January 16th, 2009
I heard about the concept of MasterMind groups many years ago, when I read Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich. Participating in a MasterMind group can be a great way to get support and creative ideas for your business and the group can be a catalyst to the growth of your home busines. To learn more about these groups, I interviewed Karyn Greenstreet, President of Passion for Business; Karyn trains MasterMind group facilitators and she facilitates MasterMind groups.
What is a MasterMind group?
A MasterMind group is a small group of people - 6-8 usually - who get together on a regular basis with a facilitator, to bounce ideas off each other, challenge each other. The purpose of the group is not just to give advice to each other, but to ask good questions and help clarify problems. For example, one member of the group might say, “I’m having trouble getting enough time for myself,” and ask the group for suggestions. Or someone might have a hard time letting go and delegating to employees. The group can challenge the person to make changes in her leadership style.
A MasterMind group is not a class where people are led by an instructor. It’s not a group coaching session, and it’s not a networking/referral opportunity, although networking is sometimes a result. A great MasterMind group contains a diversity of people with a common interest. For example, the MasterMind group I belong to includes other business women: a chiropractor, a graphic artist, a professional author, and a professional songwriter.
What is the benefit of a MasterMind group for home-business owners?
It can be really lonely running a home business; you really need to know there are other people to connect with, people who understand. Working alone at home, you get isolated in your thinking and you may lose creativity. You get into a single-track though mode, and it helps to have people to bounce things off.
One of the other benefits of a MasterMind group is that the people in the group all see the world in different ways. A graphic designer, an EBay business owner, might have ideas that are new and creative to share with each other.
Being in a MasterMind group is a great opportunity for you to step out of your “box” and figure out your life and your business. The people in the group are not family or friends, so they have no other agenda. They are together for mutual benefit.
Can you participate in a MasterMind group by phone?
Certainly. Many groups use teleconferencing to meet. The group members can be anywhere, as long as they can agree on a time to meet.
What makes a successful MasterMind group?
For a group to be successful, the members must be committed and willing to participate. Groups can week as often as you like, but all members must commit to being at all meetings. And everyone must participate.
Does a MasterMind group need a leader?
Not a leader, but a facilitator. Having a skilled facilitator, someone who is skilled at running a group, keeps the group together and helps with difficult situations. The group is more likely to fall apart if it doesn’t have a facilitator. The facilitator makes sure everyone gets an equal amount of time to give and receive. Some groups have a bully, who likes to argue or dominate conversation. The facilitator can keep that person from dominating.
What kind of people should you not have in a MasterMind group?
As I mentioned above, bullies can be difficult. People who are intensely quiet and not willing to express opinions can also be difficult, but they can be drawn out by a skilled facilitator. People who aren’t into the process, who are not really trying to participate, can be a problem; these people may need to be asked to leave, or they self-eject. The facilitator’s role is to be aware of personality types and use skills to bring the group together.
How do I find or create a MasterMind group?
If you want to be part of a local group and meet in person, you can find people; most medium to large cities have many groups. A big-city Chamber of Commerce may have a list. You can also search online. If you can’t find one, create one. (Karyn didn’t mention it, but using social media like Twitter or FaceBook may give you a lead on a group.)
You might look at the MasterMind groups on The Success Alliance. The January groups are full, but you can sign up for a waiting list for the next group sessions facilitated by Karyn. Or you can find an online MasterMind group led by another trained MasterMind facilitator (go to TheSuccessAlliance listing).
Thanks, Karyn! I’m ready to join.
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More about Karyn: Karyn Greenstreet is the President of Passion For Business, LLC. Karyn is an internationally-known speaker, author, and self-employment expert who has taught business and personal development topics to over 250,000 people worldwide. She is extraordinarily passionate about helping self-employed people to create the life and business they want.
Karyn has significant experience in starting and running home-based and self-employed businesses since 1981. She has had successful businesses as a professional wedding & portrait photographer, owner of a recording studio, personal growth instructor, and owner of Passion for Business.
Tags: Karyn Greenstreet, MasterMind groups
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By Jean Murray -- 1 comment
January 13th, 2009
Home business owners know the benefits of working from home. But those same benefits are also drawbacks. Your availability to be with your children is also the difficulty, because you are available to be with your children.
I know how it goes. I was a work-at-home mom for several years when my children were very little. As someone who knows, I’m here to offer some tips:
1. Try to stick to a schedule. Notice I said, “try.” Sometimes it’s impossible, like when children are sick. But the more tightly you can hold to the schedule, the easier it will be for everyone. We all do better when we know what’s going to happen, and we all need order in the midst of the chaos of life. So creating a schedule and sticking to it the best we can keeps everyone happier.
2. Have backups for backups. When you have preschool and elementary school children, you will need to carve out time when your children are not around, so you can get work done. Usually that means a babysitter, pre-school, or “real” school. But I learned quickly that children get sick, sitters get sick or go on vacation, snow days happen. If your home business means you have to get things done at a certain time, you’ll need backups, and someone to backup the backup. In other words, you’ll need several people to call. Make a list, and make sure you have plenty of people on it.
3. Learn to say “No.” I learned that having a home business doesn’t mean you get to go on all the school field trips, chauffeur your children to every sport they want to participate in, and be PTA president. People will hear you “work from home,” and they will assume you have lots of time. You don’t. This is what became my mantra: “I am not going to be able to do that/be there/help with that, but if anything changes, I’ll let you know.” I learned to say that whenever someone asked me to do something, participate in an event, help with something at school. It’s a whole lot easier to say “no” at first then “yes,” than vice versa.
4. Don’t over-schedule. When your children hit a certain age (usually 5; sometimes sooner), they will begin to want to “do” stuff - sports, activities, classes, you know what I mean. Learning to say “no” to your children’s requests to participate in activities may be tougher than saying “no” to the PTA president, but it must be done. When I was at at-home mom, my children had to make choices: only one activity at a time.
5. Put Yourself First. Sounds like heresy, I know. But read on. The most important tip I can give you is not to let your children, or your business, run your life. Stop every so often, get away for an afternoon, and re-evaluate. Ask yourself, Is this work/family thing working for me? Is it what I want? Am I happy with the whole situation?
There are many ways you can adjust both your work obligations and your family obligations. If you aren’t doing well, then you need to make some changes. Putting others first is not going to make you a better businesswoman, mother, wife, or anything else.
If you have any other tips, or want to disagree with mine, please comment. I’d love to hear from you.
Images: PicApp
Tags: home business tips, home businesses, work-family balance, working moms
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By Jean Murray -- 1 comment
January 12th, 2009
Today’s guest post is from Sheryl Schuff, a CPA and home business success coach. Sheryl writes about making your business with productivity tools. Her post today is about EverNote, which sounds so cool, I’m going to leave you to read this while I go to the Evernote website to try it….
I’m Sure I Wrote That Down…Somewhere. If you’re like most of us, you write yourself notes to remind you of things. Things to do. Things to buy. Things to tell other people. Things you see on the Internet. You write these messages on sticky notes and scratch paper. Maybe you type some of them into documents on your computer. Perhaps you jot them down on the palm of your hand. But later, when you need to find them, it seems like an alien has snatched them and hidden them away.
Sound familiar?
Evernote - The Answer to the Mess. Prepare to be amazed. I recently found a terrific new way to get rid of the paper clutter that surrounds many of our desktops and organizes it in a truly useful way. It’s called Evernote, and it’s a free note-taking, picture-capturing, voice-recording, handwriting-recognizing memory service that lets you capture, organize, and (most importantly) FIND all your important stuff.
There are versions for the MAC and the PC as well as the iPhone, iTouch, and Windows mobile. There’s also a version you can use with SanDisk U3 flash drives. There’s even a Mozilla extension designed for use with Firefox and Flock browsers.
Here are just some of the things you can capture:
1. Copies of all those sticky notes piled on your desk
2. Pictures from your web cam or camera phone
3. Photos of business cards
4. Pictures of expense receipts
5. Text notes
6. Clippings of web pages
7. Voice notes or other audio
Store and Search. You store these items in virtual “notebooks” and you can synchronize all your data (with one simple click) across all your devices so you can access it from virtually anywhere. In my opinion, the best feature is that all the saved items are searchable. I’m really excited about the advanced search capabilities of Evernote. It can search through text and handwriting in images; that’s why I can snap pictures of the sticky notes and be confident that I’ll be able to find them when I need them. I don’t know of any other free or inexpensive software that can do this.
It can also search audio files and recognize spoken words that you’re looking for. Now, for example, I can quickly find all the recordings I have where I discuss self-employment taxes.
Do you see why I think this is such a cool organizational tool?
Evernote Image Formats. Evernote supports these formats now: text, html, pdf, jpeg, gif, png, wav, and mp3, and they will likely be adding more in the future. You can send snapshots from most popular cell phones via email or MMS.
Text Storage Too. If you don’t have a camera or scanner or you’re feeling somewhat technically challenged, you can still take advantage of Evernote’s powerful searching capabilities. Just type a note in an email message and send it to the special Evernote address you get when you sign up.
Their free account gives you 40 MB storage per month, enough for about 20000 text notes or 400 mobile snapshots, 270 web clips, 40 audio notes or 11 high resolution photos.
Premium Access. Need more? A premium account gives you 500 MB for $5/mo or $45 /yr.
Your notes are stored in a notebook that’s set to be private by default, but you can share it with other people by giving them the URL. You can have multiple notebooks.
It’s so loaded with features that I haven’t had time yet to try them all out, but what I’ve seen so far is quite impressive.
The CEO of the company calls it your “external brain.” That’s how it’s been working for me. No more excuses for not being able to find things. And a lot more space on my desk.
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Thanks for the tip, Sheryl. I went to the Evernote home page and watched a YouTube video showing how it works. It is unbelievable. I’m convinced enough to give it a try. After all, it’s free.
++++++++++++++++++++
More about Sheryl: Sheryl Schuff BS, MBA, CPA
Sheryl is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who specializes in consulting with new business owners, particularly those who are home-based . She helps them with the startup paperwork and choice of business structure and teaches them how to manage their finances and maximize their tax deductions. She is the founder of the Business Startup Success Club, and frequently writes about free software and services and productivity tips on her blog at SherylSchuff.com/blog.
Sheryl has been working from home for over 30 years.
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Tags: evernote, home businesses, home-business-success, sheryl schuff
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By Jean Murray -- 1 comment
January 10th, 2009
I spent some time online with my webmaster the other day, using new technology called Gotomeeting.com. With this service, we were able to talk on the phone and she showed me some possible ways to structure a new website I’m making. For a home business owner, this could be a useful tool. If you talk to clients on the phone, or if you want to hold a teleconference, this would be a great way to do it.
Here are the details:
- You invite people to join your meeting, by phone or VoIP (voice over internet protocol, like Vonage, lingo, or net2phone). I think Skype might also work for this. The participants don’t have to register or have a webcam (video connected to their computers).
- Then you set up whatever you want to show people on your computer - Internet screens, PowerPoints, documents, etc.
- When people call the number you provide, they enter a code to get into the meeting.
- Everyone can see your screen, or you can turn a screen over to someone else, so they can take over the presentation.
- Participants can chat with each other or with everyone, in addition to the phone and video part of the meeting.
- You can record the meeting and play it back later.
The meeting worked well with two people, although I wasn’t able to call in on my cell phone (I had to use an old-fashioned land line). That might be a problem if you don’t have a land line or VoIP. Otherwise, everything worked well.
The service is $49 a month or a reduced price for a year. You can try a limited version free for 30 days. If your home business involves frequent meetings and presentations, this would be a great service. Your participants don’t have to be Internet experts, but they do need to have some familiarity with the Internet.
If you try this service, let me know. I’m going to be using it for my business, now that I know how to use it.
Image source: PicApp
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By Jean Murray -- 1 comment
January 9th, 2009
Habits of Success: Showing Up
Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” What does that mean, for a home business owner? Being successful in a home business is a habit, just like any other activity. It’s been said that it takes 21 days to break an old habit or form a new one. So if you are committed to the success of your business, are you ready to commit to forming “habits of success” by the end of th is month?
Three habits of success you might want to consider:
1. Commitment to Work. Getting up every morning at the same time and getting to work. Not playing around making coffee reading the newspaper or staring out the window, or sleeping in. It means being committed to a home business in the same way as any other business. I started doing this at the beginning of December. I allow myself one day a week to “sleep in,” but no more. After a month, I have no problem getting up at 6 a.m. every day and getting to work (well, ok, I do fix coffee, but I can drink it while I work.)
2. Commitment to Business Growth. Ok, so you have mastered the commitment to work. The next commitment is to business growth. This habit sounds easier than it really is: Commit to doing one thing every day to move your business forward into new territory. Not just doing the same old thing, but trying something new. It might be getting on Twitter and networking. It might be attending a Toastmasters meeting or a Chamber of Commerce meeting in your town. It might be writing a new ad or putting a new product on your website. It has to be some new thing, and yo have to do one every day. Since I’m just starting my home business, I have lots of these. Every day I look at the list I’ve made and I do one thing. Today it was taking my new logo and letting my logo designer know what I want for business cards and stationery. See? It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be new.
3. Commitment to Personal Growth. This is the hardest one. Those New Year’s resolutions you made need to become reality. The only way to make them happen is to form a Habit of Success. Let’s say you made a resolution to exercise more (mine is to do yoga 3 days a week). Put it on your calendar and show up. You only have to exercise (do yoga) for 10 minutes, but you have to do it when you said you would. It’s like making a promise to yourself. And it works. I’ve been doing yoga 3 times a week for several weeks now, and I’m building up from 10 minutes to 30.
None of this stuff is easy, but every time you do it, it gets easier.
So what habits of success would you like to make this month? By the end of the month, I want a report.
Image source: PicApp
Tags: home-business-success, success habits
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By Jean Murray -- 1 comment
January 8th, 2009
Today please welcome Kathy Hendershot-Hurd. Kathy is the owner of VirtualImpax, a marketing and consulting firm, and she’s the author of Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results. I recommend Kathy’s book to all my students as the one local marketing book they should need. Kathy is going to talk today about why you should consider setting up a blog for your home business.
Here’s a thought provoking question for any home based business owner: Why do you want a blog (or a website) for your business?
You’ll notice, I use the terms “blog” and “website” as if they’re interchangeable - because today they are. While there are HUGE differences between the two from a coding standpoint, from the typical home based business owner’s point of view, a blog is simply a website with a CMS (Content Management System) in place to make updating content on the site both easy and efficient.
A business website, whether it takes the form of a static HTML website or blog, is often asked to function as a communication tool. Just as there are different tools to perform different tasks in your home and garden, there are different tools to accomplish different tasks in your home based business.
For example, a rake is a tool that does a great job of moving leaves in your yard when used properly. However, as any parent of a lazy teenager will attest, in order for the rake to accomplish the task of leaf removal, effort must be exerted on behalf of the (lazy teenaged) rake user. Oh, and it’s important to note that while a rake in the proper hands does a GREAT job of moving leaves, it does a terrible job of making holes.
That is why it’s important to determine what task you want your home based business website to perform. Since the primary task of marketing is to communicate the benefits your business provides to customers, it makes sense that a website can be a great marketing tool for home based business owners.
Creating an effective and easy to use marketing communication tool is a GREAT reason to have a website for your home based business.
However, if you want your website to act as a marketing tool for your business, then it’s important to recognize the role testing plays in creating marketing messages. Marketing professionals are constantly “tweaking” marketing messages because sometimes changing a single word in a headline can result in a huge increase (or decrease) in sales. Being able to perform that kind of testing is an important part of creating marketing messages for your business.
That is why I recommend blogs as the “website of choice” for home based businesses. Blogs allow the message to be delivered quickly, and they are easily tweaked. Many home based businesses don’t have the budget to hire a full time marketing professional to create and test marketing messages, nor do they have the resources to hire an IT professional to implement such testing. Because a blog style website is easy to update, you can easily “test” various versions of your marketing message.
When you know you want to remove leaves from your yard, you use a rake not a shovel. When you want to create marketing messages for your home based business, a blog is a great choice. Because blogs are super easy to update, you can use your blog to “test” your marketing message. You can tweak quickly and split test almost on a dime. Oh, and while you’re testing your marketing messages… you’re also building relationships and earning trust with potential clients.
That is why your blog can be your most powerful marketing tool and as such, can provide the foundation for your home business success.
Kathy Hendershot-Hurd is founder and president of Virtual Impax, a consulting firm that helps small business owners develop marketing strategies to grow and build their businesses. She is also the author of Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results. You can read more from Kathy at http://virtualimpax.com and http://beyondnichemarketing.com
Tags: blogging, home businesses, Virtual Impax
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By Jean Murray -- 2 comments
January 7th, 2009
I’m getting organized! I’m very excited about this, as I have been frustrated over the past month as I try to get my home business going. I have a lot of STUFF sitting around (David Allen of Getting Things Done (GTD) actually calls it that) and I have problems every day figuring out what to do first.
I’ve been studying GTD religiously. I even went out and bought a bunch of file folders and a labelmaker, as David Allen suggested. But I didn’t know where to start. I’m too disorganized to even BEGIN figuring it out on my own.
Then, today, miraculously, I met a professional organizer named Dee. Wow! It is fantastic how life gives you what you need when you ask for it. She has been working for someone else and she wants to start her own business. Of course, that’s what I do - help people start their businesses. So, we’re going to work together - she’s going to help me get organized and I’m going to help her get her business started.
Since January is “Get Organized” month here at Home Biz Notes, and our theme is “31 Days of Tips, Tricks, and Treats,” I’ll be bringing you some tips on organizing your home office from Dee and others. I’ll give you information on how to start a home organization business. AND I will have a treat for you - more about that later this month.
Image source: StockExpert
Tags: home business opportunity, NAPO, professional organizer
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By Jean Murray -- 2 comments
January 6th, 2009
Today’s tip is about a new free online financial management system. It’s called “Mint.com” (I guess the mint is like the one in Fort Knox, rather than the herb.). Mint allows you to see all your current account information for bank, credit card, investment, and loan accounts. So it gives you a clear picture of where you are financially at any time.
I set up a Mint account for my business, to help me remember when to pay credit card bills and to warn me if my business bank account is low.
Here is what Mint says it can do for you:
- It’s secure - your identity is not shared, you can’t move money or write checks, nor can anyone else.
- There is no software, so you can access your account information anywhere (they also have iPhone access and tex message alerts)
- It can send you alert messages, with weekly or monthly summaries, let you know when bills are due, when your balance is getting low, and when you are over budget. It also alerts you to changes in credit card interest rates.
- You can set budgeting goals and see how your spending compares.
- They give you checking, savings, and credit card offers (I suspect this is how they make their money).
Here are my comments on this free online service:
- It’s good to see the complete financial picture for your business at a glance.
- Mint is set up more for personal than business purposes, so the categories are all personal ones. I had to create new categories for my business expenses. It doesn’t link to Quicken, QuickBooks, or other accounting software, and it doesn’t put payments into tax-friendly categories.
- They say they can “save” you money, but you have to get a credit rating from a credit service (again, I think this is a money-maker for them). They push certain vendors -I imagine they are getting money for recommending certain vendors. But you don’t have to go to that section.
- I like the alert feature. I’m always forgetting to pay my credit card bills.
- It took me less than a half hour to set up all my accounts. I did have to know all my logins and passwords.
I thought it was pretty cool, for a free service. I’m not sure I’d do anything with it if I had to pay, unless I could have the ability to pay bills and transfer between accounts. But then, I can do that with QuickenBillPay now.
If you try Mint.com, let me know what you think.
Image source: PicApp
Tags: home business accounting, Mint.com
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By Jean Murray -- 0 comments
January 5th, 2009
Here at Home Biz Notes, January is special month. HBN is the featured blog for b5media, so I’m celebrating with 31 Days of Tips, Tricks, and Treats. One of the treats is the initiation of a Book of the Month feature. Each month I will focus on one book that can help you in your home business.
Getting Things Done. January’s Book of the Month is Getting Things Done by David Allen. Written in 2001, this book was at the top of the NYTimes bestseller list for many weeks, and it has become the “bible” of personal productivity. Allen’s title is clear, but his subtitle is even more revealing: The Art of Stress-free Productivity.
Book of the Month Discussion. Over the next few weeks, I will talk about the book, letting you know the basic tips the author discusses. I will also interview David Allen. I will give you some tips and tricks to help you increase your personal productivity, and to entice you to buy the book. I would encourage you to buy this book (I’m not getting any kickback from it; David Allen doesn’t need my testimonial). It’s $15 at Barnes and Noble or $9.43 on Amazon, or you might be able to find a used copy somewhere.
Personal Experience. I have started reading GTD and I am beginning to put Allen’s plan into action. I have lots of notes already and this week I’m going to begin my organization plan for my home office. I’m excited to finally be getting organized! If you decide to buy the book and work through Allen’s productivity plan, we can share experiences.
Why I Need to Get Organized. When I knew I wanted to use GTD for this month’s book, I started looking all over for it. I thought I loaned it to my daughter-in-law, but she says she gave it back to me. I think it was when I realized I was so disorganized that I couldn’t find the book on organization that I knew I was going to have to start over.
Questions about Personal Productivity. I need your help with my interview. What questions do you have about getting more productive? Balancing work and family? Working smarter? Getting organized? Send me a comment and I’ll add your question to my list.
Getting Things Done Contest. Toward the end of the month, I will have a Getting Things Done contest and give away a copy of Getting Things Done. (If you have already purchased it, I’ll send you one of Allen’s other books.)
For today, I’ll leave you with a couple of thoughts from David Allen:
He says, “Teaching you how to be maximally efficient and relaxed, whenever you need or want to be, was my main purpose in writing this book.” I love that - being both efficient and relaxed sounds like an contradiction, but it certainly makes a lot of sense. I can be much more relaxed when I’m organized. Less stress, more time.
Allen also notes that work has no clear boundaries any more. There is no clear distinction between our work and our personal lives. Nowhere is that more evident than for the home business owner. We are constantly juggling work and family, professional and personal obligations. Allen says we need a new way to “get a grip on it all, stay relaxed, and get meaningful things done with minimal effort, across the whole spectrum of … life and work.”
Join me in January in looking at Getting Things Done. I hope by the end of the month we are both more productive and more relaxed.
Tags: 31 Days of Tips Tricks and Treats, Book of the Month, home-business-owners, Personal productivity
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By Jean Murray -- 2 comments
January 4th, 2009
Mary Emma asked me this (she’s still at Quilting and Patchwork and she continues to follow what we’re doing here at Home Biz Notes.) Good question. Here is what AssistU says about what a VA is:
VAs are micro business owners who provide administrative and possibly personal support while working in long-term collaborative relationships with only a handful of terrific clients. Using phone, fax, email, as well as other emerging technologies, VAs support their clients’ needs, across the board, without having to ever step foot inside the clients’ offices.
Whatever you expect an administrative assistant to do for you, a VA can do. I have asked my VA (Cindy Gaffen at VirtuallyFantastic) to:
- make and confirm reservations
- pay with my credit card (she’s been with me for 3 years, and she’s always been completely honest)
- prepare and distribute PR releases
- prepare accounting information for my CPA for tax time
- manage printing, shipping, and sale of books
- deal with customer issues and concerns (she knows when to pass them on to me)
- manage my shopping cart and other online tasks
- research the best toll-free phone company and other vendors
That’s just a partial list. She is continually learning new stuff. I haven’t asked her to do PowerPoints, but she’s been trained in that service. Some VA’s specialize and some are generalists.
Dawn Goldberg has a list of services she performs, on her VirtualAngel website. They range from strategic services like website design and maintenance and writing, to administrative services, like reminder services, mailing, appointment scheduling,…
Working with a VA can be set up any way you want. I pay Cindy a retainer each month for a specific number of hours. If I go over the retainer hours, she bills me an additional amount; if I’m under the hours, I still pay the minimum. We email back and forth and sometimes we talk. She’s always very prompt and she always lets me make the final decisions.
You can see that a VA is a very valuable person to have on your team, as a business owner.
Tags: home business opportunity, Virtual Assistant
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By Jean Murray -- 2 comments
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