Virtual Assistance and You

What’s that thing they say, “The money’s in the list” – ?  Been thinking about that lately. About how your list is the core vitality and meaning of your business. Your profits, your time, your products and services, and all aspects  of your company’s wellbeing are centered in your list of contacts.

Those who purchase lists wholesale are depraved, of course, but building your list is something that can be done many perfectly legitimate ways. Most people use a combination of tactics, including personal encounters, networking meetings, rosters from organizations to which they belong, fellow alumni, friends, peers, and the like.  As social networks always suggest, a good place to start is with your email address book.

So the techniques of list building are many and varied, but the necessity of creating and caring for your list is standard across all commerce.  You start up your biz by kindling a list; you maintain it by nurturing your list; you grow it by growing your list.

Funny thing is, while list building has always been a concern for businesses and perhaps socialites, the rest of us never paid it all that much attention. But the marvel of the internet has made list-building central to the life of the individual as well as the corporation.  Just as branding is now a concept individuals must take into account, right along with mega-corporations, list building is a practice any of us do well to make habitual.

Your list is your tribe, as Seth Godin would have it; your team, your friends and fans, your connections in our 6-pixel universe. Your list may be wide, or deep, or both. It may be small and select or large and liberal. However it’s characterized, your list is you: your vitality and meaning and practical worth.

It’s important to remember that it’s not necessarily a question of quantity, when list-building. Quantity may be a crucial factor, but it equally well may not matter at all. On the other hand, quality may or may not be a requisite in your list-building. The requirements for attaining membership on your list are utterly unique to you.

Our education systems should begin teaching about list building in the late years of elementary school, and build on that foundation throughout a young person’s formative years. Defining adult responsibility as responsiveness to your list, your tribe, is a profitable way to live, work, and be in society. It’s the culture fostered by the internet and global awareness. It’s thinking globally and acting locally.

Entrepreneurs, give devoted care to your lists. Don’t buy them or spam them or abuse them in even the slightest way. They are your lifeblood, your reason for being. They are not an aspect of business: they are your business. Your company doesn’t exist without its lists.

I’m curious about your thoughts on this. How do you treat your lists? How do you create them in the first place?