Posts made in November, 2008

New Look Coming Soon

Posted by Laurie on Nov 14, 2008 in blogging, Inspiration | 1 comment

Just an fyi, as you check in on this blog or my virtual assistant site if you see anything wonky, especially in the color scheme, it’s cause I’m having it adjusted a bit and a new logo designed. Nothing wildly different, just hopefully a little more professional and elegant. I loved the pink personally, but thought a green shade would be more suitable to my target market.

And I have to say, I think it’s great to do a site/blog review every few months to make sure that it is working for you. Nothing has to be forever and a little updating can be just the thing to attract a new client or simply inspire you to post more! I change things up fairly regularly over at my mom blog, but have hesitated to play too much with this one because I do think it’s important not to go all crazy on a business blog! Then I tried to play with the color scheme just a little and realized that while I could figure out the css a bit, I couldn’t redo my own logo too well, so thankfully I’ve hired Brianna of Mad Hatter Web Design to come to my rescue! She originally helped me with the site using an already existing logo, and I knew she was just the person for this job! And the draft of the new logo is so pretty that I feel even better about my choice.

Hope everyone had a great Friday and a wonderful weekend. I’m off to be soccer mom tomorrow for the morning and then cookie baking in the afternoon. Of course I’ll be checking my Twitter regularly throughout – take care!

Lawyers Taking on Twitter

Posted by Laurie on Nov 12, 2008 in blogging, Legal Practice, networking | Comments Off

It’s not even surprising anymore for me to find interesting articles about lawyers and their use of Twitter.  After the great (and still growing!) list over at JDScoop I personally gained several followers from the legal field and found several new people I wanted to follow as well.

Ever since there has been an increasing number of fabulous articles about how Twitter can benefit legal practices.  Thanks to a couple of tweets (hat tips to @StephKimbro‘s retweet of a comment by @kevinokeefe!) I just read a very interesting article over at Lawyers USA about the growing number of lawyers using Twitter to network and market.

I know I only recently I was contracted by a new client who tweeted about needing a virtual assistant. I responded and the rest is history! So for anyone who is still just thinking about using Twitter, or who maybe doesn’t feel they are realizing Twitter’s potential, come on over to Twitter, sign up if you need to and follow me!

Oh and if you need a guide to using Twitter I’ve got a couple places you should check out. Darren Rowse (of Problogger fame) has a great site called TwiTip full of fabulous tips for using Twitter. Also, Grant Griffiths has a really great series called Twitter for Lawyers on his Blog for Profit site.

Hope to tweet with you soon!

Gmail plus Calendar and Docs

Posted by Laurie on Nov 11, 2008 in Time Saving Tips, virtual assistance | Comments Off

I’m a little late in learning this but I thought I’d share anyway – I doubt I’m the only one who doesn’t catch things instantly!

So, I use Gmail for my catchall email account.  The email for my virtual assistant business is through my host (laurie AT halosecretarialservices DOT com) but is all forwarded to my Gmail account.  I simply find Gmail to be easy to access and easy to work with. It also then gives me the option of chat and use in my iGoogle homepage.

Today I realized that I can fully integrate my google calendar and docs into my Gmail left sidebar – wow! So much easier than having to open a separate tab. I simply went into my gmail settings, clicked on labs and then enabled both google calendar and docs to show up! I also moved my chat and labels to the right side bar to make everything more visible.

Now I can see my schedule and plan my daily tasks much more efficiently. I always schedule time for client tasks and my own marketing plans in my google calendar, with popup reminders, which definitely increases my productivity. And the more organized I am, the more time I have to devote to my clients’s needs!

Hope this helps you other virtual assistants and other business owners!

BlogHer 09 in Chicago

Posted by Laurie on Nov 10, 2008 in blogging, networking | Comments Off

I just read that it has been decided that BlogHer 2009 will be held in late July in Chicago – now just to figure out if I can go or not! They are combining the BlogHer Business Conference with the BlogHer Annual Conference, which is a great idea! I think attending the conference will be a great way to network for my virtual assistant business, as well as to meet some fellow mom bloggers.  Oooh, gonna have to do some searching now to see who else is going to try and attend!

My husband would love to go to Chicago, and we could make a family trip out of it, although at the same time I’d love to go just by myself so I’m not torn between family and work as I often seem to be. Do you prefer to combine work and pleasure when traveling for conferences or do you keep everything very separate? I’d love to hear from you!

Halo’s Holiday Special

Posted by Laurie on Nov 6, 2008 in virtual assistance | Comments Off

November is already flying by for me, how about you? I usually put off some of my holiday planning until December and then realize it’s getting late to get certain tasks done on time, like sending out holiday cards or gifts to people who are far away.

This year I’m getting started on it right away and this post over at VAnetworking helped me realize that help with holiday tasks is something my clients might appreciate too! And because I’m getting into the holiday spirit I’m offering 20% off my usual rate to anyone who reads this blog post and decides that they would like my help in the months of November and December, whether with their holiday planning or any of my other virtual assistant services! Just let me know that you heard about it from my blog by referring to holiday code ho-ho-ho!!