Everyone wants more business. We want more prospects to become clients and buy from us. We attend networking events hoping to find good leads. As we meet new people, we tend to come right out and ask, 'do you want to buy from me?' Do you like it when someone approaches you at a networking meeting and tells you all about how they can help you but never asks you about your business? Of course not! This is a great way to turn off prospects.

Instead of approaching people at networking events with the idea of pushing your business, attend with the thought of getting to know other people and their business. You start to develop relationships that build to a point where you can know what the other person actually needs and if they need your services.

We'll talk about this in greater detail in our group coaching calls in May. Learn more at the Chief Virtual Officer website.

One of the best ways you can educate prospects about your virtual assistant business is to attend networking events and meet new business people. Yet many hold back, afraid of not knowing what to say or feeling overwhelmed by the idea of meeting new people.

Here are 2 simple steps to you can take to make the most of networking events. Once you've got these down, you can move on to bigger networking goals.

1. Prepare a 30 second introduction. Keep it simple. State your name, the name of your company and what you do. "My name is Sue Canfield. I own Chief Virtual Officer, a virtual assistant coaching company to help virtual assistants become entrepreneurs."

2. Set a simple goal for your first networking event. It could be to smile and say hello to 3 people. Yes, even just 3 people.

Once you return from the event, congratulate yourself on a job well done. You introduced yourself and said hello to 3 new people. That wasn't so hard, was it?