I'm Off To FoVA!

I'm off to FoVA. I can't believe the date is finally here. I'm so excited to see my old virtual friends and meet new ones!

I was planning on blogging my way through the conference but after my phone call with AT&T today finding out the costs of using my iPhone while out of country I might just wait until I get back. I was told I will be charged .2 cents for each kilobyte I use. Can someone explain to me what that means? If I sit here and blog for a 1/2 an hour how many kilobytes is that?

Blog Of The Week (Week 9) - Desperately Seeking Sanity

You may have noticed I haven't been picking a blog of the week EVERY week. I decided that was just too much commitment for me. Instead I'm picking a blog of the week whenever I feel like it.

This week's pick is Heather Jacobson's Desperately Seeking Sanity. Heather is a wonderful writer and I really enjoy reading her tales of motherhood. I also love the title of her blog. It is so right on with life...

Heather is the author of Making Dollars Out of Cents, Expanding Your Business One Subscriber at a Time and she is the co-founder of the Virtual Assistant Revolution.

What would you do with an extra $600?

Are you a Starbuck's fan? Do you drop in to Starbuck's once a day to get your favorite tall non-fat soy caramel frapuccino or a double espresso macchiatto? How much does that cost? Let's say it costs $1.65. If you got one every day that would be $602.25 a year (not to mention the tip you might be leaving).

Checking Accounts

Does your bank charge you a monthly fee to keep your checking account? If so, ask them to waive it or take your business elsewhere. With so many banks offering free checking accounts why should you be paying for one?

Where is the money?

April always hits me hard. It's the month when all the big bills are due ( income tax, property tax, home owner's insurance, car insurance, etc...).

This got me thinking about money and how easy it is to waste. This also brought me a blog inspiration. The topic of conscious spending. Do you know where you are spending all your money?

1. Do you ever pay your credit card bill late? If you have paid it late you probably noticed the late fee in addition to an interest charge. Did you know you can call your credit card company and ask them to waive that late fee? Most likely they will waive that fee for you.

2. Do you have a storage unit? Why? If you have a storage unit I'm guessing you just might have more stuff than you actually need. Ask yourself why you are holding on to all that stuff. If you are paying $70 a month for storage that is $840 a year.

3. Do you drink soda every day? How many cans? A dollar a day on soda adds up to $365 a year?

4. I'm going to be adding weekly financial tips to my blog. Come back next week for more thoughts...

MyFax.Com is NOT the Best Service for Virtual Assistants

Being a Virtual Assistant I naturally use an online fax service. So my faxes arrive in my email in box instead of through my phone line. I love the idea of the internet based faxes and have been using them for years! Besides the convenience it is also better for the environment.

The company I have been using is Myfax.com and I was very happy with them (despite the $20 fee I was paying each month). Back in December something happened, I started having issues receiving faxes from some people.

My clients started getting error messages that said "A communication error occurred during the fax transmission. If you are sending, try again/or call to make sure the recipient's fax machine is ready to receive faxes. If you are receiving, contact the initiator and ask them to send the document again".

I tried faxing my Myfax.com number from my own land line fax and it wouldn't go through! I got the same error message. I had always been able to fax myself things in the past. So, I tried faxing to other Virtual Assistant's Online Fax services and it worked (except for the other VAs that had Myfax.com!). I spent HOURS on the phone with Myfax.com and then with Hewlett Packard because Myfax.com convinced me it must be HPs fault, then HP tried to tell me it was my phone company's fault. Nobody was taking ownership. I then tried faxing my Myfax.com number from two different Brother's brand fax machines and those wouldn't go through either!

On top of the HOURS wasted talking to customer support at Myfax.com, they started double billing me from that day. When they were trying to assist me (or convince me that they weren't the problem and it must be HP) they set up a new test fax number and assured me I would not be charged for that. The new test fax number did not work either and guess what... I got double billed $40 instead of the normal $20.

I contacted Myfax.com when I saw the bill and they said they would credit my account. I waited patiently for the credit, got my new credit card bill today only to find out no credit was issued and I was double billed again! They have over charged me $49.67 in the last two months and the service has been unreliable and my clients are getting frustrated that they can't get their faxes through to me.

I finally decided to cancel my account and sign up for Trustfax.com. So far, so good. Trustfax has been receiving my faxes without a hitch all week.

I've heard two other Virtual Assistants complain about issues with Myfax.com. They are having the same issue. People are not able to fax them consistently.

After I saw my credit card bill today with the double billing from Myfax.com I decided to call my credit card company and ask them for help. I was delighted to find out that my credit card company (Chase United Visa) issued me a refund and said they would handle the problem with Myfax.com! What a relief it was to get some great customer service. Not to mention that I am flying to the FoVA conference with the miles I have earned from my United Visa!

PS. I tried to send a fax to someone with efax.com earlier this week and that didn't go through either. It seems there is some kind of issue with HP and Brothers fax machines communicating with internet fax service numbers that start with 866. This is a new problem. I have a feeling me and the other two Virtual Assistants experiencing this issue are not the only ones having problems with Myfax.com (and maybe efax.com).

Blog Of The Week (Week 8) - The Viral Garden

My pick for blog of the week this week is The Viral Garden. The reason I started reading Mack Collier's blog was because he lists the Top 25 Marketing Blogs each week but I keep coming back to his blog because he always has a fresh new look at what is happening in social media world.

Spring Is In The Air

Since reading The E-Myth Revisited I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on my business and what direction I plan on taking it in over the next year.
Be on the look out for some exciting changes at Virtual Simplicity.

At times like this, when my brain gets on overload I often take a break, grab my dog and head for the hills behind my house (the Marin Headlands) that I am so blessed to live in walking distance of. Another reason I am thankful for being a business owner. This is where I often spend time reflecting on my business.

I was delighted to see the first sign of the spring flowers beginning to show!

Thank You

Thank you Laura Monroe from Creative Agent Solutions for this great review on our book.

I was catching up on my Google alerts the other day when I was brought to Laura Monroe's blog where she wrote a review about the Thriving Business Series.

Thanks Laura, it was an honor to be written about by you.

Are You Working For A Lunatic?

Did you quit your job and go in to business for yourself because you wanted to be your own boss? You wanted to have more time to spend with your family? More flexibility? More control over your own life?

Have you set up your business so it can run itself when you go on vacation, have a sick day or just want to take a day off?

Or does your business completely depend on you being there doing all the work?

"If your business depends on you, you don't own a business - you have a job. And it's the worst job in the world because you're working for a lunatic!" - The E Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber

Are you working for a lunatic or do you love your boss?

If you are working for a lunatic and are feeling stuck in the workaholic cycle and thinking to yourself this isn't what it was supposed to be like... I suggest you read The E Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber.

It's a Small World

You know the saying 6 degrees of separation (or is it 7)? Either way, do you think those degrees of separation have changed with the internet? I do.

I just take for granted that I have friends ALL over the world now.

I agree with Dusty Warren that it is a small world in virtual land. Turns out one of my Virtual Assistant buddies that lives in Tennessee has a client that lives 7 doors down from me here in California.

Blog Of The Week (Week 7) - The VA Revolution Blog

My pick for the Blog of the Week this time is The Virtual Assistant Revolution Blog. Lot's happening over here. Various member's of the VA Revolution guest blog here on a regular basis. The Rev is full of lots of revolutionary people and ideas.

Why I Love Being A Virtual Assistant!

I did a similar post back in September. I am feeling grateful today and wanted to share.

I love being a Virtual Assistant because...
1. I am my own boss.
2. I get to decide who I work with and I only work with clients I love working with.
3. I can take my dog for a walk in the beautiful Marin headlands in the middle of the day.
4. If I'm feeling stuck on a technical or other issue I can post in VANA and get a response almost instantly that solves my problem.
5. I have made lots of friends through VA networking groups like VANA, The VA Revolution, IVAA and Virtual Assistant Forums and learned so much from them.
6. I get to go to the FoVA conference in Toronto in May.

Virtual Assistants in Entrepreneur Magazine!!!

Congratulations to Tawnya Sutherland from VANA and IVAA for being mentioned in this article in Entrepreneur Magazine!

Last Day of Time Management Month

I just learned an interesting tid bit in the VANA forum from Kate Verans that not only is February the shortest month of the year, "this February 2008 is a leap year, with 29 days in February and five Fridays. The month starts with a Friday and ends with a Friday and this only happens every 28 years, the last being 1980 and next in 2036."

Speaking of February!

Today is the last day of February which means the last day of our fabulous-you-don't-want-to-miss-this-offer-special-discount book sale!

Managing Your Thriving Business for Success walks you through easy steps to get organized and create more time in your day. In recognition of Time Management month the book that is helping business owners get organized is selling for only $19.95. This offer expires TODAY!

Go to http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com/managing/ and enter the code: “productive” to get this special discounted offer only available during the month of February to start getting organized today.

Social Networking

I was catching up on networking on Ryze tonight in the RWRS network led by Denise Michael's.

Denise posted a link to this video by Common Craft about Social Networking.

The video does a good job explaining how Social Networking works. Check it out: Social Networking in Plain English.


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Reminder: Only 3 days left on the "Time Management" sale of our book. Enter the code "productive" to receive a $10 discount. http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com/managing/

Virtual Co-Authors To Finally Meet Face to Face

I'm doing another round of the Get Client's Now! 28 day system. One of my goals this week was to write a press release about our book. I did it! Here it is.

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Virtual Co-Authors To Finally Meet Face to Face

San Francisco, CA
Virtual co-authors will finally get to meet face to face in May at the Forum of Virtual Assistance Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sally Kuhlman, owner of Virtual Simplicity and Yvonne Weld, owner of AbleVA have never met in person yet they have co-authored a book together. Kuhlman lives in the US in California and Weld lives in Ontario, Canada.

Thanks to modern technology they spend more time communicating with each other than they do with their next door neighbors.

Kuhlman and Weld “virtually” met each other in 2006 through the VA Revolution – a private online networking/mentoring group for Virtual Assistants.

They communicate with each other on a daily basis via Skype’s Instant Messenger program. The call themselves: “accountability partners”. As “accountability partners” they share their goals with each other in addition to sharing their yearly, weekly and daily plans and hold each other accountable to those tasks they set out to do each day.

Both found success fast and had to learn how to balance work and family life while running a business out of their homes. They decided to combine their knowledge and experience to write the book, Managing Your Thriving Business for Success. The book has already seen much success since its release in November of 2007.

Kuhlman and Weld plan to celebrate with a toast to success and virtual colleagues that become real friends when they meet in Toronto in May.

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About Managing Your Thriving Business for Success
For more information about Managing Your Thriving Business for Success and how to start organizing your time better, visit the Web site at http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com/managing.

Reminder: Enter the Time Management Month discount code "productive" to receive $10 off the book now through 2/29/08.

Through my Google Alerts I stumbled upon this great article written by Kendall SummerHawk titled Women Small Business Owners: Is Hiring a Virtual Assistant Right for You? She talks about the importance of investing in your business. She hits the nail right on the head on how a virtual assistant can really help business owners.

Blog of the Week (Week 6) - Right Hand Man

This week's pick is Darrell William's blog, Right Hand Man. Darrell is always on top of what's happening in the Virtual Assistant industry and helps to keep the rest of us informed.


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Instead of having a long blogroll of all my favorite blogs I've started picking a blog of the week to feature over there in the right column. ------> (Where it says Blog of the Week).

I spend most of my blog reading time reading blogs by marketing experts, other Virtual Assistants, and some other miscellaneous blogs that inspire me.

Virtual Assistants Featured in The Newspaper!

Congratulations fellow VANA members Jaime Lee Mann and Darrell Williams on being featured in the PEI Guardian!