If you are a night owl entrepreneur, you have spent your day meeting with clients, meeting vendors, managing staff, schedules, and budgets.
How much time does that take? Now that it is nearing midnight, how much more will you get done? Wouldn't you rather be sleeping? Why not bring on a Virtual Assistant to get as many of those tasks completed as possible? Technology has advanced so far that you can have help in a different state or even country.
A Virtual Assistant can access your email and can collaborate with you on projects all online. How are your leads? Have you followed up with them as diligently as you should? Do you use IContact or Constant Contact or Aweber or OneShoppingCart? Do you publish an e-newsletter? All of these tasks are items that a Virtual Assistant can do.
It is all about the technology which can be very daunting, but not to a Virtual Assistant. Talk to one. If they don't know about a particular piece of software they will research it and report on its positives and negatives.
Take care,
Gretchen Koehler-Swaney
Prairie Business Partners LLC
http://www.prairiebusinesspartners.com/
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
EVER WONDER . . . WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?
Have you ever jotted down every single thing that you did in a day and feel overwhelmed because of how many things you need to accomplish in just one day? What are you doing that is taking up so much of your personal or business time? Could someone else help you get these jobs done? For example, how much time did you spend for that “quick phone call with Sally?” I have wondered about these same questions in my own mind several times, and I decided to document every single thing I did for three days straight. The results were amazing and eye opening. It made me realize HOW MUCH TIME WAS WASTED –and/or—TASKS THAT I COULD DELEGATE TO SOMEONE ELSE.
When I told family and friends that I had started my own Virtual Assistant business, they would all comment with envy in their voice, “Wow, you’re so lucky work from home. You must have all the time in the world to get things done. I sure wish I was able to work from home!” Little do they know that working from home is just as hard as working out of the home in a business setting, if not more difficult.
Family and friends would continually call me throughout the day expecting me to have time to talk to them. I would have to explain to them that I had work to do and they would ask me, “What work?” I told them that I am marketing my business and working out the kinks and I could tell that they didn’t understand. I would tell them that I could call them back later in the evening, after my daughter went to bed.
I must admit that when first starting out, it was hard to stay focused because I would look around my office space and outside of the four walls and see ALL KINDS OF OTHER THINGS that I could be doing “just for a minute or two.” Well, ONE HOUR LATER I would still be “straightening up” and found it to be never ending! I knew I couldn’t let this continue, so I began timing myself on certain tasks and would schedule my day to include one or two 5‑minute breaks to just get up from my desk and stretch, and then a 20‑minute break for lunch. I ended up closing my office door so that I couldn’t see the rest of my house. What a difference that made!
So, if you find yourself in the position that I was in when working at home or in the office, time yourself for every task you do for a few days (both business and personal) and start thinking about the changes you could make. Once you see YOUR amazing results, why not give a VIRTUAL ASSISTANT ("VA") a call? The VA can help you prioritize your tasks, provide you some relief, and will be very cost effective for your business. Professional VAs have fine tuned their time management skills and bill you only for “actual minutes/hours worked” (no idle time like breaks or lunch), and you don’t have to worry about office equipment or furniture, health & dental benefits, sick or vacation pay, etc. When you work with a VA, they are your partner. YOUR SUCCESS = THEIR SUCCESS
When I told family and friends that I had started my own Virtual Assistant business, they would all comment with envy in their voice, “Wow, you’re so lucky work from home. You must have all the time in the world to get things done. I sure wish I was able to work from home!” Little do they know that working from home is just as hard as working out of the home in a business setting, if not more difficult.
Family and friends would continually call me throughout the day expecting me to have time to talk to them. I would have to explain to them that I had work to do and they would ask me, “What work?” I told them that I am marketing my business and working out the kinks and I could tell that they didn’t understand. I would tell them that I could call them back later in the evening, after my daughter went to bed.
I must admit that when first starting out, it was hard to stay focused because I would look around my office space and outside of the four walls and see ALL KINDS OF OTHER THINGS that I could be doing “just for a minute or two.” Well, ONE HOUR LATER I would still be “straightening up” and found it to be never ending! I knew I couldn’t let this continue, so I began timing myself on certain tasks and would schedule my day to include one or two 5‑minute breaks to just get up from my desk and stretch, and then a 20‑minute break for lunch. I ended up closing my office door so that I couldn’t see the rest of my house. What a difference that made!
So, if you find yourself in the position that I was in when working at home or in the office, time yourself for every task you do for a few days (both business and personal) and start thinking about the changes you could make. Once you see YOUR amazing results, why not give a VIRTUAL ASSISTANT ("VA") a call? The VA can help you prioritize your tasks, provide you some relief, and will be very cost effective for your business. Professional VAs have fine tuned their time management skills and bill you only for “actual minutes/hours worked” (no idle time like breaks or lunch), and you don’t have to worry about office equipment or furniture, health & dental benefits, sick or vacation pay, etc. When you work with a VA, they are your partner. YOUR SUCCESS = THEIR SUCCESS
Wisconsin Virtual Assistant On-Call 24/7
Ever remember a proposal deadline for today but it is 10:30 PM? There are Virtual Assistants who are on-call to help you out in a pinch.
Virtual Assistants are encouraged to identify a niche and new niches are coming up every day. From Real Estate, to Medical Encoding, to Construction, to Coaches and so many more. There are also VAs who strictly do web design and development. VAs are here to help and there are so many options now that there is no need for you to be out in the cold the next time you have an off-hour deadline.
Do your homework and make sure you have resources such as 24/7 on-call Virtual Assistants for when you go out of town, or out of the country traveling on business so you are still connected even when you are away. Book them early so they can connect with your current VA as they will work together for you, not in competition.
Take care,
Gretchen Koehler-Swaney
Prairie Business Partners LLC
www.prairiebusinesspartners.com
Virtual Assistants are encouraged to identify a niche and new niches are coming up every day. From Real Estate, to Medical Encoding, to Construction, to Coaches and so many more. There are also VAs who strictly do web design and development. VAs are here to help and there are so many options now that there is no need for you to be out in the cold the next time you have an off-hour deadline.
Do your homework and make sure you have resources such as 24/7 on-call Virtual Assistants for when you go out of town, or out of the country traveling on business so you are still connected even when you are away. Book them early so they can connect with your current VA as they will work together for you, not in competition.
Take care,
Gretchen Koehler-Swaney
Prairie Business Partners LLC
www.prairiebusinesspartners.com
Wisconsin Virtual Assistant Getting all You Can from Networking
Networking is the lifeblood of entrepreneurs especially Virtual Assistants and this even applies with online networking and one great way to get all you can out of your networking is to set some ground rules first. Ensure everyone in the networking group follows the ground rules and everyone will get more out of the networking event. Here are the rules:
1. Give your elevator speech (Name, company, and what you do)
2. Relay what you need now. Maybe you need a service, a newsletter, better business cards
3. What you will be buying in the next month or couple of months.
To put structure around your networking helps you organize your thoughts, helps others help you by being able to better visualize your needs. Now that the secret is out: to structure your networking discussions, you can come up with more refined questions and in your own networking events and situatios. I will be organizing my own networking event and will be setting these ground rules.
Take care,
Gretchen Koehler-Swaney
Prairie Business Partners LLC
www.prairiebusinesspartners.com
1. Give your elevator speech (Name, company, and what you do)
2. Relay what you need now. Maybe you need a service, a newsletter, better business cards
3. What you will be buying in the next month or couple of months.
To put structure around your networking helps you organize your thoughts, helps others help you by being able to better visualize your needs. Now that the secret is out: to structure your networking discussions, you can come up with more refined questions and in your own networking events and situatios. I will be organizing my own networking event and will be setting these ground rules.
Take care,
Gretchen Koehler-Swaney
Prairie Business Partners LLC
www.prairiebusinesspartners.com
Monday, October 22, 2007
Welcome Lori McGinnis--New Virtual Assistant Directory Member!
Lori McGinnis is a transaction management specialist and owner of Virtual Partners Plus, LLC. Lori manages the many details and time sensitive documents from contract to closing. Lori also assists Realtors and small business professionals alike with various marketing campaigns and ongoing support.
Submit an RFP to Lori or to all our Wisconsin Virtual Assistants
Submit an RFP to Lori or to all our Wisconsin Virtual Assistants
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