Each year I work through my goals for the year and one part of that is professional development. This year my first quarter will be concentrating on two things: SEO and Social Media (specifically Google +). I have chosen these mostly for my business but also to help with the web marketing end of my business.

Along with continuing reading I am taking two development programs to enhance both of these skills. The first is through the SEO Experts Academy and the second is the Small Business Success Summit.

Yes both are paid programs for which I set money aside in my budget. After completing these I will then look for other small area to enhance them.

Is anyone else planning development for 2012? What classes are you taking, books you are reading, seminars you are attending?

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

My development goal for the first part of the year is to pass all the MS Office Brainbench exams with flying colors. I've bought some books on the more advanced aspects of excel and word and plan to study hard before taking the exams.

I hope to be spending the second half of the year studying for zend certification with php, but that's only if I make enough money the first half to pay for the course!

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Marimac Administrative Solutions
www.marimacadmin.com

Well, at the moment. I'm concentrating on reading and studying more about grammar and writing format and style. I don't want my writing to get stale and if I make the mistake of being complacent, it certainly will. Also, I've created a new administrative format to my work week by setting a couple days aside each week to complete a particular business development task. This takes weekly planning.

But, Lee, I love the idea of dividing up the year in quarters and concentrating on a specific business development idea. Very cool!

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L. Caroline Mills of LC Mills, Inc.
www.lcmillsinc.com

Marimac, Good luck on your testings. I took php in college years ago and believe it or not I still remember all the basics. I have kept up on my html and css as that seems to be what I use often now.

Caroline, great idea on keeping up on your new direction skills. I found that by concentrating on one thing each quarter I was not all over the place and I was able to expand each skill set because I was concentrating on one.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

I'll be reading some more business books over the course of the year. I was happy to receive three new books off my wish list for Christmas: Guy Kawasaki's "Enchantment", "100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them", and "The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur".

I will also be signing up to Lynda.com before the week is out so I can take online courses to improve on existing skills and learn a few new ones. Continual learning is one of my favorite aspects of being a VA.

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Linda
Clockwise Virtual Assistance

Linda,

I read TPE, good book and Mike runs a blog where he is always looking for outside tips which gives you a chance to submit and be on his blog. I have actually gotten a few inquiries for some of my submissions.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Good to know, Lee. Thanks for the heads-up!

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Linda
Clockwise Virtual Assistance

I am finalizing my professional development goals this weekend, but the number one priority for me will be learning WordPress. After several years in program management I learned to create an annual strategic plan and break down my professional development, marketing, and financial goals into quarters. It is so much easier to keep on track throughout the year by planning things out first.

There are so many classes I would love to take, but they will have to wait until my business has grown. In the meantime I will continue to seek out free webinars and read until my eyeballs fall out! In fact, I just downloaded "The Wealthy Freelancer" to my Kindle.

I agree with Linda about the continual learning aspect of being a VA. It's always fun to learning something new!

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Margaret
Helping You Build Your Empire

Lee - Great idea separating your professional goals by quarter. Thanks for the tip. I am also hoping to work on my Social Media and SEO skills, as well as my blogging skills. I think I'm doing okay on my social media resources, but wondering if anyone could give me a good reference for an SEO book to start with. I've made a list of several that look good, but not sure which one is the right choice.

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Jennifer Simons - Girl Monday
www.girlmondaysf.com

Lee,

Great idea! The VAs in my accountability group are having a virtual business planning/development retreat next Friday. This will be the second one I have done and it will help me focus on my business planning for 2012. We will call in or check in every three hours or so to note our progress, needs from each other, and what we will do for the next three hours.

The primary focus will be to put a plan together to become either certified or learn different CRMs, especially for Financial Planners.

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Kyle Sheldon-Chandler
KSC Virtual Assistant Services