I wonder…

When Oprah was a little girl, did she have any inkling of what the future held for her? Did she have any idea when she started her career that she would become a household name?
When Phil McGraw started his practice, did he think he would encounter Oprah and become a household name himself?

What about Martha? Did Martha think that she would build an empire around her domesticity?

Donald Trump. A real estate investor with his own reality show where he has thousands of people rallying to be employed by him. When he was a little boy, did he see gold covered walls and the best of everything in his future?

These people are celebrities of our time…granted it doesn’t take much to become a celebrity these days…but these four individuals are not going to be forgotten anytime soon.

What sets them apart? How did they get where they are? Is it just pure hard work? Is it luck? Is it brilliant marketing strategies and business sense? Probably a combination of these things. One thing is for absolute certain. They are hard working (maybe not so much anymore!), passionate about what they do, and they definitely have drive.

I was watching Dr. Phil today which is something I never do because with a toddler in the house, if it’s not animated it’s not being watched by anyone! Anyway, he was on the TV and I started thinking about this.  Is it so crazy to think that if a real estate investor, a journalist, a homemaker and a psychologist can reach such heights of fame the same might happen for a virtual assistant?

Now I’m not saying that I want a TV show or a ‘Tower’ or anything, but I am allowed to dream that someday, when a person hears the name “Mann Made Time”, they will recognize it as a virtual assistance firm. Or, if someone starts a discussion about virtual assistance, the person they’re speaking with will say, “Oh yes, that’s what Mann Made Time does.”

Heck, at the very least, it would be nice if one day I could tell people that I’m a VA and they wouldn’t just nod and smile!

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Here on PEI, many people are without power and have been since Monday (this is Thursday). We had some freezing rain on Monday that did extensive damage to the power lines and it’s just a terrible situation. The Maritime Electric crews are working around the clock, and it might be into the weekend before power is restored to everyone.

Once again, this makes me think of how important it is to have a backup plan in place when you operate a business. Many businesses can’t open here because power is needed for almost everything.

We have a generator that will power our heat, coffee maker and our internet connection (three important things!). That being said, it is costing quite a bit to keep up with the amount of gas needed to power the generator.

It’s mostly business as usual, but we can only have the generator going for a couple of hours at a time because of the cost, and the house will stay warm for a little while once the rads are shut off.

We don’t have enough juice from the generator to use our stove, so it’s mostly grilling being done, but we’re a lot better off than some people.

Are you prepared for a power outage in your business? You might want to check out Yvonne Weld’s guide to making a plan for your business, including a disaster plan.

For anyone not living on PEI to see the devastation, check out the Guardian’s website to read about it and see some pictures of the ice that covered everything yesterday. Mother nature is truly remarkable.

So, are you prepared?

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I’m fairly new to Mozilla Firefox. If you haven’t heard of Firefox, or if you just haven’t switched yet, you might consider checking it out. It’s an open source (I believe) internet browser and I just love it. I started using Firefox about a year and a half ago, when I discovered their tabbed browsing feature - something that Microsoft’s Explorer has since implemented, but I have grown to love my Firefox.

Thing is…there are certain websites that I can’t access with Firefox because they don’t support any browsers besides Explorer. That really burns me…tee hee…get it? Firefox-burns me…anyway….

I really can’t believe that Top Producer is among the three sites in three days that I have been unable to access with Firefox. How frustrating! I don’t think there’s any good reason for it. If there is, I wish someone would enlighten me.

Is anyone else with me here?

And can anyone share their favorite Firefox features with me? I don’t use it to its full potential. I know it has lots of cool capabilities, but I haven’t really had the time to learn much about it.

I would love to hear what you do with your Firefox.

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On Saturday evening I attended an intimate party in ‘downtown Pownal’ PEI, hosted by my client and friend Maureen Kerr, owner of Kerr Consulting. It was a very nice evening, and the focus of the event was a private Thai cooking lesson from Chef Stephen Hunter of the historic Victoria Village Inn. It was a great excuse to wear the delicious cashmere sweater I got for Christmas, and a much needed outing for a work at home mom! I was only able to stay for a couple of hours, but I really enjoyed myself….and the spring rolls were amazing.

What a fabulous marketing opportunity for Chef Stephen. He had a captive audience of women that were sipping wine and learning a ton of facts about food. Laughing and having fun. I’m sure that evening will lead to a lot of new business for his Inn.

I think it’s very important as a business owner, and especially a virtual business owner, to get out there and meet some non-virtual people once in awhile. I had a few new people to talk about my business with and introduce to the industry of virtual assistance, which is one of my favorite things to do. I also met a financial advisor, and I think everyone needs one of those. I set up an appointment to speak with her tomorrow morning to see if she can help us become debt free. Networking isn’t just about telling people what you do and attempting to drum up business for yourself. It HAS to work both ways. The best way to get a person interested in you and what you do is to be interested in them and what they do.

It’s interesting how much more confident I am now than I was a year ago when it comes to situations like these. When I walk in to a room full of business owners, I actually feel that I am among my peers rather than feeling nauseous because I do not belong. Why is that? Is it because I have a roster full of paying clients? Is it because I’ve gone to enough networking events to get the hang of it?
Hmmm…maybe it’s just the cashmere

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If you’re a real estate agent (or a REVA) and are spending a lot of time, effort and/or money on virtual tours, this will be of great interest to you!

There’s a fabulous tool called ‘Real Estate Shows‘ that does a great job of virtual tours for a low yearly price for unlimited shows. You just insert your photos, select the music you would like played, add some titles and property details and you’re done!

I think it’s a great value. For $125 per year you can create as many virtual tours as you like, and you can even use your shows to generate flyers.

You should check it out if you haven’t already.

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