Archive for the ‘Work at Home’ Category

Kathy's family at the Beach

This week, I returned from two weeks away on vacation.  We had a fabulous time in New England at Old Orchard Beach and I was able to check some emails and do a bit of needed work, but my preparations before I left and my team support while gone really made it easy to be away from the office.

Of course we returned at a very busy time – not only is it the end of the month (books and billing due), but the kids are still home and needed a few more things before starting school on Sept 2nd AND add to this one of the worst heat waves I have ever experienced in Nova Scotia.

Today the temps got up near 34 C (about 88 F) and with our lovely maritime humidity it felt like 41 C (104 F).  I am not very good with high temperatures like this – not at all.  So my productivity this week has been less than my norm and that only adds to the cranky-i-ness.

We are all human and have issues at times.  Today mine was the heat. Oh, the horrible heat of the last few days.  Earlier this summer I told my husband (during another mini heat wave) that I had had enough and was going to buy a portable air conditioner for my office.  Of course, it was a hard sell, that type of purchase, when in all honesty I might only need it a few weeks (even days) every year. Yet the arguments against it were coming from someone who works day in and out in a nicely air conditioned office building.  So we decided it was not something we would pursue.

Yesterday, however, was my breaking point. We all have them, and mine was when I started sweating in places I did not know that it was possible to do. The kids were all cranky and hot, I was cranky and hot and nothing (not even a quick trip down the road to the neighbourhood beach) could keep my mind off the uncomfortableness of it all. Needless to say I was not very productive at all.  I even tried working late at night, but the heat just wouldn’t go away.

As a small business owner, my work is the business and if I cannot work then not too much gets done. And this heat wave is to continue until Friday night when we will probably get hit by Hurricane Earl.

This morning when I got up at 7 and the day was already stifling, I made my executive decision. Right after walking the dog, and checking some online availability, I headed out – telling the kids I would be back in while.

I went right to my local Canadian Tire store (think Lowe’s, but even better) and found what I was after – the tool to make me a productivity machine!   I also got the extra materials I needed to rig up something to make it work properly and back home I went to spend the next 3 hours on setup.  (Or should I say sweat up)

The end result was absolutely what I needed.  Sometimes you just have to go for it and take the steps needed to make everything work properly.  And that is exactly what I did.  I took a picture and emailed it to my husband at his work.  His response?

“You look happier in this picture than you did on our wedding day.” (Absolutely not true, but I was pretty happy).

You can see for yourself my level of happiness!

The lesson for other Work at Home and Small Business Owners – Staying productive is Key.  Always be looking to implement systems or use tools that will help run your business efficiently and keep you productive. And, these tools/systems may not always be standard to everyone.

PS. Hubby was quite okay in the end with my purchase – partly because by the time he made it home from work, the humidex was setting records all over the province and neighbouring ones as well.  My task for tomorrow?  Figuring out how to keep everyone from crowding in my office to stay cool! :-)

Technorati Tags: efficient business, home office, productive at work, productivity, Small business

Paul McCartney is playing in Halifax this Saturday, his only show in Canada too! He’ll be playing on the Halifax Common – a green space meant to be open to share for use by all residents and I believe they are expecting 60,000 people.

Anyhow, in my attempt to win tickets for my brother-in-law, I have been listening to News95.7 and the Beatles & Paul McCartney have been playing over and over in my head. I won’t describe to you the horror I put so many people through today as I sang my song (made up by me) to the listeners of the show -  you had to go on air and sing to be in the draw to win.

That’s my segue to, the title of my blog post today! I chose this song to showcase my social media experience this past week to my readers. Social media is more than a marketing channel/tool, it is also about networking and connecting with others.

Last Friday I had a client run into some issues with her Facebook fanpage. I was asked to figure out why it wasn’t working properly. After much searching, I found myself stumped. So… I started putting out my ‘feelers’ to see if anyone else could help figure it out. I used Twitter, facebook and some blogs all weekend and through until yesterday.

Finally this morning, 5 days later, I found the answer with a little help from a friend of sorts; but many ‘friends’ were trying to help me figure it out. These were not people I have ever met, yet they were attempting to help me just the same.

What was in it for them, you might ask? Nothing.  So why would they bother? Simple, to help out a ‘friend’ who happens to be someone they have never met and probably never will. Being helpful is the only reason why any of these people made contact with me. Connecting and networking… that’s all it was about and I am so grateful they took the time to help me, and ultimately my client.

The next time you are talking about social media and Twitter and Facebook and don’t seem to get it all… try thinking of it as the water cooler or staffroom in your office. When you are sitting at your office stumped on a problem, where do you turn? To your co-workers in the office… well, social media works in the same way sometimes; the only difference being that the ‘office’ of each party involved most likely spans a great distance and they may never meet face to face.

The ‘bug’ was noticed by Salman Ansari, with  Involver .   Salman, I really appreciate your help. It was a simple solution, but one that took an extra set of eyes!  Involver is a company that has some great Facebook Applications for Pages – definitely check them out! I use them with many of my clients. Salman, you also helped out someone else having the same problem, she contacted me after seeing the posts, and once I found the fix, I passed on the info to ehr as well!

Thanks to everyone else  (I hope I do not forget anyone) who helped by retweeting my posts or commenting back on a blog or sending me a message on Facebook or Twitter.  I am grateful for the time you gave to me and my problem.

Melissa Ward Dawn Riley Net Weave Mari Smith

Darlene Victoria Cindy Bruce Green Lasagna

Technorati Tags: facebook, networking, Social Media, thanks, virtual assistant

As many of you know I have been doing some additional training in order to become “certified” as a Social Media Specialist – my kids actually refer to the word “certified” in a  much different manner. “Oh there’s Mom, on that Twitter thing” … anyhow, the point of my post today is that many people are jumping into Social Media, even if only to try it out, as truly it may not work for all types of business and people.

If you are looking to do this type of work and want to learn more or even get into social media for yourself , then you may want to try out VAclassroom’s Social Media course .

The course takes you through 8 modules and covers Strategy and Planning, Profile Management, Marketing on Twitter, Facebook, Video and other Social Media channels.  Reporting and Online Reputation management is also covered in the course. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: facebook, Marketing, Small business, Social Media, social networking, training, twitter, virtual assistant

I have been doing a lot of networking in the past few months.  As a new business owner, it’s a real good way to get the word out about your business and services, especially to the local business community.  I also do quite a bit of online networking, and I must say both have paid off.

So far I have landed one client from online networking, one through Twitter, and participated in a  very interesting “Looking to Hire a VA process” also through Twitter. Local networking has seen more understanding and interest spread about virtual assistants – and I have also landed a client through word of mouth/referrals.  Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: elevator speech, home office, networking, Nova Scotia, starting business, virtual assistant

Many fellow Virtual Assistants probably run into this same situation; I have several times lately while networking and discussing my line of work with others.

Recently, when talking to someone about how she can investigate becoming a virtual assistant (VA) herself, I referred her to the online group, VAnetworking.  Once she had a chance to look it over, we talked – and she told me she didn’t understand why I would belong to it.

My answer was simple… support!  Then I added to it; access to loads of information, meeting other VAs, and learning tips and tricks from them during the weekly networking sessions were a few of the first things out of my mouth. After giving some specific examples, she understood better my reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: home office, networking, starting business, VAnetworking, virtual assistant