Endings and Beginnings

Concurrent with the holiday season, December is a time of endings and beginnings for a small business owner. As the holiday activities consume the time of clients, thus decreasing the hours of VA services requested, more time is available to devote to my own business.

On frigid December days, I sip hot tea or chocolate while weeding out hard documents and electronic ones that are at or past keeping as determined by my records retention policies. When I initially began my VA practice I set up a schedule for document retention. This has enabled me to keep file cabinet space and hard drive space freer for what I need now and in the future. It also keeps me out of trouble with the taxing authorities that might want to look further into history than legally necessary.

With fewer interruptions, December is an ideal time to prepare end-of-the-year reports for clients as well as catching up my own bookkeeping in preparation for the appointment with my tax guy in late January. I've also found December to be a good month to review and revise marketing materials such as my blog, brochures, business cards, and stationery. Now, I even have time to strategize on the direction I will take my business next year.

So many thanks for December and the seasonal business slowdown.

On The Road - a Truly Virtual Trip

Working virtually continues to receive lots of press. As a virtual assistant working from home, I enjoy the benefits of choosing my place and schedule. Until this past month, however, I hadn't yet worked any further away that the local coffee shop that is only ten minutes from home.

Let me back up a bit in time. About four months ago, my husband shared that he would like to travel more while we are both still in relatively good health and strength. As I love the work I do and plan on continuing for several years, I pointed out that I still have a business to work in. Dennis asked could I do it really virtually if I had a good laptop computer. Well, yes I could do that.

So, great organizer that I am I began to research laptops, their capabilities, brands, and costs. Fortunately, a fellow BNI'er who is an IT consultant had begun promoting a new product/service. His company, Advanced Health Technologies (AHT), will provide quality computers to a company including 24/7 technical support - hardware, software, and network - for a very reasonable monthly fee on a 3-year contract. This was just what I needed.

I now have a quality 17-inch Lenovo Think Pad, but if it ever becomes a lemon, AHT will replace it at no additional charge. As for the 24/7 support, I have called the technicians twice and had my problem solved almost immediately - once I just needed to hard reboot the computer and once the technician went into my computer via LogMeIn.

Early this past October 18 we set out on an auto trip to Wichita KS, Neodesha KS, San Angelo TX, and Tucson AZ, being gone a total of about 17 days. We checked only into hotels/motels that offered free in-room WiFi internet connections. As the routine worked out, we would start out at about 7 am and travel six to eight hours, check into our hotel about 3:30 pm, and I would immediately connect to the internet. A couple of hours later, I'd have finished most of the work I needed to do for clients, then we would go for a light supper. When necessary, I'd handle something upon our return.

Two days, I made phone calls before breakfast our time to handle an items that needed in-person contact. Not having a printer with me, I was blessed that Staples stores could print files from my computer, and fax and copy items easily and at very reasonable prices. I did purchase  a 2-GB flash drive to expedite future processes.

My clients barely realized that I wasn't in my usual "office." Their needs were handled just as efficiently and quickly as usual while we got to enjoy our vacation tremendously.

Now, I'm pondering "where to next?"