A Career Military Spouses Can Take With Them: Even when stationed remotely

For the first 10 years of my life as a military spouse, I was not employed outside the home. I felt it was crucial to my children’s well-being to stay at home with them. I did not return to the workforce until the youngest of my three children started school. When I reentered the workforce – armed with a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university and past work experience – I was only offered entry-level administrative positions. That was all well and good – I was willing to pay my dues and work my way up – but no matter how hard I worked or tried to advance, I found no one was interested in helping me succeed. They were content keeping me doing the job I apparently did so well. I finally figured out that I was the only one that cared whether I succeeded or not. So, for my graduate thesis I completed a feasibility study on the Virtual Assistance industry. While finishing my Masters degree, I started my own business. I now specialize in desktop publishing and professional writing services.

Defining success
Am I successful? According to my own definition of success, yes I am. I do work that I love so much it doesn’t even seem like work most of the time; I get to make my own hours (even though they are sometimes very long hours) and I am available to my family as necessary and I bring in another income. These are the issues most important to me and how I quantify success.

Real estate professionals and VAs: the perfect match
So who hires VAs? As most of you already know, real estate professionals have really embraced the virtual industry. Their profession seems well-suited to having an assistant on hand when needed. They need to be out of the office showing homes or aquiring listings; they aren’t making the best use of their time sitting in the office doing necessary, but time-consuming, administrative tasks. That’s why a Virtual Assistant is the perfect match for the busy professional. They pay the VA for only the time they actually spend doing the work, freeing the agent up to get out of the office to make money.

Why Virtual Assistance is ideal for military spouses
It’s really hard for military spouses to have a career. Sure, they can get jobs but, because of the inherent transient lifestyle of the military family, no one really wants to hire them for anything more than a “job.” One of the first questions asked in interviews is “Oh, you’re military. How long will you be here?” And then look for the next applicant.

I was amazed when the Military Spouse Virtual Assistant training came to our post and only three people, myself included, were interested in attending. Didn’t all the other spouses realize how important it is to have a career that could move with them? Maybe ACS didn’t publicize it well enough, I don’t know. I just know that it is one of the best moves I’ve ever made.

Words of advice
My advice to new VAs is to network and be life-long learners. Networking is the most cost-effective way to market your business. Join VA associations and volunteer in those organizations. Get your name out there. When other VAs need to pass along work, they’ll remember names they have become familiar with through those associations. And I truly believe that you must continually update your skills or add new ones. We all know how fast technology changes, so change with it. Learning new skills means you have more to offer current and potential clients. It makes you more valuable.

These are the things I’ve learned along the way in the four years I’ve had my own business. I’d love to see more military spouses interested in the wonderful opportunities this portable career offers. You can work anywhere as long as you have a phone line and an Internet connection; you can live on top of an isolated mountain or in the middle of a big city, all without the hassles of commuting to work!

Did you know …

All persons — including U.S. citizens – traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda will be required to present a valid passport.

What’s more, as early as January 1, 2008, all persons – including U.S. citizens – traveling between the these same countries by land or sea (including ferries), may be required to present a valid passport or other documents as determined by the Department of Homeland Security.

According to the U.S. Department of State website (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html) , the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004’s goal “is to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for U.S. citizens and legitimate foreign visitors by providing standardized, secure and reliable documentation which will allow the Department of Homeland Security to quickly, reliably and accurately identify a traveler.”

So, if you’re planning to fly into any adjacent country such as Canada or Mexico, you must now have a passport. If you’re planning a cruise to the Caribbean or Bermuda, you’d better be prepared because by this time next year, you’re going to need a passport.  

So You Want to Blog, huh?

If you’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and start blogging, consider why it is you’re doing it. Is it because it’s the latest trend? Everyone else is doing it? Or is it for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Perhaps you just want a venue to speak your mind. Whatever your reasons for blogging, you should start with a purpose. Decide from the beginning what it is your blog is intended to do.

There are probably as many reasons for blogging as there are bloggers. People blog to establish credibility in their industry, build brand awareness, discuss hot topics and much more. It’s not so much a matter of why you decided to blog but what you plan to get out of it. This will help the inspire ideas for subsequent posts after those initial ones that came rapid-fire fast and easy. I know this from experience; my first few posts almost wrote themselves but it got harder and harder to write and do everything else in my life that needed to get done too.

I decided to set aside a certain time each week solely for blogging. This will help me establish a routine and get into the swing of blogging regularly. If you’re having a hard time coming up with ideas on what to blog about, just do what I did: think about the things that are important to your world and your business. I’m sure that each day you come across a topic that you have an opinion about. Blog about that.

If yours is a business blog, tell your readers (who are probably potential clients for your products or services) about you, what you do, what you offer, what sets you apart from your competition, etc. If you really think about it, there’s an infinite number of topics on which to blog. This is your forum; get your message out. And don’t forget about the search engines.

Writing that includes keywords used by your potential clients to search for your services is important because search engines will use these words or phrases to rank your page. Obviously the higher the rank, the better your search engine placement. Getting in the first page of search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN is almost like winning the lottery. Well, I did say almost. After the first page, people tend to stop searching thinking they’ve found the most relevant material for their search terms. And, by the way, those rankings are fleeting; they change daily. An organic placement in the number one spot one day could end up on page 10 the next. Oh what a fickle friend.

The mere fact that you’re reading this blog now means that you realize the importance and popularity of blogging. It’s a revolution in online marketing. Why do I give it so much importance? Because blogging is easy, free and anyone can do it. Where else can you have complete control of a forum in which to market your services to a global audience?

And, yes, everyone’s doing it. Do you have teenagers? If so, more than likely they have a MySpace page. It’s their way of networking, and a very popular way of networking I might add. That generation will certainly continue to blog as they establish their careers and blogging will become second nature to them (if it hasn’t already). That, in and of itself, is reason enough to start blogging, keeping up with the next generation.

So you’ve started blogging and typing as fast as your mind can funnel your thoughts to your fingers. Be careful; remember, your potential clients could be reading your posts and you want to maintain an air of complete professionalism so be sure your blog posts are as error-free as possible. Reread your posts prior to publishing them. If you’re not the world’s best speller, copy and paste your content into a Word document and run spell check. That won’t catch everything but it sure helps. Also be sure to not offend your readers. Sure this is a forum for you to say whatever it is you want to say but remember that your potential clients could be reading it. I’m not saying you can’t bring up current issues and your stand on them, just be careful how it is worded so as not to highly offend potential clients. Write with as much of an open mind as you can muster. You can’t please everyone all the time, but you don’t have to offend them either.

One last point I’d like to make, add keywords wherever possible to maximize your SEO. I don’t mean throw them around here and there in order to have keyword-laden content; just try to fit in as many as possible without your blog sounding like you’re writing for the search engines.

I hope this information will help those of you that are starting to blog and running into problems regarding content. If you have any questions, just email me at Evy@BrochuresByDesign.com and I can try to help you come up with the right answers.

How to Design an Effective Brochure

A brochure can be one of the most effective pieces of printed marketing material. They, as stand-alone marketing collateral, can persuade a customer to buy your product or use your services. However, it takes only a few seconds for a potential client to decide if they want to read your brochure or throw it in the trash. You need to be sure yours stimulates your target market’s interest so they will read it, keep it and share it with others.

If your brochure includes information that your audience finds valuable, they are likely to save it and refer back to it often or, even better, pass it along to others. You can make yours most appealing by including helpful tips, answering questions, providing strategies and more. Most importantly, it should always answer the unasked question, “What’s in it for me?” This will make your audience sit up and take notice and further investigate your product or service.

The most important aspects of an effective brochure
The two most important brochure elements are

1. the look
2. the message

However, all effective brochures have this one thing in common: They answer these basic questions.

1. What do you offer? (product/service definition)
2. Why should I buy your product/service? (tells the reader what’s in it for them)
3. Why buy from you? (tells them what makes you different or better than your competition)
4. Why buy now? (encourages them to take action now before they put it down and forget it)

The most important thing potential customers want to know is how your product/service will help them. So the goal of your brochure is to answer their questions and overcome their objections. And remember to tell your reader what you want them to do on every page – call, visit your website, write, place an order, etc.
 
Knowing how people read brochures is key
Keep in mind that the eye naturally looks at pictures first, then headlines, then charts or graphs, then captions and finally the body.

In your headlines, address problems or ask questions. People are curious and will read further to find the answers. Be sure to address their fears because people will do more to avoid pain than to receive pleasure. Above all, avoid the biggest and most common mistake made when writing brochure copy: providing only information rather than persuading your audience.

Colors have symbolism and meaning
Sometimes color is used to evoke a physical response. Cool colors such as blue and green are calming while warm colors such as red, pink, yellow and orange are exciting. What emotion do you want your business to evoke? Look at a color wheel and see which colors are complementary and contrasting, monochromatic, analogous and triad. Because color follows trends, keep an eye out for the colors being used in magazines and fashion.

As you may know, color is culturally sensitive. Black, for instance, is a color of mourning in Western cultures while white symbolizes mourning in most Asian cultures. If your product or service is global, opt for a color universally acceptable such as blue. Remember, you can use different tints and hues to make it more appealing.

For more information on color psychology and color theory, I will be presenting an online seminar on September 6th at Noon at RemoteProfessionals.com. Visit my website at www.BrochuresByDesign.com for more information.

Since printers use inks in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) and the web uses light to color in RGB (Red, Green and Blue), always use CMYK when designing printed materials.

Printing guidelines
I almost always use full bleed when designing brochures. Full bleed is where the image comes all the way to the edge of the paper; there is not white border. Since the printer will trim the size of the brochure to its actual size (typically 8.5” x 11”), you’ll need to design it 1/4” bigger so it can be trimmed so the design size would be 8.75” x 11.25”. Be sure to keep all important graphics and text within the “safe area” of approximately 1/8” (8.25” x 10.75”).

Use Offset Printing
If possible, choose offset printing, which causes the ink to become part of the paper creating a more vibrant look.

Use an image on the cover for visual appeal
Western cultures have learned to read left to right; therefore, they also look at images in this order. Make your most important element stand out with color or size whether it’s an image or text. Remember, your reader will look at pictures first, and then headlines, charts and graphs, captions, and finally body text. Keep this in mind when establishing the basic design of your brochures.

I recommend using a caption. It has been proven to be the most read and remembered copy. Note: only use images that are relevant to the material; avoid random or abstract artwork unless art is your business.

What is the most important section of a brochure?
The answer is the cover because it will either entice the customer to pick it up or cause them to dump it somewhere.

Positioning the content:

On the front: The cover must create interest; it must be visually appealing and provide enough content to invite the reader to read more.

On the back: Because this is the least read part of the brochure, keep it simple. Place contact information and your logo here.

On the inside front cover: This is the first thing they’ll see when they open the brochure so it is the most important panel. Summarize why the customer should use you. Make it bold and easy to read.

Inside the three-panel spread: Start out with a couple of sentences about what your company does. And provide a list of your products/services. Be sure to address your competitive advantages. Why should they choose you over your competitors? If applicable, refer them to your website for more information. End by telling them what you want them to do: call, visit your website, place and order, etc.

By reading this post, I hope that you have learned what it takes to create the most effective brochure for your business. My intent was to inform you as to what content should be included, why and how to effectively use graphics and images in your brochure and how to position the content to create interest.

To see a “Before and After” example of a brochure that I redesigned, just email me Evy@BrochuresByDesign.com. I will explain why I made the changes I did to the original design in order to make it most effective.

What to Do When the Internet’s Down

Have you ever really thought about how important the Internet is to you and your business? Well, I got a real lesson in that recently. All day yesterday and most of the day today, my Internet was out. I could barely do any work at all! I never really realized that for just about all the work I do, I use the Internet in some way. From emailing clients to research to updating and maintaining client work to IMing, I use the Internet. Without it and I’m stuck! I wonder if Comcast knows how indebted I am to their services?! I just wish they could be more reliable.
A while back, I had to schedule a service call and they couldn’t get to me for a week! A WEEK! For someone who uses the Internet for almost everything she does for her business, I cannot be without Internet service for an hour let alone a week. So what did I do? I packed up the laptop and drove down to the local Taco Bell. Their Internet was working AND it was free (not counting the food I felt obligated to buy while I was there taking up their table space). All I’ve got to say is “thank you, Taco Bell!”
There are several national franchises out there that also offer free WiFi; you just have to look for their signs offering this service. Boy, that’s excellent marketing! Think about it; you go in there to use their WiFi service and feel awkward just sitting there taking up space so you naturally buy something (although it is not required). And you know you can do it anywhere in the country at that franchise. I think it’s brilliant marketing on their part; they offer a necessary service and promote goodwill to their customers. They know that those grateful customers will return, not only when they need to use the Internet but also the next time they’re out and hungry.
Being without my Internet has really helped me see how important it is to my web-based, home-based business. What could I possibly do without it?

It’s Tax Time: IRS Rules on Deducting Travel, Entertainment and Gift Expenses

Yep, it’s that time of year again: Tax time. If you’re not sure which expenses you can deduct, the IRS has provided an article on which travel, entertainment and gift expenses you can legally deduct from your 2006 tax return. I’ve provided the article for you below.

 

If you’d like more information about new tax rules, visit the IRS’s website at http://www.irs.gov/index.html.

 

By the way, notice the new Telephone Excise Tax Refund. “It is designed to refund previously collected long distance telephone taxes. Individuals, businesses and tax-exempt organizations are eligible to request it.” Be sure you get what’s coming to you.

 

The Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers that there are specific guidelines to be followed when deducting travel, entertainment and gift expenses. 

In general, taxpayers may deduct ordinary and necessary business-related expenses for traveling away from home, entertaining clients and customers and giving gifts to customers, employees and others with whom they have a business association. An ordinary expense is an expense that is common and accepted in the taxpayer’s trade or business. A necessary expense is one that is appropriate for the business. 

Taxpayers who deduct these expenses must exclude personal expenses when computing their deductions and must have documentation for the expense, including statement of the business purpose, names of the persons being entertained, date and location. In addition, generally only 50 percent of business meal and entertainment expenses can be deducted. 

Travel

Taxpayers who travel away from home on business may deduct related expenses, including the cost of reaching their destination, the cost of lodging and meals and other ordinary and necessary expenses. Taxpayers are considered “traveling away from home” if their duties require them to be away from home substantially longer than an ordinary day’s work and they need to sleep or rest to meet the demands of their work. The actual cost of meals and incidental expenses may be deducted or the taxpayer may use a standard meal allowance and reduced recordkeeping requirements. Only actual costs for lodging may be claimed as an expense and receipts must be kept for documentation. Expenses must be reasonable and appropriate; deductions for extravagant expenses are not allowable. More information is available in Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses. 

Entertainment

Expenses for entertaining clients, customers or employees may be deducted if they are both ordinary and necessary and meet one of the following tests:Directly-related test: The main purpose of the entertainment activity is the conduct of business, business was actually conducted during the activity and the taxpayer had more than a general expectation of getting income or some other specific business benefit at some future time.Associated test: The entertainment was associated with the active conduct of the taxpayer’s trade or business and occurred directly before or after a substantial business discussion.Publication 463 provides more extensive explanation of these tests as well as other limitations and requirements for deducting entertainment expenses. 

Gifts

Taxpayers may deduct some or all of the cost of gifts given in the course of their trade or business. In general, the deduction is limited to $25 for gifts given directly or indirectly to any one person during the tax year. More discussion of the rules and limitations can be found in Publication 463.

Do you experience problems installing and using software on Windows XP?

At home and in my home-based office, I use Windows XP. For security reasons, I don’t use the Administrator logon often. And I’m beginning to think that having the different logins is causing certain software to malfunction.

For instance, I purchased Cloudmark anti-spam software a few months ago and it worked fine for a while. Then all of a sudden, it made my Outlook freeze up and do other weird things. I contacted Cloudmark and they sent me what they thought would fix the problem. It didn’t. Several emails back and forth with their customer support and still no solution. I had to remove it from my system (after purchasing a year’s subscription).

Now I’m having a problem with my Mozy backup service. I haven’t been able to get a full backup for a week or two now. Their support team has sent me a couple of updates to try but I keep getting error messages when uploading the updates. And the funny thing is, they’re different error messages each time. The last update they asked me to try sent me to a web page that wasn’t even working.

I’m beginning to think that software that has to be installed from the Administrator login but used with a different login doesn’t work very well.

After I couldn’t use Cloudmark anymore, I found out about Ella — a free anti-spam software download. It didn’t work. I’m getting inundated with spam every day and I really need something that will work for me. The junk mail filter on Outlook doesn’t do any good either because these spammers are using different erroneous email addresses every day.

Speaking of not being able to use things I’ve downloaded, I can’t even download a font that I really want. It says it’s in my fonts folder but the only place I can use it is when I’m logged on as the Administrator and then it’s only one version of the font, not all five.

If any of you have any suggestions to my dilemma, I’m all ears. It gets frustrating after a while not to be able to use a product you’ve purchased or downloaded.

Are you missing important emails from clients?

I’ve found that sometimes, after corresponding a few times with a new client, my emails erroneously end up in their  Spam folder. Often they don’t even know I’ve responded to their emails unless I can reach them some other way.  How many important emails are you missing?

If you’re having this problem too, I may have a solution for you. I did some research for a client that was not getting my emails and found this information.

If you’re using Microsoft Outlook 2003 here are the instructions for adding someone to your “safe” or “white list”. If you’re using a different version of Outlook or another contact management program, you’ll have to do some research to find out how to white list someone.

I used my company, Brochures By Design, as the example.

If you’re using Outlook 2003 for your e-mail, you can make sure all Brochures By Design mail is delivered to your Inbox by letting Outlook know you consider it safe. There are a few ways you can do this:

• Open any Brochures By Design  e-mail, then add the sender or the sender’s domain to your Safe List.
• Find the address in the “From” line of your most recent Brochures By Design  e-mail and add it to Personal Contacts in your Outlook Address Book.
• Open any Brochures By Design  e-mail, then select Mark as Not Junk.

Keep in mind that these are three different ways to “white list” someone. You don’t have to do each one. Just pick the one that is most convienent for you.

Hopefully this will work well but Microsoft and Outlook are known for having “fixes” that don’t work. Good luck! 

Open Letter to Real Estate Professionals Seeking Virtual Assistance

I’ve gotten a few requests recently from real estate professionals that wanted to know how a Virtual Assistant could help them with their businesses so I decided to write an open letter to all agents that are considering using a VA. Here goes:

Hello, Ms. Realtor.

You were wondering how a Virtual Assistant could help you with your business; I’d like to respond to that.

A Virtual Assistant is an ideal partnership for real estate professionals because they only get paid for the work they perform. Unlike an onsite assistant that gets paid even if there is no work to be done at the moment, a VA doesn’t get paid unless they are actually doing work for you.

The biggest difference between an on-site assistant and a Virtual Assistant is just that, one is on-site and the other works remotely from his/her home office. They communicate with their clients via telephone, email, fax, etc.

Since your business is dependent upon going out and meeting people and showing homes, you don’t have the time to sit behind a desk doing routine administrative work. That’s not productive nor cost-effective. A Virtual Assistant can help you with Transaction Management, Listing Coordination, Marketing, Bookkeeping, Contact Management, General Administrative Services and just about anything you need to have done on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

A Virtual Assistant is a professional already trained to do the type of work you require. Typically, they will specialize in a certain type of service and that makes them especially helpful. When you hire a specialist, you’re getting the expertise of someone that has been in the business for a long time and needs no training. They can “hit the ground running” so to speak. There’s no wasted time on training.

I specialize in designing marketing materials that get homes sold! I also specialize in professional writing services that include web copy, email drip campaigns, property descriptions for the MLS and Realtor.com and much more. For samples of my work, please see my web site at www.BrochuresByDesign.com.

I have a Master’s degree in Administration and over 15 years of marketing and administrative support experience. I am currently certified in the following:

·        Real Estate Support Specialist

·        Professional Real Estate Virtual Assistant

·        Master Virtual Assistant

·        Master Remote Professional

·         Military Spouse Virtual Assistant

·        Ethics Check

As I have done for all my other clients, I can help you successfully market your business by providing attractive, compelling, well-written marketing materials such as flyers, brochures, market update reports, relocation guides and much more.

Please let me know how I might be able to help you increase your business.

Thank you for the opportunity to showcase my services and help you understand the vital role Virtual Assistance has in building a lucrative real estate business.

Sincerely,

Evy Williams

Don’t You Just Love Advertising?

Ok, admit it! Some of you are more interested in the commercials during the Super Bowl than the game itself, right? Since my team, the Minnesota Vikings, hasn’t been to the Super Bowl since … ok, so it’s been a while, a long while — I’m not really that interested in who wins. What I watch it for are the commercials! They are usually so cutting edge (this is when they try out ideas and see how far they can go with them).  They’ve got a pretty captive audience and many, as I am, are there just to see what they’ve come up with this year. At over a million dollars for one 30-second spot, this can be risky but also profitable.

Think about last year’s Super Bowl commercials. Can you name any of the companies that sponsored the Super Bowl? I’ll bet you can name at least one and you can probably tell me all about the commercial. They’re memorable. And that’s brilliant marketing!

Think about your all-time favorite commercials. You remember them and the product they’re advertising, right? That’s an advertiser’s dream come true!

My personal favorites are the Budweiser, “We Salute You (fill in the blank).” My family and I can’t wait to tell each other about a new one we’ve just heard. That’s marketing genius! You get the audience to remember your product then they pass along the information about the commercial and your product! Marketing doesn’t get any better than this.

If you’re so inclined, think about your favorite commercials and whether they are effective or not. How do you judge their effectiveness? They should accomplish two things, 1. You remember them and their products and 2. You tell others about them. If your favorite product does these two things, their marketing people have done their jobs well.