Do you have the right tools for your business?

Over the weekend I made a purchase I have been putting off, simply because I didn’t want to spend the money and even more… I didn’t want to go through the hassle yet. At least not until I had some time (have you heard that excuse before?). Thankfully, I changed my mind!

I have been a huge fan of the eMachine computers (I know… don’t laugh too hard!). They have been awesome computers for me, just outgrew my 2nd. Rarely had any problems and both lasted for a long, long time.

But the poor little guy was getting old, I needed way more space and a quite a bit more computing power. In comes the granddaddy of a computer… an HP with a 1 TB hard drive and a wonderfully huge 6 GB RAM. Woohoo! Now this might not seem like a big deal these days but consider that my desktop pc was chugging along with only a 160 GB hard drive and 1GB RAM, it was a trooper each day, especially with what I was putting it through!

Using it has been a dream, at least it was after I got everything transferred over, that took a long time and I still have a few programs that need to be installed. I am faster, more efficient and I’m no longer wishing for greater speed or wondering what I can delete or uninstall to give the poor computer some breathing room.

So this got me thinking, what other areas in my business have I put off, or ignored, getting the right tool for? It hit me the other day that I have not been taking advantage of the help of other VAs. Yes, I have been ignoring the very thing I tell my clients to do. So last week one of the VAs I had worked with earlier this year, got in touch to say hello and check in and my goodness what excellent timing! I realized right then and there that this was a tool I needed to have in my business and keep in my business. Good ole’ fashioned help. (Not to generalize virtual assistants as tools… really more of an asset :) but I think you get the drift)

By bringing on another virtual assistant to help me out in my own business, I am going to become even more efficient, the to-do-list and want-to-do list is going to start being tackled (it already is!), and I am going to be able move some of my projects forward. Wow novel idea!

So I am taking a closer look again at that to-do-list and see what other areas I can have her take on so that I can keep moving my business forward and tackle some of those wish list items that seem to keep falling to the bottom of my to-do-list.

What tool do you need today to keep your business moving forward?

If you had an assistant, what could you tackle and cross of your to-do-list today? This week?

P.S. If you have ever considered bringing on a virtual assistant onto your team check out our FREE special report “How To Find And Hire A Virtual Assistant”. Sign up for it here on our site for instant access.

MailChimp? What is that?

You probably have at least heard of the newest kid on the block… MailChimp. Well it definitely has caught my eye and I’m looking at making the move over. The features and options and the pricing are all enticing reasons to make the move.

Plus have you checked them out at all? It is just plain fun! A monkey in a mailman suit… that just makes me smile. Even the tutorials are fun and not at all boring and that just makes the whole transition go even better. How many list services do you know have a musical sing-a-long video on Merge Codes LOL!

They recently released version 5.2 which adds many social networking features that sound intriguing. The more I see, the more I like.

I’ll update late on how the transition…move is going, but I would encourage you to check them out.

Fear, Adversity, Inspiration & Celebrating Life

This weekend I had the fun of celebrating my youngest sister’s 30th birthday. You may have seen her on our site here… she also happens to be my bookkeeper!

She has had an incredible year of being diagnosed with breast cancer, an intensive round of Chemo Therapy, 2 rounds of Radiation as well as a surgery mixed in. This has entailed countless hours of traveling to a hospital up here in Portland (that is about a 4.5 hour drive one way for them), lots of doctors appointments and days of being totally and utterly exhausted from it all.

Not only is she coming through with flying colors both she and her hubby are inspirations to the rest of us on how to deal with adversity and and keep an incredibly positive outlook on life and what it is throwing at her.

It has been a complete and utter wake up call for the rest of us on how precious life is and knowing when to slow down, take a break and enjoy the moment. It has been also a call to faith, entrusting her to God and His loving care. We know that there are lessons to be learned through this journey and doing our best to be open to them and take them to heart.

For me it is to realize that I do not take enough time off, that I am not giving time to me and my family to rest, rejuvenate and refill instead of always going, going, going. An echo of this years theme of simplifying.

So one of the things I will be sharing throughout the rest of the year is to show examples of slowing down, even if for just a few minutes to enjoy the sunny day, walk the dog, listen to beautiful music or my favorite… walking on the beach.

As entrepreneurs we usually are work-a-holics and are in desperate need of an intervention… and I don’t mean this as a flippant use of words. We go and go and go trying to get it all done wondering where the day, week and month went all while trying to keep our head above water as we run our business(es). Many times this does require a hard knock on the head, a good shake to bring us into awareness of today and has to be done and what can wait.

It is also learning to work through the fear of… what if I can’t get it all done? I must do it all myself to make sure it gets done right. It is a fear of letting go in order to move ahead.

So I invite you to take this journey with me of learning to set boundaries, or at the very least enforce the ones already in place!! Enjoy today, take a deep breath and celebrate life!

I’ll be posting a few pictures soon of “Aimeepalooza” with roasted pig, tiki lights, leis and live music! Plus tent city as we converged on her home, what a blast!