Just another way to save gas

June 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As a virtual professional, I am very thankful that I can get up every morning and make the long trip down the hall to my office…and I don’t spend a dime in gas!! When I first started this business gas was a mere $2.50 per gallon, which was bad enough, but to think of the millions of people whose job requires that regular morning fill up…I’m sorry.

Working as a virtual assistant or in some other type of home-based business is just one of the ways to relieve the pressure of today’s high gas prices. Another one is the ability to purchase items online. You can buy just about anything online, even greeting cards.

I have found an incredible system called . I log into my account, select the card I want, write my heartfelt text to the person I’m sending it to, upload my personal signature and click send. Taking maybe 5 minutes and no gas, out of my day! I can even upload photos, attach gift cards to places like Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, and Starbucks, or I can attach a wonderful basket of gourmet treats, including a box of mouth-watering brownies! It’s a one-stop shop!

I have found that I use Send Out Cards for my business to follow-up on leads, remind potential clients that I’m available to assist them and to thank my current clients for their trust in me and my business. I also use it to send cards to family and friends for birthdays, anniversarys, holidays and when someone is under the weather.

You know, most people have a kind heart and would send a card if they could remember to pick it up the next time they went shopping. With Send Out Cards, you can go shopping anytime; day or night and you have more than 10,000 cards to select from, right at your fingertips.

I love it so much, I’ll give you two free cards to send to anyone you wish. Just click here Send Out Cards and see what you think. And you don’t even have to start your car.

Waiting for the phone to ring.

June 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I was speaking to one of my wonderful clients today, Diane Wilkerson with Knoxville Insurance Agency and she told me about how her business had been experiencing a dry spell for about the last two months. Which gave her some concern and made her re-evaluate why she was in business.

Well, she found out why today! Just this morning she has written four new policies and the phone has been ringing off the hook.

We all go through those periods of self-doubt and wondering, “is this really the path I’m supposed to be on?” And then we get that re-affirming phone call or sale that confirms that everything is fine. We sometimes have to weather those dry spells until the rain comes and pours out those wonderful blessings on us and our businesses.

So if you are going through the dry spell today…the rain is just behind the next cloud.

Blog Recognized by VANetworking

May 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

What a great surprise when I received a congratulatory email from another virtual assistant today regarding my blog. The Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA) has recognized my Blog as the “Blog of the Week.”

What a great honor and I so appreciate the recognition. I love posting to my blog with helpful resources and tips to assist busy professionals, small business owners and Internet business professionals with their daily operational tasks.

Thanks VANA!

Do You Twitter?

May 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I asked my local networking group that question last week and they look at me like I had said a dirty word!! I really don’t remember how I stumbled upon Twitter, but after only being part of this social network site for a couple of weeks I have gained around 75 new contacts. That’s pretty incredible, that I’m connected to 75 people that I have never even met, but we share that one simple question with each other every day, “What Are You Doing?”

I even have a “follower” in Australia. And I’m following him as well. With the new Social Media Boom, you are truly going to be left behind if you don’t join in.

I have connected my Twitter to my FaceBook page and I have a MySpace for the gospel group I sing with and I’m LinkedIn and need to update my Ryze page. Whew, I’m dizzy, I can really understand why my networking group didn’t understand. But I have made it my mission and part of my business to teach them about this social media “thingy.” (More on that in the future)

If you really want to stay in touch, I highly recommend that you Twitter your Facebook and get Linkedin to your MySpace and Ryze, not to mention you should Digg, Flickr, and Pounce. Oh Wow, what would our grandparents say??

Caught in the Catch-Up?

May 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Don’t you love those long weekends? Just looking forward to some time off, relaxation with the family or friends, going to the beach, lake or mountains?

Don’t you just hate coming back to the office to find a foot of mail in your mailbox; 500 emails, 450 of them spam and of course the weekly meeting that takes longer than usual because of the long weekend stories?

I’m with you, except it’s my business to go through the mountains of mail, the never-ending emails and I have several meetings throughout the day with various clients. I have one client that has re-routed her informational email account to me to monitor and moderate. This alone had 150 spam emails in it when I came back into the office today. And I Love it!

The good thing is that I’m caught-up. Not only with my personal emails, but with my client’s emails as well. This is just one more way a Virtual Assistant can help busy people stay caught up. By giving the task of email and calendar management to an off-site, virtual professional you don’t get bogged down with email messages that really don’t contribute to your bottom line. Although email is very important in our society now (and I couldn’t personally live without it) it is a time consumer and before you realize it, you have spent 2-3 hours working on responding and sending emails.

Before the next holiday (July 4th, is just around the corner), think about outsourcing this task to a Virtual Professional. We can help you stay caught-up and make coming back from those long weekends or vacations as pleasurable as the time-off.

How Do You Pronounce That?

May 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment

How many times have we said that? How do you pronounce that?

While talking on the phone with clients, I am always taking notes to make sure I follow-up and keep track of the tasks I need to do for them. Many times they will communicate a word, that I am just not familiar with. So the famous question pops out, “How do you pronounce that?” And then the next one is, “How do you spell that?”

Well, I have found the coolest site to help you out! I stumbled upon this incredible website today and I love it! The Free Dictionary.com I was doing some research and typed in the word Mushroom and up came The Free Dictionary. It not only gives you spelling, many different definitions, translations, thesaurus and the best part is that it Pronounces the word for you!! Yep, it sure does. I was blowned away! I could play with the site all day, but that doesn’t make me any money. However, it can save me a great deal of time now that I know about it and I thought you would like it too.

Go check it out. It will (mush·room To multiply, grow, or expand rapidly) your vocabulary!!!

Stay in the Game, It’s Almost Your Turn at Bat.

May 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Whew, what a difference a day makes. This is for all of us Virtual Assistants, or any entrepreneur, who has been discouraged and fearful about starting or continuing our business.

I lost a very good retainer client recently. He had been with me almost from the beginning. I felt it coming and he was very gracious about it and hopes to hire me back at some point, but nonetheless, I lost him and the regular income. But, I didn’t loose faith. I feel strongly that I’m in the exact place God wants me to be and the next day I spoke with two potential clients and then someone called, completely out of the blue, for a potentially large project!

Then I was talking with another VA about maybe subcontracting with her, which would be great and later in the day I received a call from a direct referral that she had sent me. That one call (about 15 minutes) resulted in an immediate Five New Clients!! YEA!! They wanted me to start immediately and it is a niche that I have been playing around with for a few weeks. I am so excited! I’ll be assisting Women Entreprenuers and Coaches with their Internet Marketing and building their online presence.

So, no matter what field your in, stay in the game, it’s almost your turn to bat. (Can you tell I’m a former softball player??) Don’t give up…that next client is just around the corner.

Don’t forget to Publish

May 9, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I wrote a great post yesterday and was so proud of it and feeling good only to find out today that I forgot to click Publish. Duh!! I previewed it and tweaked it several times and then just forget to post it on my Blog.

I think that applies to many things in business and life. We just forget to click the Publish button. We work on our business plan, we get our marketing plan ready, we have our business cards printed and then never click Publish. Or, we decide to go on a diet only to jump in the middle of a whole chocolate cake!! Or we want to start saving for a vacation or retirement and go out and buy a new car.

Why is that? Are we not committed to our business strategy? About losing weight or saving money? No, I don’t think that’s it at all. In my case, it’s the old adage, “I’ll get to that tomorrow.” I procrastinate on really important things and forget to click Publish.

Next time you become passionate about something, whether it be business or personal, be sure you click Publish, otherwize that great idea will never get posted!

Chocolate, Sweet Chocolate

May 9, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I love Thursdays, because it is almost the weekend and time to spend with my sweet hubby! But today is an especially sweet Thursday because a fellow VA sent me a Sweet Surprise! (Are you gettin’ the picture?)

One of my clients was looking for an additional Virtual Assistant and I recommended a fellow VA that had the specific skills my client was looking for. It proved to be a perfect match and my friend was hired. She was truly grateful and told me that she believed it was a gift from God that she received the job. I was so thrilled for her and her business and the fact that we would be working on some projects together.

Well, today FedEx pulled into my driveway and produced an incredible box of Ghirardellia chocolates!! It was a thank you gift from my fellow VA and I was completed shocked and excited!

Giving and serving others is what we are called to do in this world. It was my pleasure to recommend her. A network group that I belong to says, “Give First…Share Always.” This is a great motto to live by and you might just get chocolate in return!!

Take care of the most important client you have – You.

May 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As a home-based business owner it takes all my energy to keep up with my current client’s needs, to search for new clients and keep up with the ever-changing technology I need to support my clients. As those of you know who work from home for others, this is sometimes exhausting to keep up. I basically work longer hours in my home office than I would in a traditional office, but that’s the price you pay for making your dream of business ownership come try.

The problem I have detected is that I don’t treat my business as a client and I allow my operational needs to get pushed to the back of the pile. I give my clients the best of me in supporting their needs, but then my accounting stacks up for a couple of months before I post it. Well…no more! I pride myself on being organized and efficient, which I am for my clients, but starting now, I’m going to take care of that one client that will always be there, pushing and supporting me through the ups and downs…my own business. A big factor in starting my own business was that I would never fire myself. So, I have to take care of it just like I do all the other very important clients I have.

Do you giveYour business the same great service you give your other clients? It doesn’t matter what field you are in. Maybe you are a busy sales professional and you’re great at selling, but terrible at the paperwork and follow-up. To support your business you might take a look at hiring an assistant to do those administrative tasks. Why not hire a Virtual Assistant? It could prove to be a great strategy for the continued growth of your business.