How to leverage your boundaries

You can start exercising that boundaries muscle and by taking time off but there are times that no matter how important it is you just can’t seem to get there. Or you get there but you work literally the entire day before to get ready to take time off and extra hours the day after to catch up.

That is what has happened to me, more than once! That is when I realized, that this virtual assistant, needed a virtual assistant! Yep even VA’s need VA’s. One of the best decisions I made was to start outsourcing and get a bookkeeper, oh yeah, that was fun! The next team member I brought on was someone to help with newsletters, both for my clients and for me. Oh yeah, that was even more fun!

Consider it this way, outsourcing to a virtual assistant is really all about exercising that boundaries muscle. You are leveraging your boundaries. You betcha, you can leverage a boundary.

How to leverage a boundary:

1) Outsource what you are not good at: Put a boundary on what you do not know how to do or have time to learn and get your focus back on your strengths. By biz coach, Justin over at LukasCoaching.com and I talk about this quite a bit. Your day to day activities should be 80% in your strengths, the other 10% working on the weak areas.

2) Outsource what is not revenue generating for you: If it is not one of your strengths or it does not generate revenue for you, it is actually costing you time and money. Neither one is good and together a bad combo to deal with.

3) Outsource what has been on the back burner for too long: If you are like most entrepreneurs your project list and wish list is a mile long and you can’t seem to get to it. Even though you know it would help your business and move it forward. Getting it off the back burner and front and center for your VA is leveraging a boundary and putting plans into action.

Learning to leverage your boundaries is another area that will take some practice. Outsourcing is not easy at first, it is hard to relinquish control – good ole’ entrepreneuritis (I have to do it all myself syndrome).

But guess what… relinquishing control and outsourcing, empowers your team to get the job done, leverages your boundaries and moves your business forward while still are taking time off, not bad!

Monday: Shopping cart tip

Setting up a shopping cart can be a daunting task. As a Certified Strategist through Practice Pay Solutions I have been grateful for the in depth training I have received in using the Professional Cart Solutions (aka 1ShoppingCart, Cartville, Easy Web Automation).

Through the training and working with the carts of many different people I firmly believe that how you set it up and organize in the beginning makes a huge difference later down the road as you grow and add more products and auto responders. [Read more...]

Monday Shopping Cart Tip

Automation is a wonderful thing and a shopping cart is an incredible tool that will allow you to automate steps that can be a huge pain to manage yourself… let alone the hours it can take up in your day.

My training and certification is through Practice Pay Solutions, a private label name of 1ShoppingCart.com. Through my classes and daily experience, some of the most basic tools are the tools one mus absolutely take advantage of.
List Building Tools:

  • Double Optin Confirmation – protect yourself and comply with the Can Spam Act.
  • List Management – manage the names and email addresses of all who sign up for your newsletter, teleclass etc.
  • Send newsletters or broadcast emails – Quickly and easily send out your newsletter or special announcement to a select group of people or to everyone, you choice.

A shopping cart is a tool that can help you reclaim your time and simplify your day. If you would like help setting up or maintaining your cart, just let me know.

Simplifying Tip – Outsourcing

Outsourcing is of course a topic near and dear to my heart. As a Virtual Assistant, I am an “outsourcee”! My job is to help you get rid of tasks that will free up time and get you back to focusing on the big picture, your business and where it is heading.

Here are some simple, quick and easy tasks and jobs you could outsource and potentially free up hours in your day:

  • Check email
  • Research competitors, product ideas
  • Answer customer service email
  • Setting up and/or updating a shopping cart (also an automation tool that we will talk more about later)
  • Update your schedule on an online calendar
  • Uploading and styling blog posts
  • Accounting
  • Setting up your next webcast [Read more...]