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Reading Clients’ Minds
Sometimes I might as well be having the following conversation with a client when it comes to their projects.
Client – I need you to find someone to build me a fence.
Me – Where?
Client – Out around my property.
Me – Do you have a lot layout/dimensions of where you want the fence?
Client – Um, I’m not sure exactly where I want it yet.
Me – OK, moving on…What’s the fence for?
Client – Why does it matter?
Me – Um, well, is it going to be a decorative one, a tall one to keep stuff out, for livestock, chickens, kids, etc.?
Client – Oh, I just want something around the perimeter to define my property.
Me – OK, so, chain link/hurricane fencing, barbed wire, chicken wire, picket, privacy, split rail, stone, brick…???
Yeah, that conversation could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. Seriously, clients and potential clients, KNOW what you want when you ask your VA to do something for you – and SHARE that information with him/her. Don’t give just half the information. If you KNOW you’re going to want a 4″ natural stone fence, pass that information on. It’s very costly for YOU (and frustrating to us) when we have to drag it out of you and end up on a snipe hunt!
Services for QuickBooks 2007 to be Discontinued
After May 31, 2010 many of the services for QuickBooks 2007 will be discontinued by Intuit. Affected services for QuickBooks 2007 will be: Assisted Payroll, Basic Payroll, Enhanced Payroll, Standard Payroll, Employee Organizer, Merchant Service, Billing Solution (formerly QuickBooks Online Billing), QuickBooks Email, Bill Pay, Online Banking, Credit Card Download, Technical Support Plans and Services. If you are using any of these services and want to continue, you will need to upgrade.
HTML Editor on a Budget
If you do minor editing of your clients’ web pages, html ezines/newsletters or like to tweak the coding in wordpress blog posts & pages but are on a budget, you may only be able to drool over Dreamweaver. Many people don’t know there are options out there other than hand coding in Notepad. Have you seen any of the products from Coffee Cup? I’ve used some of their products and have found them to be easy to work in and far less complicated than Dreamweaver. And best of all, they have a load of free stuff! And, what you do buy from them is much less expensive than their “name brand” competitors! For instance, as of the writing of this post, their HTML editor software is $49. For those of you who don’t even want to mess with code, they have a Visual Site Designer for $49 also. Of course, this isn’t going to turn you into a stellar web designer, but it can certainly make things a little easier for those of us who are not web designers!
Off-Site Backup Solution for QuickBooks
I was researching something earlier and ran across an interesting idea for backing up your QuickBooks file.
Set your QuickBooks to automatically backup every time you close it (make sure you’re using the data verification!!) and set it to save in your DropBox folder!
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner, as I use DropBox and LOVE it! The free version comes with 2 MB of storage space, but honestly, I’m not anywhere even close to that right now (only using about 6% of my space).
Facebook Tagging for Business
Social Media Explorer recently wrote an excellent article about the new Facebook tagging feature and using it for business. Here’s a quick excerpt:
“For a business, this can allow you to stay more top of mind with your friends or fans. When you tag someone, they receive a notification you’ve done so and, thus, come see what you tagged them in. This is potentially very powerful for businesses. As the administrator of a fan page, when you tag someone in a wall post or note, it appears to them as if the business or organization tagged them, not the individual logged in to administer the account.”
Here’s a link to the original article. What are your thoughts?
Virtual Events Training
It is always exciting to uncover hot and profitable new niches to tap into for your Virtual Business. Well, Internet Marketing, Ecommerce Support and Social Media Marketing continue to be very in-demand” services niches and will continue to be for quite some time, I am particularly excited about this new niche emerging in the Virtual Event Industry.
I personally believe that the “Virtual Events” field is one of the hottest avenues to building your business right now, especially in this down economy. The statistics are clear: There is currently a significant increase in the number of participants attending virtual events such as webinars, tele-events, live podcasts and web TV shows. However, there is a corresponding decrease in those attending offline events and conferences partly due to the economy, but for a host of other reasons as wells. The reality is that Virtual Events are more cost-effective to deliver and attend, have the capacity to reach a larger audience and can be re-broadcast for continued exposure.
Businesses are keenly interested in running Virtual Events right now, but many lack the knowledge and time to effectively set-up and implement the Virtual Events successfully. As a result, this has presented a very timely and unque opportunity for Virtual Professionals to position themselves as a “Virtual Event Specialist”!
On September 16th, VAClassroom will be hosting a “must attend” event with Craig Cannings and Virtual Event Expert, Michelle Schoen titled,
“Building a Profitable Niche as a Virtual Event Specialist (Even in a Down Economy)!”
They will be exploring the crucial skills required to effectively deliver Virtual Event Set-up and Management services to your clients.
In addition, they will be sharing some exciting news on our upcoming training program: The Virtual Event Specialist Certification.
So, go ahead and click on the below link to watch a short 5 minute video and then sign-up to receive some special bonus information including more details on the upcoming event on September 16th!
Click Here: http://www.vaclassroom.com/virtual-event-specialist/
I Was in Napa Valley getting drunk over the weekend?! Really?!
I just had a conversation with a client who said she was happy to see that I was back from Napa Valley safely. I was confused and told her I hadn’t gone to Napa Valley. She said she thought she read on her Facebook page that I’d gone to Napa Valley and drank too much this weekend…and she was wondering why I went to Napa Valley for the weekend when I live in South Carolina!
Just goes to show that your clients, potential clients and colleagues ARE watching – but sometimes they are watching someone else! What if that client was totally put-off by the thought that I really was out boozing it up in Napa? What if that ONE message (that I didn’t even post) made them decide to cut me loose as their assistant because of what they THOUGHT I was doing because she was “skimming” her social network updates?
I’m glad she and I were able to have a laugh about this one, but it could have turned out differently. Scary.
Have you ever had something like that happen to you?
Alternate Office Locations and Living Life
There has been some conversation recently in my circle about “why I love my life”. Here are some of the reasons I love doing what I do.
I can work from my satellite office (deck) when the weather’s nice (like this morning) or the kids want to swim, auxiliary offices (kitchen table & couch) when I need to work but not necessarily without distraction, and my headquarters (upstairs office w/ desk, desktop computer, fax, scanner, laser printer, the whole 9 yards) when I really need to get down to business! And let’s not forget my alternate locations at my kid’s school, the library, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Books-a-Million and my father-in-law’s house in another state just to name a few! (Gotta love wi-fi!)
I can take time “away” to volunteer for the PTO/PTA, watch TV with my husband, go to my kid’s soccer game/practice, run errands, go to a doctor/dentist visit or just sit and play with my kids without having to ask for time off.
I get to do all this while helping other entrepreneurs be able to take the same time “away” to live THEIR lives without worrying about THEIR businesses. How great is that!?
Tweeting “For” a Client
I ran across this video on the VAclassroom blog today, and I thought it addresses tweeting for clients very well. It also doesn’t hurt that I also agree with the philosophy and guidelines he discusses in the video!
Twitter Verified Accounts
You may or may not have noticed that some of your favorite Twitter Celebrities have a nifty new icon on their profiles that “verifies” that are the real deal.
How to identify a verified account:
* The ‘Verified Account’ badge will appear in the top-right portion of a user’s profile page just above the name, location and bio.
* It will always have a badge followed by the words ‘Verified Account’. (This is clickable and as of this writing it points to http://twitter.com/help/verified)
* If the verified account badge appears anywhere else on a user’s profile page (e.g. in the avatar or the background) it is not a verified account
* The verified account badge will also appear next to usernames in the Find People section
* The verified account badge will have the same color as shown above even if users customize the background of their profile page or change the color in the sidebar
* See what a verified account looks like!
More information about Verified Accounts.
