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| www.itsvirtuallydone.com |
An ezine of invaluable business tips for independent business professionals.
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In
This Issue: Welcome
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Marketing oneself is tough for a lot of talented people. You know you have something great to offer, but find it difficult to "sell yourself." The thing is, though, people like to work with people they know and people who they like. Therefore, being successful in business as is simple as being good at making friends and acquaintances. Less threatening, huh? So this month's feature article is about making "virtual friends" because these days we don't always meet face to face. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! |
"The
recipe for well-being, then, requires neither positive nor negative
thinking alone, but a mix of ample optimism to provide hope, a dash
of pessimism to prevent complacency, and enough realism to discriminate
those things we can control from those we cannot." |
Last month I wrote about how I created a virtual network, a group of fellow entrepreneurs with whom I regularly connect for a shared purpose. My group contained 5 women all living in different states, but a virtual network needn't be a long distance one. Meeting virtually, over the phone or Web, can be very convenient, regardless of where you live.
It occurs to me that some people don't know how to go about forming a network. It's nice to have a context from which to start: a mutual occupation, location, or group to which you belong. For women especially, this creates a safety net. I belong to two virtual assistant communities, for example, and friendships form quickly. For you, find networking partners anywhere from online forums to local (in person) networking groups.
I thought about the ingredients that make creating and keeping virtual friends--friends who you have never met face to face--easy. Here's what I came up with and believe me I wish it formed a great acronym, but I couldn't make it work:
Touch
Assess
Reciprocate
Maintain
Touch to reach out to someone by sending them an email. Have a reference point of common interest.
Assess the response to your effort. Does the person respond in a timely manner with interest and openness or is the person slow to respond, leery, and guarded?
Reciprocate. Like any relationship it takes two people to keep it going. If you find that you are the only one "giving" information and the questions keep coming with little gratitude, well then you know what to do. Conversely, a relationship with mutual giving and sharing is rewarding and mutually beneficial.
Maintain the relationship to keep it going. Haven't heard from your virtual friend in awhile? Dash off an email to let them know what's going on with you and ask how they are doing. Keep it alive.
This is how I've kept virtual friends. You never know when one of them will need you and you can reach out to them and vice versa.
Ever missed a friend's birthday?
Are you ever in never-never land caught between a paper calendar and an electronic one? Has your electronic one ever let you down because: a) you forget to open it up, or b) your computer or PDA stopped working? You can't rely on your brain to remember it all.
This is just to let
you know that another one of the package of services that I provide to
clients is a reminder service. Clients let me know their important dates
and then I send them email reminders.
Want more information? Contact me at: kristy@itsvirtuallydone.com
Will Rogers
Quick tip: Printing several documents at once
Maybe you're like me and you need on occasion to print several documents in a folder at once. You'd like to press one button and have them all print while you go get another cup of coffee. Here's how I do just that with Word documents:
1. Highlight all the files in the folder that you want printed. (Hint: Use your shift key to select them all; use the control key to pick and choose.)
2. Right click your mouse while hovering over the selected files.
3. Highlight Print then click.
4. Go get your coffee (or in my case tea).
Your printed documents should be in your printer's output tray.
Next month look for
the following topics:
-- Spyware/Adware:
What do you do?
--Quick tip: Your onscreen calculator
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Kristy
Schnabel, |
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