I’m feeling generous today, and I just thought up a little something.

I would like to give away one free hour (Monetary value of $40/CAD) of Mann Made Time today. No obligation, no catch. Just sixty minutes to be used towards an administrative task you want to unload. (I’ll have to exclude design services on this one or Connie would be upset with me )

Some ideas of what we can do in one hour:

• Create an email campaign
• Create a PowerPoint presentation
• Revamp your website copy
• Research travel arrangements
• Process a mail merge
• Prepare some general correspondence
• Research a project
• Write some blog entries
• Order your office supplies

I’m making this up as I go along, so there are lots of other things that could be done - those are just some ideas.

Anyone is eligible.

All you have to do to win is send me an email: jaime@mannmadetime.com. In the subject line, type “My Mann Made Time” and tell me in that email what you would do with one hour of Mann Made Time.

It’s that simple.

We’ll pick a winner on Monday morning at 9am AST. The contest will be open until then.

So….

What will you do with your Mann Made Time?

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So I’ve waited quite awhile before posting my first post of 2008, but here I am. I took two weeks off for the holidays and I’m so glad I did! I feel rested and motivated. I’ve made a couple of personal New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve made quite a few goals for 2008.

Is there anyone that doesn’t vow to change a few things when January rolls around? I don’t think so. A new year is an opportunity to start fresh, start anew, make things better.

Have you made some goals for this year? This quarter? This month? This week? Today?

I think goals are important. In the wise words of Yogi Berra - “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

The best way to stick to those goals you’ve set is pretty simple. Write them down. Don’t just write them down and forget about them, though. Write them down and look at them every day. I take great satisfaction in crossing off to-do items, and really, a to-do list is a list of goals.

If you’re a super smart and busy person, you’ve probably considered using the services of a virtual assistant to help accomplish some of your goals, right? A virtual assistant can take care of your administrative tasks so you can get to that goal list, and can even start crossing some items off for you.

One of my goals for the year is to post at least once daily to this blog, so I hope to ’see’ you back here tomorrow

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Brainstorming is an awesome practice. I absolutely love brainstorming, and it is such an important tool for an entrepreneur.

When I was 18 - fresh out of high school - I enrolled in an entrepreneurship program at a local college. I remember one day we started brainstorming together. Each person would take a turn in front of the flip chart and write down ideas as they were offered by fellow students. It was such an amazing process, and it is very true that two heads are better than one. (At that time, I was so young, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do yet. I just knew I had an entrepreneur inside, dying to get out.) When you brainstorm with someone, you can build upon each others ideas, and great things can come out of that type of interaction.

If you’re an entrepreneur,  you’re full of ideas. A lot of them are probably great. A lot of them could probably become great with a simple brainstorming session.

Here’s where a virtual assistant can come in. A lot of employers will enlist the help of their staff when they need to improve upon a concept, or develop new ideas. What’s a staff-less business owner to do?

A solopreneur with her very own virtual assistant has, at her disposal, not only one brain, but dozens of brains. Let me explain.

I am a smart woman. I can say that confidently. I am full of ideas. If someone wants to brainstorm with me, I’m all over it. But when I brainstorm with a client, I not only have my own ideas…I can bring that brainstorming session to my network of virtual assistants and generate tons of ideas.

One of the great benefits to turning to the virtual assistance industry is that you can hire someone for a one time brainstorming session. That would be great. What’s even greater is that VA can then implement those ideas for you.  And greater than that is if you work with that VA on an ongoing basis, they will come to know your business inside and out, and will be an even bigger asset to you and your company.

Once you start thinking about how a VA can help you, you will be amazed at how many areas of your business can be improved upon.

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I think my grammar is pretty good. It’s not perfect - not by any means - but I think it’s slightly above average. I wing it with my blog cause it would cost me a fortune to have my super star proofreader/editor go over all of my posts.

I was meeting with one of my newer clients this afternoon - a delightful lady - and on my way out we were talking about how she found me. Incidentally it was through an ad that I forgot I had on UsedPEI.  Anyway…she was telling me about how impressed she was with my website, and she actually pointed out to me what a good hold I have on the English language. She said she notices things like that and is appalled by some of the grammar she sees on the Internet.

There. Right there. That’s the reason I never let anything go online (except forum posts and my blog - people are more forgiving with blogs) or to print without being reviewed by one of Mann Made Time’s proofreader/editors. My website was written by me, but tidied up grammatically by my associate and friend, Angela Smith.

Just a point I thought I’d make in between projects. If you stink at grammar - hire someone to review your work before you publish it. You might think you can’t afford it, but can you afford to lose potential business because of your grammar?

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I have had the pleasure of working with several true entrepreneurs lately. And it sincerely is a pleasure working with this group. I love the energy an entrepreneur exudes while that idea is being fostered. I love helping in that stage and I love being able to support the dreams of these people, even if it is in some small way (taking the burden of administrative ’stuff’ off of their shoulders so they can nurture their creativity).

An entrepreneur in the start up phase of their business is in a very delicate state. Usually this is where the ideas are flowing freely, and the entrepreneur in question just wants their business started - up and running - as soon as possible.

Sometimes the entrepreneur is employed elsewhere and can’t do all that needs to be done without help. Other times the budding business owner has taken on clients before certain things were in place and has gotten too busy to back track and to them now.

Starting a business is a huge undertaking and the incredibly bright entrepreneur recognizes the fact that they must spend as much time as possible fostering that idea…that concept. However, if they spend all their time on their idea, the other side of their business, the administrative/operational side will never be as strong as it should be. There are some sad statistics about how many start ups actually make it past five years, and the start up phase is an important time to set up some good practices.

This is where the services of a virtual assistant can be invaluable for the bootstrapping entrepreneur.

An off-site administrative assistant works only when you ask them to. It’s not like a traditional employee where you pay someone to sit at a desk five days a week, whether or not you have five full days worth of work for them to do.

The following is a list I brainstormed yesterday, of items an entrepreneur in the start up phase can delegate to a virtual assistant:

• Graphic design - logo, business card, stationery, flyer, etc.
• Website design/development, shopping cart set up
• Blog set up (the right VA can even write the entries for you!)
• Masterminding (help determine a business name, tagline, target market, etc.)
• Business plan - a VA can take your notes and format them into a proper business plan.
• Marketing assistance
• Newsletter creation
• Internet research
• Copywriting
• Database creation
• Bookkeeping
• Making phone calls
• Email management
• Virtual PBX set up

I am going to delve into these items in more detail over a series of blog posts over the next few days - so stay tuned!

In the meantime - think about how productive you could be if you could take the above items off your own plate….

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