April, 2011

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amazon.fail – Is that fair?

The Small Business Blog

Lately much has been made of the downtime experienced by amazon’s hosting infrastructure. Amazon’s clients – some of the big names in the cloud computing industry using the platform experienced outages too, and so did their clients.

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How to Manage Other People's Papers Messing with Your Home-Based-Business

Stephanie LH Calahan

If I did not have their stuff all over the place, I might get something done! I hear this story all of the time when I talk with professionals that are contacting me for help with productivity and organization.  When you have an office, or your only office, in the home there are usually added complications.  One complication is other people's stuff!

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Defending Twitter

Small Business Labs

There is a growing backlash against Twitter these days.  This tends to happen in the tech field when something has been as hyped as Twitter.  Fortune's recent cover story - Trouble@Twitter - is an example.  It spends most of its time on management discord at the company. But the article also points out that Twitter traffic has leveled off, users are spending less time on the site, and almost half of the registered users aren't active.  The picture above, BTW

Twitter 124
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I’ve Put Website On The Menu

Tips From T. Marie

Over the past 18 months my WordPress website creation services, offered under my Girly Girl Geek division, have become extremely popular.When I started offering the service I offered several money saving ‘packages’ as well as more individualized sites that required a consultation, estimates and a higher price tag. One was quick, easy and inexpensive, the other was highly customized, more time consuming and could get expensive depending upon the site.

Expenses 109
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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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5 Steps to Ideal Client Relationships

Step It Up VA Coaching

by Donna Toothaker. I am fortunate to have truly terrific clients in my Virtual Assisting business. They are great to work with — I honestly couldn’t ask for better. However, it wasn’t always like this. When I started my VA business, I had clients who gave me an upset stomach, didn’t pay me, and gave me emergency projects on MY time.

AT&T 144

More Trending

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Dollarization

The Small Business Blog

Do you know why people buy your product or service? There can only be two reasons, either it makes them feel good or it helps them to solve a problem. It can be argued that some products do both, ether individually or both at the same time.

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Grow Your Business With These Eight Processes Every Business Should Have

Stephanie LH Calahan

No matter if you are a one-person show or you have a business that has many employees, unless you have business processes in place, you may find the business growing "out of control."  The activity of organizing and writing down key activities and when they need to get done is critical to your ability to grow your business and thrill your customers.

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Fidelity on Leading Sectors for Innovation

Small Business Labs

I like to follow research from investment companies because they put their money (actually, other people's money) where their mouth is.  Leading Sectors for Innovation from Fidelity Investments looks at innovations in health care/medical devices, media and entertainment and information technology.  The medical innovation areas covered include genomics, biotech pharmaceuticals and digital health records.  Interesting quote on genomics : "The cost of sequencing a human ge

Medical 106
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Dismiss whatever insults your own soul

Virtual Moxie

At first, I was going to post this graphic I made for Love Lavishly and leave it at that--thinking it teaches enough moxie all by itself with no need for comment. And then, on a call with my Ultimate VA Members, one of them shared that she has a client she loves, but whose work has become horribly boring. She went on to say that she loves the relationship (which has been strong and good for quite some time), that she didn't want to leave it, and that she doesn't know what to do.

UPS 174
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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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How to Improve the Quality of Your Voice

Ian's Messy Desk

Image by JWA Commons via Flickr. We don’t all sound the same when we speak. Some of us have deep voices, while others have squeaky, or soft, or frail, some are slow, others are rapid. Some voices are easier to listen to than others. The voice you project is determined by three factors, all of which can be controlled. Energy —The energy in your voice reflects your attitude and enthusiasm.

Phones 122
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Don’t Miss A Thing!

Complete Organizing Solutions

Don’t forget to check out the new BLOG ! This week we are taking a look at what a simplified life looks like and discussing how excess can paralyze us. And here is an old school approach to memory keeping I shared with my readers! Don’t miss a thing, subscribe today!

AT&T 119
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Competitive Edge: Customer Response Time

The Small Business Blog

According to pan-European research conducted by Vodafone, 78 % of European SMEs believe that responding faster to customer inquiries is key to win new business. Other research suggests UK SMEs adopt key technologies like cloud computing much slower than their European counterparts.

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AZVAs the Podcast: Working with Tourism & Hospitality Industries

Loosely Speaking

Season 2/Episode 13 Program Notes. Scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the “AZVAs the Podcast&# link to listen to the episode now. iPod users can find the episode in the podcast directory at the iTunes Store. Here’s that link ! Contents of this episode: Discussion/Announcements/Tips: Tara and Katie chat about ways to find client in tourism and hospitality, whether you are a small business owner (building contractors, for example) or virtual assistant.

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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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Built to Sell = Built to Succeed

Small Business Labs

After reading John Warillow’s excellent book Built to Sell , my first reaction was John picked the wrong title.  It's an excellent book for entrepreneurs looking to sell their businesses, but the lessons are useful for anyone interested in building a successful company.     Which is why I really like the book’s tag line: “Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You.”  Built to Sell is about building successful, growing businesses that can scale beyond the ow

Mentoring 136
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What Do Successful Sports Teams and Successful Businesses Have in Common?

Stephanie LH Calahan

This month, my son has been playing on a school (American-style) football team.  This is the first time he has ever played football, other than throwing the ball around in our yard. Watching their practices and listening to the coach got me thinking about how there are a  number of correlations that I could make between successful sports teams and successful businesses.

Agenda 185
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Submitting Your Site to Industry-Specific Web Directories

Andrea Kalli

Submitting Your Site to Industry-Specific Web Directories. . Web directories have grown significantly less popular among internet users due to the rise of powerful search engines. Nevertheless, getting listed in such sites still prove to offer crucial benefits to online entrepreneurs and internet marketers depending on link building campaigns to support and enhance their overall internet marketing strategy.

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How 1 Year Can Make a Huge Difference in a Career

On The Job

I don't know about you, but I got nearly every job I have because someone helped me. Whether it was a family member, a teacher or a former boss, I had the backing of people who not only believed in me, but helped teach and guide me in finding jobs. But what happens when you have.no one? Are doors slammed in your face? Do you have a chance of getting a job that will help support your family?

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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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UK Economy in “Fragile Recovery”

The Small Business Blog

The UK economy grew by 0.5% in Q1 of 2011 – apparently reducing the risk of a double-dip recession. Different sectors have grown at different speeds, the manufacturing sector is doing very well, while others are struggling to make any gains. Bank lending to the SME sector has fallen again, which makes you wonder.

2011 152
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How I Almost Committed SEO Suicide

Tips From T. Marie

That’s right. SEO suicide, right here on the Clerical Advantage website. I’ve been preaching for ages about the wonders of building your business website with WordPress and the added benefits and flexibility of combining that with the Headway Theme. I’ve ranted about the great SEO value of using both and I did something that could have nixed all of that SEO goodness without even knowing it.

Twitter 133
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I'm Back!

Professional Assistant Blog

Well, I have to admit, it was nice to be on hiatus for quite a bit of time. Wow, time flies! I can’t believe that my last post was back in July of 2010. I had quite a bit of things to do in the last year or so and will try to start posting on a regular basis again. There’s been quite a bit of changes on this blog, as some of you veterans have already noticed.

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STRESS - 22 Ideas on How to Identify it and Eradicate It!

Stephanie LH Calahan

Do you know when you are stressed?  Do you know what you can do to eliminate your stress?  Not everyone can answer those questions.  Small doses of stress can help you perform well under pressure and even motivate you to do your best.  However, when you are consistently pushed and in "emergency mode" your mind and body will pay the price.

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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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How Richard Branson Lives Life By Making Lists

Productivity Bits

Copyright © 2011 Marlon Ribunal. Visit the original article at [link]. Guest Post. I am proud to say that this guest post is from Erik Calonius, an author, former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and a writer for Fortune. His latest book is “ Ten Steps Ahead “ I n one of your recent posts, Marlon, you advised your readers to keep a notebook with them at all times.

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Free Training Call: Discover Your Business Growth Stage

Office Organization Success

One of the many issues business owners face is bright shiny object syndrome — you know what I mean. The next big idea comes across their desk which they think is the answer they’ve been looking for … so they ditch whatever they’re working on to follow this new path, never finishing what they started… This leads to overwhelm, and then frustration because their business isn’t growing in the way that they hoped it would.

Training 126
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Rethink IT. Revitalize Business. – IaaS

The Small Business Blog

When you look at products like WinWeb’s Online Office Suite you realize that it provides you with far more than just small business cloud computing software or Software as a Service (SaaS), it is actually a complete small business IT “Infrastructure as a Service&# (IaaS).

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Are You Making the Grade With Your Clients?

Step It Up VA Coaching

by Donna Toothaker. You may be meeting or exceeding your business goals, but do you really know how you’re doing? Do you have a sense of how well you are delivering your product or service? Just because your clients aren’t complaining, doesn’t mean they’re 100% satisfied with your work. If you’re not asking your clients for feedback, you are missing out on the opportunity to receive valuable information that may help you improve and expand your business, and strengt

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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