Deadlines - Setting Them, Following Through On Them and Crying Wolf
February 27, 2007
Michael Port, one of my clients, did a great video blog entry on deadlines. (Kudos to him for doing this style of blog entry - I think it’s fabulous!) In his blog entry, he makes many valid points about deadlines and commitment making. You have to get yourself into a routine of making and fulfilling commitments so that you (a) don’t harm your reputation and (b) stay in integrity with the type of business-person you want to be.
Rob, over at Business Pundit, posted a link to The Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal where Jared Sandberg wrote an article entitled “Rise of False Deadline Means the Truly Urgent May Be Late.” You HAVE to read this article.
Fonts… The Other “F” Word
February 15, 2007
The use of unique, non-standard fonts is becoming one of those things that drives me a tiny bit insane. I have clients who will provide me with a PSD (PhotoShop original file), I open it up, prepare to make changes, click inside the existing text and am met with this big, ugly error that says “Font not available - will replace with a substitute font” (not quoted word for word here…) and poof, the old font is gone and is replaced with some sort of makeshift, non-matching font.
So, what is with this desire to use non-standard fonts? I understand that you want to set yourself apart and be unique and have a brand… yada yada… To assist me in keeping my hair its natural brown color for a little while longer, here are two font tips:
Operations Manuals - A Must Have for Your Business
February 13, 2007
Last week, I spent the entire week in the Caribbean. I had two people managing my business - one person looking after my customer support accounts (I answer upwards of 2,500 e-mails per day) and the other person looked after my daily operations and a few tasks for my clients. Before I went, I began documenting everything I did and I realized quite quickly just how important operations manuals really are.
Operations manuals serve as a road map for your business. It allows other people, outsiders if you will, to look at your business processes and know exactly what needs to be done, in what order it gets done and what the final outcome should be. They are a vital part of any business and a business can not grow to its full potential without them.
In the E Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber (whom I was privileged to meet in Vancouver last year) speaks about the idea that you should think like a big organization and plan like one. Develop systems and put things into place so that you are always preparing ahead for growth. I love this idea and I think its absolutely brilliant.
When you have procedures in place, it makes everything easier - training, leaving your business in someone else’s hands to go on vacation, expanding into more locations, etc. It just makes the management and the operation of your business seamless regardless of who is behind the wheel.
Mind Petals, a website for young entrepreneurs, recently blogged about this topic and they call their systems a “KB” or a “Knowledge Base.” They believe also that you should always document and systemize everything you do. So, are you taking the time to do this? Are you building your systems and your knowledge base?
They are quite simple to do. I used Google Docs to keep all of my Word documents in one place but you can simply keep a running tab of your operations on a daily basis. Keep a Word document open and document the various things you do that require YOUR knowledge to complete. If something happened and your brain was unavailable, you have to ask yourself, “Would someone else be able to walk in and do this without speaking to me?” If the answer is, “No”, you need to work on your procedures manual for that item.
Another alternative is to use MyHours to track your time for at least one week. This will give you an idea of the actual tasks you are doing each week and give you a basis for your table of contents.
Blog Sites - Why I Love Them
February 11, 2007
As most of you know (or can tell by reading this entry), I’ve switched my site from a basic HTML website to a blog site. I’ve done this for many reasons but the number one reason was to interact more with my clients and other virtual assistants. By having a blog site, I can provide fresh content in an easy to read format. You visit this page, you can read the blog entries or you can navigate to the other pages.
Since I have done this, I have been approached by three of my clients to create a blog site for them. Now, I’m not just talking about installing Wordpress or signing them up for TypePad or Blogger so they can have a blog - I’m talking about their entire site being setup on a blog. In all three cases their blog of choice was Wordpress. I am so excited to do this as I am absolutely loving every aspect of my new site.
Adobe Photoshop Tips
February 9, 2007
This evening I had my friend Tiffany over for a movie night and she got talking about her career as a graphic designer and the things I do with regards to her expertise. I was explaining a few of my main uses for PhotoShop and she provided me some really good tips that I wanted to pass along to you. You may not use PhotoShop but if you do, you’ll more than likely find these tips extremely helpful (if you don’t already know about them…)
(1) Actions
Did you know that you can setup an action within PhotoShop for any sort of repetitive task you perform? Think macro if you’ve set up repetitive events in Microsoft Excel. For my blog entries, I take stock photos, resize them all to the same size and then I add a white border around them so that the edges don’t touch the text. It makes them look pretty on my site!
Using Google Docs to Get Organized
February 5, 2007
As you know, I’m currently traveling. With travel (especially where I am - the Caribbean) comes a lack of constant, available internet as well as the ability to fully manage and ‘watch’ my business. With this vacation, I put a virtual assistant in charge of my business for the week. This has been both the hardest thing and the easiest thing to do for me. Hard because I have issues with “letting go” of my stuff. I’m kind of a control freak and I get separation anxiety. (Is this something all entrepreneurs face?)
Anyway, when I first decided I was going to go away, I began using Google Docs to organize my work and write out procedural documents for everything that I do for my clients and within my business. I created client specific documents as well as generic business procedural docs so that Amy, my WONDERFUL assistant, can look after my business for me while I am away.
We sat together before I left (over the phone of course!) and she commented that she felt so comfortable looking after my business because of how organized I was within Google Docs. The beauty of the service is that (a) your documents are secure, (b) your documents are accessible from anywhere, (c) you can use the documents and spreadsheet in a project because they have collaboration features built in, and finally (d) it’s free!
I highly recommend you check this service out - regardless of whether you have a need to collaborate on projects together or not. Just think of how cool it would be to have access to your spreadsheets and documents from any PC and not just your usual PC.
Business Cards - Do You Need Them?
February 5, 2007
As a work-from-home entrepreneur, I go back and forth on the issue of business cards. Do I need them, can I do without them… It’s a debate that goes on quite often in my head when I am doing up my marketing and promotion strategy for the new year. I always seem to settle on the fact that they are not overly required. However, there are a few times during the year that I find myself at a networking event and I find myself collecting cards and making up an excuse such as, “They are being re-designed as we speak.” So, I ask you - are they required in a position like mine?
I have asked this of my peers from time to time and the answer I get most often is, “If you don’t have them, collecting cards is not a bad idea - it provides you with a reason to follow up with the people you meet at these events.” This is often very true.
Minimizing Your Time on the Phone
February 2, 2007
As a business owner, I spend a fair amount of time on the phone speaking to different people: potential clients, existing clients, virtual assistants, my web hosting company, etc. If I allowed each conversation to be unclear and unfocused, I could be spending additional time on the telephone and less time on my work and the things that I need to do to build my business. So, ask yourself - how much time do you spend on the phone?
Spending less time on the phone is easy if you know how. Here are a few tips to get back some of that lost time:
(1) Before You Call, Get Clear and Focused
If you place a call to someone without being clear and focused on what it is you need to talk about, you can spend a lot of time trying to remember what it is you wanted to talk about and / or discussing things that weren’t on the agenda. Before you make your call, list the items you need to talk to that person about so that once you are on the phone, you can be clear, concise and quick! What I do is keep my appointment in Microsoft Outlook and when I think of items I want to bring to the conversation, I open up that appointment and make a note in the notes section of the appointment.