Are you a virtual entrepreneur? What does it take to be a virtual entrepreneur? Lauri Smedley, a professor with over 20 years of teaching experience, has written the book, Virtual Entrepreneurship: Creating and Operating a Home-based Online Business. In the book you will learn how to get started and the dos and don'ts of virtual entrepreneurship from practicing virtual entrepreneurs from around the world.

Professor Smedley also hosts a weekly radio show about business, entrepreneurship, online businesses, and educating people about how to create and operate their own home-based virtual businesses. Joel and I will be her guests on March 14, 2011.

To learn more about virtual entrepreneurship, visit Professor Smedley's page on Facebook.

We want to hear from you. What questions do you have about virtual entrepreneurship? Are you a successful virtual entrepreneur? Ask you questions and tell us your success stories!

Do you have a client that seems to be constantly unhappy? Perhaps they honestly feel you haven't been taking care of their tasks and projects the way they'd like you to. Even when you've done all you feel you can they are still unhappy and loudly and unpleasantly let you and others know. It may be time to let them go.

If you've done all you can, it doesn't matter if they are right or not. You will do more harm to your business keeping them as a client. As we state on page 39 in The Commonsense Virtual Assistant - Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee: " If you decide that an ongoing relationship will do more harm than good to both of you, calmly, politely let them know that you've done all you can. Apologize that you haven't been able to make them happy. Express a genuine hope that someone else who offers the same product or service will be able to do what you can't. And that's all."

Have you had to let a client go? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

At our monthly NCAE meeting Monday night, our guest speaker was Anne Sandler of PIZZAZZ Communications. She spoke to us about how we could each develop our USP - Unique Selling Proposition. Anne explains that your USP is your ultimate benefit statement. It should be one line and stated in about 7 seconds.

To develop your USP, write down who your customers are and what their needs are. Then write down your services and what you do to fulfill your client's needs. Then what's in it for your client? How do your services benefit them? Then you can take that to write down your Unique Selling Proposition.

Here at Chief Virtual Officer, our USP is: "I help my clients go from employee to entrepreneur."

Tonight is Collette Schultz's monthly call for subcontractors. Her guest for April is Dawn Martinello. Dawn opened Monday Morning VA in February of 2009 and works with clients who are eager to enhance their online visibility. Her specialties include internet marketing, social networking, WordPress theme tweaks, creating and implementing systems and procedures, and general life + business co-ordination/automation. She’s the recipient of the VAccolade Business Entrepreneur Award from the Virtual Assistant Networking Association for demonstrating professionalism on the Web.

Register for this free call at Software Savvy Sub.

I've been talking with virtual assistants this week about defining their ideal client. When I ask my coaching clients to describe their ideal client as specifically as possible, the descriptions are still very vague. They are something like this:

"My ideal client is a self employed entrepreneur in a service related industry."

"My ideal client is a business entrepreneur in the professional services."

"My ideal clients are solo entrepreneurs."

These are very vague and speak to a general audience. Even once a coaching client understands the need to target a very specific audience, they tend to speak to the group rather than an individual.

When my partner Joel coaches virtual assistants to define their ideal client, he helps them get very specific. Rather than targeting a general audience, we focus on targeting an individual. Here are 3 simple ways to focus your marketing messages to an individual:

1. Write a detailed paragraph of your ideal client: their gender, age, occupation, likes, dislikes, family situation and other details.

2. Name your ideal client. Make this individual real to you.

3. Go find a picture of that ideal client in a magazine. Cut it out and post it where you can see it all the time. When you get ready to send out marketing messages, look at that picture and see if the message will appeal to that ideal client.

Now that you've put a name and face to your ideal client, it will be much easier to target your audience and direct messages to the individuals that need your services.

Are you talking to a general audience or a specific individual? Would you like some assistance in defining your ideal client. Contact us for your free 30-minute consultation.