It doesn’t take long for sibling rivalry to kick in. I have two little ones under the age of four and sharing is a difficult concept to grasp at these ages. The house is busting at the seams with toys, but whichever toy the 3.5 year old is playing with is the one the 18 month old wants and vice versa.

No matter how many times we try to explain that there are plenty of toys to play with, it just seems like a waste of time when the people we’re talking to are so small and inexperienced in life.

I’m not a competitive person by nature. I’m a student of the “may the best Mann (ha ha) win” school of thought. (Maybe birth order has something to do with it – I was the oldest of four kids.) This doesn’t mean I don’t want to win competitions, I just don’t get all worked up them. I do my best and wait to see what happens.

Yesterday I had to contact a man who wanted my help with a ghostwriting project to tell him I simply don’t have the time right now to give his job the attention it deserves. I felt badly because it would have been an interesting and exciting project for me, but I sent him the names of three other writers I know of who might be able to help him.

Do service providers who live by that saying, “He who dies with the most toys wins” handle things the same way? Or when you’re uber competitive by nature, do you rather take on every job that comes along, whether or not you can give it the attention it deserves? Does everyone refer their competitors without hesitation when they’re unable to help someone themselves?

I think the more we share and help each other out within our industries, the better off we’ll all be. There’s plenty of work for everyone, and maybe these writers who I referred that fellow to will think of me when they have projects they can’t handle themselves one day.

To me, the most important thing is that someone who has reached out for writing help gets the attention they deserve from a skilled professional. If it can’t be me, it might as well be someone I admire. I’d rather refer the job than do a half-ass job of it because I want to keep all the toys work for myself.

Does “He who dies with the most toys win”?

A more true statement in line with my personal values would be “He who gives away the most toys wins“.

Might be a tough one to sell to my kids for now, but what do you think?

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I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve blogged. I realized I better post some stuff fast before my Halloween decorating goes to waste!

Social networking is so important for all of us self-employed people but how do you know which sites are worth investing time in?

Well, I can tell you, it really depends on your target market, but I have found certain sites to be a waste of time for me and others have been extremely beneficial.

For me, Facebook hasn’t done too much, probably because I despise the “new” Facebook and don’t want to login. The only time I use it is to update some of my clients’ profiles and add applications and stuff. For me, I signed up long and ever ago with a personal page and have never really used it for business. (Maybe that’s why it hasn’t worked, brainiac.)

MySpace I’ve never gotten into but rumor has it, it’s a waste of time for business networking. (If you have had good results, please comment and let me know about it!)

Now, Twitter. Oh Twitter, how I love thee!

Twitter is a social networking site that begs the question, “What are you doing right now?”

You might be thinking, “Well, who cares?”

Answer – You’d be surprised!

Each Twitter post or “Tweet” (hence the catchy name of this post) is like a tiny little blog post. Anyone “following” you will be able to read your Tweet.

To totally get the power of this, let’s talk about me for a minute. I’m a virtual assistant and I specialize in writing services. When I ‘Tweet’ I try to always let my followers know what it is that I do. But, see, you’re limited to 140 characters with your Tweets so it’s challenging to come up with smart little updates. In the morning, I’ll usually Tweet about what I’m doing (writing a press release, polishing up an article, working on web content, etc.) so that my followers are kind of subliminally getting a service list that’s updated for them each time I’m working on something different. For example, I might say “Drinking coffee and optimizing a press release for web submission.” That tells my followers something personal (I drink way too much coffee because every other Tweet is about my java) and that I have people who pay me to optimize their press releases to be submitted online.

When my followers need my services, if they have been stalking following me for awhile, they are going to feel like they practically know me (Tweeting is a fine balancing act between personal and business for me, but my followers know that I love to cook, eat good food, play with my kids and watch Grey’s Anatomy on top of the fact that I am really busy with writing projects so I must be good, right?).

Twitter, basically, is the ultimate relationship building tool if you ask me. I’ve hired people after following them, I’ve been hired by people who follow me – it’s one big happy Twitter Universe.

I learned about a really cool Twitter tool yesterday called Tweet Beep. It works like Google Alerts. You type in words or phrases you want to be notified of being used in people’s Tweets. I might have a Twitter Beep with my name, so I know when people are talking about me. Or, I might have one set up for ‘copywriting’ so I can be notified if someone is looking for copywriting services, or if there’s someone cool Tweeting about it so I can follow them.

To learn more about this really fabulous networking site check out the Twitter Handbook.

Phew. That’s enough about Twitter for now. But I could go on and on….

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The weekend of May 2nd is going to be a big one for me. I’ll be attending my first in person virtual assistance event – The Forum on Virtual Assistance. I will be co-facilitating a session with Elayne Whitfield, on ‘Nailing the Sale’. Elayne will be telling participants how to properly respond to ‘RFPs’ and I will be talking about the best ways to follow up with prospects, leading to more signed clients.

I am so excited about FoVA. Not only will I actually be able to spend time with some peers, but I’ll get to meet a couple of my team members. It’s going to be great!

Today, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, registrants will receive $75 off the price of the conference.

If you are on the fence, or concerned about the cost, you really should do all you can to attend. A networking event like this will be priceless. It’s an investment every professional should make in their business. Heck, I have two babies I’ll be leaving PEI to fly to Toronto. That won’t be easy, but I’m going to do it.

Can’t wait to see you there!

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I have spent many hours in February entering business cards into a spreadsheet for one of my clients. The stack of cards was several inches high, and since data entry doesn’t take all that much mental focus, I did a lot of thinking.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve had this type of project, but this time the caliber of cards was really interesting to me. I think it’s because the longer I’ve been in business, the more it puzzles me why people even bother to print off some of the cards I come across.
I saw several cards with those perforated edges that were printed at home, on a very lightweight stock that I wouldn’t even call cardstock. I would estimate more than half did not use the back side of the card, which is just crazy to me. Why not use half of the real estate of your business card to include a marketing message, service list or something. Anything. Wait, I take that back. One of these cards really made me lose focus – to the point that I had to pause my timer.

The card was a plain white perforated one and had no mention of a business name. Just a woman’s name, phone number, email address and website address. On the back of the card (which I was checking for additional notes to enter in the spreadsheet) was written “the red head”. In all small letters, and it was actually part of the card, it wasn’t a note my client had made.

Now…it’s really hard not to make a judgment when you see something like that. I’m sure your first thought was probably the same as mine was. I knew there was more to it, though, knowing my happily married client. The site belonged to a business brokerage (I had to check out the site of someone that would print that on the back of their business cards) which kind of shocked me.

I believe the description on the back of the card was meant to be cheeky, and that woman wanted people to remember her as ‘the red head’ they met with. Red heads are rare, right? Lucy, Sally Jessie, Nicole Kidman. I can only name a handful of famous red heads. Putting “the brunette” on the back of my cards wouldn’t mean much, right? Chances are, at a networking event, people might only meet with one red head among all the brunettes and towheads. So I understand the intention, I just don’t think it worked in this case. Maybe if the card was a bit more professional, or if there was at least a business name or description.

Anyway, what do you think about this? Do any of my readers use a tool like this to make people remember you in your networking efforts?

You know what? That red head may be a genius. I will probably never forget her name, website address or what she does. Hmmm. Something to ponder.

I would love to hear your comments.

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This wasn’t intended to be a blog by a virtual assistant for virtual assistants. I started this blog to provide tips and resources for entrepreneurs and real estate agents. However, a large percentage of my readers are VAs, and since I eat, breathe and sleep the industry every day it makes sense to provide industry specific information. And besides, VAs are entrepreneurs too.

I hope you’ve heard of FoVA – the Forum on Virtual Assistance – which is happening just outside of Toronto, Canada from May 2-4.

I’m going to be a co-facilitator for one of the workshops at the event and I am getting very excited about being able to put a face to a name and to meet some of the many virtual friends I’ve chatted with and networked with over the last couple of years.

When I started my business, and first heard about a VA conference I was so disappointed that I couldn’t afford to go. I vowed that day to budget for an upcoming conference to attend in real life. If you can’t feasibly travel to FoVA, put some money aside every day to save up for next year’s!

FoVA is not just a conference though. It’s different. It’s a…well…forum. Industry leaders will meet and share ideas and information, newbie VAs will learn about overcoming pitfalls in their own businesses and have an opportunity to learn from the best.

Check out the website: http://www.ForumonVirtualAssistance.com for details.

If you’re thinking of registering, don’t hold off too long, seats are limited, and hotel rooms are being bought up quickly.

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