Is it Summer Yet?

The flowers and trees are in full bloom – so what are you doing this time of year?  Gardening?  (check out my gardening tip)  Planning a vacation?  or are you stuck at home because of the ridiculous gas prices!  From what I’m hearing, the gas prices are not actually keeping people at home, but it is affecting the way they travel or where they travel.  Visit a travel advice site and see what’s hot – Travel Advice.   This link will take you to a podcast of a travel advice site.  (And by the way, there’s nothing like a VA to help you plan a vacation – find you a list of hotels to choose from, attractions to see while you’re wherever – you know – stuff like that!)

The Personal Side

The real estate market stinks.  No big surprise to anyone as the media has beat us over the head with it for quite some time now.  And what did I just do?  That’s right folks – my house is on the market.  This is a very traumatic experience for me as this is the first home I bought almost 24 years ago.  I’ve made this home my very own over the years with my girls’ projects, pictures, and great (what I think are great) “finds.”  Well, there’s nothing like getting your house ready to be shown and everything is just where you believe it should be, and then you hire an interior designer to come and stage your home.  OUCH!  But if you are going to sell your home, please hire Felisa Armento to come tell you what to get rid of and what to move around.  She was awesome!  Did you ever watch that mother/daughter realtor team on HGTV go into people’s homes and tell them their house looks awful?  Well, she was NOTHING like they are.  She was gentle yet firm and gave her opinions and thoughts – and not judgmental in the least.  She spent 2 hours at our home (probably because I was getting in her way) and it’s never looked this good.  A little empty for my taste, but I’m hoping that’s just what a buyer wants to see.   Know anyone who would like to buy a beautiful twin home in a great neighborhood?   Visit the website if you’d like to see my home.

But back to traumatic!  The first couple came to look at my home, and I, of course, was there at my computer.  U – n – c – o – m – f – o – r – t – a – b – l – e!  I was just trying to be invisible, but I couldn’t help but hear the whispering.  And it didn’t sound very reassuring, nor was the fact that they were in and out in about 20 minutes.  (sigh)  I want someone to buy my home that will love it as I did and take care of it.  I’ve put so many years of improvements, sweat and tears – lots of tears – to even fathom the thought of it being purchased to be a rental (which my realtor mentioned to me).  My home has been shown 2 other times – the first one actually liked it, the second didn’t, and the third said she could buy a brand new end-unit townhome for another $10,000 with a basement and garage (which my house doesn’t have).  So I told my realtor that she should go buy that brand new townhouse.  The house you buy should be the one you walk into and say – yes!  this is the one!  That’s what I did with this one, and boy did it need work to make it my taste.  It seems that nowadays people actually want to move in and live in a home without making it their own.  If you watch HGTV, you’ll see people actually not buy a house because they don’t like the paint color or wallpaper.  Pullleeeezzzz!!!   They don’t want to paint or repair or replace . . . What’s the point in having a home?  We painted and remodeled and put on additions and put down carpet, ripped up the same carpet, put in tile floors, hardwood floors, built-in shelves, and on and on.  (It’s worth it – the location couldn’t really be better.)  And when we move, we’ll do the same there, too.  Well, probably not all of that – I’m older now.   But there’s nothing like that feeling of accomplishment. (Check out the website and look at the cabinets I was whining about in an earlier blog!)  We’re not professionals and I did almost pull all my hair out, but it’s done now and the trials and tribulations of doing them are completely gone when you see the finished product. 

But I’d love to hear from anyone who’s sold and bought a home – this is the first time I’ve done this and I really would love to hear your stories, advice – whatever!

The Business Side

I’ve been talking about why, when and where you should hire a VA.  I’ve covered how environmental it is to hire one and how you can reduce your carbon footprint by hiring a VA (not to mention the incredible money savings involved).  Instead of rehashing everything I’ve said before, here’s another article in Entrepreneur.com that has some good pointers on looking for just the right VA and why you should hire one.  Remember, the most important thing is to have a good, trusting relationship with your VA which is what I enjoy with my clients.  Here’s another article I just came across trying to get home the same message.  If you’re looking to get some typing done for $2 / hour in India, I’m obviously not your VA.  And could you feel like you have a trusting relationship with them?  Would you even know who was doing your typing?  Could you call that person and speak with them about it?  Outsourcing can be a good thing with the right VA, but it could be a very bad thing if you’re trying to outsource like, say, your phone company did.

My ideal client has the following traits:

• willing to communicate

Oh – I guess that’s the most important trait!  Because when you can communicate with your VA and let her know what it is that you’re looking to get done, the rest is simple!  There is nothing that can’t be accomplished with good communication.  So as I’ve said before – what are you waiting for?!? 

Virtual Assistant – got one?

Advice

Speaking of advice, I’ve decided to add an advice “column” as part of my regular blog – business, personal, environmental, gardening.  Ask me whatever you’d like – if I don’t have an answer, I’ll direct you to an appropriate resource.  So let’s hear your questions!!

The Food Critic

I recently went to the Cock N Bull Restaurant in Lahaska.  It’s been around forever and I’ve heard about it for years and years.  But I never went there – and most likely won’t go back.  Although the restaurant is visually pleasing, it is apparently a family dining experience.  Evidenced by the table right behind us with kids that wouldn’t stop screaming.  That’s not entirely true – they did stop after about 1/2 hour or so.  Just before I asked to move tables.  But I’m not sure that would have helped – as loud as their screams were, they had to have been heard throughout the dining room.  And, you know – it doesn’t have to be that way.  My kids would NEVER EVER have behaved that way in a restaurant!  And another table came in on the other side of us with more kids, and we never even heard them.  But I digress . . .  That is not why I wouldn’t want to go back, of course – it was the food!  I started with a baked brie (my favorite) and which the waitress said was their specialty.  Not really.  The crust was mushy and the brie was not the best brie I’ve ever tasted.  It was supposed to come with raspberry sauce and almonds, but I asked for it without that.  I wanted to taste the brie – not some sweet sauce.  Maybe the sauce is what makes the brie taste better there.

Then we both had mahi-mahi with rice and wilted spinach.  My favorite type of food (besides cheese) is seafood.  I’ve never met a fish I didn’t like (except sea urchin); however, I tend to go for the more tasteful fishes.  I’ve had mahi-mahi before and thought it delightful – not so much here.  I actually didn’t even finish it because it tasted like . . . absolutely nothing.  I could not discern one seasoning – although it looked beautiful – but the fish itself was just blah.  I don’t waste eating on food that has no taste.  I did, however, eat the rice and spinach because I was hungry – also very tasteless.  How can you make spinach tasteless?  I just don’t get it!

Then came dessert.  OK – I’ll try again.  I ordered an apple dumpling – hold the vanilla sauce.  Now I’m not sure what exactly I would do in a restaurant setting to serve an apple dumpling and keep the crust crisp and delicious . . . neither do they.

And our waitress – while not terrible by any stretch, was not personable.  She was professional, efficient and quick, making me feel like I was taking up too much of her time.  I know it’s not easy waiting on tables – because I did it many years ago, and I loved it.  But no matter how rushed you are, each and every customer should feel special.  I’m very critical of waitstaff.  When there’s a great server, the whole dining experience improves tremendously.

So all-in-all it was a disappointment.  I’d love to hear comments from anyone who’s eaten there and had a different experience.  Who knows – maybe I’d give them another shot if I heard enough good experiences from other people.

Nickey Hollenbach

Personal Touch Concierge Service, LLC

www.ptconciergeservice.com

484-919-0637

The Environmental Virtual Assistant

VA’s are finally getting recognition!  Visit here to read an article on WebWire “Virtual Assistant Tops Today’s Show Work at Home Business List.” And Canada will be having its first Virtual Assistant conference.  Wish I could go, but I can’t even make the annual conference for the IVAA this year – I’m going to try for next year, though.

I’ve thought a lot about how a VA can benefit the environment, but was not able to find as many articles as I thought I would on the subject.  I found plenty of articles on global warming of course, the latest being the ice-shelf-hanging-from-a-thread-story.  Side note:  whether or not you agree on how we are affecting global warming, you surely must believe by now there IS global warming!  Don’t get nervous – today is not about global warming, I promise.

But just to use common sense, just look at our ridiculously crammed roadways during rush hour!  I’m willing to bet that 25% of those cars need not be on our highways.  (Did you know that 75% of all statistics are made up on the spot?)  While I’m not suggesting that we should turn our society into people who stay in their houses and over time forget how to interact with other people, I am suggesting that if more people would work from home there wouldn’t be as much:

• pollution from cars
• noise pollution
• accidents (statistics again)
• stress-related health issues from commuting

Not suggesting that everyone should become a VA (just hire one), I know I’ve found that you can get more accomplished at home than in an office.  When I worked in an office I was constantly being interrupted by the phone, emails, my boss, other employees . . .  I don’t know how I got anything done!  That’s why I ended up working nights and weekends — and I could get a full day’s work in a half day on the weekend.  Until someone else came in to work and thought it was a great time to chat (sigh).  But I thought at the time if I had the appropriate hookup at home and could work from home, I’d get 50% more work done (I love statistics).  And I did try the PC Anywhere hookup.  That works just fine if you’re one of those tortoises on that high speed internet commercial where they love things S-L-O-W.  That was stressful to me because when I click on something or try to download a file, I expect it to be NOW.  We’re so spoiled with high speed internet, aren’t we!?  Thankfully there are better programs than that available now. 

Back to my point . . . if employers would invest in setting up some of their employees to work from home just one or two days a week, think of the savings – to the employer, the employee and to everyone else who has to commute.  This is my idea:  You say to your boss, “Boss, I would like to work at home two days a week.  I’ll gladly take $1 or $2 per hour less on those two days and I feel I’ll be more productive.”  You say to yourself, why in the world would I take an $8 or $16/day paycut?  You’d have to do the math, of course, but I’ll bet unless you work very close to home you’re spending more than that in gas and car repairs (I think the mileage reimbursement is currently $.485 / mile), not to mention tolls, time wasted traveling, etc.  Your boss gets a slight $$ savings which will add up over time if you include payroll taxes and the like, you get to stay home and not waste that money, you get to be more productive because you have the serenity of your home office, and for two days a week you’re not polluting with your car.  That, my friends, is a win-win situation. 

And you’d be that one person that’s made a difference.  It’s like that in anything we do – people argue that one person usually doesn’t make that much of a difference, but if that one person multiplies into 100, 1000, or 10,000, then all of a sudden, it’s a big difference.  We’ve all heard these suggestions:  if half of the population drives 1 day less a week, uses no plastic bags for a week, watches 10 less hours of TV per week, etc., etc.  But really!!  It DOES make a difference!  Give it a shot!

VA’s take that to the enth degree.  They work from home all the time and, therefore, are helping the environment by not polluting with their cars.  It’s not a world-saving thing to do, but it’s a start.  And if you hire a VA to help you with things, you are helping the environment as well!

The Personal Side

Kitchen cabinets are almost finished. We went to hang the last one and of course it doesn’t fit.  I must admit the rest of them look awesome, though.  Upstairs bathroom is almost finished, too – new tile floor, new countertop and sinks, new bathtub fixtures – looks pretty good!  Painter is here painting the dining room – WHAT?  I hired a painter??  Yes – I could watch all the DIY and HGTV programs in the world – and STILL not become a good painter.  I’ve been painting rooms for over 23 years (that’s how long I’ve lived here), but it’s very OK – not great.  So since I LOVE my dining room and it’s the first room you walk into – it seems to be the most earthy room (the chair rail is unfinished barn boards and the windows and doors are framed in it) – I’ve hired a professional.  I did all the prep work, of course.  That doesn’t sound like alot, but as with everything I’ve done in this house, nothing is easy.  You see, about 8 or so years ago I thought it would look great to paint the room with texture paint – the kind that has the gravel in it.  And it did look really nice (except where the wall meets the ceiling and I messed up).  So guess what?  Yep!  I had to sand the entire room to smooth out the gravel.  Why not paint it in gravel again?  Because of all the smooth spackled spots to repair the walls where the house had settled and where the original dry wall guys did not do a good job.  Like I said:  nothing’s easy.  So Mike is here from Scott Gribling Painting.  Mike is the nicest guy next to Scott – so professional and friendly – and he’s doing an awesome job!  I would highly recommend calling Scott if you need anything done – and btw, his specialty is all kinds of texture painting, too.  Check out his website!

The Business Side

Hire me.  OK, ok – I’ll say more than that (I wasn’t going to, though). 

Having a Virtual Assistant helping you manage your workload is a cost-effective was to bring you peace of mind.  In thinking of hiring a VA, there are certain things you should look for in a VA.  You should make sure that a VA you are considering hiring is experienced at whatever you are looking to have accomplished.  Look at his/her resume as if you were going to hire that person to work in your office.  Speak with them on the telephone – not just by email.  Choose a local VA if you would like to meet that person first; however, most VA’s never actually meet the people for whom they are doing work — and that arrangement is based on trust.  If you are not the trusting sort, give your intended VA a small task to perform and judge the way they handle that task.  Did they simply complete the task as requested or did they go the extra mile:  did they give you options; i.e., you say:  make me a hotel reservation in (city) for (date).  An experienced VA will ask questions:

• are you traveling for business or pleasure?
• will you need a flight or travel arrangements?
• how many people will be staying in the room?
• are you attending a convention or meeting?  what convention/meeting and where is it?  is the room being booked with a group?
• what type of room are you expecting?
• do you have any special needs – internet service, a desk in your room, etc.
• do you require a restaurant or a pool in the hotel?

Then the experienced VA will respond with a list of hotels in the area with room rates for all the types of rooms offered at each hotel, including whether or not they have a pool, what type of restaurant(s) are in the hotel, amenities provided – and whether or not the rates are different if booked through the hotel or online.  You choose from the list and she then makes the reservation.  It’s a good little experiment to see how thorough your VA is.

Ask your potential VA some general questions:

• what time he/she would have available for you each week;
• how much notice is needed for a larger job (be prepared to give some details);
• are they generally available for last-minute jobs;
• do they have the background you are looking for in a VA (legal, medical, corporate);
• do they need to have a certain background to perform the work you are looking to get done?     

Come up with a list of parameters that you are looking for in a VA.  Start looking for a VA NOW — BEFORE you are so crazy behind you say don’t have the time to find one.   Post a job on virtual assistant sites such as IVAA.org or DVVAA.org if you don’t know how to find one.  As I’ve said before – you NEED a VA!!  Wouldn’t it be great to have a VA you trust that you can just email tasks – do this, do that – and it gets done just like that!  Searching and finding the right VA for you will be the thing you’ve ever done – trust me.

Recommended Sites

See The Personal Side above for Scott Gribling Painting and visit his website. 

Have a great weekend!

Nickey Hollenbach

Personal Touch Concierge Service, LLC

484-919-0637

www.ptconciergeservice.com

You Need a Virtual Assistant

Even if you don’t realize it yet, you really do need a Virtual Assistant.  In this blog I’m going to go over some of the scenarios with which you could utilize a Virtual Assistant – today I’ll concentrate on small business owners and entrepreneurs.  Now if you don’t have any stress and you’re able to handle everything in your life and it all gets done – I want to meet you!  I feel like I need a VA sometimes.  Because, of course, I’m doing everyone’s else’s stuff and my stuff gets the appropriate back burner.  (Like the kitchen cabinets . . . )

as always, feel free to scroll down to “The Business Side”

The Personal Side

I have met a lot of people recently – could be all the networking events.  I really do enjoy networking and meeting new people.  And it’s interesting to find out what they do (and how I could help them, of course), but it’s really interesting to tell them what I do.  First I test the waters and say I’m a Virtual Assistant.  I’d guestimate that 75% of them have no idea what I’m talking about, they smile and nod politely, which is just fine because then I get to tell them!  The other 25% who know what a Virtual Assistant is either has one, knows someone who has one or has just read an article about VA’s.  I, of course, would love to insert here how environmental VA’s are (not counting driving to the networking events – carpool if you can!).  I will do a future blog on all the societal benefits of working from home.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have been referred to as a tree hugger since I was in high school.  Back in the – insert decade, I’m not going to –  I started to spout about global warming and what the industrial age has done to our planet, the ozone layer, etc., etc.  Most people looked at me like I had two heads, my mother would just say,”are you going to get up on your soapbox again?”  My father would just gently chuckle.  And the sad part is I still get the same reaction today from more people than I would care to admit.  It’s inconvenient to be environmental. (hey!  reference to Al Gore and I didn’t even realize it!)  Don’t get me wrong – I am not the quintessential environmentalist.  I still use plastic bags – but I try to reuse them if they haven’t had something gross in them.  I bought the cloth shopping bags from Giant and I forget them in the car sometimes.  But I will not allow chemicals on my lawn, and my brick patio would look much better more often if I would treat the weeds.  I’ve tried vinegar and lemon juice, boiling water – but the best thing is just to weed wack the patio.  I have been a staunch proponent for decades about not using chemicals outside that will eventually get in our water sources.  I do truly believe we are poisoning ourselves and our children with the use of chemicals on our plants and in the animals we eat, as well as the additions to our preserved food.  You see, my teenaged daughter had cancer a couple of years ago – a rare cancer usually found in people over 55.  She’s absolutely fine now, but what the heck?  My girlfriend’s daughter recently had  thyroid cancer . . . we’d better find a cure to cancer very soon since our children’s children will be the ones to suffer from our lack of responsibility.

But I draw the line at becoming a vegetarian – I LOVE seafood and chicken.  Never met a piece of sushi I didn’t like – except for sea urchin, of course.  (It has the consistency of snot.)  I would prefer if the chickens were free range and killed humanely and we hadn’t poisoned our fish supply with mercury and other chemicals, however.  OK, ok – I’m done – my mother’s voice just got inside my head.

BTW – anyone see the commercial where the tree walks across the pasture and hugs the environmentally friendly house; two guys are standing in the pasture – one looks at the other and says, “house hugger.”  I LOVE that commercial!!

 The Business Side:

Your business is doing great!  Calls are coming in, products are going out – services are being provided, the phones are ringing non-stop, you’re getting 500 emails a day . . .  but you’re so overwhelmed with everything that you’re not taking care of the details that are necessary to run a successful business.  Remember:  you’re in this to make money and time is money – don’t waste it!  It’s not unusual for me to hear, “I’m so busy I just can’t get all my emails answered in a timely fashion,” “I’m so busy my invoicing is falling behind,” “I’m a week or more behind on correspondence and the piles are growing on my desk.”  These are really just a few of the things I am constantly hearing from people I run into.  I ask them – have you thought about hiring someone to help?  “No – I can’t afford to hire anyone else and I don’t have the room or the time to set up extra equipment for someone else!”  Why put yourself through that?  And yes, you CAN afford to hire a Virtual Assistant!  I don’t know what YOUR time is worth, but I’ll bet it’s way more than $25 – $35 an hour!  And not having time to do your invoicing?  If that’s true – no wonder your cash flow may not be where you need it!  And there is nothing worse than piles that accumulate on your desk – after a while you’ll forget something important that will cost you.

There are typing services out there – all over the world.  If you just need to dictate and have someone type it – you need a typing service.  But that is NOT what a Virtual Assistant is all about.  When you develop a relationship with your VA, it’s exactly the same as having your own personal assistant who is right next to you.  A good VA learns about you and how you would like your work done.  It’s a learning process, of course, but one that is well worth it.  Please take a second to check out a couple of articles found in Entrepreneur.com.   Still can’t figure out what a VA can do to help you?  See this article – Top 10 Reasons to Hire a Virtual Assistant.  Or this one!  Do yourself and your business a favor – make the time to hire a good VA – then you’ll be on your way to getting your business (and your life) in order! 

Miscellaneous Stuff

I met this really nice guy at a networking event.  His name is Will Quinn of Quinn’s Office Furniture & Design.  I’ve been wanting to get a little side table/work station/file cabinet piece of furniture thing for some time but couldn’t find just what I wanted.  Will, who I’m sure has much bigger fish to fry, went out of his way to find me a cabinet (after trying to understand what I was talking about) and actually brought it to a meeting we attend so I wouldn’t have to pay shipping.  Wow!!  Big thanks to Will.  I now have a great desk surface with shelving for my files and supplies at an affordable price.  You should really check out their website – great furniture!  Some day I’ll hopefully get him to design and furnish an office for me (how do you insert a dream cloud here?)

The Food Critic

Ok – went out to eat last night at a place I’ve been to before once.  Geryville Publick House owned by Greg and Terri Lepore.  Greg is also an attorney as well as a bar owner, and I used to work with him over 20 years ago!  It was great catching up with him after all these years.  Nice.  The bar is a historic building which he refurbished and it looks great!  The bar is one of those nice, heavy wood bars with stone walls – really beautiful!  We started with a cheese and fruit plate and tuna appetizer.  The cheese plate had a sliced apple and grapes, small rounds of bread and 3 different cheeses that complimented each other nicely.  The tuna was chopped in small squares – raw – and seasoned perfectly over greens.  Nicely done!  I had a burger – yes, I eat ground red meat a few times a year – and it was fantastic!  Nice, warm, casual atmosphere.  If you’re in the mood for great food in a beautiful bar served by very competent and friendly waitstaff, go to the Geryville Publick House! 

ok – that’s it – I have to go work on the cabinets again, or still, or whatever . . . some are even hung up now and they look great!  I’ll put a pic on here for you when they’re actually finished.  Have a great weekend!

 Nickey Hollenbach

Personal Touch Concierge Service, LLC

484-919-0637

www.ptconciergeservice.com