Anyhow, I went to this place expecting to wait a bit – but clearly 4 hours was not what I had in mind, since I brought my 3 kids.  I was very quickly on my phone to call my husband and tell him to come and get the kids.

Unexpectedly in this line up of several hundred people – Don’t Ask! – I was immediately behind one of my clients.  She had just flown home from a trip to Ottawa and had her husband drop her off with her daughter to get the same gift.  It was nice because it gave us time to connect and talk – and outside the work arena too.

Now, as some who know me; in a situation like this I will talk to the people around me.  Unlike the days of my past where I was very quiet and shy, I have no fear anymore. Much of the talking was also some humourous commiserating about our predicament and lots of excitement as we moved a few steps at a  time. Really… you have to make light in these situations or you can get real cranky.

We waited, talked, laughed, sighed, and waited some more.  Lots more.  At one point after an hour, I went out to count how many ahead of us… not bad only 300 or so! I think the ’so’ was being very generous too! Through it all the group around us just had a fabulous time.  We talked, laughed learned a bit about each other.

There was my client, Amy, who smartly, took the opportunity to tell some of the people around about her upcoming book launch on Sunday Nov 8th.  Her 13 yr old daughter – who had a grand time and was so thoughtfully bringing the group some water near the home stretch (about 3 hours in at that point). The young woman who had brought her Mother in Law there and was having a night out from her 16 month old. She sure went up a few notches on the  “Daughter-In-Law” scale while waiting so long. Then there was Barb & her husband (probably in their 70’s) who took turns sitting down as the night wore on. As we moved along we also met Marie, originally from upstate NewYork, but living in rural Nova Scotia now and she made a 1 hour car trip in to get this gift for a friend.  A friend who one day will learn what Marie did to get her gift.  We also met two young men; waiting their turn patiently too and as the night got longer they too soon started joining in our giggles and fun.

They all learned a bit about me – met my whole family even! I learned a few things about them too. Some people would look at a night like this and think – what a waste.  Not me.

Honestly, if I had to wait in a lineup this long, moving a total distance of maybe 1000 feet over the entire time; it was a good group of people to be surrounded by.   We got silly at times; but you had to to make light of the situation.  At one point when an announcement was made – we feared the worst, but nothing happened and we continued to shuffle along until we all finally got to hold and admire the item we came there for.

It was so worth it – and really looking back, I had a great time. Hopefully Mom will love her gift too.

Technorati Tags: networking

Is your email inbox, or inboxes, as many of us have more than one, full of old received and sent emails?
There are a few easy steps anyone can follow to help take back control of your inbox and emails.
Before you get started, make a point of setting aside a specific time each day to check your email.  It is so easy to become distracted by dealing with emails you lose time for dealing with other projects or work.  Three times per day is plenty; unless you are in a Customer Service role and as part of your job, you may require doing this more often. A good schedule is and hour after the start of your day, an hour after lunch and an hour before quitting time.
So, what’s the system, the simple steps?  We like to refer to it as:

1. Dump it, if it’s junk, or not fitting into one of the following categories.
2. Archive it. This means file it away if you will need to refer to it later.
   
3. Not now, later. If you’ll need time to deal with this email later, then flag it for followup and enter a reminder, so you don’t forget.
4. Get it done, now. If you can deal with it, then do so, immediately.
   

Sounds easy, but in order to make this work you have to follow a few simple rules of picking which category the emails fit into.
DUMP IT

• Use your junk email filter, and block senders you don’t want.
• Pick one joke a day to read, and dump all others. These recycle enough that you will see the dumped ones again at some point.
• Check notification settings from social networks, if you efficiently keep on top of these sites, you won’t need an additional email telling you of a new friend, connection etc.
• Dump emails that need no further followup once read.

ARCHIVE IT

• Instead of saving emails in your inbox or sent folder, create a word file for each client, project, etc. Anything you may need to refer to in future (you know those that you save forever, just in case!) copy and paste and save in one word file.
  
• Put the date as a heading for each one copied in, and then you have a chronological file of all the emails regarding this person or project. Also include the person’s email address so if needed you can copy and paste it.
  
• Once set up it won’t take long to do each time, and your email folders will thank you. Plus it’s easy enough to find items when needed. Use the FIND button in Word to search through the file.
  

NOT NOW, LATER

• If an email will require more than two minutes to answer or deal with, then you will have to make a note to do it later when you have the time, and can do it productively as part of your day.
• Using your email tools, flag it for followup and set a reminder.  Most emails will then send you a reminder notice either via email or by opening a reminder box right on your desktop.

GET IT DONE, NOW

• If you can deal with the email now within two minutes, do it. No need to fill up your task manager with more reminders.
• Stick to the two minute limit, otherwise your available time will continue to shrink and shrink.

If you can follow a system like this, you will find opening your email each day less and less stressful. Your email checking schedule should be limited to about 15 or 20 minutes, two or three times per day.  That’s one hour.  If it takes much longer than this each day, you may want to look at hiring a Virtual Assistant to sort and organize your emails so that you can more efficiently deal with them.

Here’s hoping you can soon say, “Dang, my inbox looks great”.  If that seems impossible, then give us a call and we can book a 30 minute consult to see if we can help you gain more time in your workday!

Technorati Tags: efficient business, email management

This time is meant  strictly for me – not my work, my kids, my husband, friends. But me and me alone.

I made a goal of starting with 30 minutes every day and this past week I have managed to be successful with this.  My biggest struggle working from home is juggling work and family schedule. Being able to optimize my time with family is big for me – after all that is the reason why I started a home-based business.

This class has really made me think about many aspects of my life – family and work life.  I realize now more than ever how important it is to actually schedule in time for me.  Life is hectic and busy for everyone and taking a timeout can help re-energize and rejuvenate you.  It will also help motivate you in many ways – breaking away will do that.  It may seem difficult at first, but you mind, body and spirit will thank you in the end.

What strategies or plans do you use to set aside ‘your time’?  I’d love to hear them.

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurs, motivation, virtual assistant

Yes,  I have an alert setup for me and my name as well as my business name.  I’m not egotistical or anything, I actually recommend everyone have these types of alerts setup in order to keep tabs on when and where your name comes up in the online world. An alert, for those new to this term, is an email update of the latest Google results (web, news, etc.) based upon the search parameter you setup. It’s an effective way to keep on top of mentions out on the Web of you, or even your company or clients.

Anyhow, Sunday I open the Alert for “Kathy Colaiacovo” and come to find it is a link to a website under construction.  I click on it and the fear sets in! Why?  The website was www.kathycolaiacovo.com !!  It was me!  And I didn’t own it! Crap!  That’s all I could think was “Crap!”, and how dumb I had been because I had not bothered to take the time and $10 to book the darn domain name – my name.

I was so mad!  And there I was looking at the screen and reading the message that said how this website was the home of a future website. I was fuming at my desk and my stupidity – sorry no better word could describe what I was calling myself at that moment!

I decided I had to see who owned the domain name, I knew there could be another Kathy Colaiacovo out there but, OH!  I was so mad at myself.  I head over to the Whois registry website to lookup the owner of this fine domain name – only so I could yell at them in my mind.  They had every right to buy it, since I dropped the ball. 

I plugged in the domain and entered the captcha numbers to see who owns this beast.  I was really mad at this point, and if anyone knows me – just picture me sitting at my computer, clenching my jaw, grinding my teeth and mad. The registrant info pops up – and what a shock!  I was totally dumbfounded at the name of the owner… but at least the jaw-clenching stopped.  The owner was me!

Oh for Pete’s Sake! I had in fact heeded the advice of others and bought my own domain name.  The thing is, I apparently wiped that action from my mind! I had bought it and forgot about it until I saw this Google Alert. It was sitting there, waiting for it’s owner to do something with it. The owner being me! Even worse I will confess… was that I had bought it on Tuesday, this was Sunday! 5 Days and my memory was gone!  Go ahead laugh – it is funny, but a good lesson for others.

My tip today is to get out and buy your domain name before someone else does and try not to forget about it.  Point it to your main website until you are ready to do something wild and great with it. Many people are using their domain name to create fabulous “About” pages.

If you have you set yours up already?  If so, pop your url in the comments here so others can see how they can be used very effectively.

Technorati Tags: promote business, virtual assistant, website planning

And the trust requirement runs both ways not just client to VA but also VA to client.  Working virtually requires a lot trust when there are passwords and publishing of information over the internet.  If you cannot trust those you work with – virtually or in person – it will make for very unpleasant and even stressful situations.

I get asked many questions by friends and family about how my clients pay me, how I help them manage emails, how I can setup profiles on social networks and the list goes on.  Most of the answers make the ‘asking’ party realize how much faith my clients do have in me.  It’s actually a great feeling knowing that you do have these high levels of trust with your clients.

I was reading the blog at VAnetworking the other day and there was a fantastic post about a Lesson in Trust and Outsourcing.  It has some great points, especially for those new to virtual working relationships.  I highly recommend taking a read, and if you are also int he market to hire someone virtually – the free eBook there entitled “How to Hire the ultimate Virtual Assistant for your Business” has great pointers about how and what to do during this process.

Enjoy this reading and I hope it helps answer any questions you have about how people can trust and feel comfortable working with someone they may never meet in person.

Technorati Tags: VAnetworking, virtual assistant, Working Virtually

As I have been building my business the past two years I have added more and more resources to my business. And as a Virtual Assistant (VA) my business is pretty much my computer and eventually when you keep adding to it, you run out of virtual space.

This happened to me last week. I started getting little errors that there was not enough memory to run my program and to shut some windows. Eeeks! You didn’t have to tell me twice! Even though I have two backup systems, my biggest fear is a ‘computer crash’.

I immediately sent an email to my ‘Tech Department’, a great guy named Chris. I explained what was happening and what I needed all the while looking to the future. He sent me a list of what I should look at buying and the reasons why. I picked up the items, dropped them off and in a few days I had my new computer.

Upgrading is something many people need to think about doing with respect to their professional life as well. I have been taking several courses over the past year to improve my skills. I do this for the same reasons I upgraded my computer. In many cases, as hard as it seems – changing and upgrading may be necessary for growth. Sometimes life can zip by so fast that you cannot imagine taking time out of your day for a class or a seminar. What you really need to remember is what the upgrade can ultimately do for you? How can learning those new skills help you and in turn, help your business.

Is it your Time to Upgrade? Think about what you are really missing by stopping your growth…

Technorati Tags: grow your business, training, virtual assistant

Anyhow, this week she had a post in regards to an interview she will be doing with Paul Chaney and they opened up the comments so if you had a question regarding social media, you can ask it directly. I have been wondering lately what the best practice is with regards to making tags and categories on your blog.

I asked…wasn’t sure if it fit into the topic, and it was a bit off, so instead Denise took my question and turned it into a blog post on the Build a Better Blog by answering it. It was great. I got a full out explanation about tags and categories for blog posts.

I’m not sure how many of my readers wonder this as well so today’s topic is a link to the answer Denise posted. I hope it helps you all as much as it did me.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Social Media

I laughed so hard!  I am one of the people she is always sending these read receipts to and every time when it asks me if it’s okay to send a receipt I say No.

Why?  I guess I feel it’s an invasion of my privacy.  I feel it’s no one else’s business when I read the emails sent to me.

It’s not like I avoid my inbox.  It pretty much rules my life as a virtual assistant adn without I would have a very hard time working with clients.  I have a schedule for that as well as time and work every day.

When she and I spoke about it and she was trying to understand why I always hit no.  I realized that it always came back to the privacy issue.  Nothing else…

What is your take on read receipts?  Do you click yes or no?  I’d love to know if I am the only one with this viewpoint.

Technorati Tags: email management, virtual assistant

As we talked about a timeline when I would get the work and what the deadline was for some of it, she then mentioned how she was going to block off two days in a few weeks to go through all her files and sort everything out to give to me. She was also talking about how her workshop was coming up and that she had a conference out of town in 3 weeks as well. Very busy time.

So… I casually asked ” Why did you hire me?”
The answer from her was “To help me get this work done and off my plate”.
I said “Right, but look what you are doing now. You are actually thinking of blocking off two entire working days to sort the work for me; and when I get it I will have to do that to most of it anyhow.”
I paused, “Now think, how many client appointments could you book and what income would you earn from those in the two days?”
“Four clients”, she said. “And about $1,000.00.”
“And…. how much money will you pay me to do the work?” I asked.
“Argh!” was her answer. “You are so right. I will box it up right away!”

I think the stress of all she had going on, finally made her see the light.

Working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) shouldn’t be stressful – it should be the absolute opposite. As long as you have good communication and trust, you can easily give your VA what she (or he) needs and the work will get done. A simple system for assigning and handing over the work and it will get done.

You will gain what you wanted by hiring your VA in the first place… your time back to work on more important tasks and the work not requiring your special skills gets done.

Technorati Tags: office solution, Organization, virtual assistant