While we offer a wide range of administrative and programmatic support functions, our purpose goes beyond the day-to-day event wrangling and other operational aspects.  Caring for your clients is of utmost importance to us and we pride ourselves on developing lasting, meaningful relationships with them. 

When working with your clients, potential clients, meeting planners and speakers bureaus, we position ourselves as your agent/manager as opposed to your employee.  A very common business model that we use is one where our contact information is shown on the speaker’s website so that we are contacted directly by anyone who is interested in discussing a booking. 

The majority of our services are handled by in-house staff.   Some services require purchase of/or subscription to services provided by an outside company (e.g. eSpeakers, QuickBooks Online, printing).  If additional costs are required, we will discuss these costs with you and get your approval prior to contracting for these services.  When a service is performed by an out-of-house person, in the case of ghostwriting for instance, we will negotiate a separate agreement between you and the service provider. 

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU

Event and Client Management 

• Management of speaker’s schedule
• Respond in writing and/or by phone to requests for information/availability
• Generate agreement and send to client
• Send completed W9 to client upon request
• Perform research on client’s company so speaker has a broad base of information about the client prior to the engagement
• Maintain on-going communication with client (and bureau rep or meeting planner where applicable) concerning event details, travel itinerary, etc.
• Set up pre-event conference call between client and speaker
• Contact venue to discuss Audio/Visual needs in detail
• Set up customized check list outlining duties to be handled by speaker and staff
• Develop document templates for agreement, rider, questionnaire, etc.
• Make travel arrangements if requested
• Provide comprehensive event report to speaker covering all details of the event
• Distribute handouts, if used, to client
• Thank you letter sent to client/bureau/meeting planner at time of booking and following event.  Arrange for thank-you gift where appropriate.
• Post-event telephone call to get client’s feedback; request testimonial letter
• Enter business cards gathered at event into database for follow-up
• Process credit card receipts from back of room sales
• Maintaining current information on all bureau websites

 Business Development

•  Identification of and research on potential speaking opportunities
• Follow up on incoming leads received through website, social media, etc. or as a result of connections made during/after your presentations as well as referrals by current clients
• Make sales calls with leads and “cold” potential opportunities
• Set-up follow-up calls connecting speaker with potential clients
• Maintain accurate data base of all leads as well as clients (past and current)

 CSP Application (eSpeakers is required for this process)

•  Input past events into eVentPro
• Generate NSA-approved CSP spreadsheets
• Collect all required documentation
• Complete and submit final application to NSA
• Cheer you on when you receive your CSP at the NSA Convention! 

We have submitted seven CSP applications and one CSP Candidate application to date.  Not only do we strongly believe the software program developed by eSpeakers offers the most efficient technology tool to successfully manage a speaker’s events and bureau presence, it also is the most efficient tool for completing your CSP application.  Because it is a web-based program, it’s highly effective in keeping all client/event information current and accessible by both speaker and staff at all times. Because of my relationship with eSpeakers, they have generously offered my speakers a 90-day free trial of the program to any of my speakers not currently subscribed.  After the trial, there is a monthly fee paid directly to eSpeakers and you can find more information at www.espeakers.com.

Presentation Preparation

We can help you fine tune your presentation and platform skills as well as partner with you to create new presentation topics.

Social Media

Because a strong presence across all social media platforms is a crucial component in your overall success, we can handle all aspects of your social media from setup if necessary, to personalization to daily activity and monitoring. 

Material Creation

Whether you want to write more books, create webinars or training programs, or develop additional products, one of the things we enjoy most is working alongside our speakers as their success partners – we’re GREAT brainstormers and idea generators.  Our experienced staff and alliances can then take these great ideas and turn them into reality.

Accounting

Some accounting services will require access to speaker’s bank account information and credit card statements.  We use QuickBooks for all of our speakers’ accounting services.  QuickBooks is resident on our secure server and I send out financial reports on a regular schedule.  But if you wish to purchase a subscription to QuickBooks Online, your financial information would be available to us both 24/7.

• Generate client invoices for fee, travel and product pre-sell
• Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable Aging reports
• Maintain and reconcile checking accounts
• Enter and reconcile itemized credit card activity for expense tracking
• Issue checks and/or process online payments
• If applicable, calculate and process payments for payroll taxes; process quarterly and/or annual payroll and/or sales tax reports
• Process weekly/month/quarterly and/or annual Income Statement, Balance Sheet and other financial reports as requested

Newsletter

Maintain subscriber database and distribute speaker’s newsletter.

Virtual PBX

Secure 800 number for speaker that rings in to multiple locations, e.g. speaker’s office, cell phone and/or support staff’s office.  If you have your own system in place, it can be set up so that the telephone rings into our offices. 

Website Design/Maintenance/Search Engine Optimization

From new website design to major re-design as well as ongoing maintenance and search engine optimization. This also includes evaluating your website; creating or evaluating a downloadable promo package for bureaus and meeting planners.

Public Relations

In addition to using your social media, we use our own social media outlets to promote our speakers’ activities.  We can assist you with article distribution and if a broader PR approach is appropriate, we work with a pay-for-performance PR firm. 

Author Services  

We provide support for all areas of book publishing including advance research, fact checking, proofreading, securing ISBN, copyright and permissions. We work with a number of ghostwriters and can take your book from rough manuscript through to publishing (traditional, self, e-books and print-on-demand) as well as coordinating promotional activities surrounding book release.  

Graphic Design

Logo and business papers, one-sheet, book covers and print advertising.

Everything Else

Our philosophy is simple: we are here to provide our speakers with whatever they need to be successful.  If you need help with something we do not provide in-house, we have alliances with many experts in various fields. If you need product fulfillment, specialty item creation, video book trailer, etc. just ask us.  If we can’t do it in- house, I’ll bet we already have an alliance with someone who can.    

Fee Structure  

We have various fee packages.  We have some speakers to whom we offer ongoing support including event management and business development; others are provided with help on a project basis – e.g. all we do for one speaker is handle their social media; another speaker only needs help with their CSP application. 

Once we discuss your needs, we will provide you with a proposal outlining our services to you along with our fee.  If business development will be a part of our services, we operate on a combined retainer/commission basis.  If your needs are project based without a business development component, we will operate on a retainer fee only.