As an entrepreneur I work from home and have done so for years. My dedicated office is beautifully appointed, very comfortable and in many respects better equipped than some small business offices that I have seen.

My point for telling you all of this is so that you understand that my business line rings in my home. This means that I had to develop an effective phone policy very early on so that family time was not constantly disrupted by a ringing telephone and so clients and team members don’t call late nights and weekends unless scheduled.

All the time management tips and tricks in the world will not help you get things done if you are not managing your telephone communications effectively.

The first thing as a business person you should ask yourself about incoming calls, is how am I handling them? Do I stop what I am working on and answer every single call that comes in? Do I let it go to voice-mail and respond when I can? Do I use a combination of email and VM to communicate with my clients?

I have found through trial and error that you shouldn’t answer the phone just because it rings. Scheduling phone time is actually a very common practice among professionals and as professionals we should accept that we are entitled to those same courtesies that other professionals receive. How often do you pick up the phone and place a call to your physician or attorney and get straight through? They have policies in place that allow them to get their work done without constant interruption. So should we.

I did this by putting into place certain telephone policies and tools.

1. Listed or Unlisted. Both my home and office numbers are unlisted and blocked. This means that my clients understand that when a blocked or private number shows up they can pretty well guess that it is me calling. Particularly as I have already alerted them by email that I will be calling at a certain time or time frame and want to make sure that this is a mutually convenient time to talk.
2. Family time. I make it very clear when accepting new clients that “family time” is just that and that I do not answer the phone at certain times during the evening or weekends unless we have scheduled that time to work on a time sensitive project. Once I explain that the phone does ring in my home, clients are aware that calling at all hours, even when they just want to leave a voice mail is disruptive and they are happy to use email as communication during those times. It works out well for all of us!
3. Returning calls. All incoming calls are answered by the end of my business day. Period.
4. Toll Free telephone number. While I do not publish my home or cell phone numbers, I do have a toll free number on all of my websites, business cards and other print collateral. This number rings through to a a virtual phone system that was designed for entrepreneurs. I have been using Grasshopper for years and highly recommend this service which starts at $9.95 per month. My invoice only ran over $25 one time and that was because I made the mistake of actually answering a call. After that, we made sure to set my virtual phone system up with multiple voice mail boxes for my various business entities and made sure that this line DOES NOT ring in my office. When a call is received, the caller leaves a voice message which is then sent to my email box as an mp3, therefore allowing me to answer the call within a reasonable time, but without disrupting my work flow.
5. Land line or cell phone? One of the big questions I am hearing these days from new Virtual Assistants/Online Business Mangers/Virtual Entrepreneurs is whether they need a land line. In my opinion, yes. I find that most cell phones have rather sketchy reception and that few second delay in transmission means that you are invariably talking across one another. A land line is just not that expensive. If your business can’t afford the cost of a land line, you really should be looking at your business model. Your telephone service should have three things at a bare minimum. Caller ID. Voice Mail. Unlimited long distance. I have clients all over the world and having a good long distance plan is mandatory for my business.
6. My personal cell phone. My clients do have my cell phone number, but are expected to use it only when I have advised them that I will be away from my desk either all of part of the day and I do want them to be able to reach me if needed. Frankly, I am not one of those people who has their cell phone attached to their fist at all times and most of the time mine is either in the car or the battery is dead. I really only use it when I am away from my office.
7. Speaker phones. I am of the school that thinks answering or placing calls using speaker is both lazy and rude. When a client calls you and you are expecting that call or need to take the call even if you are busy doing something else, be courteous and pick up the phone. There may well be a point during the call that you need to place the caller on speaker, particularly if like me, you are making website changes on the fly while the client is on the phone, but always make it a point to always ask permission to do so. Speaker phones can give the caller the impression that you’re not fully concentrating on his call, and make him think that his call isn’t private.

If you only have one line in your home office that does double duty as your home and business line, consider recording a professional voice mail that every caller will hear and just let your family and friends know that they are also reaching your business so they understand when your message changes from something cheery and chirpy to something more professional.

Train everyone else who answers the phone to answer the same way, including other family members if you’re running a home-based business. Eventually of course, you will want to transition to a dedicated line for your business. Also check with your telephone company to see if they have something called distinctive ring (or something similar) which lets family members know when a call is personal or business.

Do you have other work from home telephone tips to share? Please leave your comments below.

I don’t know about you, but I am an inveterate list maker. I recall making lists as soon as I could read and write at the age of 3. To this day, my mother swears that I learned both by osmosis. She would find me sitting in front of the fireplace which was flanked with floor to ceiling bookcases “reading” adult books, largely Readers Digest as I recall. Since I was the oldest of many children, she figured that I was blissfully and harmlessly entertaining myself and had the great good sense to not take the books away from me and try to replace them with childish picture books. I would have rebelled, I promise you!

I can very clearly recall writing out my Halloween costume needs list before I even hit kindergarten and have made daily lists ever since. According to experts, the second you write something down, you’re infinitely more likely to actually make it happen than if you rely on your often overburdened memory. Some of the greatest thinkers – and achievers! – of our time have been inveterate list-makers, including:

Benjamin Franklin
Leonardo Davinci
Thomas Jefferson
Martha Stewart
And you and me!

Let’s face it. For many people lists work. Many books have been written about the power of lists but not all lists are created equal. Making a list and then ignoring it is a total waste of your time and energy so I have compiled a quick report on the 10 biggest mistakes you may be making with your “To-Do” list.

Click here to download PDF.

Enjoy!

Do you work from your home office as a Virtual Assistant, Web Developer, Business Coach, Fill-in-the-Blanks here? Do you find that balancing your business and home can sometimes feel like an exercise in futility?

Life is a balancing act for many people, but this is especially true for working moms, particularly those who work in their own home office. Trying to juggle your work-from-home business, your duties as a wife, and the responsibilities to your children can be challenging and overwhelming. However, with some careful planning you can wake up each day looking forward to the upcoming challenges with a serene mind.

Try these tips to effectively cope with the pressures and demands of your incredibly busy life:

1. Separate your family time and office time. Set proper boundaries to provide adequate attention to each of your roles. No scheduling solution is perfect, but the effort alone will pay big dividends in your stress level and effectiveness as a parent, wife, and career woman.

When you’re in the office, concentrate on work. Similarly, leave work at work when you come out of your office for the evening and give your family your undivided attention. You’ll get more done in less time and feel less stressed.  In our home, “family time” is sancrosant and my clients, friends  and other family members know that there are certain hours in the early evening that we do not answer the telephone, the front door or emails. Now, there are times when a time-sensitive project may require that this rule be temporarily waived, but it is rare. Family time is family time.

2. Make plans with your kids for the weekend. Allow your children to choose the activity they wish on the weekend. This communicates value to your children and lets them know that they’re important to you. During this time, focus exclusively on them and enjoy your time together. Shut down the Blackberry, ignore the siren call of the ringing phone and value your family time. You won’t be able to get those lost moments back.

3. Enjoy dinner together as a family.  Discuss your day and enjoy family togetherness over your evening meal and around the dining table. Television off!

4. Show your children what you do. Let your children know about your business, why it’s important to you, and why it’s important to them. The more they know about how mom spends her day, the more accepting they’ll be of your absence while you’re at work in your home office. As the owner of a multi-VA (Virtual Assistance) firm I have had one or two team members tell me that they are actually training their children to work with them on some projects where confidentiality is not an issue. I think this is a terrific idea!

5. Find hobbies that you all enjoy. If your children are passionate about something that you also enjoy, this gives you an outlet to experience regular quality time with them and rejuvenating recreation at the same time.

6. Get to know your child’s friends. Organize a sleepover and get to know who your kids hang out with. Get to know their friends’ parents. Take an active role in encouraging your children to hang around with positive people that can fuel their growth.

7. Go on a family vacation once a year. Choose a destination that you and your kids all agree on. Make sure the vacation offers something enjoyable for everyone. Most importantly, leave office work at the office. This communicates to your children that they are valuable to you. When you are packing for your trip, even if it is what my husband calls a “staycation” meaning that we may just be traveling a couple of hours to our favorite Bed and Breakfast, make a decision to NOT pack the laptop, the netbook, the MacBook or any other work tools that will distract you. You may have a little seperation anxiety but it will pass and the family memories will make your unease momentary.

8. Hire a house cleaning service for the household work. If the pressure in your office is too much or your time is spread too thin, hire a housekeeper for the household chores. Do whatever it takes to spend lots of quality time with your spouse and children. Hire someone to do the mundane work so you can do the most important work of all: being a loving parent to your children. Before you reject this idea as being too expensive, consider this. If you are billing $65 per hour for your services, why in the world would you spend those billable hours doing work that you can pay somebody $15 – $25 an hour for tasks that are done in a matter of two or three hours each week?  You will be less stressed, your home will be tidy and your family will have more of your attention. The good kind!  As Martha Stewart says, “It’s a good thing”.

By following these tips, you can bring sanity to a world that was once filled with constant chaos. You can juggle your business and family life if you make decisions that are consistent with your values, plan your time carefully, and use your resources on the priorities that are most important.

For more work from home tips, check out my last post, “Work From Home Time Wasters“.

Ask Denise Griffitts Teleseminar.

Please join me and Sports Psychologist and Clinical Psychologist Dr. Jack Singer on a live teaching call on Friday, June 25, 2010.

Powerful, Proactive Prescriptions to Prevent Hardening of the Attitudes During Uncertain Times

Empower Yourself and Your Team to Remain Positive and Motivated Despite any Obstacles You Face

The economy, competition, government regulations…all are a fact of life in our business lives these days. The key challenge we face as virtual service providers is sustaining positive attitudes during challenging times.

Here’s just a small sample of this presentation will teach you:

• How to recognize the exact thoughts that cause poor or damaging attitudes at any time.
• The powerful formula for identifying and eliminating self-limiting beliefs.
• Proven, amazing ways to re-program your “internal dialogue” to maintain healthy, optimistic attitudes, regardless of the challenges you face.
• How to maintain ultimate success, health and happiness in your relationships, your work and in your whole life!

This call is critical if you plan to succeed as a virtual entrepreneur. Mark your calendar now to participate in the call.

This session will run 45 minutes and will begin at 11 am Pacific / 12 pm Mountain / 1 pm Central / 2 pm Eastern.

Please be on time! We always begin promptly according to http://www.time.gov/so mark your calendar and be sure to call-in a few minutes early so you’re not pre-empted by other teleseminar callers.

When: Friday, June 25, 2010

Time: 11 am Pacific / 12 pm Mountain / 1 pm Central / 2 pm Eastern.

Conference Dial-In: 1-218-862-7200

Conference Code: 596414

We look forward to “seeing” you on the call. If you have any questions for me or for Dr. Singer please submit them prior to the teleseminar by using the form below.

Thanks!

Ask Denise Griffitts Your Virtual Assistance Industry Questions

As a virtual entrepreneur, virtual assistant or remote contractor, have you made your offshore competition irrelevant?

Do you live in fear that you current or potential clients will decide that outsourcing to an offshore Virtual Assistance company might be something that is interesting to them?

In their official report, 52% of all Office and Administrative Support Occupations are classified as HIGH or MIDDLE ranked jobs likely to be outsourced. As a virtual entrepreneur, virtual assistant or remote contractor, have you made your offshore competition irrelevant?

You are personally invited to join me and Development Expert Tony Bodoh for a free teleseminar where we will share real strategies that you can use today to increase your value and ensure that your clients don’t offshore your livelihood.

Thank you and I look forward to talking to you on the 19th!

Denise Griffitts

Register Here

When: Friday, March 19, 2010.

Time: 11 am Pacific / 12 pm Mountain / 1 pm Central / 2 pm Eastern. Please be on time! We always begin promptly according to http://www.time.gov/so mark your calendar and be sure to call-in a few minutes early so you’re not pre-empted by other teleseminar callers.

Where: Your home office telephone.

Submit your questions prior to the call here. We will do our best within the time constraints of the call to answer as many of your questions as we can.

Stickies. Those ubiquitous rectangular yellow pieces of paper that we all use to keep track of what is going on with our lives and our businesses. The eternal “to do” reminder.

We all use them either physically or in my case, on my various desktops. Truly, I would be lost without them!

Why you should download this FREE program.

To train with Denise Griffitts to become a highly technically savvy, highly paid, highly sought-after Virtual Assistant please visit Virtual Assistance University.

Table of contents for Weekly Recommended Resource

1. Weekly Recommended Resource
2. Multi-Tasking with Dual Monitors
3. Free Press Release Generator
4. Client Management Systems
5. How to Get Publicity Interviews On Talk Radio

I get so many requests for tips and advice on the resources that my Virtual Assistance and Web Development companies use that it seems a great idea to publish a weekly resource.

These are online resources that will help you develop, gain knowledge, find new information and absorb new ideas.

Enjoy!

This Weeks Recommended Resource

WordPress Tip of the Day is a free video podcast from the “Internet Genius” Ben Cope that delivers high-quality video training for WordPress in 5 minutes or less every day in a format that is easy to follow, easy to understand, and always free!

One thing we always recommend during a web development project is that the client consider obtaining a toll free number.

Having a toll free number on your website while offering credibility, also offers the opportunity to not publish to the world your home or cell phone number. In this day of work-from-home entrepreneurs, this is an important consideration.

My office uses Grasshopper which used to be called GotVMail.  Grasshopper is very easy to set up. Just pick a toll free number for your business, or transfer your current number. Then record your main greeting. You will also have the opportunity to have it professionally recorded if that is your preference. Add departments and employees, choose what phone number you want your calls to terminate to and you are done.  I actually don’t have my toll free number ring to my office as it can be terribly disruptive. What we have done is to create mailboxes and departments and have the voice messages emailed to the proper department as an .MP3. 

There is also a “Read Your Voicemail” function available for an additional $10 a month. If you are on the run a good bit, the voicemail transcription will be emailed to you as readable text.  You’ll be able to stay connected when you can’t listen to the .MP3 file of your voicemail.  You can also listen to your messages on your Blackberry or iPhone. Just click the “Play It On Mobile” link in the notification email and you’ll be listening to your voice mails without dialing or logging in to your account. For those of us on the run, this is a great tool.

Another really great feature is that you have unlimited extensions for your small business. Each extension has its own call forwarding, voicemail and message delivery settings. Even if you’re the only employee, by utilizing unlimited extensions you are giving your small business the big business sound that it needs.

Truthfully, there are too many features for me to list here. What I can tell you is that we use it, and love it.  It is also very affordable to have a toll free number these days. Plans start at $9.95 a month and there is a $25 activation fee. My monthly bill seems to hover around $25 a month which given all that the system offers is remarkably affordable.

Be warned though, if you make a habit of answering the calls that come through on your toll free number you will run your bill right up through the roof. I strongly recommend that you treat this strictly as a voice mail system and return the calls at your first opportunity.

To train with Denise Griffitts to become a highly technically savvy, highly paid, highly sought-after Virtual Assistant please visit Virtual Assistance University.

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://denisegriffitts.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

I love to share tools that make our workloads easier!

I will be interviewing Lisa Manyon of Write On Creative next month on the Your Partner In Success Radio Show. Lisa shared a wonderful online tool that she has created that helps you create a professional press release for you and your clients.

Lisa’s free online tool Write On Creative Press Release Producer gives you a beautifully formatted press release in two simple steps. All you have to do is imput your information in the form fields and hit the “display My Press Release”. Lisa also gives you some great free goodies when you use her free press release tool.

Lisa Manyon Press Release Case Study

Where To Post Your Press Release

There are several free and not so free press release sites that can drive a lot of traffic to your website. Just Google the phrase “press release distribution” and you will find links to free and paid services. Here are a few that we use.

Free Press Release — Be sure to read their tips page before posting.

PR Log

PR Web – Sign up is free, but press release distribution is not. See this page for pricing information.

I get a lot of targeted responses from press releases that we post on Fast Pitch! It is free to join Fast Pitch, but to use some of the tools such as press, events, etc. you do need to upgrade to their paid subscription. I highly recommend upgrading!

I would love to see press releases you create with this tool so please feel free to come back here and post a link to it!

To train with Denise Griffitts to become a highly technically savvy, highly paid, highly sought-after Virtual Assistant please visit Virtual Assistance University.

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://denisegriffitts.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

I admit it…. I am an absolute sucker for Southern humor. I find most Southern humorists deliciously and uproariously funny. Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy, Rodney Carrington and Jon Reep are all on my all-time favorites list.

I recently came across Jeanne Robertson who leaves me rocking back on my heels from sheer enjoyment of her humor and wit. In this clip she is discussing her assistant Toni Meredith who is clearly somebody any service professional, whether onsite or virtual,  should emulate. I often pontificate on the absolutely critical need for superb customer service, but Jeanne explains it so much better than I ever could!

Enjoy!

To find more Jeanne Robertson videos click here. I would LOVE to hear your reactions to these video clips!