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
Making The Most Of It
I am sure you will agree that its not always things work out just the way you want it, or even the way you anticipated it. So when it doesn’t, what do you do. Throw your arms up in the air and announce “I quit”?
The feeling to quit is probably a natural feeling, but that’s all it is; a feeling. Something that comes and goes. This now brings me to the real point. Making the most of any given situation means going beyond feeling and acting rather on principle.
The world of business is operated on a principle, and as a virtual assistant, that principle bears a whole lot of relevance. As a small business owner, that principle, depending on how its applied, determines success or failure.
So when the obstacles roll in, find a way to ignore the feeling, but instead maintain your focus, become creative, even innovative, whatever you do, just press on, and do make the most of it.
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Five Star Executives
Communication - A Tool That Is Never Out-Of-Date
There are some things that don’t change, and I was thinking that paper is one of them. No matter the height that technology reaches, no matter how digital, fast paced and global we become, paper will never be obsolete.
I am also reminded that thank you, please, excuse me and you are welcome will never be archaic. Their relevance will always be unchallenged. Its the same thing with communication. No matter how elevated our businesses takes us, we must communicate.From the CEO to the cleaner, the supervisor to the messenger, the manager to the receptionist, we all need to communicate.
Its relevance to the virtual assistant is equally important since business building is as important to you as it is to the small business owner. So whatever your method of communication, email, phone, IM, posted mail, certainly we can all agree on this, that communication is a tool that is never out-of-date.
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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
Productivity Tip - Get Things Done
Getting things done is not all, but getting things done on time is what challenges the majority of us, because for some of us, procrastination is our middle name
You know I firmly believe that in order to succeed in business, it is important to act on the ideas, advice, and those things on the “To do” list. As good as the advice might be or any other thing for that matter, its no good unless its put into practice.
So remember, for you the virtual assistant, and you the small business owner, getting things done is just half of it. Getting them done on time is what will make the difference.
Productivity Tip For The Chronically Disorganized
Being disorganized is a flaw that can be challenging to overcome, but like everything else, you must absolutely want to overcome it. So the first tip is
1. Want to overcome it.
2. Put things in place to overcome it
3. Stick to the things you put in place
4. Keep evaluating yourself - are you improving or are you still at the same spot
5. If doing it yourself doesn’t work, get someone to hold you accountable.
For the small business person, being organized is an absolutely must. Can you imagine a virtual assistant who has several clients getting things all mixed up, failing to meet deadlines, not taking notes and things like that? That spells disaster and failure. So look out for the signs, be will to admit, and take action.
Building A Business Is Hard Work..
I never realized it until today how much work it takes to build a successful business. Its not that I have been completely clueless, just that the work never felt like work because I absolutely love what I do.
Its just that today with several deadlines pressing and a few more popping up I felt the burden that business ownership can sometimes bring.
There is good news for business owners however. In spite of the fact the the work must be done, it does not mean that you should be the one to do it.
If you are doing tasks that does not make you any income then the solution is simple: outsource to a virtual assistant.
Other ways that you can save yourself from doing repetitive tasks is to automate as much as possible. Are you doing the same tasks daily, over and over? Then look for ways to simplify and possibly automate. This will save you some time and headache and free up more time to do the things that really matter (ie those things that bring in the revenue).
Today I am taking my own advice and trying to save myself some future grief because building a business is hard work but it really doesn’t have to be!
CRG
Good Habits - Life’s Auto-Pilot
Today I sat trying to figure out a good productivity tool, and started my search on the Internet. But then I realized I did not have to go so far because it was staring me right in the face. Good habits.
This is what gets you up when you want to stay asleep a little longer. Its what dresses you when you think pajamas will do. Its what gets you out of the house when the bedroom serenades you, its what keeps you punching at the keys when all you want to do is log off.
As a virtual assistant we do not always want to do what needs to be done, but good habits, if they are really good, and are indeed habits are what keeps us going.
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.
