25 Aspects of Professional Life to Outsource

by Nick Krym

The list below covers a variety of tasks that could be reasonably easy outsourced to a Virtual Assistant.

1. Industry / Market / Vendor / Product Research. Even though you can ask your VA to check library you are better off keeping the research to Web though. Research could be of a broad nature, for example top 5 firewall vendors, or very focused such as Nick Krym cell phone number.

2. Subject Matter Briefs – If you’ve ever been scheduled for a meeting on a topic about which you know very little, a virtual assistant can be a great help. Have them find or write a short, five-page summary of the topic, major concerns and implications for you, and recent news.

3. Calendar Management – setting appointments, making calls, rescheduling meetings, reminders, etc.

4. Contact management – cleaning up your outlook contact database, verifying / finding facts, addresses, emails, etc.

5. Email Management – email removing unnecessary (spam, useless elements of chain email, etc.), sorting, categorizing, follow up, response on your behalf, etc. – possibilities and time savings here are pretty amazing.

Enjoy Your Life, Get a Virtual Assistant

Do you know Timothy Ferriss? His book, The 4-hour Workweek, became no. 1 in both the New York Times and WSJ Bestseller Lists. He has seen in the world and has garnered a lot of titles and awards under his name. For example, he has been a break dancer in MTV in Taiwan. He went to Ireland and went home with a title in hurling. He appeared in television shows in both Hong Kong and China. He also holds a kickboxing championship title. He speaks more than 4 languages and has a long-standing world record in Guinness for tango.

Most of all, he runs a lot of businesses, speaks in plenty of seminars and workshops, and maintains his own blogs and marketing campaigns.

You may wonder, “How did he have all the time in the world?”

Small Business Tip: Why Millions of Businesses are Missing Out on Online Sales

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by Danita Blackwood

Millions of small companies don’t exist online because they don’t have a website for small business. Recent research reveals two out five small and midsize businesses in the United States are trying to compete without a website.  Small businesses in all types of industries need a website to reach customers. Consumers spend as more time online as they do watching TV or reading and reaching these customers starts with a small business website.   Think of a website as a billboard on the Internet telling the world what services, goods and resources your business offers and what you can do to improve their lives.

So why aren’t all small businesses online?  The results from a nationwide study commissioned by 1&1 Internet, Inc. finds most business owners are unaware of the free tools and resources available to build a small business website. The 1&1 Internet research looked at more than 1,800 U.S. small to midsize businesses and found many entrepreneurs and business owners are misinformed about the cost of owning a business website.  Researchers found small business owners often overestimate the expenses for being online. They also overestimate the complexity of taking their business to the Web with a small business website.

There are many free resources on how to build a website and even free tools to build a website an entrepreneur or small business owner can tap to build a website for business.  These resources are not only for the technically savvy entrepreneur.  Many small business owners are surprised by how simple and affordable it is to build a website with a do-it-yourself approach once they get started.  In fact, the 1&1 Internet study found 28 percent of small business owners created their own business websites themselves.  Forty-four percent of small and midsize businesses in the 1&1 study update their business website themselves.  Many of these small companies are showcasing their websites as they expand their online enterprises with e-marketing, social media and other available technology to give them a competitive advantage.

Start thinking about the online identity for your business and what kinds of ways you can attract and connect with customers.  It is a good idea when thinking about a small business website to come up with three domain names that fit your company.  Your top choices may not be available, so have a few ideas for domain names.   If your top domain name choices for a small business website are available, consider getting them all.  It is more affordable than you may believe and it will give you room to grow and flexibility to create additional sites or business websites for special promotions or business events in your company.

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Small Business Traps to Avoid

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by Terri Levine

Regardless of whether the “small business” is a one-man show or a small business with up to 10 employees, when starting out we tend to concentrate/focus on one or two areas of our business and either are unaware or just forget about the other areas. There are certain mistakes that are common to many entrepreneurs and small business owners – being aware of them is the first step to avoiding them!

Dealing With Stress In The Small Business Workplace, Tips From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

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by Glenn Ebersole

It is certainly no secret that stress is a fact of daily life ad is especially true in the small business workplace. And what makes it worse is most small business owners must face the challenges alone or with little or no support systems. A strategic thinking small business owner knows that he or she must be very aware of their own level of stress, as well as the stress levels of their employees because of the potential negative impacts.

How extensive is this stress in the small business workplace? CareerBuilder.com found in a 2006 study of 2,500 American workers that 77% of the workers felt burned out at their jobs. The National Safety Council estimates that US companies lose between $200-$300 billion a year due to absenteeism, tardiness, burnout, decreased productivity, worker’s compensation claims, increased employee turnover, and medical insurance costs resulting from employee work-related stress. And a survey of more than 1,300 workers conducted by Caravan Opinion Research in 2000 found 13% claimed to have personally witnessed “desk rage” or some angry or destructive outburst at the office.

The Big Advantages of Small Business

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by Steve Chittenden

We have all heard it said that small business is the backbone of the economy, and we all seem to know that is true. The exact definition for small business is not so clear, but what is clear is that most businesses are small by that allusive definition.

It is a bit of an irony that some business owners try to project the idea that they are bigger than they really are. As much as we might say bigger is not better, our attitudes and actions will determine whether we really believe that or not.

There is strength in being small once you discover how to harness your energy.

The idea of comparing the size of a business, to the size and power of a boat, provides an excellent analogy. A cruise ship may withstand storms and high waves much better than a small yacht, but it is not very maneuverable. A speedboat can go places a ship could never attempt. It is faster, agile, and can turn quickly to avoid danger.

5 Reasons Why Your Next Big Idea Might Fail

by Pat Flynn

If you’re anything like me, new business ideas run through your brain each and every day. Sometimes, we come across a few particular ideas that we just can’t stop thinking about – because they are that good!

I think you know what I’m talking about.

Constant brainstorming, rapid note taking, and visions of success are all syptoms of this sort of “business bug”.

Many times, however, after a couple of days or even a couple of months, the motivation behind these great ideas just seem to die out and never evolve into the next step.  It’s kind of sad, because I’m sure many of those ideas were awesome, money-making ideas.

If we can understand why this happens, then I think we can stop the momentum from slowing down and start taking things to the next level. Here are 5 main reasons why I think ideas in our head take a turn for the worse:

America’s Workforce Adapts: What Outsourced Jobs Do We Want Back?

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by James

Asked when Americans could expect jobs outsourced to other countries to return, President Obama replied, “Not all of these jobs are going to come back … And it probably wouldn’t be good for our economy for a bunch of these jobs to come back because, frankly, there’s no way that people could be getting paid a living wage on some of these jobs — at least in order to be competitive in an international setting.”

If you view the world economy as a zero-sum game, this is grim news — if each nation’s economy is a bucket of water, and you only fill one by emptying another, we seem to be running dry pretty fast. Fortunately, it doesn’t really work that way. Sometimes jobs slosh out of one bucket into another, but other times, to totally belabor a metaphor, some entrepreneurial genius adds fresh water to several buckets at once.  We may not yet be at the next wave of entrepreneurship (but remember, both Apple and Microsoft were launched in the wake of the ’70s oil crisis), but even as waves of layoffs make national headlines, jobs are sloshing back into our bucket as companies around the world are outsourcing to United States professionals.

America’s national myth is cowboys, pioneers, revolutionaries — not couchbound whiners.  Displaced U.S. workers are not idly waiting for their old jobs to magically return.  An oDesk survey found that of its 70,000+ U.S.-based contractors, 32 percent had taken up freelancing after recently losing a job.

80 Ways To Use Twitter As A SMB Owner

by Lisa Barone

It’s pretty common. A small business owner comes to us looking for help promoting his or her business. We suggest using Twitter as a way to find new leads, build relationships and as an overall way to cost effectively market their business. The small business owner then turns around, tilts their head and responds, “Twitter? What can Twitter do for me?”

Well, I’ll tell you. Below are 80 ways a small business owner can use Twitter to build and market their business.

Just like last time, hit print.

Telecommuting Becomes Easier in an Era of Permanent Connectedness

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by Daniel Taylor

Both employers and employees are discovering the benefits of telecommuting, and the practice is becoming more common as web connectedness increases and companies pare costs.

Vancouver, British Columbia-area health services authority Fraser Health said two weeks ago that its telework program has been a net positive for employees and the Vancouver community. Employees reported being happier with the new telecommuting arrangement – available to medical transcriptionists – and were driving less, reducing traffic and pollution.

Philip Barker, Fraser Health vice president of information management, said that the program ensured that “employees are happy and work as efficiently as possible with the added benefit of reducing [Fraser Health's] overall carbon footprint.”

The health services provider estimates that telecommuting reduced travel on Vancouver-area roads by 40,000 kilometers, or 24,850 miles. Employees also saved about $20,000 on gas.

Productivity increased, as well: Employees polled said they were 20 to 30 percent more productive as a result of the telecommuting program.