solutions for her clients' blogs, websites, newsletters & document design. In Renee's own words: "I’ve been at this for 20 years and this is my third year running my own, successful freelance, consulting firm. My background is in marketing and technology – so everything I do I look at it from a geek girl marketing flare! I’m a natural problem solver and I work to simplify transactions. My fun is tinkering with WordPress and supporting solo professionals, creatives and online entrepreneurs implementing their dreams! You could say I’m the dream implementer!"
You can catch up with Renee on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, right here at Virtual Assistant Forums and at the Redhead VA Blog. Be sure to sign up for Renee's free mini ecourse on blogging.
Renee was kind enough to take the time to chat with us about her experiences as a virtual assistant, from the early days of startup to her five year plan.
What is your company name? Is there a story behind the name?
Redhead Business Solutions and if you take a look at my photo it’s probably pretty obvious why I chose the word redhead. It also gives potential clients an idea of what they might be getting into! Using Redhead in my business name makes it simple for my marketing materials and for me to be able to be completely authentic in who I am, what I do in my business. It also helps to make me stand out and I find as a redhead you either choose to be the one everyone notices or the wall flower - well I choose to be noticed!
How long have you been a virtual assistant and what drew you to start up your practice?
I’ve been working as a VA since 2008, initially it was off and on taking care of tasks for my husband’s business as well as a few others I knew. January 2009 was the official opening of Redhead Business Solutions.
What was the startup phase like for you? Please share your biggest triumphs/hurdles from this time.
It was a bit of a struggle when I decided to take the leap and leave the fulltime job. I spend a great deal of my time initially responding to adds on Elance, and iFreelance as well as Craigslist. My first two clients came from iFreelance and Craigslist.
Even though I like to be the person who stands out, I always found networking events to be frustrating and troublesome. Like many of us, I didn’t always feel comfortable “touting” what I did and tried to avoid any type of networking event, but truthfully once I finally made the leap that’s when business started to take off. Building that know, like and trust factor with people in person really helped me bring on new clients.
I also found replying to high quality RFP (Request for Proposals) whether through Virtual Assistant Forums, Virtual Assistantville or IVAA (International Virtual Assistant Association) also helped me to refine my “sales” pitch and who I want to work with. One of my long time clients came through a response I provided to her RFP request. She’s fantastic to work with, so even if you don’t get any response to your initial RFP’s keep trying. I still respond to ones today that fit my criteria. Oh yeah and if you are new...respond to those requests for sub-contracting it’s a great way to build confidence and experience. I did in the early stages of my “Virtual Assistant Career” and helped tremendously knowing I had some income coming in while I build my business and gave me experience work with clients.
What is your specialty/niche and how have you established yourself as an expert or leader in your field?
When I started I offered general administrative support with a “technical twist” since that what I was doing while I was working in the corporate world, but now I focus on Wordpress, specifically working with solo professionals who are a bit of the "Do-It-Yourself" types.
I use my website, as well as Twitter as one of my many ways to establish my “expertise”, but this year (2011) I will be launching a few new products and programs that will give me the opportunity to share with my community. I am also looking for ways to connect using a teleseminar series, webinars, article marketing and locally speaking events.
How do you educate the general public about the Virtual Assistant profession?
Talking, talking and more talking. The term virtual assistant has now become a term that covers so many different areas and I often find that helping people identify where their own struggle with their business is and then identify a “VA Specialist” that could help them fix that issue often helps them go “a ha” or have that light bulb moment. I find that using the term Virtual Assistant can muddy the waters initially and confuses people because they get hung up on the “virtual” aspect. The general public and business world are coming around though because “tele-commuting” is becoming more and more common.
What question do you get asked most often about your business and how do you answer?
How can I do <insert Wordpress topic here> or can you recommend a plugin that does <insert need here>.
If it’s something I can answer quickly and send them off with some knowledge then I definitely share, but if I’m asked a question that might take a bit longer I’ll give them some of the information and then let them know that we could meet over coffee to discuss it further or if they have any troubles I can probably find some time and why don’t we have a quick conversation about it to see how I can help them solve the issue.
What’s your definition of success?
Enjoying what I do everyday, working with cool clients and building a business that allows me the flexibility and opportunity to live my life my way and not on someone else's rules.
What are the top five tools or resources you use on a regular basis in running your own business?
Wordpress - I’m in WP in one form or another everyday
Echosign - love it! Use it for signing ALL of my contracts with clients. No more faxing!
Evernote - My capture everything place. I try very hard not to have paper and so this allows me to keep all my client notes and details online and accessible anywhere. I also use to keep snippets of code, copies of recents, contracts (Echosign automatically sends them), I can even use it to share folders or notebooks as they are called with clients. Everything goes into Evernote!
Screenr - Quick and easy way to do screencasts, I often use it answer client questions. I feel it's better to demonstrate versus trying to tell them.
Google Apps - I've been on a mission to move everything to the cloud and now I only have about 5% of my stuff not online, one of the ways I did this was setting up my domain RedheadVA.com on Google Apps for Business. So now if I lose my computer my transfer to my new system is simple.
What’s your number one source for new clients?
Can I share three? Referrals now are definitely my number 1 source, followed by networking and the responding to RFPs.
Who is your ideal client? Has your ideal client profile changed at all since you first started your business?
My ideal client? A creative solo professionals usually in the coaching, self-improvement or creative field. Someone who knows that while they want the ability to be able to make changes to their site as they need, they also know that they shouldn't be spending their time on some of the more technical aspect of this. They are a specialist in their area as I am in mine. They are female, 35+, independent, love animals and are a free spirit. They are often a bit irreverent, strong in their opinions and are passionate in what they do
My ideal client hasn’t changed too much since I first started. I prefer working with women as women often understand the collaborative relationship better I have had a few male clients but discovered that the process working with men is different and not an environment I like working in.
What is your most important business policy and how did it come to be a part of your operations?
I have three:
Knowing it’s okay to say “no”. If I meet with a client and don’t get the right “vibe” from them I will say “no”. I implemented this very early in my business, even knowing as hard as it was to say no to the money. The few times I went against my “gut” became projects that I regretted taking on in the first place.
Initially asking for the money up front. If I am working with a new client I always ask for the money up front. I only work on a project basis, so it's always 50% upfront and then the rest of the payments are determined on how long the project.
Always get an agreement. I don’t always have my clients sign a contract, but I do get them to confirm in an email that they agree to the terms and have them sign (using Echosign) a Non-Disclosure Agreement.
What was the most recent local networking event you attended and how did it go?
Wow, I haven't been to a local networking event in a while. All of my clients for the past few months have come from referrals and I've been so busy I haven't made the time to connect.
What do you plan to learn next and why?
I’d like to invest some time into learning more about affiliate marketing since it’s often something my clients ask for assistance with and it will help me marketing some of my own products, and build my skills around WordPress even more.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your business and how did you fix it?
I have a different approach to things and mistakes to me are just opportunities for improvement. Yes it does sound a bit corny but I believe that a mistake is made usually because you never really wanted to do it in the first place, you didn’t like what you’re doing and it’s our way of telling ourselves that maybe this isn’t the place or situation I should be in in the first place.
So when I do make a mistake (over and above errors on a website or something like that) that’s big has an effect on the outcome of something, I simply get down and get it fixed. Afterwards I take a close look and decide if that’s something I should be doing in the future and often the answer is no and then I look for ways to eliminate it. Recently, I was working with a client doing some 1SC work and I was creating the UPSell Pages and I thought to myself, "This isn't fun." Now even though the client had an abundance of other projects that I could have taken on, I said "No Thank you" after I finished that project because I just didn't enjoy it. Bleh!
How many hours a week do you work? What is your schedule like?
I usually find myself working about 30 hours a week, purposefully shut down in the evening when everyone is home. This doesn’t mean that I won’t check in to my social network or read blogs that are business related, but client work shuts down in the evening and on my days off.
What’s on your to-do list today?
Weekly call with one of my Brainstorm Buddies
Writing my responses for the VAF interview
Call with a potential client
20 minutes or so on Twitter
Spend some time editing my new eMail Marketing eCourse I'm launching
60 minutes tweaking my other sites (LetsLearnWP.com & ReneeRecommends.com)
But the bulk of my time with be working on a client customization.
Okay looking at this list, might have to move the tweaking of my sites to tomorrow
Please take us on a tour of your home office – can you describe how you have it set up and what you love about it?
I work in a corner of our rather large bedroom. I have a desk that the table top is bright green (from Ikea), a white board, in front of me filled with goals and motivational note. A bookshelf behind me, no filing cabinet because all my paper is scanned and filed. I have my laptop, a 21 inch second monitor, my tablet, a desk lamp and post-its (that I use to keep short notes)
This year is about being as paperless as possible and though I have a color laser printer I haven’t printed anything in probably two months.
What do you love most about being a self employed businesswoman?
That I’m in control of my destiny. It’s not up to someone else or someone else’s agenda. It’s my agenda and if I fail it’s because I didn’t do what needed to be done. I find it exhilarating and I love the idea of having a business that is flexible and fits to how I live and that I can work when it works for me.
Looking ahead, what’s your five year plan?
My husband is an author and professional fly fisher, our goal is in 3 to 5 years we plan on liquidating our assets buy a 40’ Class A motorhome and start traveling North America.
Business wise though, I want to take my business to a level where it’s generating enough income to pay for our wants and needs, I don’t need millions, just enough to let me buy my new tech gadgets & books and for my hubbie to be able to buy his fishing toys.
I am not looking to have a multi-va firm. I like being a “lone” wolf, but build a team of partners around me that will help me when needed.
I also want to build programs and training that will generate recurring revenue for me. I'm launching a program called Let's Learn WordPress which will focus on providing training specific to solo professionals.
What is the one thing you ‘wish you’d known’ when you first started out?
This might sound a bit simplified, but: understanding that it’s MY business and I can run it how I see fit. If I don’t want to work with a particular person I don’t have to. If I want to change my mind I can. I can run my business with how it works for me, not how I think others want to see me run it.
What’s your best advice for aspiring Virtual Assistants thinking of starting a new practice?
Trust your instinct, know that you have something extremely valuable and needed for your clients. Don’t let your clients run how you do business, it’s YOUR business so run it the way you see fit. When you're first starting it can be really hard to turn away a client, but the right clients will FIND you and you will save yourself a lot of heartache if you stick to your values.
Have clear and open communications with your clients and let them know the expectations up front.
Interview with Renee Shupe of Redhead Business Solutions
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