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Virtual Insider March 15, 2004 Issue 4 by JERPAT
Patty Benton,
Editor © 2005 JERPAT All statements made in this newsletter are not legal advisement or endorsement of a product. All information provided in this newsletter is strictly opinions and suggestions of the Virtual Insider writers. JERPAT Virtual Assistants and the writers for Virtual Insider cannot be held liable.
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by Patty Benton jerpatvas@comcast.net Dear Readers, As I put this newsletter together, I found it such a complicated and wide issue that I really struggled with what to cover now, and what to leave for another issue. I think that working from our homes may, in some ways, be tougher than working outside the home. Though I do recognize that working outside the home has it’s own set of issues, I am completely amazed at the challenges working from home presents. I don’t know about all of you, but when I first opened my business, I thought it was going to be a white picket fence dream. Well, though I won’t say it has been a nightmare (it definitely hasn’t), it hasn’t been as easy as I thought it would be. I would say one of the biggest challenges I faced (besides informing the world of my wonderful services) was managing when to work, and when to focus on my family. When we work outside of home, we normally leave our work, or at least our offices, AT work. We come home, and are “home”-with our family. Yet, when we work at home, our offices are available to us 24/7, calling us to come do that last minute project, or check our email “just one more time.” I have struggled in the last year separating my time into “work” and “family.” Though I don’t have it perfected, and continue to struggle with it on a daily basis, I have managed to find a “sort of” balance. I hope that with this Virtual Insider issue and with the Virtual Insider issues to come, we can really delve into finding that balance and making it workable for us, our business, AND our family. I really want to encourage you to write us concerning this topic, because it is one that we have all dealt with in the past, and will continue to deal with in the future, as our lives and business are forever changing!
Next month we will be reviewing products that we own and use for purposes of running our business. We request help from you. Do you have a favorite printer? A computer that has been nothing but problems? A software that you couldn’t live without? Send us one paragraph per product giving the positive and negatives. Also, it would be helpful to include where you bought it and the approximate price (if you know). Along with your product review we will include your name and website link, so please be sure to include this information with your product.
Now, for just a moment, I have to brag about my 17 month old. Many of you may know that she is my only child (so far) and as far as I am concerned, God made the sun and moon to shine for her (LOL). Now, my daughter is a very precocious little girl who really thinks she is like 3 or 4 years old. She tends to be in more trouble than she is out of, understandably because she wants to explore the world around her. So, since she has been crawling, I have been counting “1, 2, 3” as a warning before she gets in trouble. This gives her a chance to “fix” her behavior. Well, for the zillionth and one time, she was playing with the TV button, shutting it off and on. I told her to get away from it, and she looks me dead in the eye, and shuts it off, and then on. So, I do the usual, “1…” and that little smarty pants goes, “…2, 3.” AAHHH, parenthood, but I will say now she is proudly counting to 3 for anyone who will listen!
Enjoy this issue and continue to let us know your thoughts, opinions, questions, and even your wonderful child stories with us! God bless, Patty
Please send newsletter questions, comments and ideas by sending an email to newsletter@jerpat.org.
JERPAT Virtual Assistants Owned by Patty Benton Partnered with Mary Russell www.moretime4u.org and www.virtualvacoach.com No new news this month, though feel free to visit our updated website and you can even give us a call at our new toll free number 1.877.258.1037.
Legaltypist Owned and Operated by Andrea Cannavina Andrea Cannavina had an article published in the February 27, 2004 article of Technolawyer regarding digital dictation with Quikscribe.
ePro Virtual Services, Inc. Owned and Operated by Vivi Gonzalez No news this month.
Ennen's Computer Services Owned and Operated by Diana Ennen No news this month.
7 Steps to Managing Your Time Effectively by Everett Williams When you work a 9-5 job, your boss tells you what to do and when to do it. But when you have your own business, you’re the boss! You have to decide what to do and when to do it. Here’s a simple 7-step formula for making a schedule you can live with while making sure you accomplish all the tasks you need to run your business successfully. 1. List all the tasks that you need to do this week to manage and promote your business. If you’re an auction seller, you might need to buy merchandise, write descriptions, take photos, list your auctions, and make shipments. If you’re a net marketer, you might need to make pay-per-click bids, post to your favorite forums, research your new ebook, and write your weekly ezine. These are just short lists, but they show the kind of tasks you might put on yours. 2. Look at your list of tasks and see if any need to be broken down further. For example, if you make forum postings one day, you will want to check back later to see if there are any responses. These are really two separate tasks. Auction sellers need to buy merchandise. To do this, you might need to visit garage sales, attend an auction, and check the discount stores for closeouts. Make sure that your list doesn’t have two or more jobs lumped together as one. 3. Now take your task list and check any items that need to be done more than once. Then write down how often you need to do that task. Auction sellers might list auctions on Thursday and Sunday. That is two jobs, not one. Net marketers might write an ebook chapter each day. In that case, each chapter is another task for your list. 4. Next, mark down any tasks that have to be done on a particular day. Many auction sellers go to garage sales and auctions to find merchandise. These are often on Saturdays. Many ezine writers like to send their ezines out on Fridays. The more jobs like this you have, the less flexibility you have in making your final schedule. 5. Here’s the fun part. Take your calendar or schedule and write in the tasks that have to be done on certain days. Then look at the rest of your list and divide the jobs up as evenly as you can among the days that you plan to work. Make sure you take into account the amount of time and the amount of effort each job takes. If you know that putting together your ezine wipes you out, don’t try to do another tough job that day. If you want to schedule another task or two that day, make it something that’s easier for you, such as website maintenance. 6. The next step is to look over the schedule you’ve made and ask yourself some questions. First, is everything included? Having your whole week’s schedule in front of you may remind you of something you forgot. If you think of something, plug it in. Second, is any one day really tough or really easy? If you’re a full time business person, you may want to even your days out. Part-timers, on the other hand, will probably want to make sure to have your easy days on workdays and hard days when you’re off from your regular job. If you don’t give your full time job your best effort, you may become a full time home business person sooner than you expected or wanted to. Third, is it realistic? Do you have the time and energy to accomplish all this? Don’t be too easy on yourself, but, if you know you really can’t do everything you scheduled, don’t set yourself up for failure. Scale back your schedule to what you know you can get done. 7. The final step is to work your plan. After all, this is what you say you need to do to make your business a success. So do it. The Home Business Persons Hall of Shame is filled with people who made big plans but never carried them out. Don’t be one of them. Do I have to do this every week, you ask? Well, yes, you do, but the more you do it, the easier and faster it becomes. Soon you’ll come up with a basic schedule that you just add to and subtract from each week. After a while, your new problem will to keep from getting stuck in a rut and just doing the same old things over and over. But that’s a subject for a different article.
Everett Williams is a home business entrepreneur. He is also a webmaster and writer.. Visit http://net-bookstore.com for exclusive ebooks and software. Discover how to get your own, customizable, residual income-building website, no experience needed at http://instant-turnkey-business.com. Virtual Insider’s Feature by Patty Benton jerpatvas@comcast.net The Balance Beam of Work and Family “Mommy, I need milk!” “Mommy, can I watch TV?” “Mommy, I want to go outside!” “Mommy, Bobby hit me!” are few of the comments WAHM(P-parents) hear on a daily basis. That is if their child can talk. Mine, just pushes the keyboard away and climbs on my lap-or even better-she throws herself on the floor screaming. “Honey, when is dinner?” “Honey, what time are we leaving for…” “Honey, where is Bobby’s baseball bat?” are a few of the comments we may hear from our spouses. All this, while we are trying to finish the project that is due first thing in the morning. Or working on our next advertising piece. Or doing one of the other million things any person who runs their own business HAS to get finished. Does this sound like what you go through on a daily basis why you are working? If so, don’t feel alone, the majority of small business owners who work out of their homes, experience this trial. Now, what are you going to do about it? Though I won’t claim to have this perfected (remember, my daughter likes to throw herself on the floor screaming), I have begun to find a balance. Here are some tips on how to find your balance between home and work:
Having your own business takes sacrifice from you and your family, but it’s worth it if you can find the balance. Make finding your balance a priority!!
Patty Benton is the owner of JERPAT Virtual Assistants and JERPAT Web Design, www.moretime4u.org, which provides affordable administrative and web design support to coaches, small businesses, religious organizations, and realtors. Additionally, Patty is a coach for new entrepreneurs interested in venturing into the virtual assistance industry. She has developed a program that is affordable for all. Visit her coaching site at www.virtualvacoach.com for program details and great business resources. If you would like to receive Patty's articles and other tips in your mailbox every month, you can sign up at www.mortime4u.org/home.html. © 2005 JERPAT Virtual Assistants You have permission to reprint this article electronically or in print, as long as the text and byline remain unedited. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. Newsletter Ad Swap AdminXpress Monthly Newsletter We encourage you to check out the AdminXpress monthly newsletter, which is filled with the latest news, tips of the month, business resources and more. You can view past issues here. For more information and to sign up, please visit AdminXpress. We look forward to delivering you an informational newsletter month after month.
All newsletters featured here have been reviewed and approved as beneficial to subscribers by the editor. If you would like to swap Newsletter Ads please send a request to jerpatvas@comcast.net including a link to your most current issue.
by Vivi Gonzalez vivi@eproservices.com Q: Help! I’m so stressed out! Working at home and juggling my family’s needs is really tough! How can I balance it out and make it work? A: It’s great to be able to work at home for many reasons: being close to the family, flexible hours, etc. Some of these benefits, however, can sometimes seem to be a negative. There are several things that you can do to more efficiently and with less stress ‘juggle’ both working at home and your family: 1. Designate your work area. If possible, try to have an area where only you are allowed. A family computer, for example, sometimes can prove to be quite a headache when having to share your space. Even if it’s a corner in the living room, designate it ‘your’ corner. 2. Budget your time. Depending on your family’s specific needs, try to schedule your ‘working hours’ during a time when you are less likely to be needed or distracted. 3. Children. If you have school aged children, try to schedule yourself to work during the times they are in school. If you have younger children at home, perhaps a mother’s helper would come in handy to entertain the kids while you work. This can even be an after-school, neighborhood teenager since you would be nearby. 4. Family and friends. Sometimes it’s difficult at first for family and friends to understand the importance of what you are doing. Since you are home, they believe that you are free to chat at any time. Politely explain that you are working and you’d be happy to speak with them later in the day if it’s not an emergency. For “More questions from Vivi” you may go to http://www.eproservices.com/articles.htm.
Vivi Gonzalez is the owner of eProServices – Virtual Business Center….. offering the best in Virtual Assistance for all business types and sizes. www.eproservices.com mailto:mail@eproservices.com For “More questions from Vivi” you may go to http://www.eproservices.com/articles.htm. Please send questions to Vivi by clicking here or send an email to newsletter@jerpat.org. **Disclaimer – This column is for the sole purpose of basic business advice and it is not meant to be taken as or replace legal advice.
Please be on the lookout for Diana’s column next month. Information collected and published by Patty Benton. This month-with so many viruses and virus scares floating around our there, I called to my associates on the web and am including some links to sites you can go to and check to see if a virus warning is real or a hoax. Always remember to keep your virus software on and updated. Never open an attachment unless you are expecting one. One thing I found helpful is letting people know BEFORE I send an attachment, so they know it is safe. Also, if an unexpected attachment comes in, I double check with the sender before opening it. Better to be safe than sorry!!! Check your virus alerts at: www.truthorfiction.com link provided by anonymous www.snopes.com link provided by anonymous http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html link provided by Kim Black
Letters from Legaltypist by Andrea Cannavina Andrea@Legaltypist.com Dear Readers, This month’s topic of Managing a Life and a Business really hits home for me. I had been operating Legaltypist for over two years by one rule: what was the most urgent matter that required my attention right now. Given the fact that I am the mother of two young children who is in the middle of a hands-on house renovation, as well as having part time outside employment on top of my business, you could find me juggling doctor’s appointments, wall paper stripping, puppy rearing, lawn mowing, all mixed in with a healthy dose of client work. Jumping from one matter to next is just how everything evolved. However, by working in such a manner, I was constantly moving, but not feeling like I was accomplishing anything. I also believe that it can be especially difficult to develop or maintain a routine if you have any preschoolers and now that my children are a bit older and one is in school, I have been able to begin to define my days better, and life has again begun to assume a bit of balance. I am equating it to when your child first sleeps more than four hours routinely – like a fog that you didn’t realize was there is lifting.
I know full well that keeping on top of a growing business while taking care of a spouse, children, pets, houses, and life in general requires an extraordinary commitment, but, with a little structure and organization, you can make it manageable. I will provide what a “typical” day looks like for me in the hopes that it may help:
My day begins at 7:30 a.m. with a shower and getting myself ready. While this may seem ridiculous to list here, many mothers have the pleasure of being woken up several times during the night and as such are completely sleep deprived. The desire for coffee as soon as my eyes open and can focus is sometimes so strong on occasion that I end up skipping the shower part in favor of getting the coffee but then I have to rework it into another part of my day, causing additional stress.
At 8:00 a.m. I sit at my desk with a cup of coffee and do a quick perusal of my inbox to assess my day. After my son and husband leave for school and work, respectively, I attend to job or information requests received during the night. I have a standing 9:00 a.m. appointment with one of my clients who is not computer literate. He is an older gentleman with a driver and he comes to my home office three to four mornings per week and stays about an hour. After our meeting, I work on business-related matters while my 3 year old watches movies, colors, plays with dolls or sits at her desk right across from mine “working”. J
At 12:00 noon, I turn my attention to personal matters (cleaning, laundry, coupons/shopping/menu lists, communication with friends and family and taking care of social responsibilities), as well as business errands outside the office – banking, post office, etc. I do check my computer periodically throughout the day so that I am on top of incoming/outgoing jobs and after picking my son up from school and doing snack time and other essentials, I start dinner and sit back down to finish up anything left from the morning, transfer documents to my clients before the close of business, etc.
At 5:00 p.m. I again turn my attention to personal life, dinner, after dinner play with the kids and homework; bath time and bed. When the kids are in bed, I will transcribe any larger assignments received. (I find it much better to leave this for after the kids are in bed so I don’t have to deal with interruptions.) If I have no assignments to take care of, I will work on marketing materials and improving the systems I have in place to keep track of everything or I will simply take the night off and enjoy it with my husband! ;)
By sharing the above, I hope to illustrate is that is possible to give yourself a little bit of structure and yet keep the flexibility which is probably one of the reasons you chose to go into business for yourself in the first place. What I also now know is that you cannot manage a life and a business, the business becomes part of the life and, therefore, you must manage life with a business. Virtually yours, Andrea
Andrea Cannavina is the President of Legaltypist, Inc., www.legaltypist.com, a company which provides secretarial outsourcing and off site transcription to sole practitioners and small-mid sized law firms located throughout North America. Andrea is the Coordinator of the AskAPro section of the Virtual Business Group (www.virtualbizgroup.com), and serves on the By Laws Committee of the International Virtual Assistants Association (www.ivaa.org). To contact Andrea directly, please e-mail her at Andrea@Legaltypist.com, or visit her website at www.legaltypist.com. In order to use this article in other publications you MUST include this text box.
Nothing show a man’s character more than what he laughs at. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you have a passage, poem, or story that you think will inspire and/or humor our readers send in your “words for the soul”! If I select yours for an issue you will have your name and web link included in the Words for the Soul column. Please send your enteries to jerpatvas@comcast.net with Words for the Soul in the subject line.
Whippen Secretarial provides professional secretarial, administrative support services, tape transcription and desktop publishing services from our Plymouth, Mass home office. Our past clients included large corporations, small business owners, students and individuals with certain needs. In other words, we handle it all—Virtually!
JERPAT Web Designs has been in existence since 1998. We are a leading edge business building and creating quality computer solutions in Web Designing, Microsoft Access Development, and Computer Consulting. We will beat any business in affordable prices and quality work. Our company is founded on a biblical foundation that has sustained our existence through the years. Give us a try and see what we can do for you!!! www.jerpat.org
Patty, I
just got done reading your February newsletter, and all I
Great articles on organization -
thanks! But for those of us who can't keep their virtual desk tops in order,
Agent Ransack is a fr'ee search tool which is more advanced than the Windows
"Find" tool. It also has Wizards to help create complex search expressions. You
can get it from
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack
If you have a question, comment, or suggestion you would like to see in the reader’s corner, please submit an email to newsletter@jerpat.org. We will post as many as we can, but do not guarantee every email will be posted. We reserve the right to edit or only post part of an email. When sending an email, you are granting us the right to post your first and last name with your email. Thank you!
Product Reviews. We will be reviewing products that we own and giving the positive and negative of the product. We request that you send product reviews to be included in next month’s newsletter. Please be sure to send your questions and ideas on this topic to newsletter@jerpat.org.
http://www.webpronews.com/ebusiness/professionaldevelopment/wpn-11-200306277TipsforPlanningYourDay.html “7 Tips for Planning Your Day” by Barbara Myers
http://ct.monster.com/articles/homeofficemoms/ “Home Office Moms: Have Kids, Will Work” by Alyson Preston
http://www.janjasper.com/articles_time_tactics.html#article “Time Tactics for the Office” by Jan Jasper
All links above are reprinted with permission, or permission was requested with no response.
Additional Newsletter Information If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter, please visit us at www.moretime4u.org/home.html.
All statements made in this newsletter are not legal advisement or endorsement of a product. All information provided in this newsletter is strictly opinions and suggestions of the Virtual Insider writers. JERPAT Virtual Assistants and the writers for Virtual Insider cannot be held liable.
JERPAT Virtual Assistants always welcomes article suggestions from our readers, although we cannot promise to print everything submitted. Because of our publishing schedule, we are not able to announce time-sensitive events; however, if there is an upcoming conference or newsworthy event please be sure to submit it, and we will do our best to validate and publish the event WHEN POSSIBLE. While we often mention commercial products, publications, and web sites, JERPAT Virtual Assistants and affiliates does not accept or reprint unsolicited advertising copy. Send your article suggestions to the editor at jerpatvas@comcast.net.
Contact: Patty Benton 303.766.3051 9 am-5 pm MST Monday-Friday
© 2005 JERPAT No part of this newsletter may be reproduced unless specified in the authors byline. Please respect all guidelines provided by our writers. If there are no guidelines provided for a section of this newsletter you would like to reproduce, please send print request to jerpatvas@comcast.net.
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