After holding my second webinar last week, I didn’t take into consideration how the participants perceived how well (or how poor) the class went. I had a colleague suggest to me to deliver a survey to those on the call to see how they felt about it and whether or not they received any value from it. This will be a great idea to follow through on after my next webinar or teleclass!

However, I do want to share with you how others view what a good teleseminar or webinar should be like. This is what I compiled from other coaches and VAs:

• A webinar is an ideal means of conveying to a captive audience the value you deliver as a host and the relevant expertise you can share, which in turn, can bring in new clients that want to work with you. If a webinar is performed well, a participant should be able to walk away with information they can use.

• What will help make the webinar interesting is to arm your participants with an agenda beforehand so they already know what you are going to deliver and they are on the call to “catch” what you have to say. What will make that audience happy too is knowing they will receive a follow-up recording of the webinar or call. I know of several participants that went back and listened to my most recent webinars. Then they contact me to discuss their needs or ask questions.

• A speaker should feel like that he/she is conversing with the audience; sort of like having an interview with the callers. I personally like to get to know my participants by having them introduce themselves at the beginning of the call. You want to make your callers feel welcome and comfortable.

• Have fun with the webinar. Adding a sprinkle of humor throughout your call will also grab the attention of your callers. I have definitely had to break out the humor “card” when I felt like my audience was starting to fade away from me!

• Be sure that you are speaking to your target audience. Even before you have the webinar, you want to promote your event that YOU know will target those you want to bring to the call. Otherwise, you are doing yourself a disservice and not “preaching” to the right audience. You will get little or no response after the call.

So before you schedule your next webinar or teleseminar, take into consideration these participant tips so you can deliver your expertise to your audience and keep them on the call. Better participation leads to more potential clients for your business!

The answer to that question is a resounding YES! If you are someone like me, a hard-at-work Virtual Assistant, then you can understand that biggest desire for my business is to bring in more income and work less hours. I’ve got to slowly step back from my business and bring back that time I need to spend with my family, now more than ever.

So how do I make this plan work? Do I increase my hourly rate to existing clients and prospective new clients? Then I could reduce my hours, but make about the same income each month. That is one solution, but it may not be accepted well with current clients that are really watching their spending dollar right now.

There are a number of ways you can bring in additional income without working more hours. It’s called “dollars for hours” instead of “hours for dollars”. It’s a phrase I picked up from my business coach, Suzanne Evans.

What I am noticing more and more is my VA and coach colleagues are finding ways to market their business through the use of teleseminars and products. Because more prospective clients are not willing to commit to your services on an ongoing basis, they are now turning more towards participating in workshops and purchasing products to help them in their business. They want to learn how to set up their own products and services and they are willing to spend the money to have someone teach or consult them in that process. They are arming themselves with the knowledge they need to set up their own administrative processes.

Having this knowledge of the small business industry, you should already be thinking of ways you can reach out to your market and promote yourself and what you can offer in the form of products or teleseminars. The possibilities are endless. You could create a survey and send it to your VA or coaching community and get their input on what they would like to learn and that could be basis of what you could put together and market for your business! So it’s not as difficult as it sounds. What can be challenging is actually putting the program together. You will need to invest more time in putting the program or product together, but once it’s done, it’s done! Other than you having to tweak or improve upon what you already have, you have a new stream of income potential for your business.

As a VA, I can also look at investing my time in learning from other VA’s that have managed to grow their business, using a mutiple stream of income model. And that’s the Six-Figure VA System. It is worth a look if you are a VA looking for ways to build your business, but not spend more time in doing so.

So if you have ideas you want to share on the subject, please feel free to comment or drop me a line at aletha(at)dcvirtualoffice(dot)com. I would love to hear your advice and stories on what you are doing to increase your bottom line, but not sacrificing your personal time with family and friends.