In My Virtual World

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!!!

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.

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!

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!!

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.

Well, I fell like I haven’t been on the computer for a week.  Actually, that’s true because I had Gall Bladder surgery last week and closed my “virtual doors” for the week.  You know when you have a home-based business it is very hard to close those doors and not go into the office for just a “minute.”  Now I won’t say that I didn’t wobble in and look at my emails on Friday and Saturday, but I was very good and didn’t respond to anything and certainly didn’t do any work.  There is just no telling what crazy things my brain would have sent through my fingers!!!  Yikes!!

Anyway, I’m back in the office today.  Catching up on emails, talking to some of my clients and just getting back in the groove. 

This is just another example of how a home-based business can accomodate you in just about any situation.  If I were working in a traditional office, I would still be on sick leave, until the doctor releases me in a couple of weeks.  However, being in a virtual office, in my Big Orange shorts, (I live in Tennessee) and my Kenny Chesney t-shirt (he’s my 2nd cousin) and my house shoes, nobody cares what I look like and if I have to take a few minutes to rest during the day.  As long as I get the job done for my clients in an efficient and effective manner, then everyone is happy.

Have you thought about working from home?  It is definitely worth the research.  It’s certainly not for everyone, but for me…it’s the BEST!

Yesterday was great!  I basically didn’t start work in my virtual office until about 8 pm.  Yes, PM!!  One of the most compelling reasons I decided to start my business was to be available when my family needed or wanted me to be around.  Well, yesterday, I went to the Zoo with my granddaughter Alyssa and 20 kindergarteners.  I was responsible for keeping up with Alyssa and her friend Shelby, so we became “Zoo Buddies.”  This is us, Alyssa is the blonde and Sheby is the dark haired one.  And I’m the tall one!! 

While riding on the very noisy bus to the zoo, I was thinking, am I crazy??  But no, I had a blast!  Now I’m not the typical person who enjoys a trip to the zoo.  The smell, the heat, but the Knoxville Zoo was incredible.  There were so many great exhibits and animals that I really had a good time.  After a picnic lunch under a great shade tree, we saw, Zebras, Elephants, Tigers, Monkeys and the highlight of the girls day was the “Naked Mole Rats!”  That’s all they talked about.  So we finally found them and although I wasn’t very impressed, they loved them.

So fast forward to 8 pm, when I go into the office and “begin” my day at work.  I worked on a couple of projects for two separate clients and had a conference call with a client in a different time zone.  Great isn’t it?  

Where else can you work these kind of hours?   Consider utilizing the services of a virtual assistant to free your daytime hours and take a zoo trip.  You’ll be glad you did.

As a virtual assistant, I get the opportunity to work with some great clients.  One of them is Cherries For Life.  This is the brain-child of my friend Ingrid Gee and she has come up with a unique way to highlight and recognize outstanding businesses in our city through a radio talk show and an Internet cafe.  You can even listen to the show through Live Audio Streaming.

Tuesday’s are my “cherry” day.  I devote the day to support both Cherries For Life and Cherries Internet Cafe on Tuesdays, with things like calendar management, scheduling guests and keeping all the administrative business of Cherries Corporate working smoothly.  And I will be the host and coordinator of a new show coming to the Cafe, called Sweet Charity.  We will be helping local charities with their fundraising and community awarements.

Go check out Cherries For Life and visit my page A Virtual Business Solution or as Ingrid likes to call me…A Virtual Biz! 

Looking for the “Good Life?”   Cherries For Life serves it up!

Well, I’m celebrating my first year in business this month!!   YeeHaw!!  I have learned so much this past year and made an incredible amount of new friends and business acquaintances.  I have poked around and tried to determine what my “niche” would be.  That’s a pretty common question in the VA world.  What’s your niche?  Well, I didn’t have a clue for the first year.  I just needed to get this business going and I would be whatever “niche” I needed to be to get a paying gig!!

As the sun sets on my first year in business, I finally have it.  My niche is to support online business entrepreneurs with setting up their products and services through online shopping carts, autoresponders, Ezines and Squeeze/Sales pages.  This is an incredible industry.  If you think about it everyone has something to sell, they just don’t know how to sell it.  My business will help them discover how to put it out there and grab some attention. 

I’m still refining and tweaking how I will actually marketing my new niche, but I’m pretty darn excited to have discovered what it is.  As as always, I’ll still be offering great administrative and creative support to clients to allow them to have a few extra hours in each day.

What’s your Niche?

I am a regular member of Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA), www.vanetworking.com.  Actually, I am a member of an elite group called VAinsiders.  VANA is a gathering place on the Web for seasoned professionals, as well as brand new Virtual Assistants.  We share information, ask questions and encourage each other on a daily basis.

Every Monday they recognize a VA who has demonstrated outstanding professionalism on the Web, thus giving them credibility amoung their peers.  This week, I clicked on the link to congratulate the winner and was excitedly surprised to find out it was me!  I was nominated by one of my fellow VAs for this prestigious honor, which makes it even more special and the committee presented me with the award.

I am extremely honored and humbled to be the recipient of the VAccolade Business Entrepreneur Award.  I have now joined the ranks of some incredible Virtual Assistants and will continue to promote our industry throughout the Web.