August, 2012

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5 Strategies for a Super Follow Up System

Office Organization Success

Having a super-duper follow-up system in place is a critical, if not the critical, system you need to grow and build your business. Let me ask you…. When you have a client consultation and you ask the client to work with you, and they say something like: I need to think about it; Not yet; Can I get back to you? What system do you have in place to follow-up with them and turn them into a paying client?

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Gen Y Delaying Adulthood

Small Business Labs

Those old enough to remember Alice Cooper will also remember his song Eighteen.  Released in 1970, it's about the confusing yet hopeful period of life when you realize you're becoming an adult.   If Alice wrote the song today, he would likely title it Twenty-Eight , or at least that's what the results of Clarke University's poll of emerging adults indicates.

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Writer's Block Stinks: 4 Steps for When Your Get-Up-And-Go Has Gone-Up-And-Went

Stephanie LH Calahan

In the last few weeks I have had a number of clients share their frusteration with writer's block.  Interestingly enough, I found myself in a similar slump!  Today, I am taking a stand to fight against writer's block and I'll share the techniques I'm using to do that.  What are your tricks? 1 - Come Clean About Your Writer's Block.

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Customer-Obsessed Service

Customers Rock!

Social media has pushed customer service to the forefront for many organizations. Responses are often faster in social media than they are in traditional service channels, since social media makes everything extremely visible. And when things go wrong, customers often flock to social media to air their grievances; a perfect example is the article I recently co-authored for Forbes Online, with Mark Fidelman , about the Southwest Airlines 3 Million Fan Flash Sale fiasco.

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Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.

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Quiz: Are You a Team Player?

Eat Your Career

Let’s face it: Everyone wants to be a team player. And most people think they are. But we know that’s not true. Some people are so consumed with their own work; they forget to support their team—or they flat out don’t care. It isn’t always easy to be a part of a team. In fact, it’s sometimes a real pain! But it’s an absolute necessity in the workplace.

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Olympic Sports for Assistants

Practically Perfect PA

So the London 2012 Olympics is finally here! I absolutely adored the opening ceremony and revelled in the celebration of our British culture and traditions. As a local East Londoner I could also just about make out the fireworks and the Red Devils flew over my house so I was extra pleased. London is really busy at the moment but the place is buzzing and I think the city is looking pretty hot right now!

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Top 5 Tips for Protecting the Online Reputation of your Small Business

The Small Business Blog

Top 5 Tips posts from the SME Blog are always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. 1. Try not to overlook how important it is for you to maintain a positive reputation for your business online.

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Is it Possible to be an Outgoing/Extraverted Introvert?

Stephanie LH Calahan

Earlier this week, one of my readers commented on a post I wrote about ADHD.  Her comment was such a good question that it sparked this post.  She said: I love Janet's question!  Let's talk about that today. Over the years of attending networking functions and conferences I've learned that a good number of the people there consider themselves introverts. me. included.  (It's helpful to note that being shy and being introverted are not. necessarily the same

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I’m Sorry—My Crystal Ball’s Cloudy

Virtual Moxie

"How long will it take you to do my ezine?” “How many ARs can you set up in an hour?”. “How much time will it take you to do these 27 things?”. Have you ever been asked a question like this by a client or prospect? If not, you’re a lucky one. Questions like this seem to spew forth from the lips of clients often--clients who seem perfectly intelligent, and yet ask what sound like really stupid questions.

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How to Shorten Your Job Search

Job Advice Blog

People in transition know that finding a new, suitable job is a process—and most often, an unpleasant and lengthy one. While this is true in most cases, it doesn’t have to be that way, provided the job seeker understands the search process and becomes efficient with planning, creative thinking, networking, and research. Where Do You [.].

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Mastering Remote Onboarding: Proven Strategies for Seamless New Hire Integration

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

Join this brand new webinar with Tim Buteyn to learn how you can master the art of remote onboarding! By the end of this session, you'll understand how to: Craft a Tailored Onboarding Checklist 📝 Develop a comprehensive, customized checklist that ensures every new hire has a smooth transition into your company, no matter where they are in the world.

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Book Review: Running a Food Truck for Dummies

Small Business Labs

A good sign that a trend is reaching the mainstream is the publication of a Dummies book on the topic. So it comes as no surprise to those following the food truck industry that Running a Food Truck for Dummies was recently released. The guide is written Richard Myrick, a great choice to author this book.  He's an expert on food trucks and the editor and founder of Mobile Cuisine , an online website covering the mobile food industry.

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Quiz: Are You a Professional Communicator?

Eat Your Career

Communicating professionally is an essential part of workplace etiquette. It can be difficult to keep your emotions in check , especially when things are busy and stressful. But how you communicate with co-workers and superiors can truly make or break your career. Are you communicating professionally? Take this quiz and find out! Download the PDF version here >> Instructions.

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Good is boring.

The Small Business Blog

Ever wondered why nobody cares about your business, yet everyone tells you it is a good (or great, etc.) business? Here is why: Good is middle of the road Good is not Remarkable Good is boring Good in not inspiring Good is never remembered Your business needs to be remarkable at something.

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3 Tips for Breaking the Clutter Cycle at Your Desk

Stephanie LH Calahan

Guest post by Kenneth McCall.   Over the course of history, plenty of landmark scientific breakthroughs and literary masterpieces have resulted from the minds of people with messy desks. Albert Einstein himself is often cited as inspiration (or justification) by the worst clutter offenders. Perhaps your favorite college professor worked from amidst towers of books, articles and paperwork, setting an example that you’ve happily followed for years.

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Unlock Your Productivity: Simple Steps for Every Professional

Unlock your full potential with our comprehensive guide on productivity. This detailed resource explores the three fundamental pillars of effective task management: Todo List Mastery, Time Management, and Habit Optimization. Learn to capture and prioritize your tasks effectively, schedule them using proven strategies like the Pomodoro Technique, and maintain your productivity through consistent habit tracking.

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Moxie Tip 232: Listen

Virtual Moxie

Things show up in our lives first as Messages. These are the gentle rumblings inside which make us uneasy, or give us a sudden flash of intuition that something just isn't right. Be sure to listen to them when you hear them the first time. If you don't, they come back even more loudly and annoyingly.

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How to Sell Yourself in a Job Interview

Job Advice Blog

So, finally the phone rings and the caller ID displays the name of a company you sent your résumé to. The caller is from the company’s human resources department and wants to schedule you for an in-person interview. Fantastic, this is music to your ears, but what now? Are you prepared? Do you have time [.].

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Coworking Facilities as Mini-Industrial Clusters

Small Business Labs

We've noticed that a growing number of coworking facilities are starting to look and act like mini-industrial clusters. Industrial clusters are geographic concentrations of firms that broadly serve the same industry and have common needs for talent, technology and business infrastructure.  Firms within a cluster may be competitive or cooperative and are often reliant on other firms in the cluster as suppliers and/or customers.   Some of the best known large U.S. clusters include

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4 Simple Ways to Make my e-commerce Website more Eco-friendly

Eco-Office Gals

With the digital revolution in full swing, internet retailing has become the business of choice for many entrepreneurs. Amazon, eBay and ASOS are a few of the leading names in the industry, and with the low start-up costs and overheads, it is something that everyone should consider. By sharing some creative ideas to make running your e-business greener, I can help you become a super player in the industry without destroying world.

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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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Top 5 Tips for Breaking Your Small Business Out of a Slump

The Small Business Blog

Top 5 Tips posts from the SME Blog are always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. 1. Take a look at the plans you made at the start of the year. Now is a good time to revise your goals based on the performance of your business so far.

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To All Entrepreneurial Moms and Dads: Happy New Year!

Stephanie LH Calahan

My son, David and I (and our dog Danny) taking a day to hike the trails at Allerton Park this summer. Do you feel it? The new year is here! I. realize we are still in August, but for many entrepreneur moms and dads, it is. the new year. I adore my sons and I enjoy spending huge amounts of time with them. In. fact, I have built my lifestyle business around that.

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How Transparent Should I Be With Clients?

Virtual Moxie

One of the participants of our Virtual Mentoring Program asked, “I don’t really understand the topic of transparency as it pertains to my relationships with clients. How much is enough, and where’s the line where it becomes too much?”. Transparency with clients is all about what to share and what to not share--what's appropriate and what's better left unsaid.

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Finding the Right Clients Starts With Knowing Where To Look

Step It Up VA Coaching

by Donna Toothaker. Some years ago (for those of us “seasoned” enough to remember), there was a very popular country song entitled, “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” It was quite a catchy little tune, and it came to mind as I began today’s article. Do you ever feel like you’ve been looking for clients the same way? Indeed, finding the right clients can be a challenge.

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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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More on the Decline of Marriage

Small Business Labs

CNN has an interesting article on the jobs recovery favoring singles. When you look a little deeper at their data, it becomes clear what really is going on is younger people are delaying or choosing not to get married. This results in the number of single adults growing much more rapidly than married adults.  Key quote: " the single population is growing at more than double the speed of the married population.

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Is the Employer Always Right?

Job Advice Blog

In this new, chaotic, and uncertain century, with its more and more minutely specialized occupations and skill sets and with nothing to do with the faltering economy, it’s not only human resources employees who might not be familiar with certain job skills and the actual needs of the open positions in their organizations. Believe it [.].

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What you think about your customers and how you serve them will define and drive what you receive from them

The Small Business Blog

Following on from my previous post (You cannot improve one thing by 1000% but you can improve 1000 little things by 1%), I’d like to share with you another quote: A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him.

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Cinch.fm Audio Service Shuts Down - Lessons We Can Learn on Customer Service & Not Counting on One Platform

Stephanie LH Calahan

Friday night I learned that one of my favorite pod-casting sites, Cinch.fm , was shutting down.  The news hit me like a lead brick.  Sure, shutting down is something that can happen when you use a 3rd-party tool. It was a real let down though, considering I had invested time linking to them and growing 1014 followers and creating 284 recordings.  I was hit by the lack of customer service too, but we can certainly learn from this story; so that is what I'm going to share tod

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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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Listening With Heart

Virtual Moxie

Here’s a story: There once was a little girl who wanted to talk with her father when he got home from work. She loved waiting for him to arrive so she could tell him all about her day. But each night he would sit in his chair, and read his paper while she talked to him -- muttering the occasional "uh huh" along the way, and managing to smile or chuckle at appropriate moments.

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#Cinchspiration Week #5-6

Eco-Office Gals

I didn’t drop off the face of the earth dear readers. I’ve just been beating myself up inside and I struggle when it comes to sharing the ugly truth. I haven’t done well lately, and I have no one to blame but myself! Life has been one hurdle after the other and I’m just eating my way through it I guess. I’m not going whine or cry, I’m just going to try to get back on track.

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Non-Profits vs. For-Profits for Social Change

Small Business Labs

Rieva Lesonsky's ReadWriteWeb article  Why Starting a Non-Profit to Create Social Change is a Bad Idea  covers the various for-profit organizational options available to social entrepreneurs.   The key quote comes from Geri Stengel, the founder and president of Ventureneer : your “first choice when starting a company to create a social impact should be a for-profit  business,” because she says, the “revenue streams are more reliable, and there are more dollars availab

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Tea Maid

Practically Perfect PA

If there is one thing people know about me it is that I love a good cup of tea, I am English after all! I plan my tea breaks at work so that I get a chance to step away from my desk and, you know, load up on some caffeine while having a small amount of ‘me’ time. I worked at a few different places before I moved into an assistant role and I always made my own tea or coffee and because of this I never really made drinks for anyone else, call me selfish or fussy but that was the way it was.

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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.