So you want to be a manager? Or, the dangers of micromanagement
"Management" – a word often used and a skill rarely taught. In so many organizations, management positions are doled out to those that perform well in their company or department’s specialty. A sales team is led by the best salesman, a litigation department is run by...
Time Bandits: Time-Wasting Habits that Decrease Productivity
There is a difference between being busy and being productive. “Busy” describes high energy flitting from one task to the next. There is a reason that the term “busy as a bee” is a sticky idiom: it provides a clear image of busy-ness. We can see the bee constantly...
Think Globally, App Locally: Techie Tools for a Virtual Team
When did calling a simple team meeting become an exercise in cat herding? When everybody wore hats and ties, drove to work in a yacht-sized car, and called it a day at 5 PM, gathering your team into a conference room in the late afternoon wasn’t a big deal. Needless...
Be Social for Me: Delegating Your Business’ Social Media to a Virtual Assistant
Social media occupies a paradoxical position in the lives of many small business owners. On one hand, your personal account is a tar pit that envelops your time. On the other hand, your business account is almost completely neglected. Many is the small business...
Tips for Startups and Entrepreneurs to Travel on a Budget
Ugh, another business trip. Waking up before dawn to go to the airport, squeezing into a coach seat, running into a business meeting, going back to the hotel, grabbing a quick bite of bad food, working until midnight to prepare for the next day’s meeting, putting out...
The Best of Both Worlds: Harmonizing Digital Assistants and Virtual Assistants
Many busy professionals dream about one day having the perfect digital assistant; a hand-held version of the computer on Star Trek’s Enterprise, complete with artificial intelligence, voice recognition, conversational skills, a perfect understanding of issued...
How to Successfully Integrate a Virtual Assistant into your Business Operations
If you're a small business owner or entrepreneur you’re constantly busy trying balance running your business, growing your business, and balancing your business with life. You’ve heard a virtual assistant can really save you time, but you have doubts about whether...
Success by Design: How to Structure Your Office Environment to Increase Productivity and Well Being
Let’s be honest: We all feel a tinge of envy when we learn about the new state-of-the-art campus that a tech giant has built in the heart of Silicon Valley. Google’s headquarters includes coffee bars, Lego play areas, and a dog friendly work environment. Food at...
How to Manage Social Media Risk (or, Don’t put a disgruntled intern in charge of your Twitter page).
Imagine waking up one morning to find that you’ve been attacked as a tyrant over your own company’s Twitter feed. That’s what happened to Robert Duffy, COO of Marc Jacobs, when an intern that was handling the fashion house’s Twitter feed, went on an online tirade...
Top Tools to Run a Virtual Marketing and Public Relations Campaign
When it comes to innovative tools to help entrepreneurs and businesses build and operate their company, there is an embarrassment of riches that we can take advantage of. I wrote earlier in the year about tools you can use when starting up your own business, and...