Gone are the days when virtually everyone experienced the internet by sitting at a desk in front of a monitor. Today an ever-growing percentage of those online are using iPhones and other smartphones that allow them to visit your blog from virtually any location. Ensuring that your readers can see and understand your blog when using mobile devices to access it takes deliberate planning and occasional design adjustments. In particular, keep these ten points in mind to ensure that you do not accidentally prevent mobile phone users from enjoying your content.

1. Simplify

Most modern computers can handle large files easily, but mobile devices have varying technological capabilities and may not load as fast. Therefore, especially if your blog is cluttered with graphics and similar content, it may be intolerably slow on most mobile devices. Try simplifying your site a little to enhance the loading speed.

2. Shrink Pictures

 

Of course, you probably will need to include some pictures, but they do not have to take five minutes to load. Large picture files are slower to load than smaller ones, especially on mobile devices. Therefore, check to see if you can reduce the size of your picture files; you may be surprised how much can do so without a noticeable drop in quality.

3. Avoid Flash

Flash animations may look impressive on an ordinary computer, but may not show up at all on some mobile devices. Therefore, you may want to limit how much you rely on them in your blog, especially for important content.

4. Reinforce Video

Rare is the blog these days that does not contain video. However, video can be unreliable and occasionally inaccessible on mobile devices. If the video’s content is essential, make sure that it is accompanied by text that also conveys your message.

5. Hold the Center

Since mobile devices do not have a very wide screen, blogs that rely on horizontal visuals will force the reader to scroll awkwardly back and forth. Your readers will soon tire of doing that, so center your blog’s content to make it easier to view.

6. Use a Straightforward Layout

 
One rule that applies across all mediums, large or small, is to that you should keep your blog’s design as simple and intuitive as possible. Simple navigation is important for those who read your blog on an ordinary computer, but it is even more important in the world of mobile browsers.

7. Clean Coding

 

Most modern computers capable of compensating for less than clear HTML by filling in the blanks. However, mobile devices may not always be able to do so, meaning that flaws in your HTML not obvious on a laptop or desktop computer may suddenly become apparent on a mobile device. Make sure that you fully test your blog on mobile browsers regularly and correct any HTML errors it contains.

8. Limit Splashy Effects

Along with large pictures and Flash animations, many eye-catching backdrops and effects that work on large screens simply do not translate very well to smaller ones. That does not mean you cannot use special effects on your blog, but it does mean that you should use them sparingly and not make them essential to understanding your blog.

9. Do Not Inflate Text Sizes

The size of the fonts that make up your blog posts and titles can have a major impact on how easily people can read your blog on mobile devices. Large letters can mean slow scrolling on small screens, and long headlines can appear unappealingly cluttered. Although most mobile devices include the ability to zoom in and out, this may not always be sufficient to correct inflated font sizes.

10. Acknowledge the Audience

This last suggestion might seem obvious, but the best way to tailor your blog to meet the needs of your mobile audience is to keep them in mind every time you post. No writer can effectively reach their audience without keeping them always in mind, and mobile users are no exception. Just as you should regularly check your site’s appearance and ease of use for ordinary computer owners, you should do the same thing for mobile device owners.

About the Author:  Guest post contributed by Charles Dearing, on behalf of Who Is Hosting This.com – review site and webmaster tool that lets you discover which web hosting company any site is hosted with. They also provide more info about all the popular webhosts.

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The reason we have offices hasn’t changed in a hundred years, but the way we accomplish work there has. Offices, fundamentally, are a work-oriented space made for people to accomplish their tasks.  But it wasn’t until 1911 that one individual, a man named Frederick Taylor, decided to streamline office work and compartmentalize tasks into discrete entities. Good for efficiency, bad for the people: repetitive tasks became the norm, and office design changed to discourage socialization. Taylor saw the office worker as lazy, developing the need for office controls and strong management surveillance.

Due to this change in attitude, in the early 1900’s office design started to move away from a social, flexible atmosphere into a rigid, compartmentalized structure, running more like an assembly line than a social space.  Taylor designed offices where managers in private offices looked out over employees working in a completely open space.  Utilitarian in nature, office art would have been regarded as unnecessary.

Over the decades following, office space gradually relaxed from this strict hierarchical system: in the 1950’s, an egalitarian system sprang up, with undivided workstations, making conversation easier and placing managers on the floor with their employees.

It wasn’t until the late ’60’s that the famous cubicle-system was born, when Herman Miller designed Action, popularly known as the cubicle. The 80’s were the peak of the cubicle craze, with the popularly-termed ‘cube farm’ creating the dispiriting soul-crushing image of monotony highlighted in pop culture with the popular cartoon Dilbert. 

By the 90’s, companies were starting to innovate, using technology to create office design and layouts that hadn’t been possible 50 years ago. Corporate culture began to focus on the creative and social needs of the employee.  Designers were hired to decorate, money was invested in buying art for offices, and an entirely new idea of the office was born. 

Today, large technology corporations like Google and Facebook are a perfect example of how great office design can come together with the ideals of creating a creative, comfortable social space where employees are encouraged and supported.  No trace of the dreaded cubicle is found. Google, in particular, sets a model that directly contradicts 1911 Taylor’s idea of the worker as a lazy cog in an assembly line of paper and filing cabinets, a worker that needed direct supervision from above at all times.  At Google’s headquarters in California, people work together in a social office environment, designed to look like forests, ponds; filled with live potted plants, and provided with areas to relax and think alone.  Employees have cafeterias resembling nice restaurants, as well as kitchens; social spaces have everything from arcade games to table soccer.

In a hundred years office design has changed immensely.  While Frederick Taylor’s ideas of what an office should be were strict and discouraged creative thought, he has to be thanked for creating, essentially, the first idea of the modern office, with his ideas on streamlining work, giving each employee one particular task to do, and having managers overlooking employee’s work.  Over the decades his ideas have morphed into the modern-day office: well-designed to foster creativity and encourage productivity, provided with perks to keep employees from burning out, and created with a social aspect in mind. Luckily, we live in the 21st century and will hopefully never have to endure Taylor’s attempts at turning the office into an assembly line.

 About the Author:  This guest post is from Endre Rex-Kiss, an online marketing, social media and web development enthusiast. He currently represents Acrylicize, a US based art consultancy agency. Follow his occasional guest blogging activities on Twitter (erexkiss).

Sources:

http://www.chilloutpoint.com/science_and_technology/google-office-versus-facebook-office.html

http://www.gamc.nsw.gov.au/workplace-guidelines/3_wpdirections/wpdirections_3_01.htm

http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/17-04/pl_design#

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Photo Credit:  Toronto Public Library Special Collections

There’s no doubt about it: there are tons of trivial, low-budget, poor quality TV programs currently being aired, that give justification to the label of “ boob tube”.

There are talk shows that don’t “say” much. Programs that promote girls behaving badly. And a host of other fluff stuff.

But, with some selective viewing, you might be surprised to discover that there’s much to be learned on TV that can enhance professional and personal development, and shorten the learning curve.

Particularly when it comes to owning and operating a business.

Below are a few quality choices to check out, for your viewing pleasure and enlightenment.

1. THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE

When it comes to business, Donald Trump is no chump. The creator of this weekly program, and a larger-than-life leader in real estate, provides many lessons worth heeding regularly for business owners in any field.

The story line? Essentially the show takes famous folks from different industries, (i.e. models, actors, comedians, singers, wrestlers) and divides them into two equal teams of men and women. He then provides them with weekly “assignments” or tasks where each is pitted against the other for the ultimate title of his “apprentice”. The project manager, (each episode), of the winning team is rewarded with a donation to his favorite designated charity. On the losing team, someone has to be fired. 

Much like any work “environment” Donald has to deal with egos, catfights, ineffective team members, and general mayhem.

 You’ll never be bored in his boardroom. Even though he’s the boss that America “loves to hate”, Donald is decisive, discerning, and demanding. Note that he always surrounds himself with a good “team” (usually his family members or trusted long time friends). He gets feedback from the various people he manages to get a broader perspective of the success of his projects. He’s a survivor. He’s tough, but he also gives praise when earned.  Just a few principles and policies that today’s business owner should incorporate in their management practices as well. Visit their site at: http://www.nbc.com/the-apprentice/

2. SHARK TANK

Produced by ABC and originally launched back in 2009, this reality show features five filthy-rich investors, (a.k.a. “sharks”) that are presented with products and services from entrepreneurs where the panel has the opportunity to “buy into” the business, both figuratively and literally.

What can business owners take away from this show? Pertinent questions like why should consumers, advertisers, or lenders “invest” in their business? How are they different from their competitors?  Is their price structure realistic? Does there “elevator pitch” quickly and accurately convey what their business is about when presenting to others?

Watch episodes here: http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank

3. TV COURTROOM SHOWS

Whether it’s Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, or People’s Court, business owners can benefit on discussions and rulings related to labor laws, liability, wrongful termination, and contractual compliance. Knowing a little about the law can potentially save money and serve as a protective measure when conducting business.

These are just a few examples of how reality shows can be used as teaching tools, much like textbooks and real-life experience, to enhance business owners’ know-how, and ultimately their net worth! 

About the Author: Jennifer Brown Banks is a noted blogger, veteran freelance writer, and ghost writer.
Her blog, Pen and Prosper was chosen as a Top 10 Finalist at Write to Done’s annual contest. Banks has been featured at award-winning sites such as: Men With Pens, Technorati, Write to Done, Pro Blogger, and Daily Blog Tips.
Vist her site @ http://penandprosper.blogspot.com/

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The highly competitive market of today demands that new and upcoming small businesses put in twice as much effort as they did a decade ago in order to stay afloat. However, on the bright side, they also have twice as many business tools available to help them succeed. This will be the topic of today’s post in which we will highlight 7 extremely useful and productive tools that any business can use regardless of industry.

Batch Book

Batch Books is very handy cloud-based contact management system for sales and social media. Its sole purpose is to allow you to keep track of all your communications within the company and with your clients. It can create contact lists and also manage to-do lists. Users also have the ability to customize data for their reports.

MailChimp

Does your business send out regular newsletters to current and prospective clients? If so, then give MailChimp a try.  It can create professional email newsletters in no time. Users can chose from a list of templates, create their own, integrate everything with their social networks and track results. It has everything under one platform and best of all it is not that expensive.

Drop Box

I can’t stress the importance of drop box. In a nutshell, you can practically carry and file, videos, images or a project with you at all times. This software can be downloaded on any machine and synched to store all your relevant files. You can be in an internet café at the airport or in a hotel in another country and access all of your data online at any time from any place. It’s a free service that also connects with your Smartphone.

Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus & LinkedIn

Yes there are four social media platforms in one heading but I believe they should be covered together instead of separately. Most people regard them are social media platform but to small businesses, these are some of the most productive, and lucrative business tools they will ever get their hands on. All four are great ways to reach your target audience, interact with them, keep them up-to-date on the latest company news and also get their feedback on services and products. Best of all, they are completely free to use!

Skype

Staying in touch with customers, clients and even office employees has never been easier than with Skype. With an extremely user friendly UI, Skype enables companies to chat and video chat with people at any time around the world. It is a must have for any small business.

Square

Setting up a credit card payment system for small businesses can be a tedious task, not to mention expensive. However with Square, things are much simpler, faster and easier on your wallet. You can take or make payments anywhere and at any time and since all the payments are electronically tracked, you don’t have to re-enter the information every time you wish to make an online payment. This service is available on all mobile phones and Smart phones.

Evernote

If a big part of your job involves coming up with creative ideas from online resources, then Evernote would be perfect for your business. It allows users the ability to save sentences and paragraphs they see online and even entire web pages. You can also type in random thoughts, and record your ideas using their audio recording feature. This tool is invaluable for managers and think tanks.

The one thing that readers should take from this post is that unlike a decade ago, there is an abundance of innovative tools available today that are specifically designed to make start-ups and small businesses become more efficient, competitive and profitable. This is great news for small business owners because in today’s highly competitive job market, they are very keen on getting all the help they can get and tools like the ones mentioned above are invaluable in terms of communication, productivity and revenue.

About the Author: Alex Finlay is a design consultant with 10+ years of marketing experience, mostly with start-up companies. He helps start-ups create a brand image and grow their online presence. Alex has been working with LogoDesignGuru on many online marketing projects, providing brand identity solutions for small businesses.

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Your online business rises and falls on smart decisions. If you invest your time and money in a marketing strategy that doesn’t produce results, you’ll be out of business in no time. If you spend more than you need to on content creation or web design, you’re likely to grow at a much slower pace than you desire. Even your choice of credit card processor can have significant implications.

Here are some of the big mistakes online retailers make when they’re choosing a credit card processing company, and how to avoid them:

Not shopping around for quotes

Different credit card processing companies have different criteria for how they figure your rates and fees. For example, the length of time you’ve been in business, your credit rating, and the average dollar amount of each sale will figure into the equation. Get quotes from several companies – 4 or 5 are good to start – so that you know what range you’re working with.

Not understanding the fee structure

While there are certain restrictions on how credit card processing companies can structure your fees, you do need to be fully aware of their policies. Some online retailers choose a credit card processing company by looking at the average rate, not realizing that the actual rate they’re charged might vary greatly based on number of transactions per month, or the size of the average transaction. Make sure to get a full rate and fee listing before you pick your processing company.

Not verifying gateway compatibility

Most of the credit card processing companies do a decent job interfacing with shopping cart software. That being said, not every processing company will work with every cart software option. Verify compatibility with the vendor, and consider doing some research on your own to see what kinds of issues other clients have faced trying to use the gateway with your particular software. Identify whether you’ll need a third party piece of software to make the whole thing work.

Leasing equipment

If you expect to be in business for more than six months, you need to buy any relevant or necessary equipment. With strictly online retailers this isn’t usually an issue; you can usually get by without any equipment at all. However, if you intend to do any phone or offline sales and need to have equipment, make sure to make the investment rather than paying thousands extra over time for the lease.

Not knowing the cancellation policy

Some companies can charge you a significant fee for cancelling your contract. Verify the amount of the cancellation fee, and check the length of the contract. You want the flexibility to switch to another credit card processing company if you wish, without being severely penalized.

Choosing the right credit card processing company doesn’t have to be an arduous process. Armed with a little bit of knowledge, you can ask the right questions and make sure the processor you’re choosing is the right one for your online business.

About the Author: Emma Vasar is a finance writer whose interests and passion for helping others have led her to become an expert in small business. Get more tips and advice on her merchant account blog!

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Sometimes, the best way to cut costs for your business is to do more for your employees. This can be as simple as remembering that you don’t have to compensate injured employees or pay for high medical expenses if there aren’t any injuries in the first place. Promoting on the job safety, health and wellness can go a long way towards cutting your workers compensation and medical costs dramatically, leaving you more money to re-invest in your business.

Get Into a Preventative State of Mind:

If you don’t already have a safety training program, now is the time to create one. Have an industry expert analyze every aspect of your production in search of potential hazards. Fix any problems and do a similar evaluation regularly to account for any changes to or degradation of equipment or procedures. When hiring a new employee, do a thorough introduction to these safety procedures. Set a day each month to review these procedures with all relevant workers, and to retrain them on any new measures.

Build in Rewards:

To really engage your employees and promote performance, reward excellent safety habits with cash compensation, a day off, an early leave, a prize, or something chosen by the employees. This will keep employees on their toes and will give them a reason to care about their safety performance. For the best results, couple this with clear goals and by widely advertising the number of days your business goes accident free. The better employees can track their performance, the better they’ll do.

Clarify Protocol:

Have procedures ready in the event an accident or injury does occur. The better versed your employees are in the event of an emergency, the faster they will respond, the less grave the injury will be. Make sure a procedure is set for the administration as well, one that includes follow up with the injured employee and their doctor. This will help your employee feel like you care about enabling their return to work, which will reduce bitter feelings and the chance of a law suit.

Guard Health and Wellness:

You may want to consider going a step further by developing a full health and wellness program. This will of course reduce your medical costs for basic care, but it also will help prevent accidents on the job. After all, in labor intensive industries you want your employees in top condition. It helps no one if your employee puts off going to the doctor for that chest pain because they feel they can’t afford it, and then collapses over a dangerous piece of equipment. Likewise, it’s best to encourage office workers to get those tingling fingers checked early so preventative measures can be taken before expensive carpal tunnel surgery is required. Preventative health and wellness programs can include everything from free flu shots to guard against widespread loss of your workforce during one season to encouragement for yearly physicals to gym discounts and sessions with a nutritionist to encourage long term health.

Provide Complete, Affordable Health Insurance:

There are many further ways to provide complete health care coverage without breaking the bank. Depending on your region and the size of your business, consider pooling your health insurance costs with that another small business for a bigger discount rate. Encourage the group to shop around for the best rate and to audit these costs at least once a year. Pick a plan that emphasizes prescription of generic drugs to increase access to all necessary medication, as well as one that provides access to less expensive doctors through HMOs.

Research Workers Compensation Insurance Plans:

The above programs will go a long way towards keeping your employees happy and in working shape. But none of these approaches will fully allay the costs should an employee be seriously injured, so make sure that you have the best workers compensation insurance out there. This will protect you from lawsuits, pay for most of an injured employee’s lost wages, and help compensate employees with medical treatment and rehabilitation costs. As with health insurance, shop around for the best rate and have your workers compensation insurance audited frequently. If you find your costs are spiking, your business may have been improperly classified, so have someone monitoring the account who is in the know. Your employees are your business. Investing in them long term means investing in your business. Pay the costs up front and get the systems in place and your business can be not just a great place to work but one that thrives financially as well.

About the author: James Daugherty writes and blogs for companies like Atlanta Injury Lawyers, and shares his knowledge on small business subjects including workers compensation. 

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For any business owner looking to attract and convert more visitors, one sure way is to utilize and implement video testimonials from satisfied customers.  When used properly, these videos will make your website more visually appealing (and sticky!).

Getting more exposure

In today’s social media society, visibility is vital to being a leader among your competitors. A few short video testimonials can draw quite a bit of attention, which often times will encourage your visitors to share your content with others on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.  

Not only will this help increase exposure across social media networks, it will also help your search engine rankings.  This makes it easier for prospects to find your business, access your website and purchase your products and services. 

Touching individuals in different ways

A video testimonial can easily answer a customer’s questions, almost acting as a visual form of a FAQ.  This can provide both visual and audio reassurance of a company, its products, and its staff. 

For some customers, a video testimonial adds credibility to the website and adds a personal, one-on-one experience.

Linking your videos to your social media properties

Websites that also leverage social media pages for their business can reap the benefits of these videos testimonials by showcasing clips on YouTube and Facebook for a double-dose of visibility. This can be another strategy used to gain more followers and momentum online.

Displaying important information above-the-fold

Some visitors prefer quick information when they visit a web page.  Most people don’t appreciate pages of content and dozens of confusing links to navigate through. 

Video testimonials, if used properly, can summarize common questions about:

• Pricing & billing;
• Discounts;
• Warranties;
• The company’s return policy.  

Boosting credibility and putting your visitors at ease

Not only will these video testimonials serve as a visual source of information, but they also have the ability to put potential customers at ease.  If a visitor has never used your company’s product or services before, this can boost your credibility and make them feel comfortable buying into your offering or simply reaching out directly for more information. 

About the Author:   Sean Rosensteel is the Head of Business Development at Bravo Video, a web-based platform that enables businesses to easily capture video from customers, users and fans – right over the web.

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Entrepreneurs have it rough. Whoever said business owners are living the dream obviously didn’t witness the constant wrangling to create a profitable entity. First, there’s ideation followed by market research, raising capital, and then hopefully, execution. Oh, and did I mention actual operation? Within each of these stages, there are multiple tasks that must be accomplished. At nearly every step of the process, things can go painfully awry. For example, when marketing to one’s target audience, activities might include building a website, posting on forums to gain credibility, launching a social media initiative, blogging, contacting the media, direct mail, email newsletters, etc. Each element has hundreds of moving parts.
There’s little disputing the entrepreneur’s to-do list is as large as Charlie Sheen’s ego. Although it’s possible to effectively complete many of these tasks without assistance, doing so consumes an enormous amount of time. No matter how good one might be at time management, there are only 24 hours in a day. Once an hour has been spent, it can never be reclaimed. Of course, the apparent solution is to simply hire others to complete these tasks. While ideal, this is not always possible. Many entrepreneurs operate on a shoestring budget and paying someone to execute what are perceived as menial tasks makes zero sense. Others have trouble with (what’s that word? ah, yes…) delegation and lord knows only the owner could possibly complete the activity correctly.

Trying to do everything by yourself will lead to certain things being done exceptionally well, but others…not so much.
Fortunately, there’s a modern-day solution to this age-old conundrum: virtual assistants. Virtual assistants can be invaluable for small business owners. They can help with literally any aspect of business—from accounting and secretarial work, to web design and research—without being in the same room or even the same country. Often, a virtual assistant can complete their assignments while you sleep. Pam Ivey is a leading ‘virtual assistant’ expert. Her company provides coaching, training, and mentoring in effective and profitable outsourcing strategies to business owners around the globe.
A strong advocate for freeing business owners from their self-imposed, control-driven shackles, Pam believes an effective leader should concentrate on what they do best and enjoy most. Everything else can be outsourced, ignored, or completed by a capable employee. The formula for building substantial wealth and passive income requires attaining balance, allowing others to help grow your business, and focusing on generating new ideas while cultivating sales. Interestingly, by allowing others to complete tasks you’d normally devote time to, additional income and freedom can be realized.
Establishing a system for managing virtual, or in-person, assistants must be viewed as an investment. Whereas there may be a slight drop in immediate income, over the long haul, massive dividends will be realized. The end result is flexibility—something every entrepreneur desperately needs.

What Is A Virtual Assistant?  

As the name implies, a virtual assistant is someone who, for an hourly fee, helps with various aspects of business. There are three classifications to choose from:

• Generalist: A person who can complete rote tasks, such as data entry or forum posts.
• Technical: A person who can build websites, landing pages, handle product launches, etc.
• Specialist: A person who can handle management tasks and/or specialized functions, such as accounting, human resources, training, etc.

Prices vary depending on skill. On the low end, overseas assistants can be hired for as little as $2.50 per hour. Native English speakers with high-qualifications or specialized skills can range from $20 to upwards of $100 per hour. Unlike a salaried employee, however, this represents the net cost for hiring. As with an independent contractor, substantial savings are realized given that state and federal taxes, bonuses, medical coverage, communication, and/or transportation expenses do not have to be paid for a virtual assistant.
And, while there is a known correlation between price and quality, one is often surprised at how good a $2.50/hour employee can actually be. With clear direction, they are more than capable of handling numerous tasks, especially data entry, networking (simply provide a form letter) and research.

When To Use A Virtual Assistant

Can now be any clearer? As business owners, it is certainly tempting to do everything. As discussed, for most, money is tight and paying even $100/week for a virtual assistant can seem overwhelming. After all, not only are you paying funds you could readily use yourself, you’re also constantly managing someone else. Who needs it?
On the surface, both are legitimate concerns. However, the pain is temporary. It’s important to realize that there will never be a perfect time to hire and train someone to complete tasks that have become second nature. Therefore, it’s better to bite the bullet now. The sooner you call in the cavalry, the faster you can reap the benefits.

How To Best Leverage A Virtual Assistant

Hiring someone to execute monotonous and repetitive tasks is the perfect way to enter the world of virtual assistants. For first-time users, identifying exactly what to outsource and what to keep in-house, can be confusing. Pam recommends beginning your utilization of virtual assistants for the following activities:

• Technology: Business owners should concentrate on growth. Period. This requires focusing on front-end elements, such as ideation, management, marketing and promotion. Back-end details such as programming, bill paying, web design, and database management are ideal activities for a virtual assistant to handle. Each activity can be tied to specific performance milestones. This is an imperative element of the outsourcing equation.
• Email Management: As your business develops, your inbox will grow with it. Having a virtual assistant handle email can be a fantastic idea. Of course, there are numerous emails you’ll need to handle personally. However, it’s fairly simple for a VA to sort through your inbox, answer frequently asked questions via template response messages you provide, delete spam, and categorize/flag emails that require your attention. After completion, you can then address what’s necessary.
• Customer Service: Though a bit labor intensive, training virtual assistants to handle customer service can be a worthwhile endeavor. As business blossoms, providing customers with the opportunity to have their questions answered at virtually any time becomes mandatory. This is clearly one area where you don’t want to cut costs as poor customer service can have dramatic, negative implications. Creating scripts and providing responses to FAQs will be a necessary—but valuable—investment of time. And, while you may hesitate to turn the reigns over to someone else, keep in mind that medium and large corporations have used telemarketing firms to handle inbound inquiries and customer service-related issues for decades. It’s time for small business owners to join the ranks.
• Bookkeeping: Keeping the books current, paying invoices, reconciling statements, and billing customers is a tedious, yet essential requirement of every business. Further, there’s maintaining records, submitting quarterly and annual reports, and filing state and federal income tax returns. None of this is fun…all of it is mandatory. These necessary evils are often outsourced to high-priced accountants or bookkeeping services to handle. Some of these activities should certainly be reviewed by a licensed professional, but a virtual assistant can handle much of the work involved for a fraction of the cost. This in turn, provides freedom for you to focus on more pressing concerns.

As your comfort level grows with allowing others to complete everyday activities, you can add further responsibilities. Eventually, this may include cultivating sales, human resources, and literally any element of operating a business. Step one is getting started. From there, anything is possible.

Managing Your Virtual Assistant

As with managing any assistant, attention to detail is required. Pam offers four proven strategies for making sure your VA is not only completing assigned tasks as directed, but also doing so in a timely manner:

• Create a cloud-based workgroup. Cloud systems allow employees across the world to access to the same worksheets, calendar, and timeline for project completion. Requiring your assistant to consistently update documents empowers you to stay current on work completed.

• Set weekly meetings to talk face-to-face. While communicating via email is acceptable, video conferencing is preferred. The medium allows you to forge a closer connection with your assistant and develop a relationship that moves beyond the impersonal nature of email. Too often people develop “overly strong fingers,” saying things via a keyboard that they’d never say when looking you in the eye (even if it’s via a camera lens). A minimum of two half-hour meetings should be held each week. Skype and Oovoo are two proven tools that make communicating face-to-face simple.

• ·Set, and maintain, a specific schedule for project completion. Holding to a specific schedule ensures that tasks are being completed in timely fashion and allows for monitoring of day-to-day activities. A virtual time clock provides an easy-to-use mechanism for tracking hours. While not a perfect system, it enables you to compare results versus hours paid. Virtual Time Clock at RedCort.com/timeclock is one of the best. Staying ahead of potential issues is an important component of working effectively with an assistant. Consistent updates allow you to keep an eye on progress.

• Periodically throw a split-finger fastball. Every now and again ask your assistant to complete a unique task—ideally one that requires additional information from you such as a hidden domain or password-protected account. After providing details, at some point in the near future, redirect the domain or change the password. If the assistant is really busting his rump on your behalf, he’ll immediately contact you to say he can no longer gain access. If more than a day or two passes, odds are good he’s not fully engaged with the project.

As with any employee, attention and encouragement are required in order to bring out a VA‘s very best. A virtual assistant must be treated as an integral part of your team. If you deal with your VA fairly and express appreciation for good work, that assistant can become a tremendously valuable resource. If not, don’t be shocked if you suddenly stop receiving replies to your emails.

Virtual Value

Creating a thriving endeavor is a daunting task…there’s no doubt about it. However, by remaining open to non-traditional opportunities, you provide yourself a reasonable chance to achieve an enviable level of success. Hiring a virtual assistant, though growing in popularity, has yet to be accepted by the mainstream. But, that’s okay—effective leaders always play the game at a different speed and encourage others to catch-up.
So the next time you find yourself bogged down yet again with a repetitive task, ask yourself, “Could this be outsourced?” Quite often the answer will be yes. Ultimately, if you’re willing to recognize there may be an easier way to accomplish your objectives, you greatly increase your chances of creating a profitable entity. Just remember, the world is not against you—it’s simply waiting for you to ask for help.

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About the Author: Steve Olsher is the author of Internet Prophets: The World’s Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online and creator of Internet Prophets LIVE!, which takes place June 8-10, 2012 in Chicago. Featuring 29 of the world’s leading Internet, Mobile and Marketing experts such as Jay Conrad Levinson, Mike Filsaime, Mike Koenigs, Larry Winget, Marc Ostrofsky, Dan Hollings, Janet Bray Attwood, Armand Morin, and many others, Internet Prophets LIVE! provides small business owners, solopreneurs, and consultants with proven no- and low-cost guerrilla marketing strategies, tools, and tactics for cultivating leads, dramatically increasing conversion rates, and generating massive, passive income. Tickets are only $147 until May 15. For more information and to reserve one of the VERY limited number of remaining seats, please visit www.InternetProphets.com.  

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A financial planner is a professional who would put together a financial plan for you to help you achieve your financial goals. Before considering a financial planner, it would be good to examine if you really need a financial planner. As you grow older and your income increases and your list of goals become bigger, it would be prudent to engage the services of a financial planner. Even if you know the basics, it would be worthwhile to have sound advice from a professional. While the fee may appear steep, it becomes sensible when you look at the purpose for which the money is being spent.

Some planners confine their services to drawing up a financial plan without getting into execution whereas others do both. There are merits and demerits to both these approaches. Let us look at a few important features that you need to consider when you choose your financial planner.

Relevant credentials:

The plan should be made by a certified financial planner with the relevant experience and qualification to render appropriate advice. Given the plethora of people you encounter ranging from your stockbroker to your tax consultant and the friendly banker, you need to be able to distinguish a financial planner from the rest.

No obligation service:

There should be absolutely no obligation to buy any products from the planner. This will eliminate any conflict of interest that may exist as the planner will suggest products that are beneficial to you and not look at his/her commissions. Planners who charge a fee for their services are likely to provide unbiased advice compared to ones who earn their income primarily from commissions.

Ability to provide a comprehensive plan:

The plan should address all areas, ranging from your short term goals, life goals and your retirement and insurance needs.

Customised and confidential service:

The planner should meet you exclusively in a place convenient to you, to collect the required information and subsequently render personalized advice when presenting your financial plan.

Large players versus individuals:

Large firms claim to bring structured processes and systems which ensure consistency and standardization. However, as a customer if you are sure about the quality of service from smaller players, you can go ahead and engage them as quality is not dependent on size. Also, larger players may have a vested interest in pushing mutual funds and insurance products from those providers who are affiliated with them. And smaller independent financial advisors can provide more personalized service. Another big advantage with smaller players is that you engage with the same person throughout, as opposed to larger organizations where the individual may take up a bigger role. When it comes to executing a financial plan, a larger organization would score better, given the kind of access to resources that they would have.

Summary:

It is also important that the planner should be able to provide you with testimonials or show his/her track record. At the end of the day, given the important role played by a financial planner, it is worthwhile to spend time and do appropriate due diligence before engaging with a planner. You can check out the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) to locate planners.

Author Bio: Christopher is a full time blogger and part time financial counselor. He has invested his time and energy in producing quality information for ISA Rates and its subsidiary blogs. He is a passionate finance professional who wants to reach out to a large audience through web and media.

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By nature I’m a crummy networker. I know this might strike you as odd, coming from someone who teaches how to attract business, but this is a fact. I’m a crummy social networker, I’m a crummy Happy Hour go-er, I’m a crummy Chamber of Commerce attendee, and in general I’m a crummy schmoozer.  When given a choice I’d rather go to the small dinner party rather than to the bar, would rather be one to one coaching a client friend than stand in front of a crowd and speak; no one would ever mistake me for the “life of the party”. That would have been my ex husbands job. And I was glad he was there to take on that role as it got me off the hook. One can see how this might prove a bit problematic given my field of choice, which relies heavily on attracting clients so that I can help others do the same.

So early on I realized that if I really wanted to help others expand their reach to gain new customers that I needed to lead by example. Hence I’ve developed a series of systems that have not only worked for me, but have allowed me to expand my “list” and networking reach x4 within the past 2 years.  And growing.

Here are my top 5 techniques designed to increase your exposure and expand your list of targeted clients. Try them and be consistent and disciplined with them, and I promise that within 6 months you will have increased your presence in front of an audience that looks forward to your involvement and needs your services:

1)    Attend targeted networking events

Unless you are there for strictly educational purposes, nothing says waste of time quite like attending networking events where your main audience is your competition. That is if your goal is to expand your reach and gain clients. Make sure you’re being strategic when choosing what networking events you choose to attend by choosing events and organizations that your target audience has a reason to be at. And bring cards, please dear God.

2)    Volunteer

If your target market is local, volunteering for a position in front of the attendee’s (like sign in person, list builder, event planner, marketing person, etc.) will not only keep you in the spotlight in front of your audience but will give you a handle on the audience themselves, so that you can connect later. Just make sure you’re not expected to be tied to a table for the entire event. Kind of defeats the purpose, right?

3)    Reach out to a stranger

Every day. Make a list of folks who could have a definite benefit for you and your career in the long run, and reach out even if you are scared. Out of your comfort zone? Yes, mine too, but so what? Chances are that if you word your email in a respectful way that shows your reverence and appreciation of what they’ve done to either further their own career, be a thought leader, teach you everything you know today, shown you the path to enlightenment, fill in the blank) they will be honored that you have reached out to them. Ask them a question so as to keep the conversation alive and elicit a response from them. I.e.: “ Thanks so much for what you’ve offered the world of online marketing. Without your contributions my business would be in the toilet right now. Can I ask you who your mentors were?” Make sure it’s authentic. Inauthentic just appears stalkery.

4)     Connect with social media connections.

Notice I don’t say make sure you’re all over social media. Use it to your advantage but if your target market is not tweeting, has no idea what a “Twitter” is and has no interest in ever doing that chirpy thing, don’t waste your time on Twitter! Rather make sure that your time on the social media sites that they are frequenting is being used smartly. Ask questions, be there to answer them, reach out to the aforementioned strangers named above here, using it as a forum to engage and expand. Join groups that might be looking for your knowledge, not groups of your colleagues, again unless you are there to educate yourself and search for strategic alliances. If your purpose is to connect with attorneys, find legal sites that these attorneys are on already and form relationships there by asking questions, looking for a need (read the feeds!) and be there to be an expert on that “need” with either a comment, a link to your blog or a question.  Oh, and please when connecting with folks on Linked In, I will personally come and chop off your fingers if you send the default message which says “I’d like to connect with you on Linked In. “ Come on, you can do better than that. Make it personal. This is the perfect opportunity to connect; don’t blow it.

5)    Form strategic alliances with folks in similar but not competing professions

Think about this: you a mortgage provider. Your strategic alliances, your sphere of influence, are for the most part, real estate attorneys and realtors. Create alliances to benefit both of you, by either having a link placed on each others websites, or by having the realtor send out an email from her list talking you up, endorsing you, and offering a wonderful incentive, or a new program you happen to running, by clicking into a link right in the email which will bring them directly to a landing page you’ve set up specifically for this service, with a call to action right on that page and an obvious opt-in. What if you did this with your top 10 realtors? You have now expanded your reach to include all of their lists. Think of ways you can make this up to them without getting either one of you arrested and you now have a great big new network of potential clients.

Oh, I’ve got so many more, which I’m putting together now into a big fat e -book, so stay tuned, and in the meantime, start applying these techniques consistently, on a regular basis and see what happens. That’s the only way it works. Let me know how it works out for you.

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Photo Credit:  woodleywonderworks