It’s Time to Organize
by Andrea Jackson

We have begun a new year and it is time to organize our time management, ideas, budgets and business.

In this article we will discuss Time Management, Ideas, Budgets and Business.  This will help you generate a business plan, marketing plan, new or updated budget and go over your overall business.

Time Management

1.        Set and accomplish your goals

2.        Create priorities and establish realistic boundaries

3.        Improve your concentration and efficiency

4.        Break bad habits such as procrastination and indecision

5.        Use online tools and software tools to help you manage your time

Ideas

1.        Write your ideas down

2.        Catalog your ideas, Realistic, Down the Line, Need Further Education etc.

3.        Implement your ideas

4.        Assess your personal strengths and recognize area for improvement

5.        Brain storm your ideas, get recommendations and feedback

6.        Review Case Studies

Budgets

1.        Go over last year’s budget and see where you need to add or take away from a particular expense

2.        If you are new, create a budget for the new year

3.        Set aside emergency funds

4.        Set aside money for health care and dental care

5.        Use profit planning tools, break-even analysis and financial forecasting

6.        Cash flow, where it comes from and where does it go

7.        Understand the cost of capital

8.        Make more informed decisions and save money

9.        Reduce costly errors caused by misunderstood client requests

10.      Set aside money for continuing education

Business

1.        Control how your operation’s results are reported

2.        Create weekly and monthly reports for your business

3.        Create a mutually beneficial partnership with other virtual assistants

4.        Maintain ongoing relationships with previous clients, virtual assistants and potential clients

5.        Create and maintain data bases for your list of clients

6.        Contribute to your target niche

Getting organized and managing your business should be your first priority every year.  Going over your business plan, marketing plan and updating your income forecast will help you understand your business better, keep you on track and make your life easier as a business owner.

Andrea Jackson is the owner of  Action Jackson Virtual Assistants,
The Virtual Entrepreneur and the Academy of Virtual Entrepreneurs. Each of our websites are here to help you maximize your business growth and assist you in your daily administrative and graphic design needs. Visit our sites today to see how we can help you grow your business and your knowledge!

Starting a new business? Wondering why it is taking so long to get clients or results?

The business of doing business takes time.  It takes time to develop your brand identity and then promoting that brand.  If you are not Tweeting, using Facebook and placing ads on the internet then you are missing hundreds of thousands of potential clients as well as networking with your peers.

Why should I do all of this?

Let’s just say, if everyone is on Twitter, searching through internet advertisements and on Facebook and you are not promoting your products and services on these same avenues, then who are you advertising to?

Tweeting and using Facebook – Brings people from around the world together on one website and allows you to network and get the word out about your business and/or products.

LinkedIn and Forums – Collaborate with your peers. Join groups of like mind and/or of your target market Find new clients and/or customers who need your services and or products.

Focus your attention on where your potential clients and customers are.  They are networking, just like you!

But Twitter and Facebook are for kids! This is incorrect.  Facebook and Twitter are for everyone including your business. You will find businesses on there like; CNN, Hoover, Ford, GM and many fortune 500 companies as well as up and coming new business owners, entrepreneurs, doctors, and lawyers. They all need your products or services!

If you are not putting yourself out there to get the clients and to sell your products or services you are missing out on hundreds of thousands of millions of potential customers.

How do I get started?

1. First, come up with a Campaign Plan also known as a Marketing Plan.  A campaign plan should include what you want to tweet about, what you want to put on your Facebook page, what you want to advertise and how you want to say it, without sounding like a spammer.

2. Second, review the plan with a colleague or partner.  Make sure you are keeping your potential clients and customers in mind when you are writing down what your plan is and how you will execute it.

3. Third, execute your plan! Just because you thought of it and wrote it down does not mean it will do it all on its own.  Execute your plan!

4. Fourth, work your plan every day.  No company has made it big by doing things half way. Keep your message out there and keep promoting your products and services.

5. Fifth, do not get discouraged! Do not give up as it will take months to get your company name and branding out there. Encourage yourself and allow others to encourage you. Hence networking with your peers.

Copyright 2009 Andrea Jackson All rights reserved.

 

We welcome Laura Legendary who is an award-winning speaker and is a vocal advocate for people with disabilities. She travels extensively presenting content on the Americans with Disabilities act, workplace issues and hiring practices, assistive technologies, and disability awareness and communication.

As an educator, Laura has authored three course curricula and student handbooks certified by the State of Washington as best practices training for in-home health care providers. For over ten years, she has educated thousands of home care workers to help them more effectively interact with their clients who are elderly or disabled. Appearing before audiences ranging from corporate professionals to community leaders and non-profit groups, Laura's presentation style has earned her the moniker "The Eloquent Advocate".

Ms. Legendary has been featured in both local newspapers and business journals for her leadership and community service. Her articles have appeared in dozens of online and print publications around the world, including Stitches Magazine, Toastmasters International Magazine, Guide Dogs for the Blind News, Diversity World Magazine and the University of Oregon to name a few. She has also served as a volunteer on ADA advisory committees for Area Agencies on Aging and the local transit authority.

Ms. Legendary was educated at California State University, Northridge, and mastered the Vocational Independence Program at the Blind Foundation of America in Los Angeles, California. A Southern California native, Laura now resides in central Washington State.

Visit Laura Legendary's websites today!
www.eloquentinsights.com
www.accessibleinsights.info
www.inhomeinsights.com
www.legendaryinsights.com

Quick Tips for Bloggers So you have a blog, and you're worried that it might not be accessible to people with disabilities? Don't worry! A few simple changes can increase your blog's potential readership.

1. Choose an Accessible Service
2. Describe Your Images
3. Avoid the Dreaded "Click Here" or "More..."!
4. Put Your Blogroll on the Right-Hand Side
5. Check the Comment Form—Is It Labeled Properly?
6. Use Flexible Font Sizes
7. Don't Force Links to Open in New Windows

1. Choose an Accessible Service If you haven't chosen a service yet, why not support one that doesn't put up obstacles to blind bloggers like the need to "enter the characters seen in this picture"?

Some services confront users with the instruction to complete their registration by "entering the words they see in the picture." An accessible alternative is sometimes offered, but it is considered the "advanced setup" option and therefore requires highly technical information from the user.

See Is Blogging Accessible to People with Vision Loss? The American Foundation for the Blind Answers for more detail on the differences between services.

2. Describe Your Images Provide descriptive text for any images you post, including those that are part of your template. In HTML, you can provide alternative text for images by adding alt="your description of the image" within the image tag. Here is an example of a properly alt-tagged image:

<img src="images/picture.gif" width="30" height="30" alt="description goes here"> Tips for Writing Effective Image Descriptions

• Brief is better.
• The usual rule is to be informative, not poetic. But it's your blog, so feel free to let your personality come through in the alt text, as well.
• If the graphic includes text, put all of the words in the alt text.
• Put the most important information first. For example, "Acme Logo: Sun rising over white sand dunes" is better than "Sun rising over white sand dunes: Acme Logo."
• Check your spelling and try to avoid abbreviations. Screen readers will mispronounce words that are misspelled.

3. Avoid the Dreaded "Click Here" or "More..."! People who use a screen reader to visit web sites will often tab from link to link, skipping over your carefully crafted explanatory text. It's a quick way to scan the page and get a sense of what the options are. "Click here" is purely mystifying, especially when heard over and over again. "Create your own blog" is self-explanatory, and lets the reader know what to expect.

Some blogging services allow you to display the opening sentences of a long post and then link to the whole post with an automated link that reads "(more...)". If there is more than one such link on the page, you can see the problem: more what? Most blogging tools allow you to customize that link to provide more information to the user, which will make your site more accessible. An additional bonus: Descriptive links make it easier for search engines to find your content.

Try to avoid using image links, which are hard for people with low vision to decipher, but definitely provide alt text if you do. In this case, the alt text should tell users where they are going.

4. Put Your Blogroll on the Right-Hand Side Blind users find top and left-hand navigation bars annoying because the screen reader starts at the top of the page and reads from left to right. It is very time-consuming to listen to the same list of links every time you visit a page. You can get people right to your latest post by putting your navigation links on the right-hand side.

If you are wedded to left-hand navigation, then place a tiny "skip link" at the top, so blind users can jump to the new content. Just don't forget the anchor! Learn more about how to implement skip links on your site.

5. Check the Comment Form—Is It Labeled Properly? Do you want to make sure that users who are blind can comment on your blog? For users who access your site using screen readers, it can be extremely difficult to know what is required in forms. A user moving through an incorrectly marked up form may hear no more than "Edit, edit, edit, radio button not checked, submit button."

But there is an easy fix. Check the comment form to see if it includes <label for> tags. Every element in a form should have its own label.

Here is a sample of a text field that has been labeled correctly:

<label for="email">E-mail:</label> <input type="text" name="email" id="email" size="20"> Note that the ID and LABEL FOR must be equal to the same value.

Learn more about designing accessible web forms.

6. Use Flexible Font Sizes Blogs are usually stylesheet-driven, which is great news for readers with low vision. If you use relative font sizes (expressed in percentages or ems), rather than absolute font sizes (expressed in points or pixels), then users will be able to make the text larger or smaller as desired—an important feature for users with low vision.

7. Don't Force Links to Open in New Windows Coding your links so that they automatically open up a new window can be very disorienting for a visually impaired user. Only the most recent versions of screen readers give blind users any indication that a new window has been opened. Popping open a new window also resets the back button, effectively "breaking" it. Avoid the use of target="new" in your links.

Conclusion If you describe your images, supply informative text for links, put navigation links on the right-hand side, use relative font sizes, and have a properly labeled comment form, then congratulations! You are well on your way to an accessible blog.

Visit the American Foundation for the Blind!

Web Accessibility

Some might say that the World Wide Web is the best thing that ever happened to people who are blind or visually impaired. We read newspapers on the day they're published, order groceries and know the prices before we check out, and find out what titles are on a CD before we make our selection.

But not every web page is optimally designed for use by web surfers with visual impairments. When a page is built without regard to proper web design, the technology that keeps users in the Web falls apart.

Everyone Benefits From Accessible Web Sites The same good techniques that make web pages accessible to those of us who use assistive technology benefit users of other devices as well. For example, people with...

• slow Internet connections
• devices that do not show color
• devices such as cell phones that have tiny screens

...all make use of design features such as alt-text and keyboard access. While a highly motivated and patient person browsing the web with a tiny handheld monitor might find it possible to navigate your site, unlabeled graphics and vast navigation bars filled with indecipherable graphics might well render your site unusable.

Learning About Accessible Web Design If you are serious about making your web site accessible, the most valuable resource available is the web site of the Web Access Initiative (WAI), part of the World Wide Web Consortium. There you'll find guidelines for making web pages along with explanations and techniques. The content guidelines are found at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT.

You will also find valuable help in this web accessibility area of the AFB web site. Learn about:

• the visually impaired user's technology, and how it affects your design
• important guidelines for improving your web site
• tips and tricks for web developers
• how to design accessible web forms
• how to make your blog accessible
• and other valuable resources on web accessibility

Visit AFB for more information!

We left off last week with the question: 

When taking the above into consideration are you still ready to take the plunge into business owner ship? 

Hopefully you have had a chance to research your new adventure.  The cost associated with your local state guidelines for business ownerships. 

Since you have decided to go forward let's delve into what it takes to begin this new venture. 

Item No. 1 Coming up with a business name. 

As a new company you want your name to stand out, be unique and represent your business in the most professional way possible. 

Creating a business name is all about "Branding". 

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers. http://marketing.about.com/cs/brandmktg/a/whatisbranding.htm 

Your company name is your Brand and your Brand is what identifies your products or services.  It should be apart of your logo, website, title, advertisement and your marketing materials.

Coming up with a good name can make or break your new business.  So think hard on what it is you want your company name to be, for it represents you and your company.

To be continued next week….

Andrea Jackson, Action Jackson Virtual Assistant

www.actionjacksonva.com

We have heard in the news, that opening a business is one of the best things to do right now.  With the economy down and people loosing their jobs left and right, opening a business can be beneficial.  But, are you ready to open your own business? Do you have what it takes to stick with it? 

It is not as easy as you might think to open your own business.  

Here are few things to be prepared for:

• Getting your Business License
• Obtaining your local state tax ID
• Obtaining your Federal tax ID
• Setting up your business banking account.
• Writing a business plan.
• Writing a marketing plan
• Coming up with a business name.
• Checking the web to make sure your business name can be used for a website address.
• Purchasing equipment
• Advertising
• Renting a building (if not working from home)
• Paying utilities
• Paying employees (to include social security taxes, FICA, deductions etc.)

 
When taking the above into consideration are you still ready to take the plunge into business owner ship? 

To be continued next week… 

Andrea Jackson, www.actionjacksonva.com
"Virtual Assistance At Your Fingertips"

Book review by Andrea Jackson                                                                                                                                July 28, 2009

How to Start a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant Service by Victoria Ring is one of the most advanced books on the market today, full of advice and walk through lessons for any Virtual Assistant who is looking to become a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant.  

The author shares her personal insights of the business, examples of working with lawyers and their clients as well as tips that will help you build your business.

To read more please visit www.virtualassistantforums.com

Most people who are learning to write a business plan do not know where to to begin so here are few steps in planning and writing your first business plan:

Details needed in a business plan:

1. Cover Page
2. Table of Contents, under here you want: Executive Summary, General Company Description, Products or Services, Marketing Plan and Sales Forecast or Income Forecast.
3. Executive Summary (Should be written last)
4. General Company Description: Describe your company and what you will be doing/selling. If you have been in business already then you have an idea of what you will be selling or doing. If you have not been in business before then you want to do some research on the products you will be selling or the services you will be giving.
5. Products or Services: Here is where you will describe your products or services. You will need to describe each product or service in detail. i.e. Jewelry, selling high end jewelry in a boutique at the price range of $25.00-$350.00 etc. Or Services: Typing Services - Providing typing services to the public and small businesses. etc.
6. Sales Forecast: This is where you will take each month for 1 year and determine your sales income. Do not include, Taxes paid/to be paid etc. This is your gross income you will be describing.