Editorial Defining Boundaries I was wondering how many of you define boundaries in your business.  I dont mean physical boundaries like workspace, family space, etc.  I am talking about time boundaries.  Do you ever set boundaries for when clients can contact you, can visit you at your home office or just annoy the heck out of you? Lets look two different senarios:  Senario A: Your on a deadline for a client, there is a 20 page document full of tables and data he/she has thrown on your lap 2 hours ago and wants it finished today, asap and is willing to pay extra for this time.  You are sitting at your computer and the phone rings, right when you are in the middle of setting up those tables for that most important data.  You stop what you are doing, answer the phone and after five minutes of discussing with a telemarketer that really you are not interested in what they are trying to tell you, finally put down the phone then realise you have totally lost your train of thought on what you were doing for your client. Senario B:  You have a client who contacts you every day, all day, evenings or weekends, expecting you to be there at your phone all the time for him/her and tends to forget that you do have a life outside of your desk and computer.  Do you feel that because you are tied to the phone for this client that your family/social life seems to be sliding by and that you are getting so tired lately that all you want to do after switching the computer off is go and sleep? If either of these two senarios sounds familiar then it is more than time you looked at defining your time boundaries. Yes, it is ok to set boundaries for your time.  In fact, more often that not it is more valuable to your effectiveness for you to set these boundaries, and in the long term more efficient for your clients. Have a look at your working day - are you spending too much time on the phone to potential and current clients than acutally doing the work for them?  Are you spending more time reading your emails and responding to them, than completing your current jobs?  Set yourself some restrictions, it could be something simple like not answering the phone while you are working on a task for a client and letting the answerphone take the call for you or saying to yourself that you will only check your emails twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon and not spending anymore than half an hour during each scheduled timeframe.  Of course, when you set some boundaries, make sure to clearly communicate that to ALL your clients.  If they have a hard time understanding what on earth you are doing then tell them that you're trying a new work routine that could save them some money (as a byproduct of your increased efficiency) and ask that they keep an open mind during the next month. They may moan and groan at first, but once they see for themselves how much smoother you complete their tasks, perhaps they'll try a similar approach to their work day. ~~ Jo ~~
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Guest Article Do YOU have what it takes to be SUCCESSFUL? By Sarah J Doyle Excerpt from "How To Start Your Own Business" The great desire to be successful as always been a fact of life! The word "success" means different things to different people. For some, to be successful is to have your own business, so you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself. To others, success is climbing to the top of the corporate ladder, while others visualize success as "being the best" - best at the sport they are involved in, being best at the job they work at, etc. Answer the following questions TRUE or FALSE, then check your answers against the opinions that follow. You may not recognize all of the names quoted, but you can be assured that all of the people, whether familiar to you or not, were extremely successful in their own way. 1. Success requires mastery of the endeavor you set for yourself. 2. Everyone should realize his or her limitations and try to go no farther. 3. It is very important to try to please everybody. 4. One should believe in himself or herself. 5. Success is achieved by being single-minded in purpose. 6. Most successful people tend to be unemotional. 7. Act successful, even if you're not. 8. An important element needed for success is to love what you do. 9. The ability to handle the people with whom you work is a skill leading to success. 10. Be sure you are right, then go ahead. The answers listed below are the opinions of those people who are quoted. 1. TRUE. "The way to do is to be." (Lao Tzu) 2. FALSE. "We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough." (Helen Keller) 3. FALSE. "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is to try to please everybody." (Herbert Bayard Swope) 4. TRUE. "Self trust is the first secret of success." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) 5. TRUE. "I believe the true road to pre-eminent success in any line is to make yourself master of that line." (Andrew Carnegie) 6. FALSE. "He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much." (Mrs. A. J. Stanley) 7. TRUE. "Act as if it were impossible to fail." (Dorothea Brande) 8. TRUE. "The first thing to do is to fall in love with your work." (Sister Mary Lauretta). 9. TRUE. "The ability to handle men is the most valuable thing in the business world. I will pay higher for that than for any other qualification." (John D. Rockefeller) 10. TRUE. "Be sure you are right; then go ahead." (Davie Crockett) **************************************************************** About the author: Sarah J. Doyle is author of over 25 business, sewing and how-to books and owner of 5 business, sewing and craft websites. Visit http://YouCanWorkAtHomeNow.com for more tips, free articles and how-to information on work at home careers and opportunities. (c) Copyright 2004, Sarah J. Doyle. All Rights Reserved. ****************************************************************
Tiptop Tip Determining Billable Time One of the advantages Virtual Assistants have over traditional employees is the fact that we only bill our clients for the time spent on any given project or task. So what exactly is billable "time"? Billable time is the actual time spent on the project(s) itself. For instance, a client wants you to create a simple spreadsheet for her using data that was faxed. All the time spent from the moment you started working on the spreadsheet up to the last minute when you've finished the sheet is billable to the client. Unfortunately, not all VA tasks are as simple as the sample above. Tasks vary depending on the client -- they are as diverse as the range of the clients we serve. So when is your time considered as billable time? * actual time spent on the project * time spent on any incoming/outgoing phone calls * time spent reading/replying to emails * miscellaneous/extra costs involved in the project * long distance charges or telephone costs, if applicable * training time (for client-requested systems, procedures etc) if necessary	Web Site www.asecretary.com.au Congratulations to Kathie M. Thomas and the "A Claytons Secretary" team for celebrating 10 years in the business of Secretarial and Business support. "A Claytons Secretary" started out in 1994 as a home-based Secretarial business for Kathie and has grown immensly since then.  Even in the early days Kathie would take on so much business that she would have to find others to help her take some of the load off her shoulders.  This lead to also training others who did not have, or only had, limited secretarial knowledge, and Kathie invested her time in training these people so that the work could be carried out efficiently and confidently.  Through all of this emerged "A Claytons Secretary" and Kathie was well on the way to becoming a recognised name in the business. Today, Katie manages (through both the internet and offline) members from all over Australia and, now, also worldwide to seven other countries.  If you are seriously looking for a great network of secretaries, virtual assistants, web designers and so much more, then I would recommend you visiting "A Claytons Secretary" and look at joining the group.
Taking Control of your Website A series of tips and tricks to help you in the search for Search Engine Glory. (Part one of a two part series) It may be that you are paying someone else to do everything for you as far as site submissions, or maybe you want to do it yourself but are not feeling too comfortable about attempting to "go it alone".  Well help is at hand and starting this month we look at how you can start working behind the scenes to get your site listed, and listed well in the search engines. First rule of thumb is take it slow - as the advertisement goes "It won't happen overnight but it will happen".  And this is definitely the case when it comes to search engine submissions.  But taking it slowly and getting it right will help build a better site for the search engines to get a hold of.  It's not always possible but the best way is to start with a site what has never been submitted before, or at least isn't showing up with high rankings in the search engines.  If you are just starting out and getting ready to get your business "up in lights" then choose a domain name that best suits your brand.  It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to spend extra money purchasing a keyword rich domain name, it just means that the more research you do in finally deciding what your business and domain name should be, the better off in the long run. The next major thing is that you really should have some knowledge of basic HTML.  "OH NO" you cry.  Don't be scared off by that.  I am not trying to make you into a web designer if your not, but having some basic knowledge of the coding required for meta tags and keywords and the basic html needed in putting together a page, well help you in working out what is necessary and which isn't when it comes to search engines.  Learning HTML can be challenging but look at it as a learning curve.  A good site to study up on the basic HTML coding is http://nobledesktop.com/guide.html.  This is a very simple and well laid out site. Choose your keywords and keyword phrases wisely.  What you think are good words and phrases might not actually be the best ones for your site, and in fact may not even be what your potential visitors are using in the search engines. This is where your time gets involved as a lot of research is required to physically map out those best keywords and phrases. Some tips to working out your best keywords and phrases are 1. Research other sites similar to yours to see what keywords and phrases they use.  2. Use keyword research tools to help you determine the best key phrase to focus each of your pages on by listing related keywords and phrases in the order of popularity. Please note that keyword tools don't make a distinction between the plural and singular version of a word. Once you determine the best key phrase you will need to research this factor further by doing actual searches for the key phrase you have selected. Free Keyword Research Tools http://www.goodkeywords.com/  Good Keywords by Softnik Technologies http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/  Google Toolbar http://toolbar.google.com/  Google Deskbar http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/ Write at least 200-250 words of visible text copy based on your chosen keywords. This is a crucial component to high rankings and a successful Web site. The search engines need to "read" keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. Write the copy based on your keyword phrases, and not the other way around. Don't be afraid to use your phrases as many times as it makes sense to do so. The optimal number of instances will vary by search engine, the number of words on your page, and also by how well the copy actually reads to a person. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page or only in headlines probably won't cut it. Create a killer Title tag. Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weïght with all of the search engines. You must put your keyword phrases into this tag and not waste space with extra words. Do not use the Title tag to display only your company name, or to simply say "Home Page." Think of this tag more as a "Title Keyword Tag" and create it accordingly. It should reflect exactly what your page is about, using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your company. Next month we continue this series with more tips and tricks to help you in the search for Search Engine Glory.

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