Are Your Marketing Efforts Timely?

The last of the area K-12 school districts started this week. Does that seem early to you? After all these years I can’t get used to it, either. It’s been a couple years since my youngest attended here, but with so many of my friends and neighbors with school age children, it’s never far from my mind. And who can resist the pull of school supplies on sale? I still stock up on notebook paper and pens for my office. They are never cheaper than right now.

On Sunday I was browsing through the store flyers and noticed that one of the big office supply stores had their brown grocery bag in the newspaper that day.  You know the one I’m talking about that gives you 20% off everything that fits in the bag? Anyway, I have used the bag in the past when it came in, but I don’t recall it coming the first week of school before. The first thing I said to Lewis was, “Isn’t that smart marketing? They will certainly draw in a lot of folks to their store this week to capture the middle and high school kids’ supply lists.” From past experience I know that you can stuff a lot of paper, pens, notebooks, folders, rulers, protractors, paints and index cards in that bag!

That brings me to my marketing tip. Your efforts need to be timely and appropriate. Know your audience and the problems they have and be there at the right time to offer your solution. This may require a little research into the industry. Are there specific times of the year that are busier for them? Are there events that they go to that would enable you to reach many people at once? A good understanding of their issues can save you from inappropriately spending your marketing dollars and time.

Now, I’ve got to find that bag and go buy some index cards, printer paper, and ink. What would you buy?

A Circle of Friends

Last week I had a reminder about how lucky I am for the friendships in my life. Our book club is reading “Girls From Ames” (girlsfromames.com) which chronicles the life long friendship of 11 girls from Ames, Iowa. Not long into the book it became apparent that I, too, had an amazing circle of friends. The difference was that we didn’t grow up from childhood together, but rather, we grew up as adults together.

My husband of 27 years has the great fortune to have a handful of friends that he has grown up with. They maintain a very strong connection, some of them talking weekly. We have done many things over the years with this group, even though we are spread across the south. My children are blessed to witness the power of their friendship, calling each of these men by their nicknames over the years.

My own sisterhood of strength comes from an amazing group of women that I worked with for 15 years at IBM. Of course, many of them had known each other for years before I got there, but even after the last one stopped working there we have continued to meet for lunches, dinners and our annual IBM Girls Christmas Party. My relationship is 30 years long with this group. We have seen marriages, divorces, births, deaths, and many life-threatening illnesses. We circle the wagons at the drop of a hat, and are always there for each other. Lately, we have been meeting more often in suppport of two who are going through some difficult times. I’m pleased to know that these women will always be there for me, too.

I’d like to share part of the book that really says it all. “Having these women in my world has meant not only acceptance, but radiant joy and laughter that knocks me right out of my chair. Through our darkest moments, we have lifted each other up. In every moment of grief we’ve shared, our laughter is a life vest, a secure promise that we will not go under.”

Are you blessed with a great group of friends? I’d love for you to share your story with me.

I Curse Technology

Now, for those of you who know me well, that might come as a bit of a surprise. After all, my entire working life has dealt with selling computers and/or software.  Trust me, there were plenty of days that left me cursing about all that! But computers are just a tool, and a not so reliable tool at times. I was reminded of that this morning when a friend told me she had her laptop in the shop last week. Due to complications she ended up buying a new one, they moved all her data (not copied) to a brand new laptop, and then the new laptop wouldn’t work. You can bet that she was cursing a bit.

I know what you are thinking. Backup! Yes, that is what I was thinking, too. All of us understand we need to do it, and yet we put it off. I used to be very lazy about backups, but after my third hard drive crash, with nothing recoverable at the end, I changed my tune.  So here is your lecture about backing up your data. “Do it. No excuses.”

Here are some options you should look into, whether you are a business owner or an individual with just a home computer.

• Flash drives – each Sunday look at all the flyers and see how cheap they are. You can buy them at WalMart or Walgreens or Best Buy. Copy your documents and your pictures to them.
• External Hard Drive- I now have two external drives. They store another copy of all my documents and pictures, as well as all the backups of my email and folders. Now that my laptop is running low on disk space, I am running some of my software off of one of these external drives. A nice external drive will be anywhere from under $100 to $300.
• Carbonite – this is an offsite backup company that backs up all the files on your computer and stores them for you. I pay a low yearly fee for this (about $80). The software quietly sits on my computer, and as I add or update files, Carbonite quickly makes a copy of it. It does this all without me having to remember. There are other companies like Carbonite. They just happen to be the one I use.
  

  backup

If I should lose a file from my computer, or the whole computer dies, I am satisfied knowing that all my data is in several places. You just can’t be too careful.

A good rule of thumb is to backup your email no less frequently than once a week. I do this at the end of the day when I am leaving my desk. It takes a little while because I keep so many emails. (maybe an hour) I’d be in trouble if I lost my emails!  I store this backup on my external hard drives. If I wanted to, I could put a copy on my laptop and it would get backed up to Carbonite.

One other thing I do is keep track of all the software programs I have added to my system in case I have to rebuild it. You can create a folder called “Downloads” and store all the software you have downloaded and installed. Back this up to the external drive, as well. You still have the CD’s for the “box” software you purchased, so you don’t need to back that up.

All of these things let me sleep a little better at night. My plan is to be prepared for anything to happen. My next step is buying another computer and just having this little ol’ laptop as backup for those just in case times. You’ll be reading about that…

Do you have any other suggestions for backup?

Accountability Partner

Mondays are the day I normally talk to my Accountability Partner. Shellie is the sounding board I count on each week to give me the honest feedback I want on whatever is going on in my business. We have known each other for years, and worked together in our last corporate job. When our boss retired we stumbled upon AssistU.com and their Virtual Training Program. As fate would have it, we went through in the same class and started our own businesses. Today, Shellie was out of town doing a software demo for a potential new client. She works with a student management software system and is the world’s foremost authority on how it works in the State of Texas. Oh, and she’s always been the Demo Queen. Man, is she good!

So, I missed my time sharing ideas with Shellie, but we will catch up later in the week. I put my time to rather good use, though, writing a report that will be available on this site in the next couple of days. There have been so many people asking me about how to get started marketing on the internet and how to use Social Media for their businesses. So, this report will cover all of that. It’s been a long time in coming, and I am anxious to be able to offer it to my readers.

Back to the accountability partner concept. This has been one of the best business tools I have put into practice. Each week we catch each other up on what we have been working on, talk about any issues we might have, brainstorm new ideas to work on, and decide what we will hold each other accountable for during the coming week. It’s wonderful to have someone in your corner, who understands your business, and your strengths and weaknesses.

You should find your own accountability partner. Let me know if you have any questions about how to work with one.

Exploring A Career As A Virtual Assistant – Virtual Book Tour Stop #3

My VA colleague, Jessica Maes, has just launched her book Exploring A Career As A Virtual Assistant and she is currently on virtual tour to promote it! Jessica operates a busy Virtual Assistance practice from her home office in Madison, WI. Additionally, Jessica has taught a class at the University of Wisconsin through the Minicourse department called Exploring A Career As A Virtual Assistant since early 2009. The class has had great response based on the ever growing interest in the Virtual Assistance industry and the current job market conditions that have people exploring their career options more vigorously than ever before. Jessica wrote the book so that people beyond driving distance to the University can learn much of the same information she shares from the comfort and convenience of their own home. After all, this is a book about working virtually, so sharing the information offsite is a natural fit! You can read a free sample from the book by clicking here.

As part of this tour stop, Jessica is available to us today to answer your burning questions about the Virtual Assistance industry! Post your question by clicking on the comments link above. Jessica will respond in the Comments section so be sure to check back!

To celebrate the book’s launch, Jessica has a few goodies to offer us. The first is a 20% discount off the purchase of the book. Simply use the promo code THANKYOU during check out.

The second is that one lucky ready will receive a free copy of the eBook version of the book! To be eligible to win, you simply need to post a question about Virtual Assistance in the comments section of this post. The winner will be chosen at random and announced here in a couple of days.

The book is currently available for immediate download via an eBook format and in hard copy. To purchase the book, click here.

A not so ugly secret

As a work at home Mom for the last 13 years, one thing has made a difference for how I feel about myself. I always -without exception- dress down to my shoes (as the Flylady calls it.) It may be lunchtime before I get my exercising and shower in, but if you saw me, I’d have on decent clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup, and my hair done. My mom would be proud that I’m likely to have on lipstick, too.

Okay – it’s not rocket science, but after 3 decades in a corporate world I know that I perform better when I am “ready.” If you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you’ll do better work. I’m ready to dash out of the door to the store, or to a client’s office, and don’t have to delay a trip or feel embarrassed if I run into someone.  I do it even if no one else is around and I know I’m not going anywhere.

What do YOU do when no one is looking?

A cure for overwhelm

Recently I have been working on putting systems in place to simplify my daily routines. Over the past year I have been subscribing to lots of ezines and newsletters, downloading free reports and ebooks, and getting on LOTS of email lists. Tell me you’re in that same boat, too… Anyway, several months ago I finally created rules in Outlook so that most of those emails went into separate folders which I could look at if I wanted to. Wow – what a relief that was.

Time passes and wouldn’t you know it, those newsletter don’t get looked at and all those emails about calls that will change my life, (or certainly my business) are just clogging up my mailbox and draining all my energy.  For some reason I have been thinking that the perfect solution is there on the next teleconference. And actually, I found a very nice coach and mastermind group to join because I listened to the “right” teleconference. It was a good match at that instant, and is the direction I am taking for six months.

Today in my *first* mastermind group the lovely ladies there told me to just unsubscribe from all that stuff and quit worrying about it.  So, I am passing on that I have spent time unsubscribing from all those lists. It may take another week or two to catch them all, but when I need more information to get me through another curve in my road, I can find more people to follow.

And so can you.

Stay tuned Wednesday for a big event – I am participating in a Virtual Book Tour for one of my VA colleagues. Come back and see what it’s all about!

Blog at last!

Well, after several years of thinking about it, I have finally created my first blog. While I am busy customizing the look of the site, it seemed okay to start posting my thoughts. You will see lots of changes over the next few weeks as I decide how all this needs to come together. What won’t change is what I have to say. That’s really the point of the blog, isn’t it?

Over the next few days, weeks and months you will get a front row seat into what I am doing and thinking. And I will be looking for all of you in the comments. Those who know me well, know that I always have something to say (!), so hopefully the same will be true of my blog.  Since I started my own business I have been amazed at all the cool stuff available on the internet. You’ll be hearing a lot about that, too.

Well, it’s time to eat a little pizza, watch the Tour de France replay, and get some laundry done. I’m taking a mini-vacation tomorrow and need some clean clothes.