October, 2013

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Your Clients Deserve the Best – And So Do You

Step It Up VA Coaching

'by Donna Toothaker. If you hire a contractor to remodel your kitchen, of course you’re going to look for someone who has a reputation for being an expert at kitchen remodels. But you will also look for someone you can rely on to get the job done on time and within budget; someone who will take responsibility for any errors or mistakes he or his team makes, and someone who will have solutions in mind when problems arise.

Training 100
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In Europe, Bikes Outsell Cars

Small Business Labs

'Good article from NPR on bikes outselling cars in most European countries. The chart to the right is from the article.   Bikes outsold cars in the U.S. too, if you count kids bikes. In 2012 there were roughly 18 million bikes sold in the U.S. versus 14.3 million cars and light trucks.   But if you exclude kids bikes (which the industry defines as bikes with wheels smaller than 20 inches), 2012 U.S. bike sales were about 13 million.   While not yet popular in the U.S., electric

2012 121
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Boundaries in Business

The Small Business Blog

'Often, the word ‘boundary’ has negative connotations, but in the business world, setting boundaries can make a big difference. In this article, NLP Master Trainer Ewan Mochrie discusses the importance of boundaries in business. Why is limit-setting important for business growth? A new business needs to be nurtured to maturity like a new-born baby or… Read the full article here: Boundaries in Business on: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG.

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The reader survey results

Practically Perfect PA

'Thank you, everyone, for taking my reader survey recently. I have already published the results regarding your thoughts on the profession, which you can find here. But I thought I would also share your comments on the blog itself. Below are the results. I would have had this information to share with you much sooner had I not insisted on attempting to make the charts and graphs pretty (whoops!).

Skills 100
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SME Relationships: Proven Solutions for Seamless Collaboration and Success

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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How To Ask For Help With Your Career (And Get It)

Eat Your Career

'Before I jump into the advice portion of this article, please allow me a moment to vent… I get anywhere from a couple dozen to a hundred or more emails a week from my blog readers. I love it and I read them all, I assure you. I do not, however, answer them all. If you’ve sent me a message and waited breathlessly for a reply that never came, keep reading.

Email 139

More Trending

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Pillar Huddle: How to Drop Your Story

Office Dynamics

'What story are you writing in your head about your life? Does it match up what others would say about you? We had a great huddle about our perspective and after viewing the video by Christine Hassler, How to Drop Your Story, (video below for your convenience) we shared our thoughts on our own stories. Interesting AHA moments from our huddle today: Stepping out and trying new things will help you write a different story.

UPS 100
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Labormetrics, Autonomy and Employee Tracking

Small Business Labs

'The Wall Street Journal's Memo to Mobile Workers: The Boss is Watching covers the growing use of labormetrics systems to monitor and track their employees.  Key quote: Thanks to mobile devices and inexpensive monitoring software, managers can now know where workers are, eavesdrop on their phone calls, tell if a truck driver is wearing his seat belt and intervene if he is tailgating.

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Why I think you need to get offline to find new clients

The Small Business Blog

'When I started freelancing ten years ago, I had to do my marketing the old fashioned way. Granted, Linkedin was launched in 2003 and then Facebook in 2004, but I hadn’t heard of them. I was too busy trudging my local neighbourhood with freshly designed flyers, pinning them in every library and appropriately placed shop… Read the full article here: Why I think you need to get offline to find new clients on: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG.

2003 155
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The reader survey results

Practically Perfect PA

'Thank you, everyone, for taking my reader survey recently. I have already published the results regarding your thoughts on the profession, which you can find here. But I thought I would also share your comments on the blog itself. Below are the results. I would have had this information to share with you much sooner had I not insisted on attempting to make the charts and graphs pretty (whoops!).

Skills 100
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Elevating the Virtual Interviewing Experience

Sharing your authentic self in a virtual interview can be an unwanted challenge. How do you break through the digital barrier when conducting a virtual interview and share your exceptional self? Think in unconventional ways to elevate the virtual interviewing experience.

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Why You Shouldn’t Rely on Testimonials to Impress Clients

Tips From T. Marie

'Categories: Business Tips. Featured It used to be that a few well written, favorable testimonials on your website or in your brochure copy could convince people that you were great at what you do. Those days are long gone. We no longer rely on the restaurant critic in the newspaper to tell us what’s good. Not when we can […] ( Read more. ).

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Owning What's Yours is Key to Success as a Virtual Assistant

Virtual Moxie

'At AssistU , we’re constantly raising the bar—for ourselves, for the Virtual Assistants in our community, and for the prospective clients who come to us for referrals. The company isn’t at all the same as it was in 1997 when I began it, except in terms of what we do , and what we stand for (if you feel so inclined, you can read the more fleshed out version here ).

Policies 155
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The No. 1 Reason Employers Can't Find the Right Talent

On The Job

'There have been many complaints by some companies that they can’t find people to fill positions, despite a 7.3% unemployment rate. What gives? Are the unemployed a bunch of no-talent, bottom-of-the-barrel drudges who should never be given a job? Hardly. Check out Twitter or LinkedIn, and you’ll find experienced, smart, driven people looking for work.

Resume 219
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Is That an Accountant in Your Pocket?

Small Business Labs

'You don't often see a paraphrased Mae West quote as part of a study on the future of accounting , but with the rise of mobile and cloud computing it makes sense (sort of).   Last week Intuit released the 2103 Future of Accountancy report. We co-authored this report with Intuit and it's an update of The Future of the Accounting Profession study we did with them in 2011.   The forecast update was done by conducting several "think tanks" with practicing accountants, ind

2011 148
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Mandatory COVID Vaccination Policy Template

New vaccine mandates and testing policies will affect employers with more than 100 workers. Get Paycor’s free, customizable vaccination policy template to communicate critical details and new requirements to your employees. Get Paycor’s Template today!

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Targets: Quote of the Week

The Small Business Blog

'“Real artists ship.” This quote was by the visionary former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and he was making a valid point about businesses, particularly those in the technology industry. It is always great to come up with cool and interesting concepts for a product, but it is even more important for you to actually deliver… Read the full article here: Targets: Quote of the Week on: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG.

UPS 153
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The reader survey results

Practically Perfect PA

'Thank you, everyone, for taking my reader survey recently. I have already published the results regarding your thoughts on the profession, which you can find here. But I thought I would also share your comments on the blog itself. Below are the results. I would have had this information to share with you much sooner had I not insisted on attempting to make the charts and graphs pretty (whoops!).

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Effective Employee Orientation

Ian's Messy Desk

'The post Effective Employee Orientation appeared first on Ian's Messy Desk. How to complete effective employee orientations. Hiring the right candidate is a challenging process. Once you’ve found your successful candidate, you need to make sure that they are effectively equipped to hit the ground running in their new position. A good orientation program can take time and preparation.

Equipment 136
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Calendar Management

Laughing all the Way to Work

'I share the CEO''s Outlook calendar with my assistant. Since we both book meetings for him, it is important if we have proposed dates for a meeting that we secure them in his calendar so one of us doesn''t use it for another meeting. We do this by putting a hold on the date and time with a brief note with what the meeting is about, for example ''HOLD Strategy mtg w/DCEO''.

Calendars 125
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Is Training the Right Solution?

Speaker: Tim Buteyn

Let's set the scene: you’ve identified a critical performance gap in your organization and need to close that gap. A colleague suggests training, but you suspect there’s something going on that training can’t address. How can you determine if training is the right solution before you commit your budget and resources to a new training program? In this webinar, you will learn how to determine if training is the right solution using the Behavior Engineering Model.

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Fear Can Become a Monster If We Let It

Office Dynamics

'The FEAR Monster. Welcome to Halloween week. Halloween is such an interesting holiday and is becoming almost as popular as the other major holidays. The stores, boutique shops, and online businesses sell everything to decorate your home, prepare for parties, and offer all kinds of paraphernalia. For decades October has been the month of scary movies and costumes.

Monster 125
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Self-Employment and Portfolio Careers

Small Business Labs

'One of the more interesting findings from this year's MBO Partners State of Independence study is that about 40% of adult Americans aged 21 or older have been independent workers (freelancers, self-employed, contractors, etc.) at some point during their lives. This breaks out as about 8% of adult Americans who are currently independent and about 32% of those not currently independent - meaning they have a traditional job or are currently not in the labor force - have been an independent wor

2020 143
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Donating is Green

Clutter Coach

'Originally posted 2010-06-30 11:16:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter. Your local Goodwill store, never on the cutting edge of anything at all, has leapt into the spotlight with a campaign to increase donations, complete with Facebook and Twitter buttons. Wow! They've got a logo that they want to be as ubiquitous as the recycle logo so that people are always reminded to donate.

2010 109
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Make Your Office Green and Clean for 2014

Eco-Office Gals

'As the end of 2013 approaches we start to plan for a new year of business ahead. The New Year brings new clients, new projects, new workloads and new challenges. We are all now fully aware of the need to keep our businesses Green and work in harmony with our environment. Sometimes as we enter a busy period of business we can easily forget to keep our environmentally friendly approach to working.

2014 152
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Revitalizing Dry Content: A Lesson in Engagement

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

We’ve all been there. You’ve been given a pile of dry content and asked to create a compelling eLearning course. You’re determined to create something more engaging than the same old course that learners quickly click through, but how do you take this “boring” content and create something relevant and engaging? Many instructional designers will say, “Boring in means boring out.

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Living the Mobile Life - Colleagues Share Their Virtual Business Strategies and Tools

Stephanie LH Calahan

'Last week I started the series Freedom to Work from Anywhere: Living the Mobile Life and two of my colleagues shared their tips.  Today, we're going to share some more!  Do you dream of having a business where you can work from anywhere?  It really is possible.  I've been doing it since 2003! Many of my friends and colleagues run their businesses from many locations throughout the year too.  What have they put in place in their business that allows them to

Travel 196
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Are You Doing Business the Way Everyone Else Is?

Tips From T. Marie

'Categories: Business Tips How unique is your approach to business? Have you done some trailblazing to find what works best for you or are you following someone else’s recipe for business success? My son is constantly sharing funny videos with me from YouTube. It’s his way of getting me to ease off the ‘business overdrive’ button. He learned […] ( Read more. ).

Learning 120
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You Want to Grow Your Business – But Are You Really Ready?

Step It Up VA Coaching

'by Donna Toothaker. Wow, I can’t believe we are charging into a new year already in a just a few short months! Exciting things are happening, and I’m looking forward to a wonderful year in my business. How about you? Are you anticipating a breakout year in your business? Are you ready to grow your client base, expand your resources and your income?

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Part-Time Employment Not Due to Obamacare

Small Business Labs

'The Wall Street Journal's Don't Blame Health Care Law for Part-Time Employment shows that despite what a number of folks are saying , the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is not causing, at least yet, an increase in part-time employment.   As the chart from the WSJ article below shows, part-time employment has leveled off - and even fallen a bit - over the last year.         This doesn't mean the Obamacare rules won't lead to more part-time

Health 121
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Brain Fog HQ: Memory Enhancement Techniques for Professional Development

Speaker: Chester Santos – Author, International Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Corporate Trainer, Memory Expert, U.S. Memory Champion

In October, scientists discovered that 75% of patients who experienced brain fog had a lower quality of life at work than those who did not. At best, brain fog makes you slower and less efficient. At worst, your performance and cognitive functions are impaired, resulting in memory, management, and task completion problems. In this entertaining and interactive presentation, Chester Santos, "The International Man of Memory," will assist you in developing life-changing skills that will greatly enha