Technology That Can Really Empower You
As we advance more and more, there are some tools that we just find are more empowering than others. From the computer, to the mobile phone, to twittering to Facebook. These are all tools that empower us in our drive to improve and become more competitive.
Among my favorites is twittering and virtual assisting. Twittering because it puts you in touch with friends, colleagues, relatives, anyone, in real-time. Its a micro-blogging service, or I’d prefer to say tool, that keeps you in touch with no hassles, no formality.
Virtual assisting because it benefits both the virtual assistant and the small business person who decides to hire one. With the advantage of time, which now becomes quite flexible, and each loving what they do, I think it doesn’t get much better than that. Well of course, the computer will always take first place since without it, most of us will be terribly disadvantaged.
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Five Star Executives
Napping is Not Just For Babies
Now I’m no doctor, psychologist, psychiartrist, or any of those fancy professions. I am simply a person who has experienced the rejuvenating power of taking a nap. Not a sleep, but a nap.
Everyone of us at times feel some level of stress at some point in time as we take on our daily activities. Irate customers, over-the-shoulder bosses, or for those with their own businesses, just the fluctuations in the business environment, one thing impacting another, machines that don’t work, all these are things that causes us to feel tense and anxious-stressed.
Well believe me, napping for just 5 minutes relaxes, restores patience, gives a different perspective, motivates and envigorates and of course increases productivity. I find to to be well worth those 5 minutes.
So stop chewing on the lip, biting the nail, grinding your teeth or blowing steam at everyone. Pop into the wash room and take a nap. It WORKS. It really does. Give it a try.
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Five Star Executives
Still Not Getting It Right? Time To Get The Zoho Planner
If you are guilty of being a bad planner, no matter how you think you’ve done it right, it just doesn’t come out right, stop beating yourself on the head. Just get yourself the Zoho online Planner. Trust me, from To-do lists, to taking notes, to uploading images and files and even reminders, the Zoho Planner makes you look good. It makes you organized. Try it by clicking here.
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Five Star Executives
Let the E In Email Represent Effeciency
You know when it comes to communication methods, we see email running in the race with a few. But the thing is, for a small business person, say like a virtual assistant, using email as a means of communication can at times become deficient since so much unanswered email remains in the Inbox, and you keep wondering what on earth do I do with all this stuff.
Well here are a few things that you can do.
1. Auto check can be a bit of a nag, so either shut it off completely, or if you are like me, forgetting all the time, set it to a more convenient spaced time like every half hour.
2. Stop reinventing the wheel 15 times a day. There is Email Templates 5.0 that can be used to accelerate the task of responding to email. The template can be used as the basis for response, but please customize it to suit the person or situation you are dealing with.
3. Stop trying to impress. If you know you are not going to respond to an email after 2 minutes of looking at it, just delete it. The feeling of guilt will still not make you respond two months down the road, so stop cluttering your Inbox. Just get rid of it.
4. Don’t try to be Octavio Pax or Sydney Sheldon. Simple email require simple responses. No point in writing 3 lines when 5 words would do. This is not at all to suggest that grammar, capitalization and proper punctuation should be ignored, or you should write in disrespectful tones. Just give it in a concise way.
For the virtual assistant, time must be spent wisely and efficiency given liberally.
Exchange Files Directly Within Outlook
Do you remember that time when sending files via email was really easy? That was because the attachments used to be quite small. But today when most of what we do is over the Internet, files are larger because its from digital media to rich text documents. But most modern email servers limit file attachments to a certain size. How then do we send these large files.
Well DirectXchange sends these files safely by compressing and splitting them,from within Outlook itself. How does it work? Well if for example you want to send a 60MB CAD file, DirectXchange compresses that file to 20MB and splits the zip archive into 6-10MB per piece, attaching each piece to an email message. When it reaches the recipient, they will receive about six email messages. But if the recipient also has DirectXchange installed, they simply click on one of the messages and instruct DirectXchange to extract, which it will do by finding all the pieces and assembling them into the original archive of 60MB CAD file. How great is that.
So make things easy by downloading and installing DirectXchange.
Its Time To Banish The Email Clutter
Getting rid of email clutter can increase productivity. The thought of all those unanswered emails sitting in your inbox can play on your subconscious and be a constant source of distraction.
Its time to banish the clutter to free your mind and re-energize your spirit.
I have a number of emails accounts for various websites. I have them all forwarded to a gmail account. By the way, gmail is an excellent productivity tool if you haven’t already heard.
Gmail has a few great benefits including, awesome spam filter, free, 2+ GB of storage, search tool to easily recover emails and the archive so that you can easily remove emails from your inbox.
So how do I use gmail to keep organized?
Here are my four easy steps:
- Create labels that work: (keep it simple) For example I use Letters To Answer, Todo, Articles of Interest, Uncategorized.
- Take immediate action: after reading an email take immediate action, delete if necessary or respond if you need to.
- Label and archive: The objective here is to remove the email from your inbox but please do not create clutter in your other folders so label the ones that you really need to get back to and archive.
- Review your archives: Make a habit of reviewing your archives and addressing the things that you need to address so that you do not create clutter there to!
A final note, if you use Outlook you can also set up folders there in a similar manner.
CRG
Article Submitter Review
While article submission isn’t anything shockingly new to the world of SEO, many people STILL don’t do it… and for good reason. It takes so incredibly long to do manually.
I’ll admit, I had tried article submission at one point, but after I finally found a few article directories to submit my articles to, and then after manually copying and pasting my information into the required text boxes on each submission site, I quickly realized that my time could be better spent doing something else.
Then I came across a free program created by Brad Callen and Bryxen Software, Inc. that allows you to automatically submit your articles to hundreds of article directories with a few mouse clicks. Basically all I had to do was input my article criteria into the software, ONCE! Then, the program would automatically fill in all of the required data at each of the submission websites. Pretty incredible if you ask me.
The only part I didn’t understand was why the program is free… but I can’t argue with that I suppose.
The software currently contains around 700 article directories, all free to submit your articles to. It is the most straightforward program that we’ve come across, in that all you need to do is:
1. Input your article details (i.e. title, article body, bio, etc.) into the software
2. Click on the directory you want to submit to
And then the program will automatically fill in your article details. Then, you simply click the submit button and your article is instantly submitted to the directory. Then, you can move to the next directory, go through the list, and by the time you’re finished you’ll have roughly 700 one way links pointing to your website.
I can’t think of an easier way to get links. Of course, if you’re going to get links this quickly, it’s important to submit different variations of your articles, to make things look more natural to the search engines.
You can do this very easily via Article Submitter when you create your project in the beginning.
The software is constantly being updated and their is an incredible community of users established that all work together to make the software better and better, so you know you’re getting great value for the money.
To check out the software, go here:
http://virtexec2.bryxen7.hop.clickbank.net
Not getting anywhere? Here are some tips to gear you up
Have you ever heard the saying, “Time is money”? As a small business owner, that old adage is oh so real, because not only is time money, but we are compelled to spend it wisely if we are to succeed.
Spending time wisely ensures that you are in productive gear, and there is where we all want to be. So here are some tips to get you just where you want to be.
1. Clarify your goals. Unless you are sure and comfortable with your goals, getting there will always be a challenge. Make sure your goals are realistic and well outlined.
2. Plan properly. As with your goals, your plans must be well defined and properly executed. For example, having a virtual assistant relieve you of some of your tasks will mean deciding what tasks, and how often. So ensure that your plans are not confusing.
3. Don’t get caught in the “deer in the headlights” syndrome. If you think you have too much to do but don’t know where to start, a virtual assistant could be the solution.
4. Avoid procrastination. Many times we procrastinate because we lack the skill to do the task, do not enjoy doing the task, or simply tire of doing the task. So its either we do it or get a virtual assistant to do it. But don’t procrastinate.
5. And last, are you burnt out? Take some time out. You will be amazed at what 5 minutes of doing something relaxing can do for you. Its like a rejuvenation pond. So don’t be afraid to take a dip from time to time.
Until next time, remember, time is money, so spend it wisely.
Merlene,
Five Star Executives.
Save time: Let Roboform fill your forms
Are you tired of retyping your name, address, phone contact, email address and all the other information that are required on the Internet?
Well as a Virtual Assistant I have been retyping these information over and over again and wondering if there is any program that can put more joy into my Internet experience. In my desperate search, I found Roboform which is a superb program for entering personal, and even sensitive information by just a click of the mouse.
Roboform is ideal for any user of the Internet, novice or professional, who gets tired of retyping the same thing over and over. Roboform is user friendly, autosaves and autofill all passwords, and works with Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Morzilla on Windows computer.
So don’t rob yourself of the joy in Internet surfing or Internet business. Roboform is useful to me as a virtual assistant and it will definitely be very useful to you. For a free 30 day trial download here.
Merlene
Five Star Executives
How Can You Use Paid Virtual Hours?
If you are anything like some of my clients, you are utilizing retainers with your virtual assistants. For one it saves you money and secondly it ensures that your Virtual Assistant is there when you need her.
Some VAs will allow unused hours to roll over, others will not. If you have paid for hours and at the end of the month you find that they have not all been used here are a few ideas to make use of the time that you paid for.
- Confirm sales appointments
- Coordinate air travel
- Research competition
- Type notes
- Convert notes to a PowerPoint presentation
- Enter business card info into the database
- Send out introductory letter to prospects
- Design and print business cards
- Prepare a newsletter
- Transcribe files
- Locate a hard to find item
- Upgrade existing software
- Submit newsletter to online directories
- Write and submit articles to article directory
- Follow up and collect outstanding payments from clients.
Don’t let your paid hours go to waste.
CRG
