How to Start a Woman-Owned Small Business from your Home – Part 2

Yesterday, I started this article about women starting their own home-based businesses. Today I’d like to add 5 more items to my list of things which are important and sometimes unique to women.

6. Do you know your way to San Jose? Wasn’t that a song? Seriously though, do you know your way around the computer? If you’re going to be a small business owner, you must have at least a basic knowledge of word processing, spreadsheets, email and a little bit of accounting. Oh, and that all-knowing thing – the Internet. I’m not saying you have to be the next whiz kid, but you need to be comfortable with getting around on your computer, viewing and responding to emails, researching on the Internet, typing a quick document, and setting up a short little spreadsheet. This will help you immeasurably when you’re talking with prospective clients.

7. Can you easily grasp new concepts and ideas? (Are you trainable?) This one may make some people laugh, but we’ve all heard the old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” That’s not you, is it? You must be receptive, open to new ideas, open to new ways of doing things. With the Internet, everything you used to think is true is no longer true. There are ways and ways and ways to connect with each other and your clients. Be open to learn constantly about how to best operate your business.

8. Do you have high speed DSL or cable? This is a must to run a business in today’s world. You don’t want to be caught on the phone with a client who says, “Did you get my email?” And you’re waiting and waiting and waiting for it to come in because it had a small JPG file with it. Be sure and spend the money to upgrade and it will be money well-spent. If you can afford it (and it’s available in your area), cable is great! It’s made such a difference in my business.

9. Do you have a banker who is familiar with you and can help you out with the “ins and outs” of starting a business? This is so important. When you get to the stage where you feel this is truly what you want to do, get your business plan written (this is a MUST – do not pass go, do not collect $200 unless you write your Business Plan), then talk to a banker who recognizes you as you walk in the door. Tell them your plan, show them your business plan, ask them their advice. They are the experts and can help you through not only the financial aspect, but maybe give you some small business tips you didn’t think of. Plus women love those relationships that extend from personal to professional.

10. Do you have an EIN (even though you have no employees)? As a sole proprietor with no employees, you do not have to have an Employer Identification Number. But, if you’re going to be working with sub-contractors quite often, if you’re going to be selling quite a bit, it’s important to keep your personal information separate from your business information. Yes, I know that as a sole proprietor, most things will be run through your personal side also. But if you have a unique identifying number, it helps in many ways. It not only shows a certain sense of professionalism, but it keeps your social security number safe and confidential.

Well, those were just 10 quick tips to think about if you’re a woman looking to start a small business. Most of the topics can be used by anyone starting a business. But I feel sometimes we, as women, have some unique needs that men don’t have.

I hope these prove helpful to you. Please let me know what you think. Enjoy your week!

Vickie

I’m Sick (How Lucky I Am to Work from Home)

I was feeling under the weather yesterday and was thinking about how lucky I am!

I recall being in the corporate world and being ill. It was such an awful feeling to wake up and realize you didn’t feel well. Then the struggle would begin. Do I go to work? Do I take the chance of passing something to others in the office? Do I have a project that has to be finished today? Do I take the chance that by working today, I’ll feel worse tomorrow? Or do I stay home today? Do I try to rest so I can feel well enough to go in to work tomorrow? Do I hope that my workload won’t triple by staying home? Do I worry about what my being out of the office will do to the other employees in the office? There was always a tug-of-war going on about doing what was right. If I stayed home, I would worry all day about how things were going at the office. If I went to the office, I was worried about getting the rest I needed to get better.

I realized yesterday how lucky I am to be able to work from home. I didn’t have to spend all that wasted time feeling the guilt – wondering what I should do. I was able to dress in my lounging clothes. I was able to leave off the makeup. I was able to take a nap when I got tired. I was able to work. As a virtual assistant, most of my conversations with my clients are through email so that wasn’t compromised. I was able to work on the computer, finish a project, look over a draft ad, email back and forth, check in on my forums.

It made me feel good that I could be productive even though I was sick. And so I am thankful – thankful that we have the technology to make working from home possible; thankful that I have the talents needed to run a successful business; thankful that I have clients who don’t have to know when I don’t feel well; thankful that I can make money while feeling like crap!

So the next time you’re wondering why you went into business for yourself, think about the benefits. Be thankful that you can be sick and how lucky you are to be able to work from home.

Add a Computer to Your Wardrobe

I found an article last weekend that talks about having computer chips in our clothes. You can check it out at “http://twenty1f.com/index.php?http://twenty1f.com/news/future-dress-code-very-smart/. Very interesting – but it got me thinking about being “in the business world” 24-7. Do we want to be available all hours, day and night, to the point of having computers in our clothes?

“Instead of being deaf, dumb, and blind sitting on our desks or in our pockets, our computers might be able to observe what we do all day, understand what is important to us, and act as a virtual assistant who helps us on a second-by-second basis,” said Thad Starner, Associate Professor of the Contextual Computing Group at Georgia Tech University.

Starner is at the forefront of wearable computing, developing intelligent, wearable systems that can record and repay information, and has worn his own custom-made wearable computer since 1993.

As work-from-home business owners, it is up to us to decide when we want to work. Our target market has much influence on this decision, but ultimately we determine when we’ll be open, when we’ll answer phones, etc.But it seems the more of us that go into business for ourselves, the more consumed we get by that business. With networking, writing, blogging, meetings, client work, email and mobile phones, we can keep in touch and be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We can be paged, phoned, emailed, lettered, blogged and forumed any time, day or night.

Now it seems we can even start wearing our computers – making us more available. But do we really need computers in our wardrobe?

What were our reasons for going into business for ourselves? Did we want more freedom? Did we want more time with our families? Did we want to be able to make our own decisions? I think these are all examples of why. Yet we seem to be tied more and more to our computers. We work from 9 to 5, then we attend teleseminars or blog or write or do our bookkeeping or network. We are always busy with our businesses.

I think we may need to take a step back and re-examine why we decided to be business owners. Technology can be a wonderful thing – it’s propelled us into the future; it’s allowed us the convenience of working from home; it’s made staying connected easier. It can also be our downfall. We’ve made it too easy to be on-call all the time.

So spend some time thinking about your connectivity. Are you too spending too much time, being too available? Or will you be looking to add a computer to your wardrobe?

AirSet – A Survival Kit for Busy People

If you have been looking for a way to organize your home, your business, your life – look no further than AirSet (www.airset.com).

I have been using AirSet now for about three months and it is an amazing program! AirSet is a free, open source program that allows you to share calendars, contacts, files and lists with your team; coordinate work & home from one place and can sync with Microsoft Outlook, Palm or your mobile phone. Here’s a little information about each component of AirSet.

Calendar – You can add as many “groups” as you wish and color-code them. These could include Personal, Business, Family, Soccer, Church, etc. You are also able to share these with others who you specify as members of each group. It allows single events and recurring events and you can set two separate reminders for each event. You can share the calendar by either emailing it to the members or they can just log in on their own computer and see the calendars. You can set preferences as to who can make changes and updates. You can choose to view the calendar in Daily view, Weekly view, Monthly view, Yearly view or Organizer view. You can also set it up to send your daily Organizer to your email each morning so you can see at a glance all appointments and To-Dos and better prepare for your day.

To-Do Lists – You can make To-Do Lists for each group. You can set up tasks for each of your projects and set due dates, status, priorities, notes and even sort to your own preference.

Contacts – These too can be sorted into groups and color-coded. There are fields for contact info, special info, email addresses and they can be set for certain categories.

Blog – You can add a blog to keep the members informed of project updates and changes. Or maybe you just want to keep your soccer players up-to-date on who’s headed for the play-offs. You decide what you’d like on your blog and who can view it.

Links – There’s a place to add all your favorite links, whether they be personal or business.

Sync – All of this information can be shared, emailed or synced with Microsoft Outlook, Palm and your mobile phone (for a small monthly fee).

This is an amazing, free program. It is simple enough for the novice user but has all the bells and whistles needed for large businesses. I would definitely recommend this software for your organizing needs.

 

Vickie

Daylight Savings Time Could Greatly Affect your Calendaring Soon

Did you know that daylight savings time is changing at a different time this year? Normally, you “spring forward” on the first Sunday in April and “fall back” on the last Sunday in October. But because of a Congressional Act passed in 2005, you will “spring forward” on March 11 and “fall back” on November 4 this year. And this could cause major issues for those of you who are responsible for calendaring management for your clients, especially between March 11 and April 1 (the old and new starting DST dates) and between October 28 and November 4 (the old and new ending DST dates).

If you or your clients have Windows Vista, you will not be affected by this change. If you or your clients use Microsoft Outlook 2003 or older, there is an update tool you can download that will automatically update a person’s calendar to the new daylight savings time rules.

If you choose not to install the Windows updates and run the Time Zone Data Update Tool, then during the extended DST period (the dates between the old beginning and ending dates and the new beginning and ending dates), your Outlook appointments and reminders will appear one hour off. Any all-day events will shift and span two days because these events are associated with 24 specific hours rather than an individual date.

Microsoft suggests that you run the Update tool manually anytime after the Windows time zone definitions have been updated. It is says it’s preferable to run the Outlook/Exchange tool as close as possible to the time at which the Windows time zone patch is applied (to all computers) since that will minimize the likelihood of having single-instance calendar items that were created after the Windows time zone update was applied, but before the Outlook/Exchange tool was run.

Don’t take a chance of being responsible for your clients or yourself to miss appointments. Be sure to run this tool as suggested. Go to the Microsoft Office web site for specific instructions and for a link to the Download tool. The link is http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102086071033.aspx

Vickie

Do You Need a Virtual Assistant?

The virtual assistant (VA) industry is booming. As more and more people are leaving their jobs behind, they are finding that they can put their administrative skills to use and make money in the process.

First, let me explain what a virtual assistant is. VAs are small business owners who provide remote, professional administrative support while working in long-term collaborative relationships with only a handful of terrific clients. We are professionals, we are business owners, we are entrepreneurs who have a passion to provide support to the portions of your business that are necessary, but do not produce revenue.

So do you need a virtual assistant? Maybe you know you need help, but aren’t sure where to start. Let me give you a few ideas:

Correspondence
Calendar Management
Travel Arrangements
Research
Database Management
Proofreading/Editing
E-mail Coordination/Management
Contact Management
Auto-responders
Bookkeeping
Desktop Publishing
Ghost-Writing – Newsletters, Blogs, eZines
Transcription

These are just a few items to get your thoughts going.

What makes Elite Virtual Assistants different than other VAs is that the “heart and soul” of our business is to provide not only administrative business support but personal support as well. We want to become an integral part of your business. We can provide services such as bookkeeping and marketing campaigns – but they are additional specialty areas. They are not the “heart and soul” of a virtual assistant business.

If you’re interested in using a VA, or if you’d like “101+ Ways to Use a Virtual Assistant,” visit our Elite VAs web site.

Tweaking – The Hidden Marketing Secret

The following article is from an eZine I receive regularly from marketing guru, Robert Middleton. I find his eZines to always be informative and they contain tips that you can implement quickly and easily. I hope you enjoy reading and let me (and Robert) know the results that come from your tweaking!

Vickie

Wonder why some people get better marketing results than others? It’s because they tweak. One rarely discussed marketing secret (except amongst rabid direct marketers or online marketers), is the arcane art of tweaking. Tweaking your marketing is literally the key to getting more response to any marketing activity you attempt.

Tweak means to adjust or fine-tune. And this is exactly what people fail to do when it comes to their marketing. In fact, most do the opposite: They develop a web site and never change a pixel for years; they settle on a marketing message and never try anything new; or they give a speaking engagement and don’t try various “pitches” to get cards from participants.

The Science of Tweaking

Tweaking is what scientists do. They test something using an experiment. They get a certain result. Then they change a measurable variable and see what new result they get. They keep at this until they get the desired result (or not). Good marketers are like scientists, but they have more fun. Instead of experimenting on rats, they experiment on prospects.
They try one marketing tactic at a time and measure the result. Then they change a measurable variable and see if the prospect responds differently. Good scientists, if they are persistent, get grants to keep experimenting. Good marketers, if they are persistent, attract more clients and often get rich.

Let’s look at a few marketing experiments you can tweak.

1. Ezine signups from a web site – Growing a big eZine list is a great way to grow your business. Let’s look at the two main variables: a) home page of web site and b) eZine sign-up page of web site.

To conduct this experiment you must know: a) how many people land on your home page in any given period, b) how many people click onto the sign-up page, and c) how many people actually sign up. Using a simple web tracker that counts visitors and subscribers, you can get these statistics very easily. So let’s say in a week, 100 people go to your home page. Of those, 40% click onto your sign-up page. And then 25% of those actually sign up for the eZine. That makes a sign-up rate of 10%.

Now you start tweaking.

You work at making changes to your home page so that more visitors click through to the sign-up page. You might improve the design, the graphics, the headline, the offer for the report you get with the eZine, etc. Several tweaks might increase the number of people who click on the sign-up page to 50%. Now your total sign-up rate is 12.5%

Next you tweak away on the sign-up page. Perhaps you change the name of the report (more results-oriented), and you change the sign-up form (by making it simpler) and the placement of this form (you put it higher on the page).

Several tweaks of this kind may increase the number of actual sign-ups to 40%. Your total sign-up rate is now 20%. You’ve doubled your sign-up rate. And that’s how tweaking pays off!

2. Getting cards after a speaking event – What I used to say was, “I have a report that covers most of the material I discussed today. If you’d like a copy, just leave me your card and I’ll send it to you by email.” That pitch got me 30-40% of cards. So I tweaked my pitch.

I now say: “Here is a report that covers most of the material I discussed today. Who would like a copy? (and I get a show of hands) Great, please give me your card with a current email address and I’ll send it to you by email.” That pitch gets about 80% of people in the room giving me cards.

The tweak is that I got people to raise their hands saying they wanted the report. It more than doubled the results.

2. Your Audio Logo – When I use a problem-oriented Audio Logo: “I help Independent Professionals who are struggling to attract clients,” I get about five times the response than a solution-oriented Audio Logo: “I help Independent Professionals attract more clients.”

Go figure.

You don’t have to know all the reasons your tweaking changed the results, you just have to keep tweaking until the results improve.

What are you currently doing in your marketing that isn’t working as well as it could? Time to start tweaking!

“By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.”

Not Using Time Management Skills Can Wreak Havoc on your Life

In today’s world, we are all busy, busy, busy. We work 60+ hours per week; we respond to our emails; we network; we market; we take the kids to soccer; we clean the house and do a load of laundry; we cook dinner; we read the paper; we fall into an exhausted sleep; and we get up and do it all over again the next day.

Time management should not be thought of as something you’d do if you had time to sit and think about it – it’s something you must do in order to stay productive, healthy and happy. Here are some time management skills I’ve learned to use throughout my business and personal life:

• Make and USE To-Do Lists – How often have you realized you forgot something at the store? What about taking that dish to a sick neighbor? How about getting your slacks cleaned for that important meeting? Making and using To-Do Lists for the things that don’t have specific times will help you remember not only the big things, but the little things that wreck so much havoc in your life. Be sure to mark off the things you accomplish and move the things you don’t over to the next day.

• Use a Calendar – Did you forget the early morning meeting? How about your daughter’s dentist appointment? Using a Calendar for the scheduled items will save you heartache and stress, not to mention possibly your job. If you’re tech savvy, use a computer to keep all your appointments and To-Do lists readily available. If you like the idea of having a piece of paper in your hand, get a personal planner. There are so many options out there these days.

• Keep Organized – Is there anything worse than getting ready to pay a bill and you can’t find where you put it? How about wanting to email or call a potential client back and you’ve misplaced their email address or telephone number? The old saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place” is so true – you must be organized so you can find the things you’re looking for. This will save you so much time! Buy boxes, organizers, drawers, files, whatever it takes to get you to the point that you’re not constantly looking for something.

• Plan Ahead – Did you promise to cook chili for the annual fundraiser, but everything’s frozen? Have you waited until the last minute and now you can’t get tickets to your favorite play for your surprise anniversary gift? Planning ahead will not only save you time – it will save you stress and tension, two of the major causes of death in our country today. Incorporating the above tips are all ways to plan ahead.

Does it take time to implement the above strategies into your everyday life? Yes. But will it save you from wreaking havoc on your life? Yes. Your main goal should be to be a productive, healthy and happy person for your business, your family, and yourself. Incorporating some time management tools will help you not only achieve that goal, but it will affect others in your sphere of influence. Remember, everything you do touches someone else. Be a positive influence by beginning today to use time management skills in every area of your life.

Are you Applying the Technology You’re Learning?

I’ve been thinking lately that as technology expands, we spend more and more time looking at that technology, trying to figure out if it will work in our business. As small business owners, it behooves us to stay up-to-date on what’s going on around us so that we can be the best we can be. But let’s be careful about spending all of our time “learning” about all the new stuff and be sure we are implementing what we are learning. With networking, blogging, writing, podcasting, designing web sites, creating tag words, and all the other tech stuff that’s out there, we could spend days, weeks and even months just learning how to use them.

It’s so easy to get on a networking site and spend hours writing comments, having lively discussions, and just meeting new colleagues. Then we start attending teleseminars and more seminars and more seminars. How about those tag words – adding, rearranging, thinking about specific words that will help your business? And of course, e-mail. You read, respond, read, respond, read, respond.

While all this new technology is exciting and wonderful, be sure you are Doing something with all you are learning. It doesn’t matter if you’ve attended 15 blogging seminars, 10 podcasting seminars, and talked with 3 experts – if you’re not applying it to your business, it’s a waste of time. You can be gaining hundreds of new colleagues by networking, but if you’re not applying any of the lessons and techniques that they’ve used, you’re just socializing. Now don’t take offense to that statement – socializing is a good thing – just don’t get to a point where that’s all you’re doing.

Technology is meant to grow your business, to take it to new heights, to help you to succeed. Keep those thoughts in mind. In order to be what you want to be in your business, you must schedule your learning curves. Just as you schedule appointments, you must schedule time for networking, time for blogging, time for writing. Different things work for different people – you may want to schedule a full day and use that day to blog, to write, to network, to attend a seminar, or you may want to schedule an hour or two each day, responding to e-mails, making new contacts, etc. That’s the great thing about owning your own business, you can do it the way that works best for your situation and your personality.

As with anything you do, you must exercise moderation with technology. Spend some time learning how to blog, then start blogging. Spend some time learning to market your business, then start marketing. Spend some time networking, then apply the suggestions to your business. You will begin to see your business grow and become what you want it to be, a thriving, fun business that is enjoying success.

So take the time to learn, but take the time to apply what you learn! That will make the difference.

What Kind of First Impression Do You Leave?

Goodbye, Mom

I was shopping at Sav-A-Center and noticed a little old lady following me around. I stopped… she stopped… Furthermore she kept staring at me. She finally overtook me at the checkout, and she turned to me and said, “I hope I haven’t made you feel ill at ease; it’s just that you look so much like my late son.” I answered, “That’s okay.” “I know it’s silly, but if you’d call out “Good bye, Mom” as I leave the store, it would make me feel so happy.”

She then went through the checkout, and as she was on her way out of the store, I called out, “Goodbye, Mom.” The little old lady waved, and smiled back at me.

Pleased that I had brought a little sunshine into someone’s day, I went to pay for my groceries. “That comes to $121.85,” said the clerk. “How come so much? I only bought 5 items.” The clerk replied, “Yeah, but your Mother said you’d be paying for her things too.” (Author unknown)

We are all guilty of making judgments based on first appearance. We see someone and are making suppositions about them immediately, even if it’s subconsciously.

In the virtual world, prospective clients usually do not meet their virtual assistant face-to-face. So what do they base their first appearances on? The web site. Did you do your web site yourself? Do you have the experience to know if what you’re creating will have “eye-appeal” for the prospective client? Does your web site reflect professionalism and cleanliness? Do you have a professional web site with information that tells a prospective client everything they need to know? Does your web site answer the questions prospective clients will ask? Do you offer solutions to a prospective client?

These are just a few questions to keep in mind as you are building your web site. Try to look at it as an outsider would. Remember, your web site is generally the first introduction to you and your business. Take the time to ensure that “first appearances” are enough to convince that prospective client to take the next step and contact you.