July, 2019

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How to Write a Professional Development Plan

Eat Your Career

This is the second article in a two-part series on the topic of Professional Development Plans. In the first part of this series, you learned that a professional development plan (or PDP) is a written document used to focus, evaluate and prioritize professional development goals and activities. In this article, you’re going to learn exactly what should be included in a PDP document and the simple 10-step process I use to write a PDP.

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Freelancers and Solopreneurs are Increasingly Exporters

Small Business Labs

Despite trade wars, tariffs, and the erection of other barriers to cross-border commerce, independent workers, freelancers and solopreneurs are increasingly finding customers outside U.S. borders. As the MBO Partners State of Independence study chart below shows (click to enlarge), in 2019 22% of Independent workers who work full-time as independent workers said they provided goods or services to customers outside the U.S.

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10 skills needed to be a fantastic office manager

Practically Perfect PA

There are so many Assistants who are also working as an Office Manager and a lot of Office Managers who are also Assistants! The roles are similar, and there are a lot of overlapping skills. However, Office Managers do have to take on some tasks that are high-level and move the business forward. Many Office […].

Skills 214
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Empowering Tips for the Administrative and Executive Assistant – Part 3

Office Dynamics

In part one of “ Empowering Tips ” I mentioned that the word Empower is not only the theme of the 26 th Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence , it is also used in a variety of situations and conversations. I highlighted the many professional and personal development focuses that I have learned from Office Dynamics resources, conference, team, and owner – Ms.

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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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The Best Way to Answer Questions About Strengths, Weaknesses

On The Job

What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? These are two very common questions asked in job interviews, and they should catch no job seeker off guard if they've prepared their answers. The problem for many applicants is that those answers aren't very good ones. They may be something like, "Oh, my greatest weakness is that I work too hard." (Internal eye roll from the hiring manager.

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Do I Really Need a Professional Development Plan?

Eat Your Career

If you’ve been following my work for any period of time, you know that I’m a big fan of Professional Development Plans (also referred to as PDPs). I often create these plans in collaboration with my career coaching clients, and I frequently provide training workshops on this topic. However, one question I repeatedly hear is this: Do I really need a professional development plan?

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The Number of Nonemployer Businesses Continues to Grow

Small Business Labs

According to the  U.S. Census, the number of   nonemployer businesses in 2017 increased to 25,701,671, up 3.6% from 2016.  Nonemployers are businesses that have an owner, but don't have paid traditional full or part-time employees (W2 employees). The data comes from tax records. As the chart below shows (click to enlarge), the number of nonemployers has been growing around 2.45% per year since 2010.

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Working with a new boss? Here is everything you need to know

Practically Perfect PA

When your Executive leaves to start a new role, it is understandable that Assistants are concerned about what to expect from a new Executive. You build up such a strong relationship with an Executive, that can take years to get right, and the thought of going through that again is daunting. There are challenges, but […].

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Calling All Assistants—Secret to Building a Strategic Partnership

Office Dynamics

. For more than 15 years I have been teaching assistants how to build a strategic partnership with their executives. I especially spend a lot of time on this topic in my World Class Assistant™ designation course. A strategic partnership is quite different from just building a partnership with your executive or just working as a team. An example of how they would be different is that in a partnership the assistant and executive will have weekly or daily huddles.

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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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Should you use a Free WordPress Theme for your Business Website?

Tips From T. Marie

There’s no doubt that WordPress is the ideal choice for building your business website. Recently I touched on the fact that WordPress is an ‘ array of moving parts’. One of those parts is the theme. In WordPress, the theme is the part that dictates your design. Where your logo appears, your colors, and whether a large ‘hero’ image appears on your home page are all items most likely controlled by your theme.

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10 Signs Your Best Employee is About to Quit

On The Job

When you're the boss, there are days when your life seems like one big dumpster fire. Then, there are the days when it feels like everything is going right and you and your team can take on the world. Those take-on-the-world days happen because you have a great team, right? Or, at least you have a mostly great team. Your superstars seem to always come through, whether it's pulling a late night to get a project done or coming up with a brilliant new idea to keep a valued customer.

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Positive Career Affirmation #20

Eat Your Career

I take my workplace promises seriously. To learn more about affirmations and how to leverage them for career success, check out this article. The post Positive Career Affirmation #20 appeared first on Eat Your Career.

Learning 209
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From Man’s Best Friend to Family’s Favorite Child

Small Business Labs

Regular readers know we like Pet Trends here at Small Business Labs. So we had to cover the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's article The Pet Economy Kicks Into Overdrive. The article covers the growth of the pet economy. Key quote: The surge in spending on pets – and explosion of new products, services and unique “experiences” to help quadrupeds and their owners bond more closely – is at an apex, tracking to break U.S. records this year.

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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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40 Gmail hacks for Assistants

Practically Perfect PA

So many organisations are making a move from Microsoft Office to Google Suite (Practically Perfect PA being one such business!). I love Gmail, it is such a great tool, and with all of the available Chrome extensions, you really can make Gmail an incredibly productive tool. We have a great selection of hacks for Outlook, […].

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Focusing on Providing Exceptional Service as an Administrative Professional

Office Dynamics

Focusing on providing exceptional service at work can be a struggle especially if you are not feeling appreciated. I have shared several discussions about this topic with my peers throughout my years as an administrative professional. The key is to focus on providing an exceptional level of service rather than the feeling that no one is acknowledging your service.

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How To Prepare Your Digital Business for Outages

Tips From T. Marie

I celebrated the July 4 th holiday by taking 4 days off from work. It was a hot few days here in southern Maine, and as usual, the hot weather broke with a round of strong storms rolling through on Saturday. Our power flickered out momentarily and we breathed a sigh of relief, having experienced lengthy power outages in the past. Our sighs of relief were short-lived however when we realized we had no Internet service.

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Do This One Thing to Ensure You Always Have a Job

On The Job

Amazon recently announced that it plans to spend $700 million to retrain 100,000 employees in an effort to help its workforce adapt to a world using more automation and new technology. Retraining will focus on moving more employees into tech-savvy roles. Still, not everyone is offering praise for the move. Critics contend that Amazon is only dealing with a problem that it created in the first place.

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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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Positive Career Affirmation #21

Eat Your Career

I take pleasure in simple, everyday workplace routines. To learn more about affirmations and how to leverage them for career success, check out this article. The post Positive Career Affirmation #21 appeared first on Eat Your Career.

Learning 193
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40% of Americans Say They Struggle to Pay Bills

Small Business Labs

The Washington Post's ‘This doesn’t look like the best economy ever’: 40% of Americans say they still struggle to pay bills covers the fact that despite a strong job market and a 10 year long economic recovery, a lot of Americans still struggle financially. The reason, according to the article, is this expansion has been weaker and its benefits distributed far more unevenly than in previous growth cycles, Key article quote: This is a “two-tier recovery,” said Matthew Mish, head of credit str

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5 tips on managing your company’s social media

Practically Perfect PA

Many Assistants are being asked to look after their company’s online profiles and their organisation’s social media messaging. It can be a time-consuming task that requires some thought because social media platforms change so rapidly. There are so many different platforms and options that can pull your focus. If you have been given this task, […].

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Five Questions to Ask Before Saying “I’m Done” (Writing Tips)

Office Dynamics

Suppose you’re writing a sensitive email, article, or letter—one that’s extremely important in your world. The message must be as clear and concise as possible. Ask these five questions and follow the examples to make changes that will immediately improve your prose. Have you put in filler words that don’t add meaning to your sentence? E.g., Starting a sentence with “there are” or “here is” or a variation of that.

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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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Keeping Clients; The True Secret to Success

Tips From T. Marie

The number one question I’m asked by the students who take my best-selling course Work from Home as a Virtual Assistant is “How do I get clients?” Ironically, not one student has ever asked me, “How to do I keep clients?” While the importance of getting clients can’t be argued, knowing how to keep them once you have them is equally important. And it goes beyond my students.

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Dear Employers: It's Time to Stop Treating Applicants Like Crap

On The Job

I was not surprised 10 years ago when many job applicants told me of their frustration when employers refused to even acknowledge their applications or let them know where they stood in the interview process. At that time, there were way more workers than available jobs, and the employers held all the cards. So, many ignored the polite follow-up emails from interviewees, and scoffed at the thought of sending a "thank you for your application" note.

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Positive Career Affirmation #19

Eat Your Career

Everything I do today brings me closer to achieving my goals tomorrow. To learn more about affirmations and how to leverage them for career success, check out this article. The post Positive Career Affirmation #19 appeared first on Eat Your Career.

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The Recent Flurry of Gig Economy Studies

Small Business Labs

It's been a busy couple of weeks for gig economy studies. Below is a list of 4 of the recently released studies. 1. Want Your Business to Thrive - Cultivate Your External Talent : The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Success Factors teamed up for study, which surveyed independent workers, managers who hire independent works and HR employees.  The goal of the study was to get a 360 view of external labor use by businesses.

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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