The Virtual Office Source

Do you have balance in your business? What doea that mean? To explain that, I’d like to put it in a slightly different context. In order to have balance in your business, you need to have balance in your life.

We’re all hearing more and more about mind, body, spirit balance. If you meditate regularly, you know what this means. You realize how it all comes together. For example, when you are out of balance your body reacts to stress and tension, your mind is cluttered with so many thoughts you can’t begin to sort them all out. You’re having headaches, back pain, or possibly more serious health conditions. You’ve totally lost touch with your Higher Power. Getting back to daily meditation can right all of these things in a short amount of time, almost instantly sometimes.

It’s the same with your business. To be the most productive, you need to  balance all the parts of your business. Perhaps you’re the best with customer service. Your customers all love you and enjoy interacting with you, but your finances are in trouble because you haven’t paid attention to them. Or you don’t have new products to sell because you’re focus has been on customer service.

What I’ve found to be true in my own life is that when I am balanced personally, in mind, body and spirit, it makes it much easier to balance other areas of my life. It all starts with ME.

If you are well balanced personally, and continue to exercise control over that, but still can’t get a handle on all the parts of your business, that’s not all bad. It probably means that business is booming, and maybe you need someone to help you manage it all. That’s where people like myself, and Online Business Manager (OBM), or a Virtual Assistant (VA) or two can help you get and keep it under control. Anyone in an OBM role will also help you brainstorm ways to work more efficiently, effectively and productively.

Most importantly, get your personal selff balanced. Everything else hinges on that. Then, decide what your next steps should be.

One thing I know for certain is that in order to be successful in business, you must be flexible. You need to be open to new ways of doing things as change occurs. Or even as it becomes apparent that what you are currently doing is not working.

Here is a perfect example of my own. For years—well, really all of my adult life, I’ve been a morning person. I get up before the rest of the household and have my wake up time…relax and watch the sunrise with a cup of tea; do my meditation and yoga; have breakfast and shower. Then I’m really ready to begin my day. That is, until recently…

Recently a six-month old puppy came into my life. Her name is Amber. Amber is also a morning doggy. She is up with the crack of dawn. If not then, then as the first sign that I am awake. She demands immediate attention in the way of breakfast, relieving herself and, of course, play. She cannot be left unattended because her middle name is Trouble with a capital “T”.

I can relax with my cup of tea once I get her settled down with her breakfast. Then, it’s outside. I can’t leave her for long because I live on 5 acres with no fencing.  Then the fun begins. She’s constantly looking for something to get into. As a result, I DON’T get my morning meditation & yoga in. This really starts my day off in an “off” way. I rely on these activities for my own mental, emotional and spiritual health, and this has been my routine for years.

For the past several weeks, I’ve just kind of done without, or gotten it when I can. I have finally developed a new routine. I get up and work for that couple of hours in the morning while I can at least keep an eye on Amber. Once someone else is up and can take over doggy duty, I go downstairs to my exercise room and get in my “me” time. It has been an adjustment, but it’s working better than before, when I was floundering trying to keep up with “me.”

Another major benefit I am seeing since I’ve made this change is in my business. I had become rather scattered; forgetting things, missing meetings, not being able to focus on the task at hand. Now I’m back to providing the level of service that is important to me, and I still manage to get in my “me” time. There are other benefits. It gives me time to turn on the space heater and warm up my excercise room. Also, I have difficulty focusing in my meditation because my mind is on everything I  have to do today. Now, I get those most pressing things out of the way first, and get a good mental handle on my day before I go into my meditation. I think I’m liking this new schedule better after all.

As I said, flexibility is the key. It sometimes takes a little creative thinking to adapt, but there are always ways!

I know we’re just coming up on the holiday season, and that tends to preoccupy everyone’s mind this time of year. But have you thought about your goals for next year? If not, now is the time. You’ll want to have something in place to implement come the first of the year.

When developing your business plan for next year, think about such things as:

• What projects to I want to start or complete?
• What are my due dates?
• What is my budget for each project?
• What is the scope of work for each project?
• What new procedures do I want to implement?
• Should I hire someone to help manage my business?
• What is my budget for hiring help?

Putting together a plan is not an easy process. It takes a considerable amount of thought and planning. But if you take the time, I think you’ll find yourself having a more successful business. If you already have a business manager, brainstorming with them is helpful. Set realistic goals, but ones that will ultimately move your business in a forward direction.

How do you turn a frantic, out-of-control week into a calm, together week before it’s too late to make a difference anyway?

My week started out frantic and behind before it even got going good. Oh, I had a good plan in place for the week. It was going to be a very productive week. Then…

…being the Disaster Coordinator for my local Red Cross chapter, I was called to respond to an apartment fire at about 12:30 Monday morning. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep before spending the better part of the day Monday at the Chapter office dealing with the aftermath of people who were not allowed to return to their apartment. Needless to say, Monday (and subsequently Tuesday) nights were devoted to catching up on much needed sleep.

Now it’s Wednesday. I’ve gotten very little work done this week, and I have to figure out a way to get a handle on my week. What would you do?
Well, here’s what I did—having finally gotten rested, I woke up early and did my usual meditation & yoga for the first time this week. I like this to be my usual morning routine because it starts my day off just right. This was what I needed to regain my focus and get back on track. It’s still early in the day, but I have no doubt that I’ll have everything in order that I need to by the end of the day. The trick is to work smart—efficiently. This is something I’m normally very good at, when I don’t have curve balls thrown at me, like I did this week.

The important lesson here is that—well—life happens! We need to be flexible and open to options for dealing with it when it does. After all, it’s not the end of the world; just a little bump along the journey.

I hope you’re week is going along just perfectly; but if it’s not, take a half-hour meditation break. Trust me, it will make a difference!

Autumn is such an obvious change of seasons, with the magnificence of the color changes that nature brings. Recently it has made me realize that a lot of things are changing in our world. I, for one, am seeing changes in my business. Do you have a business that changes with the seasons?

Many businesses are seasonal. Yours may get busier as the weather turns colder, or slow down through the winter. Either way, are you prepared to handle the changes? I don’t happen to have a seasonal business. It just so happens that my business took on a sudden growth spurt. That’s not a bad thing at all; but now I’m jumping through hoops to deal with it. Being prepared is the key to better handle changes as they occur. So what are some things you can do to be prepared?

Use down time to get things in order for the busy times.
Build a network so you have resources available when you need them.
Get ahead on the things you don’t have time to keep up with when you are busy.
If you find yourself overwhelmed and unable to manage it, hire help.
Try to keep a steady work schedule so you don’t become lax during the down times.

These are some of the things I’ve learned about coping with change. If you are reading this, I hope you find these tips useful.

When I left Corporate America and started my virtual assistant business, I found out that time management in a virtual world is different than in an office environment.  I needed to learn how to restructure my day to be the most productive. 

Back in the old days, time management meant using shorthand to take notes and carbon paper to create duplicates.  The personal computer changed all that.  It’s only gotten better and better from there.  Today, administrative professionals have technological tools to help them organize their work day.

Some of the time management techniques I used when I worked in an office environment included things like: making sure that when I got up from my desk, I ran all of the errands I needed to while I was already up and about; sorting the mail into stacks before I opened or distributed it; converting as many paper documents to electronic documents as I possibly could.  I’ve always enjoyed looking for ways to streamline a process.  I came up with some pretty crazy ideas; but I was usually lucky enough to have bosses that allowed me the rope to try out my ideas, and they always worked.

When I started working from home, literally all of my work was done on the computer.  This meant that many of my time management tactics no longer applied.  It was very frustrating for me, since I had been always very good at organization and time management.  I just couldn’t seem to get a handle on it.  I finally decided I needed to take a couple of days over a long weekend to just work on getting things organized and develop a routine. 

• First – my computer:  Up to this point, it had only been for personal use.  Now, it was my primary work tool.  I set out to organize my desktop, documents, files, etc, to help me to work more efficiently.  I deleted files and uninstalled programs I didn’t even remember saving or installing, which freed up space I didn’t even know I had.  I ran my computer maintenance regimen.  Whew, that was a lot, but soooo worth while!  My computer now runs faster and smoother than ever before.
• Next – my calendar, task list and email:  I had things here, there and everywhere.  I consolidated everything into Microsoft Outlook and organized folders, lists and daily schedules.
• Software:  After that, I took inventory of the software applications I was using, and what I would need to add in order to be productive in my virtual environment.  I was now responsible for all that, instead of the company I worked for, as it had always been in the past.  I researched what I could use that was free of charge, and added the higher quality applications as I was able to afford them.
• Backup system: Finally, I had to devise a backup system for my computer.  I never really worried much about it before.  But I couldn’t risk losing valuable work, as it was now my livelihood.  OK; that’s one less thing I have to worry about.

After all that, I was ready to go to work.  But, even though my work day went more smoothly after having done these things, I found I still had some work to do.  I was still not making the most of my time; I had to look for additional ways to improve my system.  After experimenting with different things, I have finally narrowed it down to some things that work very well for me.

• Big one – email: I organize my mail, just as I did when I worked in an office, only now it’s all on the computer.  I flag high priority mail for follow up or handle it then and there, file it, print it, forward it, or delete it.  If it requires adding something to my calendar, I do it right away so I’m sure not to forget to schedule it in later.  Good, that’s out of the way!  I do this first thing in the morning, and then usually check it a couple of times throughout the day.
• Have a schedule: Having a schedule of my day laid out first thing in the morning is important for me.  I know what I need to get done and have a pretty good idea of how long it might take me, so it’s not that difficult to schedule my day.  I use my Outlook calendar and set a pop up reminder so I’m sure not to miss or forget anything.
• Don’t forget family: It took some time get my family used to the fact that, just because I’m home, doesn’t necessarily mean I’m readily accessible.  I still have a job do to, and a timeframe in which to complete certain tasks.  Once I made it clear that my work time is “do not disturb” time, they completely understood, and my work day now has far less interruptions.
• Oh yeah – interruptions: that’s another thing I had to get under control.  Although it was hard to do, I got in the habit of turning off my cell phone, closing my email, putting my desk phone on ‘do not disturb’, holding off on doing the laundry, etc.  For me, an important factor of time management is giving my full focus to what I am working on.

It continues to be a work-in-progress.  By nature, I’m always looking for better and more efficient ways of doing things.  I don’t imagine that will ever change.  But, it works much better now than it did before.  I have actually time to take on new clients!

Here’s to your success in your business.  I hope you have found some useful tips here.