Interactions with your favorite clients are easy – like calling a friend. Obviously I’m not talking about the subjects you cover but more about the comfort level you feel in picking up the phone and ringing the number. I’ve wondered if this comfort level leads to a better level of communication.

Or if the comfort level causes us to shut down some of our best client-interaction skills.

Or maybe the quality of communication is the same compared to conversations with all your other clients but the stress level is different.

Have you ever wondered if they get as much out of them as you think hope they do?  Instead of my usual “My Office Zilla Satisfaction Survey’ this year I’m going to try something different.  I’m going to ask about my communication skills.

I think this type of a survey would be very effective to conduct personally.  That might raise your blood pressure more than your confidence with allow!  If that is the case there are many efficient survey tools out there.  Most of them allow you to run simple surveys for F R E E.  Sending your survey out on the web can make it quick and increase the response rate from your clients.

5 Question Survey

These are my favorite questions from the ones I come up with so far.  They should get your creative juices flowing!

Do you generally understand me during our conversations?

Do I typically use your prefered method of communication?

If you could improve one thing about our communications what would it be?

Are you satisfied with the number of opportunities you have to provide me feedback?

Is there anything I could do to increase your comfort level while providing me feedback?

And you say what…

Have you done a survey about your communication skills with your customers?  Did you learn anything you could immediately implement in your client conversations?  What other questions would you add to your survey?

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Sundi

This is a four part series running through the month of March.  You might want to check out part 2 and part 1!

Who knew there were so many Tuesdays in March?  Even after today we still have one more to go!

If you haven’t taken the quiz yet then you might not know, or maybe you failed like I did and still don’t know…Who was the first woman doctor in the United States?

Elizabeth Blackwell was her name!  She graduated from medical school on January 11, 1849.  Obviously this was many years before it was popular for women to be allowed in institutions of higher education so the story behind her admittance is bound to be comical.  In fact a vote regarding Elizabeth’s admittance was put out to the students and, being the student body thought the ballot a joke, she won the majority!

Although she graduated first in her class the profession was nowhere near ready for a female doctor.  After finally finding a forever-career-home (they actually had those back then) the stint was cut short when she contracted an eye infection from a patient.  Now, I’m not sure about the popularity of glass eyes back then but it would seem that Elizabeth did quite well.  With one fully functioning eye and I would assume another very pretty glass one, she decided to open up her own quick clinic, itty biz, employer…New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children.

During the Revolutionary War Elizabeth trained many women in nursing and sent them off to serve with the Union troops.  She established The Women’s Medical College in her Infirmary.  After establishing the college state-side Elizabeth joined forces with Florence Nightingale to open The Women’s Medical College in England, where again she become the first female physician and doctor on the UK Medical Register.

Who gets tired of posts started with definitions?  I was going to start this one like that and then I got mad.  I looked high and low for a decent definition of small business.  To be perfectly blunt they all sucked.  So I’ll tell you what it means to me!  (My blog post, I get more than 140 characters!)

Small Business [smawl biz-nis] - noun.  Exists in the heart of a single person who could nourish and grow a concept until the perfect day when it will become a passion which, almost child-like, requires necessary care and feeding.  Provided the necessary elements, the passion will become an indepedent entity shaped by the love and care provided by the progenitor.

My definition doesn’t contain one word about employees.

My definition doesn’t contain one word about income.

My definition doesn’t contain one word about geographic location

My definition doesn’t contain one word about brick-n-mortar.

Surely she’s going somewhere with this

You bet I am!  You see, I was over at Mad Hatter yesterday and, well, Brianna got me on a roll.  See, Brianna gets it.  She took this thing and she loved it.  What more could a little biz ask for?

Look all around you while you surf the web.  There are small businesses everywhere.  If you’ve recently developed a victim mentality then stop it!  Stop it right now!  Direct all that extra energy to doing something about it…to making life, YOUR life, better!

If you simply can’t locate one single drop of hope somewhere on the internet (please don’t look at the news sites!) then let me give you a little guidance, ok?

Visit these people … Corey, Kelly, Steph … and see some examples of passion.  Do these individuals all have small businesses based on the definitions from the B2C, SBA, B2B and IRS folks?  (Or what ever other acronym you want to stir in there.)  Maybe.  Maybe not.  If you don’t think change is still ‘a comin’ then you got another thing coming!  Please note the most important word in my definition – that is COULD.  What you decide to do and what you can do are two very different things.

 If you don’t get this yet then I’ll just have to say I can’t break it down any farther.  So, here are some words from some one else.  Charlie can do it much better than me so here you go, print it off and hang it on your motivation board!

Charlie says Do Epic Shit.

Nibbling Away -

Sundi

This is a four part series running through the month of March.  You might want to check out part 1!

Here it is, another Tuesday in March and it is time for delicious tidbits about this week’s focus for Nation Women’s History Month, Miss Nellie Bly.  If you’d like to make fun of my failures and get the background info then please feel free.  I can take it!

Nellie Bly is know for two things: getting herself locked up in an asylum for women and her record breaking trip around the world.

No, she wasn’t crazy.  Well, ok, maybe.  Female journalists during the 1880’s were definitely a breed all their own.  What set Nellie apart was that she successfully got herself commited to an asylum for 10 days and exposed all their dirty little secrets!  Like cold water baths, being left to sit on wooden benches for 8 hours a day, spoiled meat and beatings.  Her expose was successfully published as Ten Days in a Mad House.  How could that not make a mother proud?  All silliness aside I’d be proud of my child if they successfully saw the budget for such public needs increase by $850K in that day and age.

That around-the-world record breaking trip of 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds isn’t very well known since it was broken just a few months later by about 13 days.   All in the name of journalism!

Wikipedia says Nellie added the “e” to her name for sophistication.  Hmmm, I think I might give it a try.

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Sundie

Have you ever moved?  Most of us have, even if from one side of town to the other!

We’ve moved a lot in almost 15 years and we’ve had to switch ISPs almost every time.  I only wish I had this handy tool one of those many times!

OK, I admit it isn’t F R E E but once you arrive at needing to use this service you SIMPLY. DON’T. CARE.  Besides, it is at least reasonable.

TrueSwitch helps you move from one ISP to another as seemlessly as I wish I could help you do it.  Hey, that is saying a lot coming from a Virtual Assistant – especially one who prides herself on being an efficient lifesaver on many levels!

It works in just four easy steps:

1. Copies data.
2. Broadcasts your new email address.
3. Forwards your incoming mail at your old account to your new account.
4. Eventually cancels your old account.

What more could you ask for?  Ok, sorry, it would be nice to have TrueSwitch reply to all those incoming emails while you move; however, that simply isn’t part of the service!  For that you should call me!  It falls under the “Closed Office” Coverage on the Services page.

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Sundi

I thought it would be really cool to tell you that March is National Women’s History Month.  Seems like everyone, whatever pigeon hole it might be, has their own spin on a month, week, day, etc.  The ones I’ve shared in the past have been a little silly – this one was different.  It sucked me in like a big black hole!

It started innocently enough when I stumbled upon a promotional item.  Then I decided to visit the website.  Then I decided to take their quiz.  Oh, yes, the quiz!  It all went downhill from there.

At that point I thought I’d focus on one pretty cool lady and I just took the quiz for fun.  I failed.  You heard me read me.  I failed.  Miserably.  We aren’t talking some choose-the-best-answer quiz.  It was all fill-in-the-blank.  Since I’m very competitive and I can totally relate to those who are also , I encourage you to go Test Your Knowledge of Women’s History.

Uh, yeah, back to the black hole.

All the answers I got wrong really set the ball in motion.  I started looking up the right answers at random and I’ve been reading since mid-morning!

I’m fascinated.  I had no idea – just NO idea.  No idea of what?  I’m not really sure.  I hadn’t planned on being so…so…swept away!  of course now I’m compelled to share.  I’m sure you’re saying, “But Sundi, this has nothing to do with coaching or training or being a virtual assistant.”

At this point I’m thinking it doesn’t really matter!  I found it cool and I want to share with someone what I learned.  So, today’s woman from history is Victoria Woodhull.  I’m going to share one woman a week during the month of March…not many at all compared to the 31 covered on the quiz.

In 1872 Victoria was the first woman to run for president!  (I don’t want to get off on a tangent but her running mate was Frederick Douglas a former slave.)  This would seem to be no small feat when women weren’t even allowed to vote!  For anyone who is in the mood to debate and argue please feel free to visit Wikipedia and type in Victoria Woodhull.  Better yet, just click!  You’ll find all the reasons why historians say she was, or was not, the first woman to run for president.

While some of you go debate, the rest of you can find out what other cool stuff she rocked at…Victoria and Tennessee, her sister, were the first female stock brokers.  She also took her turn at being a newpaper editor.  Imagine!  A female editor and newspaper owner in 1870!  This wasn’t some fly-by-night-rag as it ran for six successful years.

The following year Victoria was the second woman to petition Congress in person and address them regarding women’s right to vote.  During her address to the House Judicial Committee she argued that women had all the rights of men simply because women were citizens too!

As we all know politics and pioneering do not come without scandal and Victoria had her share…she believed in free love after all!  This is the stuff modern day soaps are written from people!  I couldn’t have made it up:

In 1872 the Weekly published a story that set off a national scandal that preoccupied the public for months. One of the most renowned ministers of the day, Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church, had condemned Woodhull’s free love philosophy in his sermons. But a member of his church, Theodore Tilton, disclosed to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a colleague of Woodhull, that his wife confessed to him that Beecher was committing adultery with her, and this hypocrisy provoked Woodhull to expose Beecher. Ultimately Beecher stood trial for adultery in an 1875 legal proceeding that equaled, if not exceeded, the sensationalism of the O.J. Simpson trial a century later, holding the attention of hundreds of thousands of Americans. The verdict was ultimately a hung jury.

I had to get that straight from Wikipedia…I didn’t want anyone accusing me of sensationalizing a story from 1872.

Since I really should do something else with my day besides read history I’m shutting this down – until next week!

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Sundi

Although there is nothing better than the smell of a new book I can rarely force myself to pay the price for one!  (Wait, I love that sleeping newborn smell too, so there might be a tie for first place!)  I visit our library a lot and thankfully the whole family loves going there too.  I get a lot of fictional books from my family members…funny how a book will start on one side of the family and end up on the other!

I made a really great find the other day and, because it is Return the Borrowed Books Week, I thought I’d share it.  (Seriously I didn’t make it up!)  Of course you know it has to be free, right?  Well, right now it is anyway.  The site owners say it might not be that way forever.  For now, the only thing it will cost you is the price of postage.

Paper Back Swap is the away-from-the-library home of many people.  The system is based on credits…you get 2 credits for posting 10 of your books when you start an account and you get another point for every book a member successfully receives from you.  The best thing about Paper Back Swap is that you can print postage right from home and drop it in the box!  You rarely have to go to the post office.

I’m amazed at how many different books they have in all different categories!  The stats on the front page says there are over 3 million books available.  Now you can’t beat that.  How about an example from the genre search?

Under Business & Investing you’ll find 15 subcategories:

Biographies & Primers
Business Life
By Publisher
Careers
Economics
Finance
General
Industries & Professions
International
Investing
Management & Leadership
Marketing & Sales
Personal Finance
Reference
Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Each of these subcategories have even more subcategories.  Like under Management & Leadership you’ll find:

Consolidation & Merger
Decision-Making & Problem Solving
Industrial
Leadership
Management
Management Science
Motivational
Negotiating
Operations Research
Organizational Change
Planning & Forecasting
Pricing
Production & Operations
Quality Control
Systems & Planning
Teams
Total Quality Management
Training

It seems pretty thorough to me!

Another great way to search is by member.  If you find a member who has similar book tastes as you…go straight to their list to see if  it contains something else you’d like to have.  Don’t start thinking this is just for business-types!  There are kids books, text books, cook books, books on alternative life styles and even fiction – the list goes on.  If you know exactly what you want you can search by ISBN or title!

You can even swap CDs and swap DVDs!

Looking for small ways to go green?  This looks like a GREAT place to start!

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Sundi

One of my favorite services to provide is cleaning up documents.  I have clients who love to paste text in from 15 different presentations or training materials to create a new document quickly.  This is great for my clients’ clients because it means they aren’t getting off the shelf training or coaching materials…content is custom designed to meet their specific needs.  What cracks me up is when my clients then wonder why the heck the formatting is all out of whack.  I won’t kid you or even pull your chain about this…I make a lot of money off of this service!

Since everyone already knows I love free stuff I’m going to give you a couple of tips on the house!

For Word

One of the best ways around this nightmare is to use the paste special function.  You’ll find it under the Edit menu.  As long as you are pasting into an area formatted the correct way, clicking on the option to paste unformatted text will carry on the correct formatting rather than the format attached to the original text.

For Power Point

Everyone likes options right?  In PP you have two!

With two presentations open and you want some slides from one presentation inserted into a second presentation just copy the highlighted slides you want in the slide viewer, switch to the second presentation and paste…you can drag and drop to the correct order once they are all pasted.  When inserted this way the newly added slides mimic the formatting for the second presentation.

If you just want to paste in text it really doesn’t matter where it originates from!  As long as you start with a text box that is formatted correctly your new text will match your existing text.

How about a bonus branding tip?

For about the same amount as one redesign and proofread I can create a template for you to use all the time!  One just for you – your business – a specific client – your family – each different line of business like coaching or training - whatever.  It can be created in any of the programs from MS Office.  That way, when you copy and paste, you can paste into the format you truly want rather than paying me to fix it later!  Besides, who doesn’t need more branding?  Plus, if you are very dedicated to using your templates the documents you have will already be in a desirable format!

Nibbling away -

Sundi