5 Simple Tasks to Delegate so That You Can Free Up More Time

Very often solo business owners know they have a need to partner with a Virtual Assistant (VA), but are not really sure how a virtual assistant can help them grow their business – they don’t fully understand what services the VA provides. This is usually discussed during the client consultation process, but sometimes the client can still feel a little overwhelmed and are not sure about delegating their workload – in fact that is how one of my clients felt recently!

If you’ve not partnered with a Virtual Assistant yet, these tasks will make an ideal ‘first project’ for you to work together on. If you’re already working with a Virtual Assistant, have a planning session with her right away.

By letting go of these five tasks that you SHOULD be delegating ensures that you can free up your time and focus on your clients and income generating activities:

#1 Designing promotions

Need to send seasonal cards to your clients? Or maybe you have a special holiday promotion? A VA can help you here by designing custom cards, calendars, flyers, postcards, brochures, or any other promotional item.

#2 Organizing and maintaining your mailing list

Is your mailing list all together in one place? Or is it on bits of paper and business cards that you’ve collected over several months, or even years? Do you even have a mailing list? Your VA can help you here by setting up and maintaining a mailing list for you. She can maintain your list all year round so that you can send regular mailings and promotions to your clients.

#3 Sending out your promotions

So, now you have your custom-designed promotions, and your up-to-date mailing list, but do you have the time to send out your promotions? A VA can help you here by sending out your seasonal cards and promotions for you. Once you have your promotional literature and mailing list organised, then your VA can save you HOURS of time by sending them out on your behalf – via email or post.

#4 Planning your Event

Thinking of hosting a teleclass or workshop? Your VA can organize and plan that event for you–from sending out the invitations to collating the RSVPs, producing the literature, or booking the venue – with today’s technology all of this can be done online!

#5 Helping you plan your marketing campaigns

If you’re already thinking ahead, then your VA can assist you by helping you to organize your year-round marketing campaigns.

Your VA is your long-term partner in your business, and a person to hand over those time-draining projects to, giving you the time to focus on your business.

And they want your business to succeed just as much as you do!

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How to Avoid Business Failure & Increase Sales in a Lagging Economy

When you’re a small business owner there’s no “Golden Parachute”, no Massive Severance Package or Stock Options to cash in on and there are definitely no bailouts. The success or failure of your small business is all on your shoulders!

Here’s Are 5 Things to Do If You Want Your Business to Fail During a Recession

1. Don’t Do Anything
2. Don’t Do Enough
3. Don’t Encourage Referrals From Other Clients
4. Don’t Create a “WOW” Experience
5. Don’t Take Massive Action Now

Now, if you want to build your small business, there’s good news.

You don’t have to sit back and become a victim of the times. Right now there are businesses and market segments that are making record profits. US Steel just posted record profits for the second quarter after losing huge orders from the auto industry.

Here’s How US Steel Achieved Record Making Profits – And So Can You:

- They found new markets at higher prices
- They were open to new opportunities
- They were pro-active

Here Are 10 Quick and Easy Strategies to Increase Sales and Profits During a Recession

1. Implement systems that measure and track the results of ALL of your marketing, advertising and publicity efforts

2. Look for new ways to re-position products or services you provide to attract a new market segment. Example: Re-position Yoga as “Fall Prevention Strategies for Seniors

3. Find new distribution channels for your products whether it’s through the Internet or other retailers who are selling complimentary products or services.

4. Create Joint Venture Arrangements with other complimentary, not competing Businesses. For example an accounting firm could go to their legal firm and offer to hold a seminar on “Tax Reduction Strategies” for the their (legal firms) clients as a special bonus. The accounting company may get new clients and the only cost is their time. One stipulation, the accounting firm must offer a special seminar to their clients on “How To Structure Tax Shelters for Estate Management”. Both companies benefit.

5. Have a “Rewards Referral Program ” for your existing customers and let them experience how it will work.

6. Know the numbers in your business. Find out what products and services make the most profits and which ones make the least. Start promoting or up-selling those first. Do you know the average transaction value which is the average amount each consumer pays you at the point of purchase? Go find that out now and then ask yourself the question “How can I increase that amount by 10% by adding or bundling in extra value?

7. Position yourself as the “Knowledgeable Expert” in Your Field and write articles for the newspaper, or trade journals and radio interviews. You can even write and submit articles online using www.IWantMoreProspects.com. The print and online media is always hungry for information to provide their readership. They are always on the lookout for new information that solves people’s problems or helps them save them time or money.

8. Differentiate yourself from the competition and give the consumer the “Reason Why” they should do Business with you versus your competitors.

9. Join a Mastermind Group or Coaching Program to improve your skills as a Marketer. Tiger Woods has a golf coach to help him. Professional baseball teams have hitting and pitching coaches. And you should have a business and marketing coach to stop the downhill slide before it becomes uncontrollable.

10. Build a stronger relationship with your customer base through frequent contact, special offers, and newsletters. Survey your existing customers to see what they want and then sell it to them.

This is just a short list on the many things that are possible. Now the question is, do you want to recession proof your business and achieve massive results or do you want to lay down and play dead and hope things get better? It’s your choice!

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10 Painless Ways to Lose 10 Pounds!

Here is a sampling of 10 proven tips:

1. Read the fine print! When you’re dining out, you can lose 10 pounds per year by choosing a “light” entree, such as grilled chicken and salad. Those healthy choices can have at least 250 calories less than traditional meat dishes.

2. The sundae solution! Pour a tablespoon of chocolate over fresh fruit and your total calorie intake for this snack is 110 to 160 calories compared to the 250 calories found in a candy bar or the 500 calories found in an ice cream cone.

3. Set your alarm! Even a modest amount of exercise — walking 15 minutes, 5 times a week – — burns calories.

4. Pedal while you prattle! Next time you’re chatting on the phone, get on your bike. Pedaling on a stationary bike at 10 miles an hour for 25 minutes burns 100 calories. A faster pace of 17 miles per hour for 15 minutes also burns 100 calories. Get spinning.

5. Beware the burger blast! A half-pound of grilled hamburger meat has about 800 calories. The same amount of lean roast beef has half this amount.

6. Cooking with spray! Each tablespoon of butter or margarine has 100 calories. Substitute a vegetable oil spray for one tablespoon.

7. Join the snack committee! Healthful snacks make an incredible difference. Swapping a serving of fruit for the usual supercookie each week will save you at last 500 calories. And you’ll probably save 1,000 calories since few of us stop at one cookie!

8. The Happy Hour trap! Suppose you avoid three happy hours a month. You could possibly lose up to 31 pounds in a year (if you are usually somewhat of a party animal).

9. The secret is plastics! When you use plastic containers to store meals — especially batch meals you prepare ahead of time — you’ll forgo all those calories that come from lunches at greasy spoon dinners.

10. Slash corporate calories! Office-prepared dinners, a frozen dinner or frozen leftovers, will easily have 400 fewer calories than restaurant meals. If you work late an average of three times a week, this change alone will help you lose about 18 pounds a year.

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10 Ways to Improve Body Image

Your image of yourself shapes your thoughts, feelings and actions every day. It can be the source of obstacles, deep pain and fear, but you can change it!

1. Stop being preoccupied by the number on the scale. Too many people allow their weight to dictate how their life is going to be or how they’ll feel for the rest of the day (”Life will be so much better once I weigh ‘X.’”). This is how so many people end up regaining lost weight (and more). Getting healthy and fit is a process, not a single event.

2. Stop talking about your weight. This can lead to utter obsession with body weight. What you give attention to grows. Keep focusing on your weight, and your weight will grow. Start focusing on you and the changes you need to make to have a healthy body image. Set your fitness goals and then become as involved with them as you were with your weight.

3. Come from a positive place.Despite the way you were raised and the environment you’ve been familiar with, you can change your attitude. Ban thoughts such as, “I can’t stick with a program,” “I’m a procrastinator” and “I’ll never be successful.”

Quick review of the Universal Law of Opposites: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Simply put, you can’t have an up without a down, a hot without a cold, an in without an out or a front without a back.

What does this mean to you?

If you think negative thoughts, then, by law, there are equal and opposite positive thoughts.

Here’s a simple little exercise: Whenever you catch yourself putting yourself down, immediately say, “NO!” or “STOP!” Then take the negative self-talk and turn it into a positive statement. Use the positive statements as daily affirmations to remind you of the new person you are.

4. Stop worrying about what others think of you. “I won’t go to a gym because I feel like people are looking at me and thinking, ‘Why is this fat person bothering?’”

How much longer are you going to let others control how you think? Isn’t it what you think of yourself that matters? So you’re overweight! You’re doing something about it, right? OK, you’re going to the gym. You don’t have to justify to anybody what you’re doing. You’re doing this for yourself, so your mind, body and life benefit. You are in control.

5. Take a few minutes a day for a mind, body and soul checkup. Today’s lifestyle is time-restricted, overloaded with information and moving at a pace so fast that we lose sight of who we are and what we’re trying to do. Just take a few minutes during your day to pause and think about why you may feel out of sync; perhaps you’re eating out of control, not exercising and feeling over-anxious. Record this in a journal and continue refining and growing every day.

6. Find the source of your hunger and feed it. There’s a couple of ways to look at this. The first is obvious: If you’re hungry, eat something healthy. Sometimes thirst is a hunger measurement, so drink a big 16-ounce glass of water before eating. Still hungry? Eat.

The second “hunger” is about your own personal growth. Each of us is beautiful and has a variety of hunger zones. Conversations, relationships, art, music, laughter, dance, creative expression, connections… find your other hunger(s) and fill up on them!

7. Get physical and have fun with it. Get yourself on a structured fitness routine to give yourself the ultimate gift: a leaner, energetic and motivated you. Also, find a variety of activities that you like to do for fun. Make time in your life to do those activities regularly. Moving your body is the best thing you can do for yourself — enjoy it.

8. Laughter is the best medicine.  It takes 37 muscles to frown and just two to smile. Get out there and start smiling! Next time you have a compulsive eating thought, laugh at it! Or if you have just spent an hour trying to get dressed and your closet looks like a battlefield, sit down and laugh. Chances are your friends will not be remembering what you were wearing, but they will remember your charm, grace and humor — turn it on!

9. Make your own definition of beauty. Forget the fashion magazines, TV and other forms of media. Ask yourself, “What is beauty to me?” Define it on your own terms. Is it something you “put on,” or is it something you radiate? Look to nature, art, others and yourself. Just be sure to define “beautiful” on your own terms.

10. Be gentle toward yourself. Step back and really start to be gentle with yourself and others. Let go of the judgment — completely! Honestly, it is just food, not the entire definition of who you are or who you have the potential to be.

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There will always be those fattening foods that are easy to make, easy to get, and easy to crave. You think “OK, I know this is bad but it can’t be that bad!” Think again. Here are the top seven foods you should never ever feed your family or yourself!

1. Doughnuts It’s hard to resist the smell of a Krispy Kreme doughnut, which is why I never step foot in the store. Doughnuts are fried chock-full of sugar and white flour and loads of trans fat.

2. Cheeseburger with fries The age-old classic may be delicious but think twice before sinking your teeth into that Whopper. The saturated fat found in cheese burgers has been linked to heart attacks, strokes and some types of cancer.

Let’s break down this meal. First, take the white-flour bun (refined carbohydrates), then add some processed cheese (saturated fat and trans fat, plus lots of additives and preservatives) and then top off with fried red meat (cholesterol and saturated fats). And let’s not forget about the condiments such as the always fattening mayonnaise.

Not sounding so appetizing anymore, huh? Oh, and let’s not forget about the infamous side dish. You cheeseburger will most likely come with a side of French fries, French fries are not vegetables, they are extremely high in fat and contain a tiny amount of nutrients.

3. Fried Chicken and Chicken Nuggets Foods cooked in highly heated oils (most notably partially hydrogenated oil) have been known to cause cancer, weight gain and other serious health risks if ingested regularly. A 10-piece chicken McNugget from McDonald’s has 420 calories, 24 grams of fat and 1120 milligrams of sodium. One Extra Crispy Chicken Breast from KFC has around 420 calories and eight grams of saturated fat. So unless you want to super size yourself, it’s best to make a clean break with fried foods.

4. Sugary Cereal Not all cereals are created equally. And while your kids might beg for the latest cookie or marshmallow chocolate surprise cereals, it is a safe bet they are about as healthy as a dessert. Keywords to look out for are puffed, dyed and sweetened.

Most kids’ cereals are so highly processed they no longer look like the grains they were originally made from. A healthy alternative is oatmeal. Although, if you are buying pre-packaged oatmeal make sure to check the label and see how much sugar it contains, you might be surprised.

“A little sugar isn’t a problem but when the first ingredient on the box is sugar, then watch out,” she said. “There is no fruit in Froot Loops. But the unsweetened original Cheerios or Rice Krispies are fine, and you can sweeten them naturally with blueberries and strawberries.”

5. Processed Meats. What falls under the category of processed meats? Hot dogs, sausage, jerky, bacon, certain lunch meats and meats used in canned soup products. Almost all processed meats have sodium nitrite added as a preservative.

A recent study found that sodium nitrite can act as “a precursor to highly carcinogenic nitrosamines — potent cancer-causing chemicals that accelerate the formation and growth of cancer cells throughout the body.” So eliminate these meats from your diet before they eliminate you!

6. Canned soup. Sometimes regarded as a healthy food, soups can be very deceiving. You must stay on your guard because many canned soups have high levels of trans fats, sodium and artificial preservatives such as MSG. Just one serving (which is roughly one cup) can have almost 1,000 milligrams of salt. Also, steer clear of soups that are cream-based, they can be high in calories and fat.

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