Erin Blaskie on Building Businesses, Meeting People, and Getting It All Done

Today wraps up my series of Enlightening Conversations focusing on a few of the people who have inspired me. And today, I'm sharing my conversation with Erin Blaskie, perhaps the most personally influential person to have made this list. It's no exaggeration to say that Erin truly motivated me to push beyond my perceived "limits". Her story simply captivates me. Never before have I found a person more focused and motivated to meet their goals. Erin embodies the essence of entrepreneurship and she possesses many qualities I aspire to.

So, without further hesitation, let me introduce this fascinating woman: Erin Blaskie, founder of three very successful businesses (and one currently "in progress"):

Business Solutions Etc - A Virtual Assistant Company (BSETC)

The Virtual Assistant Coach

The VA Matchmaker

The VA Training Club (being remodeled - coming soon!)

While this list is impressive enough, there's more: Erin is in her twenties! She started her first company (BSETC) when she was only 21. Today, her success with these businesses has exceeded her wildest dreams. At BSETC, she works with a very selective clientele as a Virtual Assistant, while running the business aspects of the entire multi-VA practice. As the VA Coach, she teaches other VAs on how to earn a six-figure income in the business and how to build their practices from the ground up. And as the VA Matchmaker, she matches clients with Virtual Assistants around the globe.

When I sat down with Erin, I wanted to pick her brain on entrepreneurship, networking and time management. Below, you'll find the highlights of our conversation but if you're interested in getting to know Erin a little better, you can listen to the audio file here: PLAY FILE

On Building Her First Business

Now, first off let me just say: Erin is nice. You can get that by just reading her blog. But she's also driven. And I mean super driven. As a "self-proclaimed techno-geek extraordinaire", she knows a thing or two about dedication.

"I started my first business when I was 21 so when most people are out partying and doing things that are considered sort of ‘normal', I was actually teaching at a private college in the city. And I would come home at night and work on my business. I didn't really know exactly what it was going to be and I didn't necessarily have a plan."

But that didn't stop her. From the age of 16 (before she even knew what a VA was) Erin knew she wanted to be self-employed and she had a good feeling that it would involve providing administrative services in her local area. At the time, she didn't realize that the virtual world would allow her to grow that idea into a worldwide business. When she first discovered the field of Virtual Assistance at the age of twenty, there was no hesitation - she knew that's what she wanted to do.

"I was thinking I could start it, and it could be small and I could have a few clients...I really didn't know it could be as lucrative and fulfilling as it really is," she says. "But it really only took six months from the time I started my business for me to be able to leave the career that I had behind and dive head first into this world of self-employment. It's been amazing and I'm so glad that I did that."

On Collaboration

One of the reasons Erin stands out in business and on the web, is her ability to collaborate with an enormous group of small business owners. Because of her network, BSETC is literally able to handle almost any task through sub-contracting.

"Building my network was a slow process in the beginning," she says, though she feels that this is something that gets easier with time. But she followed two guidelines in order to get things going:

1. Always being aware of what she needed for herself and her business so, as she was meeting new people, she could seek those who could help meet those needs. And also being aware of what she could offer other people as well.

2. Build relationships. It's not about building a networking and taking from them. Focus on creating a memorable, worthwhile relationship and win-win situations.

Up until this year in fact, Erin had only used internet marketing to meet new prospects and build her network! Currently, most of her business comes only from referrals so she doesn't do any marketing at all (aside from blogging). It was only this year that she started attending live events and conferences, most recently the E-Women Conference in Dallas (with 3000 female business owners in attendance).

On (Not) Organizing Contacts

Erin laughs as she explains that she really has no clever way of organizing her contact information for this huge network of hers.

"I do a lot of contact through things like Facebook and Twitter (social networking sites)," she says. "In my email, I'm one of those people that don't delete anything. I use Gmail, which has a great search function. So, if I had an appointment in my calendar to speak with somebody, I would just do a quick search in my Gmail and go back and look at the history of our communications. Because I haven't done much live events, I haven't had a need to keep track of things like business cards."

On Coaching

As the VA Coach, Erin teaches people how to build six-figure VA practices. She started coaching people on this because she wanted to show Virtual Assistants and those considering becoming VAs that this kind of success is possible. So what does this entail? Here's how Erin breaks it down:

1. The Mindset - Before implementing anything, it's about knowing that you can own and create a business that size. A lot of people have a hard time viewing a service based business as something that can be that big - since you're trading time for money and we only have so much time.

2. Create Passive Revenue - Income in the form of e-books and info products.

3. Leverage Your Time by Building a Team

4. Leverage Your Expertise and Position Yourself as an Expert (in your chosen market)

5. Expand Yourself into Mini-Businesses (diversify)

Erin's six week program at the VA Coach teaches people to do these things and ultimately "charge more, work less, and create different income streams."

With her teaching background, Erin considers this where her passion really lies.

On Building Websites

Erin has built 4 fully functioning websites on her own, with countless off-shoots for different programs and products (such as her VA retreat and her 42 Speaker series). Amazingly, she is 100% self-taught.

"When I started my business, I had never done a website before. I had played around with personal websites but had never done one for business. I just jumped right in though."

Erin says she's always been the type of person to sit down in front of a computer and just intuitively figure out most things. "I'm of the mindset that you can never stop learning and never stop honing your skills, so I've just been playing. This is my passion so it never feels like work to learn it or to jump in and try to do it."

On Time Management

How does Erin get it all done? These are some of the tools she uses for managing her time:

1. Batch your work: group together like items and do them all at once

2. Delegate: Erin uses an assistant to get her voicemail, do scheduling etc. She says to consider what your time is worth and how to most effectively use it.

3. Create systems: utilize technology to create maximum efficiency. Erin's rule is, if she does anything more than twice, she creates a system for it. For example, she has created a video for clients who are inquiring about her business where she answers commonly asked questions. She asks prospects to watch it prior to scheduling a phone call.

On Her Favorite Business

"I don't know if I can choose!" Erin says. "Each business has amazing qualities and they're entirely different."

I suppose it's like a mother with children - how can you pick a favorite? Erin has indeed given birth to 3 amazing businesses (with another one on the way!).

"If anything I can do can solve someone's problem, or free up their time, or allow them to walk away feeling satisfied, that's all I'm really after."