I have a client named Peggy.  She had a morning routine that included cleaning the house, working out and quiet reflective time before she started her work day.  Peggy was driving herself crazy because she never got started before 10 am but always intended to start working much earlier in the day.  The end result was she worked far past her desired workday and felt constantly pulled in 50 different directions at any given time.

How many of you can relate to this?  When you started your business, did you dream of freedom?   Did you imagine having all the time in the world to spend with your family and friends?

Is the reality different from what you expected?  Most business owners have a tough time moving from employee to entrepreneur.

Making that step comes from understanding what you do best and focusing on doing just that.  And then, DELEGATING the rest.  There it is that nasty 8 letter word – delegate.

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Communicating with your Virtual Assistant is the only way you’ll see success between her and your business. If you don’t have it, you may find things aren’t done properly, things change and she isn’t aware of it, or you need something done more quickly than originally thought. With lack of communication, you’ll find deadlines are missed and things aren’t done properly.

There are four ways to communicate with your Virtual Assistant. When you use one or more of them you’ll find the communication is the way it needs to be and your tasks are getting completed when you want them completed.

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When you don’t work in the same office as your assistant, you may think it’s almost impossible to make things work. When your assistant has the ability to go to your computer to access your email, files, and calendar, it makes things a lot easier. Those things are not possible when your assistant doesn’t work in your office and it’s even more difficult when she doesn’t live in the same city or state as you do.

Most of the time, having someone work in your office will cost you more money than it would if you were to hire a Virtual Assistant. The reason for this is because you pay your in-office assistant for every minute she’s there, whether she’s working for you or sitting at the desk playing solitaire waiting for you to have work for her to do. That’s not good whether you have the budget for it or not. Who wants to waste their hard earned money on things that aren’t necessary? I’m sure you won’t find a single person out there willing to do that with their money.

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The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team”. They understand their job is to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit. This is what creates trust; what enables you to get the task done.

Watch Pulling Together

If you like this video clip, I encourage you to Share it with the world and join me on my mission to empower and inspire millions of people around the globe.

At the end of this video you’ll see simple instructions on how you can help.

Together we can spread words of Encouragement, Inspiration & Empowerment one video at a time… and wouldn’t you agree our world could use a little more “Positivity” these days!

Together we can make a difference…

Your website is your storefront on the internet, which means it’s very important to keep it clean and orderly at all times. If something doesn’t work, your customers or visitors to your site will see this and that could cause trouble. They may let you know and wait for it to be fixed and then do what they needed or they may leave and never come back. Neither of these theories are good, so it’s best to continually make sure your website is working properly.

As a busy business owner you may not have the time it takes to do this properly or you may not know how to do it, so it’s best to hire a Virtual Assistant to do it for you. Here are several suggestions of duties you can have your Virtual Assistant do to make sure your website is working for you and not against you.

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People are busy no matter if they work from home or have a job outside the home and if they have children or not, so it’s important to make your content readily available for them to read. When you make it work for them they’re sure to see it. Here are a few suggestions for you to consider.

Busy people may not always have the ability to search for what they want to read, so it’s crucial you place your articles and blog posts in many locations so they are easy to find. Hiring a Virtual Assistant to help you will benefit you in that she’ll be able to do this for you.

Your Virtual Assistant can research websites that allow article and blog post submissions and find those that fit your business and reach out to your market. It’s important to find locations that are specifically for your market. Even if they have categories for your articles and blog posts, if they don’t reach out to your target market, you’re not going to do well with your articles and blog posts.

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There are a number of reasons why hiring a Virtual Assistant is the best way to go for your business. The main reason is the money you’ll save up front and in the future. Here are several reasons for you to consider when thinking about hiring a Virtual Assistant to help you grow your business.

1. Computer

When you have someone work with you in your office or home you need to purchase a computer for them. While the cost of a computer is going down, it’s still a cost you would have for this person. When you hire a Virtual Assistant the computer purchase is her responsibility. The upkeep and making sure programs she uses are updated are also her responsibility.

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Mari Smith and Tea Silvestre have both released the results of their surveys of thousands of solopreneurs. (You can read the results of Tea’s survey here.  If you have been a solopreneur (or any kind of business owner) for long, you won’t be surprised at all when I tell you that the majority of people said that their biggest marketing challenge was lack of time.

Creating a small business has always been a big task, but it seems like lately there is more to learn than ever before.  And, even if you are a curious person who loves to learn (me!),  there are only so many hours to devote to learning and still get your work done!

Here are some of my best tips for keeping a decent social media presence and getting your other work done.

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Scraping by sounds pretty questionable, right? You’re always supposed to do your very best at everything. That’s what we’re taught.

However as a service provider you want to be able to know when to put in that 110% effort and when to do just enough to get by.  It’s about managing your time and focusing your attention on the important and profitable tasks.

For example, a service based business owner, such as a web designer, needs to go above and beyond when they’re directly dealing with their clients. Additionally, when they’re planning and creating materials for their clients the more value they can offer the happier their clients will be. However, when this same designer is spending their time balancing their books or paying their bills this same level of dedication and time investment isn’t a great idea.

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Summer is right around the corner and that can be a loaded word for the self-employed.

For those of us who call ourselves “self bossers,” summer can be a scary few months.

Everything seems to get a little out of whack in the summer. Children are home from school. Vacation plans are pending and customers and clients begin to alter their schedules, too. It’s often a time of change and uncertainty.

So with the official start of summer about a month away, now is the time to take steps to prepare your business for the summer months…

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