I had an interesting opportunity come my way yesterday. One of my clients is a local radio personality, he hosts a morning show on a very popular radio station. He and his wife have started a series of classes, based on the teachings of "the secret" (which I know nothing about) and have been trained and certified by Bob Proctor.

One of the classes deals with personal finances, they have asked me to come to this class to provide basic personal finance training/assistance to their students. The first series of classes they are providing free of charge and asked if I would offer a discounted rate to the students to provide this service. I agreed to an extremely discounted rate because I feel this could be a great marketing opportunity for me as several people in this class are also local radio personalities, and word-of-mouth referrals are the best.

They will be charging for the next series of classes (and already have people pre-enrolled) and have asked me if I would continue working with them and put together a bundled rate to offer to the future students.

I will be meeting with each student privately, to review their financial situations and teaching them how to manage their finances, how to correctly use a check register, reconcile their bank statements, assist them in assessing their debt and creating a debt reduction plan... the financial basics. Things that everybody should know, but nobody ever actually showed them how to do it. For this first series, I have agreed to charge them only for 1 hour per month even though I know from experience the first consultation alone could be 2-4 hours. After the first consultation I will just be reviewing their progress and assisting them with reconciling their bank statements, answering questions, etc.

Does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing? I would like any advice you could give me on how to maximize this opportunity. Marketing and self-promotion is totally new to me, but I feel like this is a great opportunity and I don't want to just sit back and see what happens if there is something I could be doing to increase the potential here.

I was just approached about this yesterday and the first finance class is tomorrow!

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

Rebecka,
This sounds like a neat opportunity for you Congratulations!
I'm a little uncertain as to why you discounted your rates so heavily (one fourth of your normal rate?? - if you're only charging for one hour when it could take four...) I do hope you'll charge more for subsequent series! Your time and skills are valuable!

BUT - I would put together a small welcome or intro packet for each of these people you'll meet with, maybe create a 'coupon' and let them know that if they or anyone they refer to you wishes to start working with you you'll offer them X% off or something. (Assuming the people running the program don't have a problem with your doing so)
Include a handful of business cards, and the usual info.

These clients sound like fun and very creative people - it's always nice to be working with people who have a lot going on, you're exposed to that much more opportunity of your own.

I hope you have fun, it sure sounds like a neat event!

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I probably shouldn't have discounted my rates so heavily, but it is just for this first group, it was one of those, favor for a friend (and also good client) type deals, and it happened so fast I didn't have time to put a lot of thought into it. It's a gamble but hopefully one that will pay off, if not, lesson learned. Working with this first group will give me a better idea of how to structure a package deal for the next one.

I am working on a welcome packet as you suggested. I wish I had more time to get stuff together. I dunno, maybe I'm just nervous because I've never done anything like this before and it's such short notice. I guess I'll just have to show up and see what happens. I'm trying not to over-think everything like I always do and just go with it.

Technically this isn't even "virtual assistance", but I'm hoping it will be a good avenue for getting the word out about my virtual business.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

Whatever you want to call it, virtual or otherwise, it's a great opportunity to network, get some practice at interacting with people in this capacity, etc. AND I'm sure you'll be fabulous. I always kind of prefer it when things like this (that make me anxious) are sudden, that way I have less time to worry about how I'll do!

You'll be so great - I have no doubt they'll all be raving about you! And don't worry too much over the welcome packet, even just handing out cards is a good option.

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Great opportunity! I think you will do awesome and I am sure it will lead to other things for you.

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

It sounds quite exciting! Congrats.