Saw a great message in a forum last week. It was a sample of email addresses and what they say about the sender. It backs up my own thoughts about email. There is a place for 'cute' and 'silly' email addresses but when you are operating a business and participating in business forums, it's time to put away the 'cute' and 'silly' and start using 'business' or 'clever' email addresses. To quote some of what I saw: Your email address says a lot about you.... Details are key when you are … [Read more...]
Keeping a Live Database
One of the services I provide to clients is the maintenance of their databases. Entering business cards and new contacts, updating contact details, and removing bounced addresses. Databases can get very messy at the best of times. There are always people changing jobs, shifting house, changing their lives and changing email addresses - it would be rare to do a broadcast email and not have some addresses bounce back. Some broadcast email programs just bounce everything back to you - hard … [Read more...]
Developing a Tag Line for Your Business
Recently at a VA forum we were discussing developing taglines for your business. There is a fantastic book called 'Seven Second Marketing' written by Ivan Misner who is the founder of BNI. It's about how to use memory hooks or how to make you instantly stand out in a crowd. My own 'memory hook' really works best in my own country and for those of you who haven't read my blog posts from 2006, perhaps this is a good time to explain something. My business name is "A Clayton's Secretary" and the … [Read more...]
OH&S Applies In The Home Office Too!
Have you thought about Occupational Health & Safety in your home office? It might only be you in the office but safety is still important. Do you have leads running across the floor or showing at the back of a desk that is out in the open? Do you have young children or pets that could get caught up in the leads or accidentally pull them? Do you have clients come into your home office periodically? What is lying around or sticking out that might be a hazard to guests in your home? Are … [Read more...]
Meeting with a client face-to-face
This topic was raised in my forum just recently and several team members came forward with an outline of what they'd done in the past. It is important to protect ourselves whenever in the process of physically meeting a new client for the first time. After all, in many cases, they are complete strangers to us and just because they are seeking our business support, doesn't mean that we shouldn't take precautions. Some team members reported that they meet at a neutral place such as a cafe in a … [Read more...]
Interviewed by Stan the Man!
I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by Stan Relihan of The Connections Show on the Podcast Network. Those of you in LinkedIn will know him as Australia's most connected man. Stan has a great sense of humour and I've enjoyed getting to know him over several months now. So I was delighted when he decided to add me to his lineup of impressive interviews - I hope you like it! TPN :: The Connections Show - Episode #022 [17:55m] Running a Network of Virtual Assistants : Kathie … [Read more...]
Providing Website Support to Clients
I did a post sometime ago about VAs whose websites had been copied. Today I want to discuss the other side - creating websites for clients. Recently I had a client send me a whole lot of text for a website I am putting together for her. I copied and pasted the text into the various pages, formatting as required, and then noticed that the words 'contact' and 'email' were hyperlinked. When I checked to see what they were linked to, they led to totally different domains. I went and checked the … [Read more...]
Looking at Loose and Lose
I get rather frustrated when I see regular bloggers, or VAs chatting on forums, using the wrong word or spelling incorrectly. Particularly those who otherwise have great writing skills. Granted there are different spellings for words depending on what country you live in and which version of English you use. And I was beginning to think that perhaps the word 'loose' meant the same as 'lose' in some English speaking countries because I see it used so often. I had to go look up the … [Read more...]
Problems with your webhosting?
Several members of my VA team are experiencing problems with the webhost they’ve been using and their websites and email have been down for several days now. This is a real problem for anyone who runs their business online. In fact when I research this particular company online there are a heap of warning messages on forums about them currently. A shame because from what I can gather they've had a real problem with their hardware and are trying to get things back up and running again. I have … [Read more...]
