Valuable Face Time

Earlier this week I was doing some online networking with other Virtual Assistants. I expressed my surprise that more VAs don't go out and network face-to-face, because I feel like I haven't seen enough people if I go to less than 3 networking events every week. I've met a couple of VAs in person, but they just don't seem to like leaving the house - or something. Anyways, I was told that many VAs don't really like to seem dominant and aren't comfortable networking.

I'll admit that networking, at least at first is uncomfortable, because you walk into a room full of strangers who all seem to have friends to talk to. So there you are, the friendless geek in the corner not talking to anyone. After you show up a couple of times, people start talking to you a lot more. I've gotten around the issue by becoming an "Ambassador" for the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and greet people at the door, so they are walking into my room, not the other way around, so I have a psychological edge. By networking with enough different groups, I usually know at least one person in any room of networkers, and there are times when I know more people than not.



People often ask me where I network, because I do a lot of networking for my business. So, in case you've been wondering who I've been spending time with:
Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce - They are the big organization in the area and have great educational programs and a lot of networking opportunities. I figure I need to be where the business people are and that is the Chamber of Commerce.
Arizona Small Business Association (ASBA) - My client base - small businesses. ASBA also has great educational programs. I recommend ASBA for all Arizona small businesses.
Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce (PACCA) - Now, it is pretty obvious to even the most casual observer that I am not philippino. They don't seem to care. This little organization is a gem. They have great speakers at their monthly meetings. It is always good to find new people to add to your network.
Arizona Business Leads - Yep, it is a leads/referral group (like BNI, but different). I'm in the business-to-business group, mainly because it's a lot closer to home. (Just saying.)
The 3000 Club - a charitable organization that rescues produce and sends it to food banks throughout the states and provides networking opportunities for it's members. So, I get to help others and help my business? How great is that? Don't be shy about joining if you want to help. The clowns in the video above are members and just as nice and funny in person as you see in the clip- maybe even more so.
Here's a video about The 3000 Club:

All This Online Stuff

I have heard a lot lately about using online social networking to build your business. There is blogging, of course, which adds an online presence. I find it a little daunting still. I have a hard time balancing interest and relevance. Well, added to blogging is now, video blogging. Great - interest, relevance, AND a camera? They don't ask for much do they. I'm considering this. I just think I translate better in person than I do in writing, even though I know I write with a strong narrator that sounds an awful lot like me. Maybe I'll give it a shot. If I don't like the experience, I can always go back to writing. But, I kind of understand blogging. It is a bit intuitive to me - on one level, so I may have composition issues, but I at least understand the concept.

I'm still wondering how people have made a living just through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Yes, I'm on them all, but I just don't know how to translate those memberships and networks into productive, paying work. I'm still not sure that any one grows their business successfully on these sites - except perhaps the social network consultants.

You can find me online with the following information:
Twitter: @walkerva
Facebook: http://profile.to/leannewalker
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/leannewalker
Skype: walker.admin

Come visit. Become my friend. Better yet, teach me how to make these online social media networks profitable, so I can add another marketing tool to my virtual tool box.

Smarties - A Casualty of Aging

My nephew turned 7 last week. There was a pinata at his birthday party, which was filled with, among other favorites, Smarties. They are a perennial Halloween favorite with kids. Maybe it's because you can't just buy one little package of Smarties. I think they are only sold in the big packages for giving away to lots of kids.
Well, my 4 year old niece wanted to share her blessings with me and gave me a whole roll of Smarties to eat (such a sweet girl - sometimes). I gratefully accepted and began to dutifully eat the candy. It had been a lot of years since I'd actually eaten Smarties, so I was kind of enjoying the moment.
The first Smartie was great - just like you remember. The second was good; the third, ok. After that, there just seemed to be a lot of those little pressed sugar buttons left to eat.
When did eating Smarties become a trial? So sad. It is one of those casualties of getting older. Oh well, I still love Sweetarts.

Business Philosophy

I was at an educational seminar a week ago sponsored and hosted by ASBA, the Arizona Small Business Association. We were talking about branding our businesses to help recruit the best employees, which isn't really important to this post at all.

I was talking to Donna, one of the owners of Network Dogs, Inc. She said that she and her husband (another owner) would rather make $1 profit on 1,000,000 customers than $1,000,000 on 1 customer. Her reasoning was that they couldn't give the level of service they wanted to and didn't have the resources to handle the big contract, but they could help many small companies.

That got me thinking and today I finally found the correct articulation for my business philosophy. My philosophy is that I'd rather spend 8 hours a day working for 5 clients than 40 hours a week working for 1 client.

Here is my reasoning. My business is to provide administrative and bookkeeping services to small businesses on an as needed basis. This means that I am a contractor who sells my professional services to people who don't need a full-time employee. Spending forty hours a week, every week, working for one company makes me less of a contractor and more of an employee. There may come a time (rather soon) where I may need to go back to being an employee for a while, but I'd rather not. I'd rather have the experience that comes from working for a number of different clients. I've also found that I like working with small businesses. They are fun and interesting. Sure, I sometimes miss the corporate environment, but not enough to want to go back there forever.

What's Up with This Background?

(My group of Administrators at a training meeting I hosted while at Terminix. I'm on the front row - 3rd from the right.)

I know there may be people who visit this blog and wonder what's up with the background. I thought I'd tell those who don't know me well (in addition to the obvious reference to being a busy bee.)

I spent 11 years working my way up the administrative ranks of Terminix (yep - the pest control company). When I was a new employee, working as a bookkeeper in a branch office, I talked to a lot of people who referred to their technicians as their "bug guy." Well, I am an equal opportunity type person, so I adopted the term "bug babe" for female Terminix employees and I've used the online personna of "abugbabe" for many years. (Although I try not to use it for professional forums, groups,etc., because it doesn't really soundlike you should trust me with your business.) Even though the use has somewhat diminished, I remain in my heart, a bug babe.

I was recently exchanging emails with a friend from Terminix. He asked me if I regretted leaving. I learned a lot at Terminix and much of what I learned makes me a skilled and valuable asset to organizations. I don't regret working for Terminix, even though I started in an entry level position and I don't regret leaving when I did. I left at the right time for both myself and the company. We parted on good terms.

I will always be grateful to the people who were patient enough to teach me the things I didn't know, trusted me to do the seemingly impossible - or at least my job without a lot of micromanagement, let me grow and learn and make mistakes, and gave me the confidence to try all sorts of things I had no business doing (at least by conventional wisdom). I learned there was very little I couldn't do (administratively) if I needed to, which has made this new venture into the business world, if not easier, at least faced with a lot of bravado.

So thanks to the bug people who helped me on my way. I will always remain Abugbabe.

Accidently Green

I really didn’t try to start a “green” business. It was never my intention. Quite frankly, I am a man-made global warming skeptic. (I don’t really want to debate it, so I’m not going to.) But trying to work in the virtual world makes me accidently green. Here’s how:

1. I don’t commute 5 days a week. When I was commuting, I was travelling 20 miles to get to work. Thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with rush hour often, but it was still a long drive. I still drive for business, after all, I need to network and find clients and some clients want on-site support, which I will happily provide if they truly need it.

2. I make dual use of my home. It’s home; it’s office. Whatever it is at the moment, it is a dual use space, but please don’t tell those sticklers in the HOA. It might be against the rules. Thankfully, I’m on the board and long ago (when I was still employed – for someone else) we decided that as long as businesses didn’t add to the burden of the neighborhood by adding excessive traffic, home businesses were acceptable.

3. Oh yeah, I also use a lot of CFLs i.n my home, if you want to count those. The main reason is because I’m cheap, so CFLs are a better value overall for lifecycle and electric savings.

4. I use almost no paper anymore. Because a lot of work is passed electronically, I don’t print the reams of paper I did when I worked in offices. Some of the change comes from using QuickBooks, which reduced paper use over a specialty accounting software, which printed every transaction, usually twice, sometimes three times. So now QB payroll produces 7 or 8 pages, where the old program produced at least 30 pages of reports, all vital for good record-keeping.

I feel bad sometimes, like when I attend my Chamber of Commerce “Green” events. Those people or at least some of them are true believers. I just fell into it because of my business model. I’m sure there are others in my situation, but few of us will admit it – at least at the green-themed meetings. I’m accidently green. None of this means that I won’t use my greenness to my benefit. It's a great marketing tool. I just may need to avoid the whole global-warming, the-sky-is-falling discussions so that I don’t out myself as a skeptic.

Maybe I can plant a tree to assuage my guilt. I hear planting a tree is an acceptable alternative to truly buying into the movement or something like that. Have you ever just accidently joined a movement you don’t really believe in – for the marketing possibilities or any other reason?

Starting a Business

I’ll tell the truth…paperwork isn’t really a fascinating topic. Creating forms is fun. Collating results is fun, especially if I can create some charts to display the results. Filling out forms isn’t that much fun. It is something I’m very good at, however. No one can be a successful administrator for over 14 years without becoming good at filling out all types of forms.
If I had to fill out forms all day every day, I’d be crazy. Thankfully, office administration involves so much more than forms. If you look at your administrators, they usually answer phones, prepare reports, type memos, prepare presentation materials, research issues, file, organize, and are often the face of the organization to the customer. Most importantly, they have to keep the boss happy and make him/her look as good as possible. (How they do that is a topic for another blog post.) A good office assistant is the ultimate example of a great multi-tasker, performing any 2 or 3 tasks at the same time.
Now that I am also a business owner, I fantasize about the good ol’ days where I only had to juggle 2 or 3 things at a time. In addition to administrative work, I’ve added sales, marketing, networking, service, business management, and relationship management to everything else. It is an interesting transition to go from support staff to head honcho. So far, I’m not sure I know what a good balance is that will allow me to also have a life away from my computer. I have to find people to hire me to provide administrative services, but I also have to actually do the work – with superior quality and a quick turn-around. And my most important function is still making people look good – both myself and my client.
There are a lot of small business owners and managers in the same position as I am. That is why I decided to start my business. I realized that there are a lot of people who start a business and then they get so bogged down with all of the administrative stuff that they can’t spend the time they need to bring in customers, service customers, and see their families. It’s all about balance, and I want to help small business owners find balance and give them professional administrative support. I hope that my clients will eventually outgrow my services and need to hire an administrative employee (and use me for special projects), but before then, they may be able to invest in production employees before they incur all of the expenses associated with hiring an administrative person.
I am the middle-ground between doing it all yourself and hiring an employee. Go to the “Contact Us” page on my website to find out how to contact me about helping your business. I’ll be glad to help you determine how I can help you grow your business, not your workload.

Leanne