Monthly Archives: December 2006

Another year gone by

As 2006 comes to a close, do you look back on the year with fondness or remorse? Personally, I have some of both. No one is perfect, and no business is perfect. But this year, the pros far outweigh the cons.

This year I have released another co-authored book, Entrepreneurial Freedom, How to Start and Grow a Profitable Virtual Assistance Practice. I have edited more non-fiction books, which are among my favorite projects, my income is higher than in previous years, I’ve added on to my workteam as the need arises, and I’ve made some very valuable business contacts.

2007 is looking good. I begin serving on the Board for the Central Pennsylvania Association of Female Executives on January 1st, I am currently editing one book, have another one coming in late January, and a few leads for more I’m pursuing. I’m continuing to do business writing, and learning more about sales writing and web writing. I’m going to be doing some publicity pitching for a awesome author publicity company, and I’ll be doing some more editorial virtual assistance for a best-selling author. In March, I’ll be speaking at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, and in April, I’ll be speaking at the IVAA summit.

I’ve worked hard to get this far in my business. It has not always been easy. Sometimes you lose a client, sometimes your family’s needs gets “in the way” of your business, and sometimes you throw a pity party and ask yourself why you’re working so hard.

The words of Florence Scovel Shinn, I recently came across in Business Woman Magazine, sum it up pretty well, “Every great work, every great accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement.”

So, as you look back upon this year at your accomplishments and your failures, stay positive. If you are ending the year on a “down” note, hang tight, the big achievement is waiting for you just around the corner.

Happy New Year

Hidden Blog 2 Comments

What Santa brought me for Christmas

As you may remember, a few weeks ago, the family and I took a trip to Orlando, so that was our big Christmas present. Santa only visited our kids this year. I really get it now when I hear people say that Christmas really is for kids. I think I was more excited than they were to watch them open gifts.

And last night, on Christmas Eve, we sprinkled Reindeer Food on the driveway, left milk and cookies for Santa and 9 baby carrots for each of the reindeer. My older son wanted to watch me do everything “so he could remember exactly what I did so when he had kids he could do the same thing.” That heartfelt sentiment beat any gift Santa could have brought me.

One gift I did receive from my parents was the book, “Phrases That Sell”. Some of them are real gems and I’ve already gone through some of the book with a pencil, checking off the ones I can see myself using for my client work or my own work. I was so excited to get that book. It’s funny how being an entrepreneur is not like having a job, but is a passion that transcends your workday hours.

I hope you all have had a joyful, rewarding holiday. And I hope everyone gets a little more time to relax between now and New Year’s Day. Did you receive any business-related presents? What were your faves?

Hidden Blog Post a comment

The five senses and the Disney experience:

As I mentioned in a previous post, the family and I went to Disney World for our big Christmas present this year. In some of the attractions, Disney does a great job of handling every teeny, tiny detail to make your experience as amazing as possible.

One example of this is how they engage so many of your senses on some of their attractions. For example, Mickey’s Philharmagic engages your sight, hearing, smell, and touch. The only thing missing is taste. And by touch, I don’t mean physical motion as you would expect on a ride. You remember the attraction because it leaves an impact on you in so many ways.

So, it’s gotten me thinking, what can I do to be so memorable to the people I come in contact with? How can I engage their senses? How can I do it virtually? Stay tuned.

Hidden Blog Post a comment

Resource for remote workers in the Marietta, Georgia area

Back a few months ago, I got an email requesting permission to link to my article on balancing work and home. I became engaged in an email conversation with Julia Findling of Innovative Outsourcing. The company she works for seems pretty unique and I thought it may be of interest to share with you.

Innovative Outsourcing, is small (75 associates), mom-staffed staffing company in Marietta, GA. Their mission is to find part-time, permanent jobs for moms who want to stay-at-home but need or want to earn income from outside work. They are mostly comprised of CPAs, bookkeepers, and administrative assistants, but are quickly branching into the legal and purchasing fields.

Now of course, this is not the same thing as having your own virtual assistance business, but for people that are looking for some extra money by working from home, it’s worth exploring.

Hidden Blog Post a comment

My challenges in teaching kidwriting

Last year, I volunteered in my son’s kindergarten classroom teaching kidwriting. I have to admit, I was skeptical about it at first, but by the end of the year, I was a believer. Today, for the first time this schoolyear, I volunteered to help with kidwriting in my son’s first grade classroom.

His teacher asked me to work with two children who needed extra help. The first one couldn’t identify vowel sounds to appropriately guess the letters (i.e. you’re writing the word need. N-eee-d, what letters do you hear?). I was lucky if he’d get the sounds “n” and “d”. There was a word wall list of words that began with “t”. He had a choice of about 8. (which one is the word, “this”?) He had no idea. How do you even help a child with this? I’m a writer and an editor, but I’m not an elementary school teacher. And he kept getting distracted away from what he was doing.

The second kid did better. He knew that he needed to start a sentence with a capital and end with punctuation (after I reminded him, he fixed all the ones he had forgotten), he could get most of the consonant sounds, and from one page to the next, he remembered that I told him “fun” was spelled “fun”, not “fon” and spelled it correctly on the next page. So I could tell there was some learning and recognition going on there.

I talked to the teacher after kidwriting was over to ask her how I could reach #1 and help him learn this stuff. She doesn’t know. Nothing she has tried has worked. And I don’t know the theory behind how to teach a kid phonics and spelling and sentence structure.

I originally volunteered to help out once a week. But there’s only one other parent helper and these kids definitely need all the help they can get. I think of a couple years from now and them either struggling with writing and reading all their life, or me taking another hour or so out of my week to see if I can make a difference.

The importance of writing doesn’t start when your in the business world trying to draft a proposal, or even when you’re in college working on your research paper. It starts when you’re 5 years old, sitting in a little red chair with your pencil poised over the paper.

My “pro bono” work this year will be with two cute little boys who need their very own writing coach. I hope I rise to the occasion. Wish me luck.

Hidden Blog Post a comment

Back from the Mouse

Last week, the family and I vacationed in Orlando at Disney World. We stayed in Port Orleans French Quarter and visited the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and MGM. The kids and my inlaws also went to Sea World one day.

We also went to Disney two years ago. My husband’s uncle and grandmother live in Southern Florida, so they meet us there so we can have a mini-reunion. I’m always amazed at the detail Disney puts into everything. Their hotel rooms, the FastPass system, the rides themselves, the educational stations kids can participate in at Animal Kingdom and Epcot, the level of customer service…it’s just truly amazing. And the best part is visiting it in a non-busy time. The longest we ever waited in line for anything was 30 minutes…and that’s only if we didn’t have a Fastpass. Usually our wait was 15 minutes or less.

Now, if my son didn’t get pinkeye, give it to his brother, and give the cold to my husband and my mother-in-law, we’d be in good shape. I hope I’m not next. I’m too busy!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Tower of Terror at MGM is my absolute favorite ride ever.

Hidden Blog 1 Comment