What we endeavor to do at The Virtual Nation is to help Virtual Assistants and Professionals to approach the HOW of our businesses. This is an ongoing and onGROWing effort, of course. Our industry changes each day, with new softwares and new opportunities happening faster than even Bill Gates could keep up with.
Discovering your niche, developing a level of expertise and producing work that you love every day is an experience everyone should have in their lives. Add to this a host of diverse clients and the experience to be part of an industry of courageous entrepreneurs, and you have the formula for a career beyond your wildest dreams.
The “How” to do this is found on every page of our website at TVN. But the bigger question you may be looking at is “Why Now Brown Cow.” If you are just beginning your journey into home-based entrepreneurialism, the list of roadblocks may seem endless.
The simple truth is that there may never be a perfect time to take that first step. But you are the perfect person to take it. Your devotion to excellence and creativity will be the building blocks of a firm foundation to your future. If you haven’t yet started your virtual business, join an online community of Virtual Professionals (you will find ours at Yahoo Groups) and post a message asking for input and start-up ideas. Pick up a great book or two from TVN’s Book Store to help you form ideas and start your business plan. We especially like Seth Godin's book, The Purple Cow. (I've chosen a brief synopsis from our bookstore below.)
Cows, after you've seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though...now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won't forget a Purple Cow. And it's not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It's built right in, or it's not there. Period.
In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It's a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.
Finally, when you think about your business (whether it's new to you, or you are just ready to take it to new and exciting places), ask yourself the question out loud, “Why Now?” If you’re ready, the answer has to be, “Why Not.” As a VP, I dictate and create my own role and my own success. Tell yourself, “Time is a priceless commodity, and I will not spend it wasted in a career that I do not love,” and then begin your exit strategy (which we call a business plan) today.
Take the bull by the horns and be a PURPLE COW TODAY. Live your ONE precious life the way YOU choose. Believe in yourself, grow your skillset, bring all your passion to this choice, and you are virtually guaranteed to succeed.
Gratefully yours,
Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager of The Virtual Nation
