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Archive for the ‘Virtual Office’ Category

Start Hiring When You Want To Grow Your Business

March 25th, 2011

Maria Helm

How much time do you spend each day going to the post office, inputting data or running errands instead of working with paying clients? Hiring your first employee will help you grow your company and free up extra time to grow yourself as person.

Ask yourself where do you see your business in a year? In five years? If you want to grow – serve more customers, create new products, make more money- you cannot do it all alone. Think about why you went into business. It probably wasn’t to do administrative tasks. With an employee – the right employee – you’ll spend more time on what you’re good at (and make money doing) and less time on grunt work. That’s just one benefit and here’s a few more:

Spend your time on money-producing activities
Produce more products or services
Serve more customers
Make money when someone else is working
Bounce ideas off someone else
Use your time on the things you do best and like to do.

How do you know when it’s the right time for you to hire? Perhaps like retail stores, restaurants, and many tech companies, you need employees the day you open your doors. Or you’re so busy that you turn away work or can’t handle routine tasks. It’s amazing how many self-employed individuals don’t have time to get out their invoices. If you’re thinking of hiring, consider the following.

Posted in Virtual Office

Tags: Hiring, Small Business, Tips, virtual assistant

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E-Mail Time Saver Tips

January 13th, 2011

Maria Helm

Not many would argue that e-mail management is a big time waster. It’s necessary to stay on top of it, though, or else it piles up and becomes overwhelming.

But what if there were far fewer e-emails to begin with?

There would be if it weren’t for the indiscriminate use of “Reply All.” E-mail volume would drop suddenly and significantly were offices to outlaw “Reply All” or at least use it sparingly. Here are two things you can do:

1. Adopt time-saving protocols, such as adding an I, A, or R to the subject line of every e-email sent out to indicate whether the e-mail requires an action, a reply, or purely informational.

2. Download a NoReplyAll Outlook add-in that eliminates Reply All and Forward options to email you send from Outlook.

Feel free to comment or add your e-mail time saver tips.

“Diamonds are forever. E-mail comes close.” June Kronholz

Photo Credit: dampeebe

Posted in Communication, Virtual Office

Tags: E-mail, productivity, Time, Tips

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Gift Guide For Your Favorite Geek

December 14th, 2010

Maria Helm

The holiday season has arrived and it’s time to gift your favorite geek. If you’re an uber-geek without many friends, you can also gift yourself! Here is the annual Geek Gift Guide!

iPad. Absolutely the most popular vendor booth giveaway of the 2010 events season. If you didn’t win one – it’s now time to “gift” an iPad to yourself and your loved ones.
Windows 7 phone. You’ve come a long way baby! Stop by your local or online Microsoft Store and take a look. New and improved have never been more relevant.
New Kindle or Nook Color. The new Kindle is about half the price of the original with much better “lighting” to increase readability. The Nook Color has a nifty screen resolution. Yes, the screen has glare and can make your eyes tired after prolonged use, but then reading the National Geographic magazine in full color has wowed me. Rumor has it that one of the boxes under the tree with my name on it contains an an e-reader. Perhaps a new Kindle or a Nook Color? I’m not picky and will take either one.

Posted in Uncategorized, Virtual Office

Tags: Entrepreneurship, holidays, Tips

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Ways to Prevent the Most Common Web Meeting Errors

September 23rd, 2010

Maria Helm

Can you remember your first virtual meeting? For some of you, it was in the late 20th century, and you called it a “teleconference.” It was an expensive proposition.

Not anymore. Virtual meetings save you a boatload of money nowadays. And they are relatively simple. In this day and age, that’s a good strategy for a business owner. In fact, getting up and running with Web conferencing software today is so low-cost and easy that virtually anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can do it.

If it’s that easy, how much harder can holding a Web conference be? Careful. You can make mistakes. And blowing a Web meeting can cost your business money — either in lost sales (if it’s a sales presentation) or in lost productivity (if it’s a staff meeting).

So, before you jump into a Web conference, let’s review some of the most common Web conferencing errors, and discuss what can be done to prevent them.

1. You’re having a Web meeting — but you probably should have had a face-to-face meeting. A Web meeting isn’t a substitute for every kind of meeting. The No. 1 mistake small businesses often make is thinking that this affordable technology will actually eliminate their travel budget. A Web meeting is not a good way to start a relationship. You can’t read the expression on the participants’ faces; you can’t see their body language.

2. You’re not using the technology effectively. OK, so there are things you can’t do during a Web meeting — such as look out into the audience to see if anyone is snoozing. But there are other things you can and should do.Use polls, ask questions, engage the audience through the interactive features available to you. Your meeting participant will appreciate the attention and you’ll be able to gauge effectiveness and share results in real time.

3. You don’t have an effective presenter or facilitator. Delivery of the meeting is an area in which small businesses still lack experience, good reference models and tools that facilitate the effective management of a live online meeting. The ability to provide appropriate visuals, supporting

Posted in Virtual Office

Tags: Virtual, Web conference, Web meeting

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Making Your Case for Virtual Work

August 31st, 2010

Maria Helm

With mobile technology and online tools becoming available to anyone inexpensively or sometimes even free, more and more workers are thinking of cutting out commute time and work from home. The challenge is how does one make a case for virtual work? First, ask yourself whether the nature of your job does not require you to be present in the office. In other words, if you can start and finish your job or project without eyeball-to-eyeball contact with co-workers or customers, then you are a candidate for virtual work.

Second, are you sure you’re cut out for virtual work? Are you convinced that you have the self-discipline to work from home under minimal supervision? And perhaps more importantly, does your boss perceive you as the kind of self-starter who can perform independently? Are you a proven performer? Well organized? A good time manager? If you can effectively communicate your value to your employer, you’ll be better able to sell your boss on the idea of letting you do virtual work.

Once you are comfortable that virtual work or telecommuting is right for you, and you are fully informed, use the following guidelines and strategies to craft an effective proposal:

* Ask not what telecommuting can do for you; explain what telecommuting can do for your employer. Never frame your proposal in terms of how telecommuting will meet your needs. Don’t mention your need for better work-life balance, more time to spend with your kids, or any other personal need. State only that telecommuting will make you more productive and efficient, be a better use of the time you previously spent on the road, make your boss’s life easier — whatever benefits you come up with that focus on the employer’s needs — not yours.

Posted in Virtual Office

Tags: Credibility, Employees, Telecommuting, Virtual Work

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