How a Small Edge Over Your Competitors Can Make a Big Difference
Do you have the edge?
If you look back at the history of successful businesses, it is often just a single, tiny edge that made the difference between the winners and the losers. In many cases, that edge can simply be that you have more time to focus on the things that are important, leaving the small things in the hands of others. If you are an established business with a multitude of employees, this is easy. You can just delegate. If you are a small business with limited, if any, staff, then you might find yourself having to do basically everything. By hiring a virtual assistant, you can get that small edge you need to gain a competitive advantage in your field, capture new customers, and overtake your competitors.
Small Edge #1: Get Someone Else to Write Your Copy
As far as time consuming activities go, writing copy can take the cake.
Even if you are an experienced copywriter, it still takes time to write engaging, effective copy. If you have a weekly blog, or you’re writing your own Facebook ads, or you have a weekly newsletter , you’re going to discover fast just how much time these activities can take up. If you aren’t overly experienced in writing copy, then it can take up hours of mental effort. I’ve met many entrepreneurs who complain that just sitting down to write a blog post will often consume their entire afternoon and evening.
Hiring someone else to write all of your copy can be an incredibly useful and time-saving investment. All of a sudden, your day is freed up to do other, more important things. As far as edges go, this isn’t a small one, this is huge. The only time you need to put in is to find someone who can write effective copy in your voice. From there, you simply have to wait until a professionally written blog, social media, news, or advertisement appears in your inbox to be proofed by you and then posted. It’s your copy, you can make whatever changes you want.
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Small Edge #2: Perfect Your Website
Imagine two businesses across the street from one another in a sleepy, small town about 30 years ago. They both have passionate owners, fantastic products, and excellent service. But while one of the businesses has an attractive storefront that perfectly illustrates the professionalism of their company, the other’s storefront is an unattractive mess. Which business do you think will survive and which will fold?
Today, your “storefront” is your website. If you are trying to compete with other businesses that offer similar products and services, you are going to need the edge of an attractive, well-designed, and functional website. The second that a potential customer lands on your site, they are going to make huge assumptions about your business based on what they see. If it hasn’t been updated since 2015, they will hit “back”. If it is a mess of a design, with unattractive graphics and layout, they’re going to hit “back”. If they discover one single link that doesn’t work and sends them to a 404 Page Not Found error, they’re going to hit “back”.
Hiring a virtual assistant to design you an expertly built and functional website can be the edge you need to win over customers over your competitors. With professionally designed graphics, excellent web copy, and a mobile-optimized design, your “storefront” will attract new customers to your door!
Small Edge #3: Have Branding Collateral
Advertising goes beyond Facebook, email, and other forms of digital marketing. One marketing method that can show a great return on investment is to have an assortment of branded collateral. This is an area that many small businesses might feel is outside of their budget, but there are a variety of ways that you can create branded collateral for a reasonable cost. This will give you the edge over your competitors who decide to skip this important and effective marketing method.
You want to make sure that you go with a virtual assistant to design all of your branded collateral. This can save you a great deal of money compared to hiring a graphic design firm, and you will get comparable results. Once you have your designs, there are a number of discount companies online that can provide you with the physical collateral, such as pens, magnets, stickers, and even customized candy wrappers. Items like pens can end up in a person’s home for years, providing a huge return for your advertising dollar.
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Small Edge #4: Use Project Management Tools
When many entrepreneurs start a small business for the first time, they don’t realize the world of chaos they’ve entered until it is too late. When you are at the head of a newly formed small business, with no one else to take care of things but yourself, your job is to essentially pull together some semblance of order and organization. Easier said than done, as there are often countless balls to keep in the air in the early days of a new business. You have to get your office set up, early budgeting, making a business plan, building a marketing plan, and all of this is before you even get a single client! How can you manage this cavalcade of confusion? By using project management tools.
Once a small business owner realizes the power that an effective project management system like Teamwork can give them over their schedule, they will never go back. A to-do list is fine in your personal life, but for a professionally run business, you need the edge of project management! If you don’t have time to set one up, simply hire a virtual assistant to do it for you until you get everything under control.
In fact, let me do you a favor, download my free workbook that walks you through partnering with a virtual assistant! If you need help getting your marketing strategy in place, collaborating with a virtual assistant can be a huge help!
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