Sorry I have been missing in action … I can’t believe how busy I have gotten … trying to keep up has become insane!! In the past few months, I have added 4 Associates to my Multi-VA Business and I have taken on the role of VAinsider President at VAnetworking.com . All this while trying to find a way to keep up with all the social marketing that is out there.

Between Facebook, twitter, blogging and all the other social media markets and networks, it really is difficult to keep up, but I am determined to do it. I am going to try a lot harder to keep up with my blog and to keep up with all this social marketing!!

I am finding the most difficulty with twittering … I want my tweets to be informative and more than just … gone to eat dinner with my hubby … but I find it hard to know what my followers will find interesting. If anyone has any links with respect to twitter and how to know what to twitter about, I would love to know them.

I attended a great seminar the other night at vanetworking.com on facebook and how to use it for business so I set up a fan page. It is still a work in progress, but then again, like I said … I really need to figure all this social marketing out or I am afraid I will be left in the dust!!

I have been noticing lately that I can’t seem to find enough hours in the day. Soon I will need to “practice what I preach” and reach out for some assistance of my own. Quickly I have realized why so many of my clients are hesitant.

Surely no one will be able to do as good a job as I can?

Where will I ever find someone that will care as much as I do?

As Virtual Assistants, we ask our clients to take a “leap of faith” and trust that we can do as good (if not better - wink! wink!) a job as they can. We also tell our clients that we do care that we are willing to help them in their business and to allow them time to grow their business. But do we really take the time to do these things?

What “value-added” services are you offering to your clients? Are you going the extra mile to service your clients and truly allow them to grow their business? Do you offer tips and suggestions to make things easier for them?

Now that my business has grown and I am looking for someone to begin outsourcing some of my tasks to, this is the type of person I am looking for. Someone who is a self-starter and takes initiative. Even more importantly in knowing what I am looking for, it is a reminder that I need to work harder at being that person for my clients.

I have grown my business a great deal through networking. As Virtual Assistants and business owners, many of us are turning to on-line networking as an alternative to face to face networking. However, many of us are forgetting one key thing when we are networking … stop talking about yourself!!

I know that seems an odd thing to say since networking is all about talking about what you do and attracting clients so I think it is important that I clarify that remark.

When we are networking, we need to stop being selfish and thinking about ourselves … when you start taking the perspective of thinking about the person listening to you, it is amazing the change in the results you will see from your networking efforts.

Instead of talking about the services your provide or the products you sell, take the time to talk about how your products or services help others. Let me explain …

When I first started networking, my elevator speech always consisted of a laundry list of services I provided for my clients, but now my elevator speech has some very different elements:

Element #1 - Tell a Story
Instead of saying “I provide administrative assistance including such things as letter writing, formatting and editing, website updates, bookkeeping and database creation and management”, say “I work with construction companies assisting them by setting up and maintaining their bookkeeping systems and managing their projects to ensure that deadlines are always met and not forgotten”. By telling a story you give your clients a face and an image and the people listening to you start to think of people they know that are in a similar situation.

Element #2 - Provide Specific Examples
The next thing you should do is give a solid example. Instead of just saying “I work with construction companies assisting them by setting up and maintaining their bookkeeping systems and managing their projects to ensure that deadlines are always met and not forgotten” … add the following … “For example, last week I worked with an owner of a construction company whose wife was working to assist him even though she had a full-time job of her own. She was coming home after work and spending great deals of time attempting to assist her husband, although bookkeeping and project management were not her strong suits.”

Element #3 - Don’t Forget to Ask for the Referral
The biggest mistake we make when networking is forgetting to ask for the referral. Following our example, a wonderful conclusion to this elevator speech would be, “So if you know of anyone whose wife is helping them in business and hating every minute of it, please give them my name and number and ask them to call me.”

When we describe our clients very specifically to others it is amazing the results. People are more likely to start thinking of names when they have something specific to look for then when you simply state small business owners.

I’m sure that just by implementing these three elements, remembering to answer the almighty question “why do I care … what’s in it for me” and stop being so selfish, you will see some awesome results from your networking. When you do, I would love to hear about them!!

I finally feel like I am back and I ready to take on the world (so to speak)!! After talking to a friend, I decided that it was time to start “practising what I preach”. In the last month, my business has grown so much that I find myself just working through the work again and forgetting about my business. If I keep up this pace, I am afraid that I will quickly fall into old habits so I decided it was time to do something about it. So I thought I would share with you some of the things I did to get back to structure and back to building a thriving business.

The first thing I did was to take a really close look at my goals again and to break them down as far as I could into manageable chunks. Part of doing this was reviewing my long term goals and coming up with a plan to get there. Even more importantly I decided that I needed an “incentive”!! My incentive is to reward myself with a new software program that I have been wanting to purchase. So first I set a time line and a set of goals … then I took a picture of that software program and put it on my bulletin board. Now every time I look at that picture I am reminded of the goals that I am trying to achieve and the incentive to work harder is there!!

The second thing I did was to review my schedule and rework it to what now makes sense for my business. See this was the thing I was forgetting about … I set my schedule over a year ago and a lot of what worked then was no longer working in my business now. In doing this I realized that although setting a schedule is a good first step, the fact I hadn’t been following it was a reminder that a schedule is only good if it is followed!!! My productivity has increased immensely since I have started following this schedule again.

The last and final thing I did was to start using “to do” lists again. I quickly realized that without a good to do list, things were “falling through the cracks” and not getting done. Even more importantly, I took the time to prioritize my list and got back to my system of color coding the work … yellow highlighted items must be accomplished today, blue items come immediately after the yellow items are attended to and the pink items are things that I would like to do, but timing is not crucial. Then I assigned a number to each item within the color coding so I would know in what order they would be completed.

Just getting back to this structure has made me feel so much better about not only my business, but also about myself. I am ready to take my business to the next level and to truly set some goals to make this happen. Without having these three things in place, I truly believe that this would not be possible!!

Many people look at January 1st as not only the start of a new year, but also as a start of other things … a new outlook, a new project, a new idea …

Others view August/September as not only the start of a new school year, but the start of other things.

Without meaning to, I “started” over this September. I was speaking with the coach that is in my business networking group and she asked me when the last time I looked at my business plan was. I told her that the last time I reviewed it was when I wrote it 2 and a half years ago. She encouraged me to have a look at this plan and to “make some changes”. See when we start our business we spend a lot of time planning what our business will look like and how it will work, but once our business is actually started, we forget to take the time to see if it looks like what we had first pictured.

I am not saying that it is wrong if our business isn’t exactly as we plan (as we all know businesses evolve and change), but there is a lot to be said for taking the time to review our plans and “freshen them up”.

We don’t need it to be the start of a new school year or the start of a calendar or fiscal year. Today is just as good a day as any to decide that it is time to “start over”. Give ourselves that chance to try a new project, review our business as it is and determine if there are changes that might grow our business …

I have spent a lot of time since that conversation with that coach doing just that and I have been amazed at the results. Without even trying, my business is moving forward and growing … some of those ideas that were in my head have been committed to paper and I am striving to make them happen!!

So my question to you is this … what are you waiting for? Why not “start over” today and try something new with your business? You might be amazed with the results!! Then take some time to let me know what you tried and how it worked out as I would love to share in your success with you!!

I keep meaning to get back here and write a post and then life seems to happen and it stops me from getting here …

Isn’t that the way if seems to go with everything though? The key is to not let it get in the way. YEAH RIGHT!!

I am a huge advocate of planning and scheduling, but what I struggle with is sticking to that schedule. See I set aside time each week for blogging, but for some reason blogging seems to get shuffled to the backburner, which is funny since it is the thing I love to do the most. I keep telling myself that having a schedule is the easy part … sticking to it - not so easy. So what am I going to do to make sure that this happens?

FIRST STEP - PRIORITIZE
My new schedule is going to work along with my priorities. First and foremost I need to schedule in the client time as this seems to be the thing that is pushing everything else aside. The next thing are those things that I need to do for my business such as blogging, marketing, etc.. Finally I will schedule in time for the fun things for business such as reading forums, learning a new skill, etc..

SECOND STEP - BE HONEST WITH MYSELF
I think my biggest problem is that I was trying to be wonder woman. I was giving myself too many things to do in a week and in a day. I needed to take some time and really look at a typical day for me. I know that dragging myself into the office before 9am isn’t probably likely with two young children that need to get ready for school. I also know that nights and weekends are hard too as the demands of my family are taking precedent over my business. So instead of scheduling in working time then, if I happen to find a few extra minutes I am going to call it a “bonus”!!

THIRD STEP - MAKE IT VISUAL TO REMIND MYSELF
My schedule used to be in my head … now I have written it out and color coded it on a nice excel spreadsheet. Finally I printed it out and put it on my bulletin board. It isn’t there to tell me what I can and can’t do and at what time, but more as a reminder of what I hope to accomplish in a day.

FOURTH STEP - DON’T FORGET ABOUT ME TIME
Finally and probably most importantly, I was forgetting about me. I was so busy worrying about my clients and my family that I forgot that it’s okay to take some time and watch my favourite TV show or take a walk with the neighbourhood girls!! Instead of feeling guilty for indulging in these pleasures, I was thinking that I was straying away from my schedule!!

So one of my priorities will be to indulge in my pleasure of blogging … by telling myself it’s okay to have this time to myself, I am hoping I will be “killing two birds with one stone” and also still helping others that struggle too with the wonderful world of entrepreneurship!!

So for those of you that follow my blog, you know that I have been in a funk lately and was able to turn it around by setting new goals. At the same point I realized that I had been working too hard on my business (if that is even possible), but trying to move it in a direction that I really didn’t want to head. More importantly I was not getting the results I needed from those efforts. I realized it was time to start moving in a different direction and find a new focus!! Well …. you know the old saying “be careful what you wish for!!” …

I am happy to say that although my business looks nothing like I thought it would one year ago, it is a business that I am very proud of today. When I looked at my goals and reviewed what I really wanted (instead of what others expected) I was able to create a new picture for my business and the greatest thing is that picture is actually coming to fruition!!

In the last week I have signed 2 new clients I absolutely love and I have gained 2 new coaching clients. I realized that I absolutely love coaching and this is a focus that I want to work with in the next little while and an area of my business to grow. I think the key to that success has been letting go of what I perceived that everyone else expected from me and getting back to what I wanted in a business!! I lost the attitude that I had to be someone that others wanted me to be and realized I could just be me again!!

I look forward to each and every day and can’t wait to get into my office again … it is a new found love for both my business and my clients.

So the reason for this post is to allow you, my readers, to realize that you and only you can determine what your business goals are and what your vision for your business is!! As entrepreneurs we need to stop looking at everyone else and doing what others are doing or what we think others expect from us. I believe that once you create your own dream and vision you will be excited with the results!!

This is so true in any business isn’t it? How many times have you dealt with someone in a bad mood and thought … “I can’t wait to talk to them again!!” …. NOT!! As business owners, it is important to remember that we are our business … what we say, how we say it, what we do and how we act are key!!

Even on the days when we are at our worst, it is important to project a great attitude. Here are a few tips for helping out on the days when we aren’t feeling our best!!

SMILE - even when you aren’t feeling your best, a smile shows others that things are great. Even smiling when talking on the phone will be reflected in your voice.

THINK - think about the best outcome a situation can have and go into the situation concentrating on that outcome … it’s called the power of positive thinking and believe it or not it works!!

SURROUND YOURSELF - with positive people!! On a bad day call up a friend and ask them to help you gain a positive attitude. Who better to pick you up then one of your supporters and cheerleaders!!

TREAT YOURSELF - to something you love to do. Immersing yourself in a hobby or pasttime that you enjoy is sure to give yourself a better attitude!!

Perhaps the most important thing to remember though as a business owner … if you know that you are having a bad day and will project a bad attitude, that may be the perfect day to avoid people (including in person, by phone and by email)!! Save that for when your attitude has improved!!

As I posted last week, I was in a funk and realized the reason for that funk is that I had reached all my goals and had not set new ones. Once I posted that post, I received several emails and private messages from friends that they too were experiencing the same thing. In particular, my co-author Sally and I both realized we were “funking” together. So, we spent some time the other day reviewing our old goals and setting new ones. We got to pat ourselves on the back for reaching goals that seemed like “big dreams” a year ago.

Now that I have those new goals I am happy to say that I truly feel like I am back and raring to go!! I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten to “practice what I preach” so to say. So many times I have said … without a vision how do you know where you are going!! No wonder I was lost and didn’t know where to turn.

In celebration of Sally and I getting our groove back we are offering a special on our book Managing Your Thriving Business for Success. If you enter the code word: productive you will receive $10 off the cost of the book! If you are in a funk or have lost your groove we hope you will join us in getting your groove back and let us know about your light bulb moments.

For the next 10 days we will be offering this $10 discount. Go to http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com/managing and enter the code: productive to start getting your groove back today!

Well today some of my stress was released in the form of a little red sign that says “SOLD”. It is amazing the ways that we hold our stresses and I realized that this stress was effecting a number of areas in my life. I was exhausted, unable to concentrate and taking it out on those around me. One of my clients pointed out to me that I wasn’t my usual cheerful self.

As business owners it is very important that we try our hardest to not let our stresses effect our business - I know easier said than done. When we allow things to effect our business, it is hard to recover from the repercussions. Luckily the ways that I let this effect my business probably will not have a lasting effect (especially if I handle it right over the next few months), but I am still left to wonder what if …

What if I had followed up better with potential clients ….
What if I had spent some more time on social networking ….
What if I had gone to that networking event that I passed on ….

So rather than linger on the what ifs, I am going to turn them into new goals for my business …

I will work on better follow up and follow up with each new lead within 48 hours!
I will try to post at least 3 times on my blog and visit the forums at least weekly!
I will attend at least one extra networking event monthly outside the events I am already attending!

As business owners it is important that we know our faults and recognize when we make mistakes, but even more importantly we must take those mistakes and make them into lessons. Once we realize how not to make the same mistakes again, we will be on the road to creating a thriving business!!