by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jan 2, 2014 | Entrepreneur, Goals, Small Business
Change up the experiment if you want different results. Old news but so true. You can’t expect something to change if you are doing the same old tired routines day in and day out. No matter what it is, personal or professional, it is up to you to be accountable and design the success you want.
It is when you push the boundaries of your comfort zone that challenge and change become inevitable. This is your place for growth. Don’t buck change. Embrace it. When you become shaky, nervous, maybe even a little queasy, you will know that you just took that needed leap toward greater things. Congratulate yourself. Rewards are on their way to you.
Be Encouraged! There is growth and life outside of your comfort zone! Chery Gegelman
No one else will deliver your dessert. Use the finest ingredients if you want a tasty rich slice of cake.
Anyone can simply rip open a box and add water. Toss the boxed mix, tin foil pan and plastic spoon.
Use the highest grade, unrefined flour. Raw sugar. Real cocoa. You get the idea. Nothing processed or prepackaged.
Dump the status quo and acceptance of being average to craft the pinnacle torte with chocolate ganache for full-bodied ecstasy on your tongue that makes your taste buds burst with excitement.
Can you taste it? What does it look like to you? What will it take to build this mouthwatering dessert?
No matter what your goals may be, it takes planning, commitment and time.
- Envision your dessert and build it.
- Set attainable goals.
- Implement the tools you WILL use: whatever works best for you.
- Create your plan with action steps and a timeline.
- Be accountable.
- Taste the ingredients. Modify if necessary.
- Know that a redirect is sometimes required.
- Challenge old assumptions.
- Oven temperatures vary.
- Don’t burn the chocolate.
- Find a sous chef or two. Delegating helps you scale.
- If your cake falls in, make another one. Failure is a success point.
Is it difficult or frustrating to instigate change? Hell yes. You have all been there. That is what life is about. You must take risks and get uncomfortable if you want to taste the reward of success. These outer limits that you test, show you who you are, what you are made of, your real strength and resolve and that you CAN do accomplish anything you dream about. The biggest risk, is not risking anything at all.
Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did. H. Jackson Browne, Jr.
It can be a scary place but strap on the mindset and turn on that mixer.
Be BOLD with your goals.
This is 2014 and time for change.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Dec 23, 2013 | Communication, Organization, Time Management
The expansion of the digital global office is not just working in your pajamas and drinking coffee all day. It is an efficient and productive place of business to business operations. There has been a constant increase in the number of remote or work from home opportunities and it will only continue to escalate. It gives your business the benefit of assembling a top notch team of professionals, working in a variety of time zones, contributing to your growth and success.
At last count, that amounted to some 3.3 million people working remotely (not including the self-employed or unpaid volunteers), or 2.6% of the U.S. employee workforce. Global Workplace Analytics
Operating a virtual office can be simplified through utilization of many of the online/open-source productivity and collaborative tools ensuring a connected global workforce. Creating a virtual team is a cost effective and productive avenue to manage your business, maintain a low overhead; thereby increasing your profit margin.
Working remotely offers a more versatile environment, increased work/life balance, varied working hours, reduced stress, no commute and enhanced knowledge of technology.
While members of your virtual team may not meet face to face very frequently, they do regularly interact online for discussions, brain-storming and training sessions, requiring a variety of tools to enhance communications, collaborative efforts and teamwork. Effective communications, transparency and feedback are the building blocks of your successful remote environment. Email and text are two of today’s most widely used “communication” tools but remember, a phone call or video chat offers more of the personal nuances and relationship builders within your virtual community.
The applications shown below are just a minute sampling of the available basic online solutions, helping you to manage your remote office. Source the ones that best suit your present needs as well as those that will support your corporate growth and future goals.
JUST THE BASICS: 14 Tools for a Productive Virtual Team
- Google Docs: office suite of online collaborative tools to create/share documents and forms
- Google Calendar: Web-based calendar to share and collaborate with your team
- Genbook: online calendar scheduling allowing colleagues and prospects to schedule appointments directly with you instead of continual back and forth emails
- SKYPE: VOiP for live chats, video or IMs. Also offers low cost calling options
- Viber: free calls, text and file sharing to other Viber users over WiFi or 3G. They also offer low cost calling options for non-Viber users
- Google Hangouts: group calls, video conferencing, file sharing, share on YouTube
- Mighty Text: simple tool to text from your computer and have all messages sync to your phone and other technologies. It even alerts you to incoming calls
- Ring Central: cloud based phone system – nationwide calling and fax
- JoinMe: screen sharing, send files, and share control
- Free Conference: set up free conference calls up to 150 attendees with call recording
- AnyMeeting: full featured online FREE meetings up to 200 attendees, video broadcasting, screen sharing, ext surveys, recording, invitations and more
- DropBox: free file storage, share with colleagues/friends. Simplifies sending or sharing of large documents that most mail clients are unable to accommodate. They offer two-step verification as an added security measure
- TeamBox: online project collaboration/management to streamline conversations and documents, keeping them in one central location.
- Awesome Screenshot: take full screen or partial screenshots: edit, annotate, save or send
Just do your due diligence to ensure the features and benefits match your goals and collaborative requirements.
- Work smarter, not harder.
- Embrace the cloud.
- Stay connected with your team.
- Foster a community of trust and openness.
- Remember to check-in weekly.
- Don’t simply rely on texting and emails.
- Use chat tools.
- Create online communities for your team
- Continue to research and review other collaborative tools.
When working with your virtual team:
What tools or applications do you find most effective?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Dec 18, 2013 | Virtual Assistant
There will come a time in your business when you feel plagued with the never ending amount of tasks and projects required to successfully operate your company. In a state of overwhelm, there is simply too much for one person to achieve while remaining efficient, effective and balanced. You may find that you have numerous responsibilities to complete but not enough hours in the day.
- You don’t have time to focus on your core genius
- Low income tasks usurp your valuable time
- Your work/life balance it out of whack
- You have a set of tasks you need completed that are outside your skill set or expertise
- You have missed deadlines or appointments
- You spend hours updating your social media platforms, taking you away from your high payoff tasks and projects
- You are having trouble finding time to research, update and syndicate your blog posts
- You haven’t published a recent e-newsletter
- There are 5424 emails in your inbox
- Your You Tube channel is collecting dust
- You consistently procrastinate on tasks because you simply don’t enjoy doing them
- You don’t have the time to devote to working ON your business rather than IN it
“The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t.” Anthea Turner
If Chris Ducker can outline 101 Tasks that you can outsource to a Virtual Assistant, can you just imagine what you are holding on to? For example, he listed categories ranging from email marketing, administrative and blogging, email and schedule management tasks, to content writer, SEO and graphic design. Under each category there were bulleted lists of tasks/projects to be delegated. It was quite extensive and really makes me think about all of the daily non-income producing items that you don’t delegate. I understand you may get into the groove and just keep going with a project, but at what cost to the rest of your business?
Ask yourself:
- Is delegating a logical next step to help grow my business?
- How much time am I spending on tasks that impede my progression and waste my time?
- What are my most pressing issues or pain points that command most of my time?
- Have I been able to accomplish ALL of my daily To Do list items?
- If I delegated tasks, how would I utilize an additional 5-8 hours per week?
- How would I feel if I only worked on income generating tasks and released the more administrative projects to a virtual assistant?
The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels. Eli Broad
There is no need to struggle with your business operations and daily tasks when you have the opportunity to outsource. It will save you time and money. With 168 hours in the work week, it is important to choose your activities and projects that make the most sense for yourself and your business. If you find yourself in floury of needless activities that aren’t producing desired outcomes or generating revenue, then it may be time to consider working with a Virtual Assistant to give you back your time and passion to focus on your business. If you are still teetering on the fence a bit, you might enjoy reading: 5 Mental Roadblocks to Partnering with a Virtual Assistant
2014 is here. It’s time to do something different. Make new inroads; greater progress.
The Sales Blog: “Successful people spend their time where they create value. They delegate, eliminate, or defer activities where they cannot create value.”
Outsourcing is a low cost, high payoff tool to assist you with your organizational growth. There are only so many hats we entrepreneurs can wear at one time, before our do it all mentality ends up costing us either lost time, opportunities, accounts, business development or free time. Why aren’t you delegating?
“When I am speaking with new business owners, or ones that can’t seem to find the time to get everything done, the very first piece of advice I offer is to partner with a virtual assistant.” M. Shannon Hernandez
Call Ace today to get started! We are waiting to hear from YOU!
Let’s ring in the New Year with a BANG!!!
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Dec 16, 2013 | Social Media, Time Management, Virtual Assistant
Social media marketing is not fading away. As 2013 comes to a swift close, SM Marketers are looking back at the year in review and projecting some potential future trends for the coming year.
Brian Solis: “This year marked social media’s move into the mainstream. Social media is now part of our fabric of society, like mobile phones and computers — it’s a staple of our everyday life.”
SMM continues to expand exponentially and you should be on board with the 2014 trends; otherwise you may just be shouting noise with a plugged up megaphone or simply lost at sea. Since its inception, SMM has exploded the opportunities and platforms for both B2B and B2C. The online digital office provides YOU with a GLOBAL reach but only with the right strategy and planning for your brand. It is a mandatory tool for businesses of all sizes. You can’t NOT have a presence if you want to be found, talked about, and grow your revenue. You will want to be “linked in so you are not left out.”
2013 offered a great deal of tools, tips, platforms, and innovations, but what still stood out?
Content Marketing! It is a must have, must do, in your marketing arsenal. Uberflip’s infographic clearly outlines the trends and potential for CM. Remarkable content reaches your audience. It is shared. It is talked about. It has the potential to reach pain points and have an impact on your buyer. As one of the main 2014 trends, you need to consider how YOU will bump up your efforts, your blogging, your website and all of your content, to seize the attention of your audience. If you don’t, your competition will be serving the entree.
In a recent study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute their results demonstrated that 93% B2B organizations now use content-based tactics for their marketing promotions and 73% specified they now produce more content than the previous year!
Other projected social media trends
Justin Pearse:
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Brands will start investing in the people, processes and technologies to deliver truly compelling content.
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2014 will be the year job titles such as head of content and content director become common at brands, both B2C and B2B.
Juliet Stott:
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2014 will see more brands embracing social media as an integral part of their content marketing strategy.
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There will be a race for engagement on social across all the channels.
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Brands that delight and reward their followers and harness the invaluable (user generated) content they create will be the most successful.
Ben Barone-Nugent:
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Businesses and agencies are going to more formally recognize distinctive types of content strategists.
Jayson DeMers:
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Investment in social media will become a necessity, not a luxury.
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We’ll see even more companies hiring social media strategists or full-time social media managers.
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Businesses who are finding themselves spread thin with their social media efforts will increasingly turn to Google+ as the closest thing we have to a ‘one size fits all’ social network.
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Visual content will increasingly become a critical piece of any solid content strategy, and social networking site.
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LinkedIn is positioning itself as one of the largest sources of content creation and curation for professionals.
TwinEngine
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Content marketing is the key to attract and retain customers.
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Images outrank words for engagement.
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Companies engage with consumers in real-time.
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Hashtags become a leading search tool.
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Mobile marketing surpasses traditional marketing.
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Digital exceeds a traditional marketing budget.
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Building relationships with inbound marketing is critical to long term growth.
WOW Isn’t that an extensive list of social media projections!? How can a business possibly manage to stay on top of the trends, research the current tips, tools and best practices, never mind maintain all of the social platforms? It sounds so painful and extremely time consuming when you need to run your business, attend to your clients, troubleshoot and every other day to day task. That is just way too much for one person to consider.
BUT what if you had a team?
A vested partner perhaps to help you:
- deal with the overwhelming social media trends
- with your social media plan for 2014
- to execute and manage ALL of it
- invest your valuable time where it should be spent
- become more productive and efficient
- scale your business!
While you are very cognizant of the FACT that social media is a necessity for your business, it may not represent the best use of your valuable skills and talents. It isn’t your core genius! Your passion! Your job! BUT it is a requirement to help promote your online marketing efforts and generate income.
CONTACT us today to discuss how we will kick off 2014 and make it a more profitable and productive year.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Dec 12, 2013 | Small Business, Social Media
“I just don’t have enough time in the day to do it all.”
How many times have you thought that to yourself? I hear it all of the time from prospects and clients. It is almost virtually impossible to do it all and be it all to everyone while still building your business and providing the necessary service (s) to your clients. Entrepreneurs and small business owners alike share the same sentiment whether they are just launching their businesses or living in the trenches. There are so many hats to wear and you can’t afford to remove one of them UNLESS you have a little bit of help.
Keeping a tidy and productive digital office necessitates a visible online presence with consistency and frequency or your voice will get lost within the noise and fundamental chatter. Building and maintaining your networks takes a lot of time, energy and focus. There are literally hundreds of social channels to choose from, which can be overwhelming. You need to evaluate and understand your audience, where they hang out, what they want and what they consume.
“Social media is not just an activity; it is an investment of valuable time and resources. Surround yourself with people who not just support you and stay with you, but inform your thinking about ways to WOW your online presence.” Sean Gardner
Choose a few networks and be involved. Actively listening, sharing, engaging and measuring. While you are doing all of this, you still have a business to operate. Duties to fulfill. Responsibilities to manage. Where does it all end? Where does it begin?
It begins with you.
- Create your systems and strategies for your business and your online presence.
- Refine and revisit both to ensure you are on target and meeting your goals.
- Understand that social media is an investment that will reward you but you must do the time.
- Find and USE tools that will enhance your productivity and efficiency.
- Set aside time each day to engage and monitor your social networks.
- Evaluate small business success tips.
- Automate some of your content but NOT your conversations.
- Don’t spread yourself too thin or you will not grow your communities.
- Use an editorial calendar to help keep you focused.
- Learn to unplug and focus
- Generate remarkable, valuable content.
- Know where and how to syndicate your blog posts in addition to your social networks.
- Know your core genius and outsource the low payoff activities.
Delegating is a strength. It helps you to be able to focus and perform your tasks and projects that ONLY YOU can and should be doing.
“Train yourself to stop doing tasks that don’t add much value to your business – admin, repetitive, things you hate and things you aren’t good at.” Ekaterina Ramirez
- Make a list of all of your online efforts with action steps for each.
- How much time you spend managing these tasks.
- Carefully review it.
- Note what does NOT generate income.
- You can visibly see what you can effectively delegate.
- Move those lower payoff items off of your plate and fill it with rich tasty cuisine.
Are you still fighting with a few mental roadblocks to delegating and increasing your efficiency and productivity? Simply send us a message and let’s talk about getting you back on track to scale your business and online presence. There is no sensible need to go it alone, when you have an Ace virtual assistant waiting to be your vested partner.
“Exceptional leaders, however, understand the importance of and how to surround themselves with exceptional talent and delegate tasks and responsibility to them.” Peter Gasca
