Today I’m excited to feature a guest post by my friend and colleague, Tara Fort, owner of Versatility! Take it away, Tara!

What a treat to be featured as a guest blogger on Loosely Speaking.  Every month, Katie and I meet to provide tips, discuss challenges and issues, and brainstorm ways to enhance our VA businesses (all that and some other fun chit-chat, too!).  We’d love for other qualified, seasoned VAs to join us every 2nd Wednesday of the month at the Raven on Cortez Street in Prescott, AZ at 9 a.m.

That being said, our agenda calls for each attendee to provide a valuable tip.  This blog will highlight the tip I provided at the meeting:  Using the Marketing-Mentor 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar.  I love this thing!  When you purchase the download for a nominal price, this combo marketing plan and calendar guides a business owner through the important tasks that so often get pushed off to the side.  Tasks like choosing your market, constantly analyzing who your market is, continuing to research and add prospects to that market, ongoing networking (at least once a week), monthly contact management, etc.  We all know we have to do these things, but having them already listed on a daily or weekly to do list, with inspiration and steps toward the main goal of a successful business in between, really works.  (Plus, there are two versions: one geared toward a startup, and one for an established business.)

In conjunction with the calendar is The Marketing Mix: Official Blog from Marketing-Mentor, http://www.marketingmixblog.com.  These posts, which occur a few times a week, combined with the calendar and marketing plan, meld to make the perfect package to market and expand your business.  With a host of 3-4 different writers (including a VA who works in Dublin), a few are armed with nothing but a 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar!  So, they are not just talking the talk… they are walking the walk.  That’s impressive.  The blogs are fun, noteworthy, inspirational and beneficial.  Sometimes the daily post is just what I need to get going and to be assured that I’m not the “only one” facing what’s before me.

When I started with the Marketing-Mentor calendar half way through last year, the first page for that month asked me to search and post on industry blogs (something we should all be doing daily, anyway).  I was, at the time, pretty green to the new technology available to me as a business owner.  I joined a forum right then, posted my question, received instantaneous helpful posts and was able to immediately find the tool I needed to land a job that had come through my door.  It paid for itself in less than 24 hours!  I was hooked!.  We all say we know how to market, but I say we can all benefit from anything that makes us work quicker and more efficiently.  Do what I did… check out Marketing-Mentor.com, subscribe to their posts, check out the calendar/marketing plan, and be on your way!  You won’t be sorry.

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Tara Fort is owner of Versatility!  Virtual Assistance for the Real World.  A seasoned VA, Tara specializes in editing, proofing and transcription.  Reach her at tara@versatility4u.com.