Monthly Archives: December 2009

The Balancing Act

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Working from home is a choice that many of us in this day and age are considering.  However, it’s not an easy choice to make nor is it the “right” choice for everyone.  Here are a few suggestions to remember when considering this option like:

  • What are my most productive times of the day?
  • Do I have ample space to set-up an office…away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the house/family?
  • Are my time management skills ready for this challenge?
  • Am I flexible enough?
  • Can I deal with not having coworkers physically around me every day…am I OK to work alone?

   For some, being able to stay home and help raise your children is ideal.  However, when you start to factor in time to work or start your own business along with ample family time, it can get overwhelming. 

   That’s where the balancing act comes in and to be completely honest, it could take a bit of time to get all the kinks worked out.  Best thing you can do, is don’t get discouraged.  Things will start to run more smoothly once you get into a rhythm.  This is where your time management skills come in handy, whether you use an online calendar through Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo or some other sort of time management system.  Knowing what’s on your calendar on a daily basis will also help you to stay flexible in case something last minute comes up.

   Another adjustment to consider is going from having physical interaction with others on a daily basis to not much, unless it’s your children.  If you thrive in an environment where you can interact with others, like a brainstorming session, than this may be a bigger adjustment for you to make.  In order to help compensate for this, make sure you keep lunch appointments or coffee appointments on your schedule for former coworkers or other friends/family.  This will help keep you connected to the “outside” world.

   Most importantly, you are choosing this new direction for a reason. Whether it’s a yearning to strike out on your own doing exactly what you love or whether it’s the desire to help raise your family, make sure to take personal time.  Many times we forget about ourselves and our families when we start a new endeavor, however, that’s the glue to this whole thing!  YOU are now in control of what happens next!  If you don’t take time out for your personal enrichment and for time with your family, ultimately they along with you and your new business will suffer.

   Balancing all these new expectations is not easy and there is no one right way.  With anything worth having, perseverance, patience and time will see you through.

   Good luck and I wish you all nothing but great success!

Google Voicemail Transcription

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Hello! My name is Amber Whitener, and I am the owner of Virtual IT Assistants. I am so excited to begin a WordPress blog with other talented Virtual Assistants so we might all learn from each other!

At work, I am revving up for another new year full of prospects and possibilities! Over the past year, I have tried countless applications and services that have been developed (with an intent) to make our jobs and staying in touch, easier. Because we are all in the business of meeting needs as efficiently as possible, I am going to share some tools that will help you streamline your business processes.

This post is to reveal a new service that I have found to make life and business better with a little automation. You know how it is when you find a twenty dollar bill in your pocket? Services and applications that really do some of my work for me is like finding extra money every day! Time is money right? This is especially true for small businesses. So, let’s get to it!

GoogleVoice

Ok, so you’ve heard about Google Voice. Maybe you’ve already received your invite and had it set up. Even if you don’t use it as a main contact number, you may find this feature handy. Google Voice will be your own personal transcriptionist! Log in to your Google Voice account and go into settings under “Voicemail and SMS” and turn on “Transcribe Voicemails”. The name is self-explanatory; it will transcribe your voicemails into text and email you the transcription. I called my Google Voice number, left myself a message, and here are the results of my test.

This is an MP3 of my actual voicemail:

And this is how Google transcribed the message:
Hello, this is Amber Whitener and I am testing out the ability of the transcription for. Duke’ll voicemail and this getting really handy if this works because I am always writing down quick messages and just making myself. Bunch of own notes to remember it’s a blog about, or just even tasks I need to do, but if you call myself in the house on my own voicemail type it out for me. That would be awesome. So anyways, this is my test and hopefully it works, and even with background noise because I’ve got commercials and people on the background so that’s right. Bye.

As you can see, the accuracy isn’t perfect, but neither is our handwriting when we jot down a note. Right? I even rambled on a little just to see what it would type out and how long it would go. It seems it will record and transcribe more than a minute of text! I imagine that the type of phone you use to leave yourself the message could matter, but I had a lot of background noise and it was still a very good result. After all, if you had to be in a completely quiet and optimal setting, this wouldn’t be as valuable a tool. However, I am very pleased with this result and it was simple enough to setup, even for a beginner.

Thanks again for the great new tool, Google! Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing more every Monday.

Introduction

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Welcome to The Work at Home Life blog.

Here you will learn about

☑ the best virtual office organizational processes and tips,
☑ social network tips for businesses to build an effective social network,
☑ the best internet tools that streamline and really do some of your work for you (e.g. in January you will learn about a free service that will transcribe your notes and email them to you!),
☑ and last but not least for all those work at home parents we will all be sharing advice and support for balancing family and work at home!

We all learn from each other. We will be posting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday beginning on Monday, December 28, 2009.

Read more about the VA Friends

Blogs That Teach You How to Make Money Online

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The following is a comment/question from Mary Janet of MoneyandTraffic.com

I have been following this blog for a while and think your very accurate with the information, do you have any other blogs I can follow or ones you recommend, especially on making money at home because those are the keywords I was researching the first time I saw your blog. I really enjoyed reading this. Mary Janet

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, Mary Janet. As far as work at home, I follow lots of different circles of people who make lots of money on line by legitimate means. The following is a list of people who do this and what it is they do to make all this money, and blogs to follow to keep up with what they are doing.

iJustine – makes lots of money by creating viral videos and getting lots of sponsors to get in on the unconventional, yet very effective publicity.

Chris Brogan’s social media posts makes a LOT of money teaching business people how to realize and leverage social media make your own rules for acquiring successful business online.

Gary Vaynerchuk preaches passion and consistency to make money, grow a healthy following, and just keep it real.

This year, three awesome and successful virtual assistants, (including yours truly ;) ) started a group blog together to share our strengths, methods, and moments of triumph in the virtual business world.

Of course none of these blogs will teach you specifically how you can make money from the comfort of your own home online. They are just some best of the best examples of how people found their specialty, become the very best at it, stay interesting, be helpful, and steadfastly passionate. If you come across others that you like, let me know! :)

Build Up or Tear Down

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A post in response to: With Great Power by Chris Brogan

It’s true that there are bloggers who are esteemed highly and can really have serious influence when writing about other businesses. People need outspoken and confident bloggers like Chris Brogan and Guy Kawasaki to spark ideas and share experiences. The thing is, we are all here to share “a piece of our mind” with the world. We like to have someone to look up to, for guidance, if you will. I agree that everyone has the right to an opinion, even when they don’t agree with your own. However, when you are in the spotlight, you both directly and indirectly have an effect on the person, or business you post about. Chris Brogan learned this out loud today when posting a complaint about a certain retailer and as a result received a very real look at how he could have a negative influence on that business. You see, because Google loves Chris’s site, (the guy gets tons of traffic and linkbacks) almost immediately after he posted the post you could do a Google search on the retailer and one of the very top results was Chris Brogan’s blog post titled:

Dear (Business)- You Stink and So Does Retail

He had the business name where I typed “business”. However, his next post was almost an apology so I won’t repeat it. Of course, if did, I might not be on the front page of Google that same day! LOL, now that is power! Never-the-less, many of his regular and new commenters pointed out that he was too quick to judge the whole chain because of a bad experience. As a result, this reminded me of some very important principles about human business:

1. Customer service is a big part of customer satisfaction. (Doesn’t matter how great your product is, consumers still need courtesy and respect.)

2. If you can’t meet your customers needs, don’t just say “sorry” and forget about it. The franchises need to all have the option to order a product for you. Especially the attendant (who may have just been having an off day?) at Timberland could have probably said, “We don’t have any in stock, but let me pull up our website and we can have a pair here for you to try on in a few days” instead of: “Sorry, we don’t have any of those in yet, try Macy’s.” (Though, I’m sure Macy’s appreciated that.)

and

3. Even when blogging “we catch a lot more flies with honey that with vinegar.” (My mom used to say that all the time!) I have to always re-read my posts and comments, because sometimes I get into a train of thought and inadvertently sound too “bubbly” (even about new techie information – can’t help but be kinda geeky and excited sometimes, :) or maybe like a “know-it-all”.

Oh well,live and learn, right? We have the right to share experiences with the world, but don’t overlook the fact that we have the “power” to build up or tear down with our writing. Kind of a big responsibility huh?

Anyways to new and veteran bloggers alike, whether you are building up or tearing down, when you are in a way wrong: It’s cool to own it.