The Virtual Wire

Business ownership and moms

I've written here about Women Business Owners a couple of times, and each time I read through the statistics, I'm amazed. 

As we approach a day set aside here in the USA to honor a special group of women, Moms, it's a great time to recall these facts about women who own and operate businesses. 

Many of these women mentioned in that report are moms, too.  The term "mompreneur" has sprung up as a result of that growing number of mothers operating their own businesses.  That's a big deal!  Receiving that kind of PR and recognition for the role women who are mothers and business owners play in our society today is astonishing to me.

If you're reading this and you are playing the role of business owner and mom -- why not take a moment (okay, more than a moment, if you're able) to reflect on your wonderful and amazing achievement!  Not only are you loving and nurturing a child (or grandchild), you're nurturing a business, too! That's huge!

Something to celebrate, don't you agree?

Stand by for Microsoft Office 2010

Did you know that Microsoft’s code name for Office 2007 was [is] Office 12? Now you do. Can you guess the code name for the next version of Microsoft Office? No, sorry, corporations (like Microsoft) continue to avoid the number 13 like the plague: Enter Office 14 (Microsoft Office 2010 as it will be called).

For those of you getting used to the Ribbon interface, well, good news … it will still be there, and based on some early screen captures (this one shows Excel), it looks pretty much the same.

So when the new version of Office is released (the commercial release of their common productivity titles is rumored to be in early 2010), in what ways will it be different than Microsoft Office 2007? For starters, Microsoft is not allowing public beta testing; curious. But besides that, one of the biggest changes has to do with the fact that it will be the first ever Office suite engineered for 64-bit computer systems. Perhaps looking at what’s happening now on the Internet, Microsoft will also release a web-based version of Office. Think of cloud computing and Web 2.0, and that last factoid will make sense.

When Microsoft did a complete redesign on its user interface for their Office 2007 line of products (what we know as the Ribbon), they approached it conceptually, and it was meant to mimic the process you and I follow when creating and editing documents. Their concept for various Office 2010 titles, according to Chris Capossela, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Information Worker Product Management Group, includes a “response to a shift in how people and businesses use technology today. The line between home and work has blurred, so people want more choice and flexibility in how, where and when they work.”

On that note, I’d like to give credit to all savvy virtual assistants, who have been living through and thriving on this “blurred” line. Perhaps the new version of Office will catch up to where we've been, and how we've been working for years!

Computer Productivity Tools

On the new media mavens blog they listed their top 20 online productivity tools.   I wanted to be able to share their list with you and also provide a list of my own:

1. Capture notes, web pages and tag everything for easy search.  I love evernote because it is cross-platform and synchronises automatically so I always have access to all my notes whether on my MAC or PC - http://www.evernote.com/
2. On-line tracking solution.  Easy to use, edit and update and because it is online is obviously cross-platform, and has a handy mobile option.  Caveat this has gone down a few times, but I export my timesheets weekly, so I feel pretty secure.  – www.myhours.com
3. Fantastically handy tool, that can capture a picture of my screen, or record a video and I can choose to share instantly via web, IM or email, or I can save to my harddrive for future use.  It is easily accessible at the top of my screen without being intrusive.  www.jingproject.com
4. A new addition to my repatoire is Digsby, but I am already in love.  I can track twitter conversations and respond directly in the toolbar, as well as manage multiple IM conversations.  But what really impresses me is that I can monitor the emails from all my POP, gmail, yahoo etc email accounts without having to be in those tools.  I am just waiting for Digsby to be available for the MAC and to connect with Skype chat and I will be ‘happy as a lark’.  www.digsby.com
5. For online sharing and storage, Dropbox is a gem.  Again cross platform and easily shared with other users.  Users need to download and install the software, but that is the hardest part.  Then your dropbox just neatly sits in the toolbar and everytime a document is worked on all sharers versions and synchronized and you receive a note to update.  I share my Dropbox with several of my clients, and they use their own individual folders.  It is very cool.  www.getdropbox.com

When character count counts

Sometimes, well, you just have to “laser” your comments. You have to reign them in, you have to be more efficient, you to be less wordy, you have to … (fill in your own analogy here).

Blogs–take The Virtual Wire for example–are a good case for writing in brief. Though posts can be lengthy, and are best split into two parts when lengthy, brevity is in. Some of the best writing on the Internet has been ‘chunked up’ into easily digestible parts.

A really great example for keeping it short is Twitter. You hear a lot about Twitter these days, and many AssistU virtual assistants, including myself, have a presence there. In fact, AssistU’s Owner, President, & Chief Visionary Officer, Stacy Brice, has recently been voted to the "Top 50 Tweeple to Follow" list. An amazing accomplishment, and done in a short period of time.

Twitter is a great example for being succinct because posts are limited to 140 characters (that’s right, characters). If you’ve always struggled with writing because you feel you don’t have enough to say, well, Twitter is just for you! If you’re guilty of being verbose (yes, my hand just went up!), Twitter will take care of that. Twitter is a wonderful (social) networking site, and more. In a sentence or two, you can put together powerful key messages that reach a huge audience. Or you can simply talk to your fellow Tweets (publicly, or privately through messaging).

One last thought about precious character space. If you want to include a lengthy URL in one of your posts (whether on Twitter, in a blog, or perhaps in an e-mail), there’s a great *free* service called TinyURL. You type in a lengthy URL and it gives you back a shortened version. You then copy and paste the TinyURL version into your text. It’s that easy.

Entrepreneurs - start with what you have right now!

Last week I participated in a conference call and when I mentioned that I no longer used Microsoft Office programs, there was a gasp and a silence that followed.  Yes, I am skilled at '07, I am a certified Microsoft Office User Specialist, and I know the ins-ad-outs of most of the software.  However, when it came time to purchase the appropriate version for the business, I couldn't justify the $679 price tag, or the $1,400 for another piece of software I desperately needed.  The cost didn't prevent me from moving forward, I just found a more cost-effective way of doing the same thing!  I downloaded Open Office for FREE.  I then downloaded the full version of Nitro PDF (equivalent to Adobe Professional) for FREE (when the trial is over, I'll purchase it for $99). 

Like many of you, as entrepreneurs, we need to market our business, upgrade our software and fill our skill gaps, but we also need to work with what we have.  Some of us try to wait until with have it all together, and we procrastinate for whatever reason and a year later, we still don't have whatever it was that we really wanted.  We use lack of money, lack of time and other external factors as reasons for not having what we want.  We are perfectionists – at times that has its place - but for the entrepreneur, if it's in the way of success, it's got to go.

If it's marketing that we need, try to do it at an expense that you can maintain. Remember, if we are disciplined and determined, we've got to be able to stick with it for a long enough period of time to see the results we need.

Start with a tight strategy.  Without a strategy, every opportunity looks like a good one.  We need to be focused on what we've determined success looks like.  Don't deviate from the plan by becoming distracted and overwhelmed.  Two critical strategies to develop are a business plan and a marketing plan (perhaps an Internet marketing plan). 

Entrepreneurial thinking - moving from being overwhelmed and distracted to being focused and determined!

Recently, I took on the task of revamping my business, a passion and pursuit that I started in 2003.  I actually began thinking, talking, networking, and trying to engineer a VA practice 5 years ago.  It was a failed start.  Here it is – 2008 and I'm just getting this off the ground!  When I reflected upon “why” I hadn't actually developed this endeavor to fruition, a light bulb went off.  I was “overwhelmed and distracted” by everything else that was, at the moment, perceived as a priority. 

Have you let opportunities to do what you really wanted, or to have the type of practice that you envisioned, pass you by, only to be in the same place again – the starting point, with nothing to show for?  If so, you are not alone and it's not too late!

This post is about an opportunity, we all have, in any area of life, but especially in our businesses, to move from operating in a place of “overwhelmed and distracted” to a place of "focused and determined." 

“Americans don't value time and money, so we waste it” - Dr. Melvin Gravely

Most of us in business are overwhelmed and distracted, wasting time, and missing opportunities because of information overload or misjudgment of priorities.  We can't do the things that are most important because we have to do the things that are most present.  Is that true of you?  It was of me as I pondered why I hadn't executed well thought out strategies to grow my practice and as I struggled through the tough questions mentioned in last week's post (article on Oct. 4th). 

I was really jazzed after I heard a talk given by Dr. Melvin Gravely, II, the founder of the Institute of Entrepreneurial Thinking.  His motivational program changed the way I thought about success.  He enlightened and entertained with stories that illustrated the key ideas and helped me create new connections (aha moments) to the things that I really wanted and the role my thinking played in achieving them.  Here's what I took away:

Reach a "real" person next time you make that phone call

Ever wonder how you could quickly get a real, live person to speak with when calling a company's customer service department? With GetHuman you can do exactly that!

GetHuman's About Us page states:

The GetHuman™ movement was created from the voices of millions of consumers who want to be treated with dignity when they contact an enterprise for customer support. Our goal is to convince enterprises that providing high quality customer service and having satisfied customers costs much less than providing low quality customer service and having unsatisfied customers.

Their database constitutes about 1,000 companies from which you can search to obtain instructions on how to bypass the phone menu and connect with a human using customer service numbers.

I'm tired of wasting valuable time and energy. This is one timesaver tip I'll be using regularly! Thanks, Barbara, for sharing this.

Some airlines are still giving away things

With the new economy, airlines are getting stingy and taking away all amenities except for the one of being able to have a seat. So, it was just hysterical that I ran across Toni Jo's 'Drink' tickets for Southwest airlines. (Apparently, Southwest gives out tickets to frequent flyer's to redeem for in-flight beverages.) OMG! They are so funny!

On one side of the ticket it gives you a conversation starter and the other side is a conversation stopper. My favorite starter: If you could only drink one beverage for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Why? (I’m almost sure Chris Goldberg would say diet coke.) My favorite stopper was: I am sorry, I cannot talk with you – I have given up face-to-face conversation as a personal experiment. (My adlib, you can talk to me on Facebook.)

Well, it seems like Southwest is still giving away things to its passengers – laughs!

DING! You are now free to move about the country.

Buy one give one – BoGo lights

I love cool technology and companies that give back, and I'm happy to share information about this one.

SunNight Solar produces solar powered flashlights that can charge in a day to provide more than seven hours of light (and last nearly three years before the batteries need replacing). For every flashlight that you purchase, the company donates a light to a non-profit for distribution in places that can really benefit from a light source that doesn't require fuel and is environmentally clean.

While final production changes are being made to the newest version of the light called the  SuperBoGo that produces "room illuminating" light, they are available for pre-order and the original model is available now.

Check out the lights in use around the world. The website lists several different donation programs and a long list of organizations you can select for your donated light. Listen to a short NPR interview with designer and company head Mark Bent that explains how the light and the donation programs work.

After my light arrives and I check it out, this may become one of my favorite gifts!

The validity of the squeeze page

In the past few years I have come to recognise a web page that is meant to make me buy. I am not sure how I came to recognise this page, but I assume that just through the sheer volume of web sites that I have viewed over the years, I started to recognise a sheer “sales page”. On this page I would see all the great reasons why I should buy a product, testimonials from past users, the all important incentives and all the way down the bottom is where you usually find the price. One day I learnt that this kind of page is called a “squeeze page” because it’s sole purpose is to squeeze a sale out of me (I assume). Here is a good article about how to get squeeze pages to work for small business.

I developed a distrust for squeeze pages, and I am not even sure why. But more often than not, if I was interested in a product and through my research of this product I came across a sales page which was in the format of an obvious squeeze page, then I would take one of two actions. I would either:

1. Click off the page immediately. This is by far my most common response, because I just did not like squeeze pages. It felt like a salesman who just wants my money at any cost.
2. Or I would scroll right down to the bottom to find out the price, bypassing all the other incentives etc, because I already knew I was interested in the product and couldn’t care less about all the other enticing stuff.