Grace S Long - VA Extraordinaire

Microsoft Office Excel Tip - Navigating Complex Spreadsheets

Have you ever tried working with an Excel workbook with various spreadsheets? I normally come across this situation when putting together a business plan and finance data on Excel and naming it according to the information on your spreadsheet corresponding to Assumptions, Financials, Break-even point, etc (as shown below).

However, you will note that as you get your business data onto your workbook, you get to the point where you can no longer see the worksheet beyond the 8th spreadsheet as shown above.  You can definitely use the built in tabs navigation buttons or arrows on the left hand side where you can click next, previous, first or last sheet. It can be tedious though, clicking from one sheet to the next. There is a way to make life easier.  Just right click on the tabs navigation buttons and a floating list of all the worksheets in the workbook will appear as shown on the left. It is particularly useful if the spreadsheet names are quite long.

Try it, and I hope you will find it useful in your daily tasks. There always is a way of working smarter.

Make IT Work For You

Small business owners, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and even corporate executives more often than not have some sort of computer system, desktop or laptop which they use for business. The latest technology kits are virtually within reach at continuously lower costs than they were 5 years ago. IT hardware packs a lot of power in smaller physical cases while software is becoming ore powerful and easier to use every year. 

But have these companies taken advantage of information technology to get more work done? Or have they missed the opportunity to achieve the ROI they envisioned for their annual turnover due to out-of-date and unreliable technology?

Sadly, business owners and managers spend too much time on mundane tasks in a normal working day rather than spending more time on growing their business and increasing their productivity.

Small Business Server 2008 provides one of the best solutions to technology challenges that businesses face at a low cost budget. “It is called the Swiss army knife of business computing.”

Businesses today look for ways to do things quicker, to work smarter and to produce more professional looking documents. They are no longer taking unnecessary risks of losing important business information by putting in place a reliable and dependable back-up system.

Tim Long of TiGra Networks provides free consultation on the advantages of the Small Business Server, how best to address your IT problems , save you time and money. You can download this very useful 20-minute guide to technology for smaller companies here.

Creating Effective and Efficient Relationships

Relationships of all kinds are often perceived as very delicate things, that require extra effort to maintain. However, a relationship can also be something that can provide security and can also be long lasting despite many trials.

Building effective and lasting relationships is a necessity for several reasons. The well being of the people in an organisation depends on how efficient and effective that group or organisation works.

The group or organisation is also dependent on how the members work well with the management. 

An ineffective group or organisation can really be very frustrating.  An effective group or organisation can also ask so much on their members, that sometimes the members would be having no life outside the walls of the area where they work or sacrifice the other aspects of their life just to meet deadlines. For an organisation or group with this kind of scenario, relationships can be stressed or suffer from breakdown.

People or other entities who depend on these groups or organisation also suffer.

Society is defined as a web of relationships, which requires all parties to work and contribute their share in order to achieve  a common goal. Having a relationship that is good, where cooperation and respect are manifested, can make society work better. In this way each member works for the good of the whole and towards achieving a common goal. This can only be attained with effective and efficient relationships.

Understanding the other parties' feeling and position creates an effective and efficient relationship. The easiest method to understand what is important to another party is to ask them what they want and listen to what they have to say. When the other party realizes this, they would feel the importance given to them

Effective and efficient relationships require parties to openly express their feelings and positions on all matters pertinent on the relationship. Assuming that the other party understands our needs and give us when we need it without asking for it is not a good practice.

Respect is the key to relationship. In order to create a more effective relationship, parties should treat each other with respect.  We can show respect just by listening to the other party and by trying sincerely to understand how they function. You can also show respect to other parties by confirming that they are doing everything they can.

The opposite of respect is quick forming of judgements based on unfounded facts and prejudice. Respect is the very foundation for a great relationship. This also means respecting yourself and respecting others.

Another key area in forming an effective relationship is to tackle differences of the other party directly. Differences between parties or people are quite interesting. For example in a conversation where each party listens to the other party, you may observe that each is having two different perspectives.

Work towards a win-win solution for both parties.

This can be done when at least one party acknowledges that the relationship is important. That party would then exert more time, effort and energy to understand the other party's needs and deal with it to get it out of the way. Should they fail, it is comforting for that party to know that they tried.

Effectively listening and no pre-judging. This is important if parties are to understand each other.

Informal discussions are conducive for parties. They bring out issues and concerns comfortably. They also feel more relaxed making them think more clearly.

Developing an atmosphere where the other party can express their feelings when they need to.

When parties fail to express whatever is on their mind or their feelings, it can get in the way of building an effective relationship.

Parties should be aware that certain things exist naturally but should be controlled in any dealings in any relationship.  Human nature is one. Some of these things found in a relationship also include a history of stereotyping or mistrust, blaming the other person or party for a strained relationship, excluding the other party's feelings when focusing on a task, no clear and defined objectives, roles and expectations of each party in a relationship is also unclear.

Relationships are important to anyone, addressing issues and problems right away is a must to further improve the relationship. As they say 'No man is an Island'.

Reduce Stress and Be Happy

Anything taken too much is bad for the health. A little stress is actually good, as it could serve to help you function at your best. However, stress that seems a little too much could take a physical, as well as mental, toll to your body. Stress should be managed in order for depression or anxiety to be prevented.

So how should you do it then? The following are tips and advice to help manage stress.

Write it out, schedule it out.

It is best to write down everything that seems to be overwhelming. You will find that a to-do-list is much easier to manage than having errands all crumpled up in your head. Writing down the tasks, and putting a specific schedule and time to do them, helps anyone manage activities one chunk at a time. Crossing out an activity that has already been accomplished is very rewarding and could actually help you feel more relaxed when doing the other tasks at hand.

One at a time works.

Focus and put all your attention specifically on one task at one time. It does not help to feel panicky about the other undone or to-do tasks. Thinking about them only adds unnecessary stress and could even hamper in doing the task you are attempting to accomplish at present.

Relax and take it slow.

At least, try not to expend too much energy on activities that are currently not priorities. This is in order for your energy to be not easily expended on the tasks that are not that important, at least for now.

Delegate, delegate, delegate.

You need not do everything all at once, and you need not do everything on your own. Ask for help, get help, or pay for help. When there is a feeling of being overwhelmed that is cropping up, hire someone to mow the lawn or get a sitter for your children. The feeling of being pressed to finish something on time will somehow be eliminated if tasks are delegated. It takes a load off unnecessary worry and anxiety. Moreover, it is easier checking up on how things are, than worrying yourself sick doing everything on your own, all at once.

Give yourself a reward.

You deserve it. Acknowledging your accomplishments, no matter how big or small, is an effort that is necessary before getting on to the next tasks and activities. It reduces stress and could even make you happier in doing the next task.

Give yourself a break.

You need it to be more productive. A ten to fifteen minute break during your work is necessary. Go visit a café nearby, take a quick brisk walk, or do anything to put your mind off work, at least for a while. This is necessary to refresh and recharge. Believe it or not, you can also stay in your work and sit with your eyes closed as you visualize a peaceful landscape or a relaxing scene. This frees the stress from your muscles and your mind.

Relax and be cool. Doing so makes you healthier, happier, and a lot more productive. 

Microsoft Office Tips and Tricks Gadget

The Microsoft Office Tips and Tricks Gadget was created by developers at Windows Live Gallery and is released as part of the Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget which is available for download here.

It delivers a new tip or hint every day for using Microsoft Office. Click the Gadget and a flyout will appear giving a complete description of how to use the new technique which will make your life a little easier when you use Microsoft Office and its applications. Try it, it is very useful.

Marketing and Attracting Clients

When establishing a VA practice, what seems to be the most important activity that a VA needs to spend time on - is it improving your skills and getting a VA certification - or is it marketing and attracting clients?

This is one of the many question many VAs or would-be VAs are asking themselves. In my opinion, learning and improving skills is a must-do activity. It should be incorporated as a process in our business plan as a progressive entrepreneur seeking and using feedback strategies to learn and improve; it is part of reviewing and evaluating how well we are doing in performing and providing the services we offer to our clients. Acquiring a VA certification is physical proof of the effort we have put into studying the concepts and principles of how to handle a VA business. However, learning and improving our skills is not something we do once and forget about it. It is integral to our normal approach to work and study throughout life and our career.

Marketing and attracting clients is a daunting thought to a small business owner. You can almost imagine pouring a large amount of your hard-earned savings into marketing activities that we are not comfortable with. The term marketing is normally associated with sales and promotion techniques. Marketing and attracting clients encompasses so much more than advertising. It is simply studying our products or services from the clients' perspective. Before deciding on what advertising and promotion techniques to adopt, we need to carefully consider the branding and the kind of image we wish to project to our clients. Our prospective clients' perception of our VA practice will dictate whether or not they will approach us for support. A very important foundation for successfully marketing and attracting new clients is a creative flair for words while conveying a complicated message in a small space of a postcard,  a top-notch command of the English language, including a mastery of grammar and spelling.

Bernadette Doyle's report on Attracting Clients with Ease describes several low-cost ways to attract clients and position yourself as an expert in your field. 

Colin Campbell of Colin Campbell Consulting holds CJ Hayden's Get Clients Now! 28 day marketing workshops, Guerrilla Marketing Coaching and Sales training in Wales and Bristol. I know Colin personally and had attended his workshop and learned a lot about marketing. 

Fabienne Frederickson, the Client Attraction Expert, holds various webinars and teleseminars which I have attended and found to be very useful. There are also loads of resources she has made available through newsletters and articles she sends via email.

The answer to the above question then is to constantly improve our existing skills and learn more new skills to perfect our craft and balance it with a follow-up, review, evaluation and re-structure of our marketing strategies to gain new clients. Marketing after all is the life blood of every business.

What is a Virtual Assistant (VA)?

For those of you who are not familiar with the term "virtual assistant," I define it succinctly as an experienced, highly trained  and independent professional who provides a wide-range of business support services virtually from her/his own office with the use of the most recent technologies in terms of software from various vendors such as Microsoft, electronic devices such as fax, electronic mail and voicemail, and other web-based technologies to effectively support business owners, corporate executives and entrepreneurs globally.

Our unique service offering is that, in addition to what other VAs offer, we also provide business insight, resolve challenges, and influence stability and profitability through the smarter use of technology and our partnership with Microsoft.

There are several definitions that proliferate the internet and you can see more definitions as listed in the VA Networking Forum, managed by Tawnya Sutherland from Canada.

Silverlight v2 on my Blog

It would not be too difficult to guess who finally brought my blog masthead to the 21st century with the installation of Silverlight. Yes, you guessed right it is none other than, Tim Long, my husband, in-house systems administrator, programmer, and software engineer all rolled into one.

The first time I ever saw a Silverlight demo was early last year at Dave Overton's blogsite and at the Silverlight portal which for an advanced user and geek like me who loves and appreciates technology is totally awesome. Then it was used in Matt Macspirit's Hyper-V demo at the Microsoft Partners Pre-launch 'invitation only' event on January 2008 in London with no less than Bill Gates as the featured speaker. My interest was further heightened during the 2008 Launch Wave of the Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 technologies in March this year in Birmingham which I attended. For those who have not been fortunate enough to make it to the Virtual Launch experience you can visit the Virtual Event online where you can have a blast with all the information and sessions you missed at the in-person event.

But I digress, don't I.

As a Virtual Assistant who makes her living in the virtual world, Silverlight technology is just totally amazing. What is Silverlight?

"Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web."

"Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, IronPython, and IronRuby, and integrates with existing Web applications. By using Expression Studio and Visual Studio, designers and developers can collaborate more effectively using the skills they have today to light up the Web of tomorrow. By leveraging Silverlight's support for .NET, High Definition video, cost-effective advanced streaming, unparalleled high-resolution interactivity with Deep Zoom technology, and controls, businesses can reach out to new markets across the Web, desktop, and devices."

In other words, the possibilities and opportunities for the use of this technology is unlimited. Check out the Silverlight demo showcase here.

At the rate it is going and In my limited technical experience, Silverlight is going to present Flash technology a run for its money. The ease of installation, memory, storage and interactivity it provides offers both computer users and application developers a variety of ways to showcase their imagination. Because Silverlight is built upon the .NET Framework, it enables developers to produce content using .NET languages such as C#, Visual Basic and XAML, eliminating the need to learn JavaScript or Flash ActionScript. Developers can therefore produce rich, interactive web content using exactly the same tools they use to develop Windows applications.

If you are interested in learning Silverlight as I am, this website is a great place to start.

8 Weeks to the International Entrepreneurship Educators Conference 2008 - Fit for the Future

One of the topics I am most passionate about is entrepreneurship and education. It is always most refreshing to be informed of new trends in education and what we can do to help government and educators to address the needs, challenges and opportunities to develop entrepreneurship education.

The third International Entrepreneurship Educators Conference is scheduled on 8th-10th September at the Brittania International Hotel overlooking one of the world's iconic business districts, London's Canary Wharf. The conference is led by the NCGE and EEUK. The conference programme will showcase workshops on various topics, innovative techniques and approaches to the delivery and shaping of entrepreneurship education and outcomes. All conference ticket types are of limited availability. Discounts are available to EEUK members and those currently on the IEEP programme.  Book now and participate in shaping the future of enterprise education.

Back in the saddle

Hello everyone. It has been quite a while since my last post. I have undergone and overcome several challenges in the interim and now I am back filled with awe, excitement and positive energy. I have been through several trainings on Microsoft technologies and personal development - all of which has opened new opportunities for me and my business.

I have also this week finished a diploma in NLP in London. That was an awesome experience - another journey into what lengths I will go into to make changes both in my personal life and my business. I have also made arrangements to bring my NLP trainer to Wales because he is such a terrific trainer and allowed me to use and develop my innate abilities.

Watch this space - I am back in the saddle.

Metacognitive Pattern Indicator by Nigel Brown

NeW@Glam Thursday 18th January 2007

This is the first event of the Network for entrepreneurial Women for this year held at the Glamorgan Business Centre of the University of Glamorgan.

Tim and myself arrived promptly at 6:00 pm and was able to meet all those present. There were only a few at the start but the rest came in towards half past six. This gave both of us the opportunity to have a chat with several people such as Hugh and Niluka from the Rhondda Cynon Taf ICT Centre, members of Cohort 5 of the MSc Entrepreneurship (Female Entrepreneurs) scheme, and Lecturers. It was lovely to find that Charline Evans whom I met 3 days before made it to the event and promptly introduced her to Chris Atkinson and Dr Muir. It is nice to note that Charline developed an interest in the MSc course and is now scheduled for interview.

Paul Jones' findings on his research 'E-business Usage within Welsh SMEs - the reality' has been an eye opener though not exatly a surprise. It has actually reinforced my own research and readings when Tim and I started TiGra Networks that micro-businesses comprise the main bulk of SMEs in the UK. And that this is the market segment that most need our services.

The GTI+ project as presented by Pam Voisey is also a very useful resource for entrepreneurs and graduates of the University. One thing for sure, I will certainly take Pam's offer on all that GTI+ can offer me as an entrepreneur.

Opportunity Wales was represented by Philip Lee, Head of Web Services. We had a short presentation describing the various services Opportunity Wales offers - e-commerce advice and reviews, a client directory, forum for e-commerce communities and an events/training calendar to mention a few.

Niluka Eratne, ICT Advisor, from the Rhondda Cynon Taf ICT Centre also enumerated the services their organisation provides for small businesses - impartial advice on hardware and software issues among others.

My immediate thought about these support services is that they are great. However looking deeply into each initiative one thing that keeps niggling in my mind is that despite the fact that all these services are supposedly free due to being funded by local government or some other organisation, there seem to be an underlying issue about advisors who privately run businesses of their own. For example, Opportunity Wales, provides impartial e-commerce advice to SMEs, but Mr Lee himself runs a successful web development company. It would seem that these services offering free advice and support are themselves a direct competitor to small businesses such as my own. The SMEs coming to these advisors for help are a ready market for their own personal businesses. Just think about it, these advisors are employed and draw a salary from the organisation they purport to belong to. They are supposed to give impartial advice e-commerce or otherwise. Yet they do have their own business providing the same service. So what is to stop the SME who is seeking support to simply ask for their services outside of their office?

I admit I may have a bit of bias because in my own experience of trying to avail of these free support services, I have not yet encountered one that has really provided me and my business with what I really need and asked for. At the end of a few sessions, a recommended next port of call would be to book a few extra hours or days of sessions to sort out problems or issues that will be chargeable at an additional cost because you have already exhausted the total number of hours provided for free. Well sorry, thanks but no thanks.

Women in Small Business and Podcasting

While trawling the web for useful information and reading materials, I stumbled upon this blog which focuses on interviews and practical advice for small business, startups and entrepreneurs using a technology called podcasting. Before I try to explain the technology of podcasting, this blog tackles some interesting topics on entrepreneurship and some of those interviewed had some comparisons of the US vs UK entrepreneurial culture.

The podcasting technology is increasingly becoming so popular due to the proliferation of the iPod and MP3s. Just download the file to your computer and listen to them or download them to your iPod or MP3 player and listen to your favorite radio show or interview on the go. It can be  audio or video or a mix of both.

Wikibooks defines podcasting as "the publishing or distribution of radio-style programmes on the internet. Podcasts are in MP3 or a similar file format. Podcast producers make their programmes available with RSS feeds, a tool that allows listeners to select programmes they wish to download, or to set software to automatically download new programmes as they become available." Podcasts are normally accessed by subscription whether paid or unpaid.

Podcasting is used in various ways these days by people who wish to provide a more personal method of communicating with their users to describe a product or discuss an idea. What better way to use technology that is already available at your fingertips! Podcasts may be distributed through your mobile, telephone, Skype sessions, and the web.

More recently in America, podcasts are being used by teachers to deliver college lectures. What a great idea! As a student myself, it is more convenient to listen to my tutor deliver a lecture on my MP3 player than reading a book in a car, a bus or on a train. And it would also allow students who had missed a class to catch up. With all the multimedia equipment we have in our university wouldn't it be cool to try it out?

What is an enterprising economy?

From the term, it is my understanding that an enterprising economy refers to the business environment within a specific geographical area where conditions are created not only by entrepreneurs themselves but also by the public and private sector to encourage small businesses towards innovation by recognising opportunities to grow and rewarding participation in entrepreneurial activities.

Which Superhero are you?

My husband, Tim, has mentioned this quiz and here are my results.

Supergirl 100% Green Lantern 100% Wonder Woman 95% Superman 85% Spider-Man 65% Robin 60% Batman 50% The Flash 35% Catwoman 35% Hulk 30% Iron Man 30%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent.