The Women’s Business Alliance Power Sabbatical is your opportunity to take – For Yourself! – 2 ½ days + 2 nights to:

–Rejuvenate mentally and physically. Unplug, get away from it all in a serene gorgeous setting. Be catered to and taken care of (what a concept for us women!), including dining on gourmet healthy food prepared by Marconi’s amazing chef. Take advantage of gorgeous natural surroundings by starting your morning and ending your day with a solo or group power walk or hike. Breathe the fresh air. Enjoy the stars at night and the peace and quiet (no ambient light or noise pollution here!) Even use your free time to take a swim in Tomales Bay (wet suit optional!), visit the quaint town of Marshall, kayak, or horseback ride on the beach.

Recharge your ambition. Launch – or re-launch – your dream in a powerful way. Recharge your business and your goals. Or finally give yourself the space, resources and support to give the business you’ve been struggling with the power to lift off. Get clarity on your ambitious goals. Figure out what’s working and what’s not. Redefine your targets. Get unstuck. Fire up your ambition. Keep yourself on target to do meaningful, challenging work that pays you what you’re worth. Stop settling. Stop selling yourself short. Get your ambition mojo back – you know what I mean: that feeling that you can’t wait to bounce out of bed each morning (no matter how tired you might be) because work feels like play. Keep your commitment to yourself to make the contribution you were born to make – and surround yourself with supportive peers to help you achieve the goals you have stars in your eyes for.

This is an opportunity to restore your sanity and recharge your business by retreating to a stunning, peaceful conference center in an historic park setting and interacting with innovators like yourself. I’ll be leading the charge and together we will make sure that You — and Your most precious ambitious goals — are the agenda. And of course, a huge part of recharging your business and dreams is making sure that you, yourself, get plenty of downtime – space and time and the serenity to unplug and think and be taken care of.

Break isolation. Stamp out your fear and resistance by interacting with ambitious, creative innovators – women just like yourself who struggle with the same fears and doubts as you, even as they are fighting the big fight to hold on to their big dreams. Get your brain cells firing and reignite your passion for what you do or want to do though 2 ½ days of custom-tailored small-group coaching and brainstorming with me plus 20 other women peers. The ideas will be flying around the room. And You and Your goals are the agenda.

Where:
The perfect venue is the gorgeous setting at the Marconi Conference Center overlooking Tomales Bay in beautiful West Marin County, San Francisco Bay Area. Marconi Conference Center is approximately a 90-minute drive from San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport.

When:
September 16-18, 2010

So register now as there is not a greater feeling in the world than coming together with supportive, talented, thirsty-for-knowledge, open-minded, fired-up, ambitious women, such as Debra Condren, author of Ambition Is Not A Dirty Word,  to link arms and help each other make our ambitious dreams a reality.

News is breaking all around you.

When you’re the local angle to a national story, or you can comment on the hot topic of the day, TV producers, daily and weekly newspaper reporters, and bloggers will practically be begging to talk to you.

But too many people who want publicity don’t bother picking up the phone or emailing. They think the media are too busy. Or they don’t know what to say.

What a mistake! This is the very best time to pitch.

What if somebody gave you step-by-step directions on exactly how to piggyback your story idea onto breaking news? Publicist Michelle Tennant, who got one of her clients booked on “Dr. Phil” the very day the client signed the PR contract, will explain the exact details of what she does when she pitches a client during a breaking news event. She’ll even show you the word-for-word email pitches she sent to the media–pitches that resulted in major publicity for her clients.

Michelle will be the special guest during a webinar hosted by Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 21. Michelle will teach you how to use very simple email subject lines, include three important elements in every pitch, and the exact number of times to follow up.

She’ll also tell you about a free media resource website she uses, thus saving her thousands of dollars on media directories.

We continually strive to provide timely, quality service for our clients. The special relationship that we have with them is both valuable and in some cases fragile. We understand that they have choices and that we must always be vigilant to provide exceptional value for them.

What do we do when a client notifies us that they are terminating our relationship? Our first inclination is to throw our hands up into the air, rail at the gods and wonder what it is that we did wrong.

Most times it is not due to an error, but if it is, do everything within your power to correct the error, even if you have already lost the client.

If it is because of your rates, decide if you are willing to bend a little. If this is not a viable scenario, explain it to the client and see if there is another option. Such as:

–Cutting back on the amount of work that you do for them
–Offer time-saving tips that will allow them to do some of the work for themselves
–Offer coaching as an alternative

There will be clients that just aren’t a good “fit” for either of you. If this happens, be gracious, offer suggestions of other VA’s that you think may be willing to work with them.

Sometimes clients just fall off the radar. It’s through no fault of your own or the clients.

The best thing you can do in any case is to move on. Don’t dwell on what was and concentrate on how you can better your business. Never assume that all is well in the relationship between you and the client. Touch base on a regular basis and not just through email.

PICK UP THE PHONE!

The countdown has begun . . . are you going to meet the deadline? Last week I shared on Facebook with you the exciting new Stay-on-Track program recently launched by Ariane — and today I am writing this blog posting to make sure you understand what it is that she is offering . . FOR F.REE!
 
If you are anything like me, you’re a visual-experience-oriented person — who sometimes struggles with online information, especially when it’s packed full of IMPORTANT career-boosting information. I get overwhelmed to say the least, and panic at the thought that my money will be wasted because I might miss some of the crucial information provided by the speakers. Will I remember what I needed to take away from the session, will I understand what they were trying to portray to me?
 
With the Stay-on-Track program, it’s like Ariane read my mind and said… “I will prepare the Telesummit for you in CD and transcript form — AND I’ll also give you the Stay-on-Track program to make sure you succeed!” She WANTS you to get all the fruit off the tree… and she makes that possible for F.R.E.E if you purchase the Home-study program on or before midnight (Eastern Time), on April 15th!
 
The Stay-on-Track Program is a simple system to organize, prioritize, and create YOUR action plan as you hear the Telesummit presenters — so you’re immediately able to feed your energy and the wealth of information into creating and developing your first project!
 
No more feeling like you are flapping in the wind… the Stay-on-Track Program allows you to be grounded in your creative process and utilize all the valuable information from the Telesummit Home-study Program!

I currently use Ping.fm to post to several of my social networking sites. Ping.fm is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks a snap! It is just that, a snap.

I have also set up many of my clients to use this service as it is like one-stop shopping. It is fast and easy to use. Set up is a breeze.

You can post from anywhere to anywhere. You can use your phone, IM and from email as well.

I currently have it set up to “feed” to FriendFeed, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Delicious. I would caution you though that, depending on how many feeds you have set up on the other sites, you can end up with multiple postings. So, in other words, if you are using FriendFeed with Ping or Twitter, it could show up on the status updates on Facebook multiple times and it looks very strange.

The application that Ping.fm has recently added though, and I like very much, is you can now add your Facebook fan page to the feed. In the past, when you posted from Ping, it would only feed to your Facebook profile.

I like to use and also suggest free and easy tools in which both myself and my clients can use and this is at the top of the list.

Last evening my husband and I went to a concert in Santa Monica, CA. It was a small venue, actually it was a restaurant with a small stage, quite nice though.

The restaurant was packed so we sat at the bar overlooking the chefs at work. It was entertaining in itself.

Prior to the concert, we met up with Mitch Chang of Kala Koa Entertainment. I have been assisting him with creating a stronger online presence. It has been great fun getting to know him. You can also find him on YouTube.

To be honest, I had been feeling pretty cocky about my VA services and how I was so helpful to him. Again, to be honest, I was not.

Mitch pointed out some things to me that I hadn’t even thought of. He put this question to me:
“How can I be of more assistance if I know so little about Slack Key and it’s origins?” That stopped me in my tracks. He was absolutely correct.

It’s all well and good to get caught up in your own “stuff”, but the bottom line is as a VA we need to constantly be learning what our client’s needs are. We can’t know their needs, if we don’t understand just exactly it is that will help them to achieve their goals.

Today’s Money 911 reporter Jean Chatzky topped her recommended work at home list with Virtual Assistant.

Here is a quote from a posting I read today:

“Virtual assistants around the globe who have repeatedly promoted the industry as individuals and as groups are beginning to see an impact on their efforts. Virtual assistants have been talked about, written about, interviewed by, and seen in the likes of Entrepreneur, USA Today, Time, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Reader’s Digest, CNN News, and more. “We’ve come a long way from the deer in the headlights, wrinkled forehead look once received when offering up ‘I’m a virtual assistant,’ after being asked our profession,” states Kelly Poelker, Director of Academy of Virtual Professionals and co-author of the Virtual Assistant – The Series books. “Each and every article and interview put us one step closer to educating as many people as we can on what a virtual assistant is, and how a business can benefit from our services.” It’s an exciting time to start a virtual assistant business, but there are still a number of people just discovering the profession as a result of the growing media coverage.”

To read the entire article go to http://wahm-announce.com/?p=53

This is something that has come up from time to time in my business.

Do I have a contract with my clients? Quite honestly, I don’t.

When I first started out, I had one client, who incidentally was a very good friend and I didn’t feel the need. Now as my business grows, I have been thinking more and more about it.

When I start with a new client we discuss their expectations and mine. I then write up a proposal based on what we had discussed. I also ask the client to send me their task list. Their goals for their business and what they would like me to do to assist them to achieve those goals. Once we have an understanding of the hours, billing and such, I move forward.

I just read a blog regarding this and it has inspired me to change my “modus operandi”, so to speak.

You can read more about this at http://collinsadmin.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/yes-a-virtual-assistant-has-a-contract

I just read an amazing blog posting. I was thrilled to finally read something that is “spot on” in regards to the etiquette to working with a VA. You can read the entire post at :
http://adayva.blogspot.com/2008/05/tough-love-accountability-or-four.html

Golden rule #1 as mentioned in the blog posting is especially difficult for me. It is a matter of not wanting to sound desperate for the money.

Golden rule #2 mentions procedures, office hours, etc….I am available at all hours. That is one of my faults as a business owner. There are times that I am available at ungodly hours. I also work weekends when on a deadline. Set your schedule and stick to it.

Golden rule #3 says that I am not an employee, but a client. That is so true.

Golden rule #4 states that communication is key. I couldn’t agree more with that statement. I have one client in particular that is difficult to communicate with in terms of her accessibility, but at some point we do connect.

The essence of this blog posting is mutual respect. To me that is THE Golden Rule.

One of my clients, nationally recognized executive coach, Eli Davidson recently hosted a webinar with Michael Russer. He is the CEO of RUSSER Communications.

The name of the webinar is “Transform your Business Using Virtual Outsourcing”. In this webinar he speaks of all the advantages of using a virtual assistant.

Today, there are so many ways in which to use a VA. Not all VAs have the same levels of expertise.

My field of expertise has been for internet marketers and coaches. I can navigate the internet and have a wonderful sense of the applications.

To listen to the webinar go to http://tinyurl.com/4amhj8. The webinar lasts about 1 hour, but you can download it to your computer and save it for later use.