August 2005

find your niche at ivaa best practices summit 2005

The International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA) has selected three of their outstanding members, each of whom have discovered profitable and successful niche markets, to compliment the line-up of professional speakers at their 4th Annual Best Practices Summit, being held October 19-22, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency in Houston, Texas.

The Summit Committee focused on identifying members who could speak to both emerging and veteran Virtual Assistants (VA) on the importance of finding and nurturing their niche. “The IVAA membership is very diverse and we were fortunate to have such a large pool of talent from which to draw,” stated Andrea Cannavina, co-chair of the 2005 Summit Committee. “The involvement of the IVAA membership in the selection of topics allowed us to target those areas of most interest,” added Kim Barnes Jefferson, co-chair.

Three very talented VAs will be leading the following sessions:

Real Estate VA

Attracting and Keeping Real Estate Agents as Clients by Cathryn Jones, Assistants for Agents, LLC. Ms. Jones will help her fellow virtual assistants understand the technology available to support real estate agents, the type of agents or realty companies to target, and the skills necessary to successfully support a real estate VA practice.

Subcontracting

You Can't Clone Yourself: Try Subcontracting, Donnette Goheen Cowgill, of Pros & Commas. More than 28 years ago, Ms. Cowgill opened her secretarial/answering service and hired staff as her business grew. Five years ago, she decided that she could still have a flourishing business without renting office space if she subcontracted the work to others. Ms. Cowgill has been successfully contracting a large percentage of her business and will discuss with IVAA Summit attendees the legal entity of the subcontractor, successful and not-so-successful subcontracting experiences, and the proper care and feeding of subcontractors.

Branding

Branding Your Way to Success: Identify the "Promise" in a Niche Service Market, Sharon Williams, The 24 Hour Secretary. Many small businesses, especially women-owned business, struggle with finding their brand – their “voice,” if you will. Ms. Williams has lucratively grown her transcription and dictation business through effective public relations and marketing activities. During her session, she will explore the process of developing a brand, delivering on the brand promise, positioning of one’s practice, and strategies to stand out from the crowd.

Virtual Assistants are a rapidly growing segment of the home-based workforce, composed of professionals who work remotely to provide administrative, creative, technical and/or consulting services.

Please click here for more information about the 2005 Summit Program and keynote speakers or visit http://www.vasummit.org.