Standing Out

Is it too late for a spring fever post?

This image by Don Li-Leger is courtesy of allposters.com. Go buy it! It’s beautiful.

Here in Erie, I feel like spring is just now rolling around. My allergies are kicking in (that’s a sure sign), it’s incredibly green, it’s finally warm, and there are a whole lot more cars out driving in the middle of the day.

Today is definitely a Spring Fever Friday. In the world of working from home - spring fever, in my opinion, means shutting down/hibernating the ‘puter, buckling my son into the car seat and heading out shopping for a few hours for summer clothes and that new swimsuit.

It feels great to get out and about, set work aside for a bit and enjoy being whole, happy and successful in life. Spring and summer are great seasons to celebrate who you are beyond what you do - you’re a mother or father, son or daughter, sister or brother, best friend, mentor, buddy, neighbor, caretaker, etc. These things describe who you are a person in relation to the “others” in your life - the ones that make it all matter.

The seasons, the weather, the people you choose to spend your days around…spend some time celebrating and enjoying it all. Take time this spring and summer to plan some truly remarkable (but inexpensive) weekend getaways:

• explore that children’s museum in your home town you’ve never been to (even if you don’t have children!);
• take your digital camera to the nearest state park and click away, then create a neat photo blog to share it;
• invest in your extended family by buying a plane ticket and taking a long weekend (leave the laptop behind).

Remember that all of our days are numbered. Try and make the most of each one this season. I know I will!

Cheers,

Tia

Social networking (Facebook, Biznik, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) for business is all the rage right now, and while “trendy” things are usually frowned upon, you need to be where your target market is, trendy or not. Social networking will not only increase awareness of your product or service, it could lead to sales and to those priceless business connections we all need.

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Ever feel like you’re in a race against the competition for clients? Let me tell you this: constantly hounding them for their business is not the way to go.

But there are three sure-fire things you can do to set up shop so that clients are coming to YOU instead of you running after them all the time.

1. ASK FOR IT.  It may seem like the simplest, silliest thing to mention here, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for your marketing materials (including website and blog) to include a “call to action.” It’s OK to assume that your visitors and prospective clients want to know how to get in touch with you. So, help them out by telling them how to do it! You’ll notice that on every main page of my website, I include a call to action near the bottom. On every single page.
2. DO A GOOD JOB. Another very simple (well, maybe not always) thing to do. This is not rocket science. If you do a good job, your clients will come back to you. You don’t even need a fancy shopping cart with autoresponders and all that jazz. Just be your amazingly fabulous self, do a great job, and you’ve locked in a client for life. Yes, it’s great to keep up with your clients to remind them that you’re still around, but you don’t need to chase them down with sales and discounts. In fact, your repeat clients will pay for you at a premium because they understand from experience how valuable you are.
3. CLEARLY EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DO. Even I am guilty of not clearly explaining what I do, which is why I’m in the process of creating clear-cut proposal for each of my services, and they will be available for prospective clients to download when they visit my services page. If your services are outlined clearly enough, clients will know what you do and won’t click away out of frustration, boredom or disinterest. If they need something you provide, they will contact you.

A fourth, bonus sure-fire way to get clients coming to you is to make sure you are easy to contact. Don’t be elusive. If you’re a virtual assistant, at least include an email address. But, including an actual contact form is best.

If you don’t have a contact form, download the freecontactform.com’s .zip file and get to work. You’ll need a webhost that supports .php (and not all plans do - don’t assume this - that’s why I like siteground).

Try these out! They work for me.

Cheers,

Tia Peterson
All American Admin

I posted this earlier and it magically disappeared!

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Does this seem familiar to you?

Wake up.

Start working (notice I skipped brushing teeth, getting coffee, getting dressed…)

Stop working to open the door/gate/whatever for UPS/FedEx/USPS person.

Resume working

Stop working to get dressed/brush teeth/eat breakfast

Resume working

Stop working to pick up the clutter, start a load of laundry, feed the dog.

Resume working

Stop working to [fill in random household chore here]

It can be extremely tempting to tend to household chores and similar things when you work out of your home. But have you ever considered the real impact on your productivity that comes as a result? It’s major. It can take me twice as long to do something if I keep stopping to tend to the house.

The laundry can wait. If you didn’t work from home, it would have to anyway. You work from home because it’s a nice perk, not because you can work and do the dishes and dust the living room and make the kids’ beds.

I suppose you might work from home so you can do those things, but I challenge you to spend one weekday brushing off all that stuff until 5 PM. Then, stop working and tend to your home. You’ll be surprised that you accomplished way more when you focused on just one thing at a time.

To our success,

Tia