It's Not Easy

When someone you love is in critical condition in the hospital it's not easy to concentrate. It's not easy to come up with a blog post. It's not easy to care about the mundane daily details of running a business. It's not easy to focus on client work. It's not easy to focus on your children when they are worrying about what they are going to wear to graduation. It's not easy to be your normal cheerful self. Basically nothing is easy. I found myself not wanting to do anything productive. But then I remembered that is what life is about... it's about the little details that seem unimportant. It's about being present in the moment. It's about getting up each morning and facing the day and hopefully making someone else smile at some point during that day.

Today was a better day. Although, it's not easy... I'm back!

I Believe in Miracles

I've been gone for the last few days putting all my energy in to Grace. Grace is part of my extended (and very complicated) family. She was involved in the big crash on the Golden Gate Bridge the other day. I spent the night at the hospital with her the other night and have had the song I Believe in Miracles You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate in my head ever since. Please send healing thoughts and prayers to Grace.

What Are You Doing?

What are you doing? You can answer that question over here at Twitter.
If you don't know what Twitter is, here is a great video explaining it.
I love my Twitter!

Blog Of The Week (Week 10) - Extraordinary Women Thrive

This week I pick Lisa Hunter's new blog Extraordinary Women Thrive.

I'm so excited to see she has a blog that I wanted to share it with all of you!

Lisa is my coach and she is awesome!

She happens to be offering a special 5 session coaching package to spirited, go-getting, (possibly stressed out) women who want to thrive.

Prosperity or Poopy Thoughts?

Are you having prosperity thoughts or poopy thoughts?

Stop right now and listen to that chatter inside your head.

What do you hear?

A. I'm a failure. I can't do this. I don't think I can handle this. I'm so stupid.

or

B. I am a successful business owner. I love learning new skills. I am smart. I can do this!

If you are hearing things like A then you are having poopy thoughts. Next time you catch yourself having a poopy thought stop right then and change that thought to a positive/prosperous one.

If you are hearing things like B - Congratulations! You are having prosperity thoughts! Keep up the good work!

You Can Heal Your Life

Woohoo Louise Hay's book You Can Heal Your Life is now a movie!



That little book and Louise's wise words helped me through some very difficult points in my life. I can't wait to see the movie!

SPECIAL OIVAC DISCOUNT

Now through Sunday (5/18/08) Managing Your Thriving Business For Success is on sale!

50% off! We are offering this special discount in honor of IVAD!

Enter the code: OIVAC to receive your discount!

Fast Track to Goal Setting

Did you know if you write down your goals they are much more likely to happen?

Have you ever stopped to think about what you really want to do with your business?

How many hours a week do you want to be working?

How much money do you want to be making by this time next year?

What kind of clients do you want to work for?

How many clients do you want?

How much do you want your monthly income to be?

How about doing something for yourself this week? Or better yet, right now! Take a piece of paper or open a Word document and answer the questions above (or post your answers in a comment right here). Don't forget to write the date on your list of goals. A year from now I will bring this post back up to see how you did with your goals.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you hard working women out there!

“When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?" it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.” - Erma Bombeck

"The best academy, a mother's knee." - James Russell Lowell

“When you feel neglected, think of the female salmon, who lays 3,000,000 eggs but no one remembers her on Mother's Day” - Sam Ewing

“I know how to do anything - I'm a Mom.” - Roseanne Barr

"We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up." - Phyllis Diller

“Mothers of teenagers know why animals eat their young” – Unknown

"I'd like to be the ideal mother, but I'm too busy raising my kids." - Unknown


Today is the last day to get $10 off Managing Your Thriving Business For Success . Enter the word "productive". Offer expires at midnight tonight. Great book for business moms! Learn new ways to balance work and family.

Goals Start With Ideas

"Goals are a system of deciding what you want, planning how to get it, then taking action and working towards getting it. Many goals never materialize because people forget about them, We all get busy in our daily lives and forget to stay focused on the big picture. Keep a notebook where you can write down ideas, goals, inspirations, etc. Keep this notebook easily accessible and whenever a great idea pops into your head, write it down. If you write down your ideas you will have a much better chance of reaching your goals."
-excerpt from Managing Your Thriving Business For Success

$10 off now through May 11, 2008. Enter the code word: productive at Managing Your Thriving Business For Success

What's Your Excuse?

Do you think you are too old to get started with an internet business?

If so, you might want to check out this new ebook: Put Your Old on Hold: A Baby Boomer's Unconventional Guide to the Making of a dot com business" by Karen McGreevey.

She's funny, she's witty and she knows what she is talking about.

What is an Affiliate and how can I be one?

According to wikipedia, Affliliate Marketing is "is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts."

Have you thought about becoming an affiliate for a product that you like but you're not sure how it all works?

Did you know you could be making money while you sleep if you are an affiliate?

It's easy to be an affiliate! All you have to do is sign up and then you get your own unique URL for whatever product it is that you want to promote. You can put this link on your Website, on your blog, or email it to your friends and lists.

If you haven't tried being an affiliate before how about trying with our book: Managing Your Thriving Business For Success? You can earn 30% commission on each book sold. To make things easier for you we have set up an affiliate tool box with a free affiliate manual to give you some ideas on how to get started. If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly.

To join our affiliate program click here. To learn more about it click here.

Bragging Rights

I got interviewed at Virtual Assistant Forums this month! You can read the interview here.

In celebration of returning from FoVA and being interviewed at the Virtual Assistant Forums I'm offering a discount on the book Managing Your Thriving Business For Success. Just enter the code word productive to receive $10 off. This offer lasts through May 11th, 2008.

Thanks!

FoVA - Forum on Virtual Assistance

Last Thursday I got on a plane in San Francisco and flew to Toronto for the Forum on Virtual Assistance. After a long day of travel and getting through security and feeling a little dazed and confused I walked through the customs door in to a sea of people. I was pleasantly surprised to hear my name being shouted out (loudly) by Patty and Yvonne. It was great to see Patty again and to finally meet Yvonne in person.

Yvonne & Sally







Considering I am incredibly jet lagged at this moment I'm going to post a few photos from the forum and wait for my head to clear up before attempting to post anything intelligent. These photos are from the socializing part of the weekend... I'll get down to business later this week and tell you about all the wonderful workshops.

When we arrived at the lovely Delta hotel we were greeted by Princess Terry.

We then went up to our room to get pretty before it was time for the cocktail reception.

(Left to right: Victoria, Jaime, Yvonne & Patty)






Patty's husband won VA husband of the year again. He sent flowers to her hotel room (again).












Barb our fearless FoVA leader told us all about what we could expect from the conference.












Michelle told us a bedtime story.













Some of the VANA volunteers posed for a picture with Tawnya wearing their new sweatshirts.

(Sally, Patty, Tawnya, Terry, Yvonne)

Stay tuned for more photos and stories...

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).