Who would have guessed!

Who would have thought that in just a few days since writing my last blog I would have become victim to a faulty computer!

That lovely shiny sexy new netbook I got as an early Christmas present less than a month ago developed a glitch.  I thought the power pack had failed on Wednesday night, just in time for my trip to Birmingham today.  Very unlikely I could get it replaced and even less likely that I could carry out the work on the train that I had planned.

Anyway, off I toddled to the shop where I bought it, and lo and behold there wasn't a single power adaptor in the shop that would fit that particular model.  Just my luck.  Then, and this was very lucky for me, one of the guys with some IT experience pointed out it wasn't the power pack at fault, it was my lovely shiny sexy new netbook.  The power pack was fine till it went near the netbook which shorted it out.  

Okay, so they had sold out of the netbook and couldn't do a simple exchange, they could send the old one back for repair, or they could sell me a new netbook but the only ones that met my requirement for an 8 hour battery cost more money.

So I am now the proud owner of a new new netbook with a 9 hour battery! (At a negotiated price!).

Anyway, what you really want to know is what has this got to do with my last blog?

Well you remember I told you all about backing up files, using SugarSync etc.  Well it meant that when I left my old netbook in the shop I didn't need to retrieve any data from it.  Not a jot.  They can wipe the hard drive before returning it and I won't have lost anything.  They seemed rather surprised at this, not sure if it's just because I am a woman, or more likely they are so used to people not ensuring their data is safely backed up.

The end result is that yes I did have to reinstall some software on my netbook, but I downloaded my SugarSync and now all the files are happily syncing with my laptop again.

I am also having a quick look at Live Mesh as well, as suggested by Mike Knight in the comments on my last blog.

Now how stupid would I have looked, extolling the virtues of backup to you guys earlier this week and not doing it myself, and how glad am I that I do backup.  Who would have suspected that a netbook less than a month old would fail on me.  But these things happen, and its even more reason to backup your files safely.

So no, it's not a traditional follow Friday blog this week, it's a reminder to not leave it any longer before sorting out your backups.

There are several ideas mentioned in the comments on the previous blog and for these I would like to thank @micahelmknight, @mattchedit and @creditmandotnet for the time they took to share their knowledge with you, and for commenting on my blog.

So what are you waiting for - Christmas? It's nearly here, don't delay backup today!!

Do you back up your files?

here

Well do you? I should, I once had a pc crash on me and I lost three years’ work in seconds.  To say I was mortified is an understatement, and I confess the language was pretty choice too.

Okay it was back in the bad old days of Windows NT, but I did learn an important lesson.  Don’t store anything of importance in the My Documents folder.  My profile corrupted and everything from My Documents was lost. I was advised that I should have stored everything in a folder on C drive.  Don’t you just love hindsight advice.  I was very good; I didn’t hit the poor man, even though it was all his fault for fiddling with my machine.  After all, I had only spent three hours writing my beloved spread sheet in the first place.  All my templates, reports, correspondence, training notes, gone!

I suppose I was fortunate in that I had shared several documents with a colleague in a different branch via email, so she was able to send me some of the work back, including my beloved spread sheet, and many of the training notes I had sweated blood over.

But did I learn? Did I do a weekly back up? Well partly no because there was no suitable media to back up on to. The server was so old you could only have a file name 6 digits long and I swear there was more storage on a blank DVD than on that thing.  I wasn’t allowed a CD writer; it cost money you know, even though I offered to install it myself.  I managed to obtain a USB drive and save some of the important things and eventually, my pleas were answered and I was allowed to install a CD writer.

But the problem with that was firstly remembering to do it, and more importantly finding the time to do it.  Now tell me who hasn’t been there!

Now how many of you have automatic backup systems in your corporate environment, do you remember to check that they are working? I went on an IT course once and they logged on to my company server and advised me my backup hadn’t actually worked for six months! How embarrassed was I, despite me regularly swapping the tapes, no one had ever shown me how to check it was working.

Since then, I have had two hard drives fail on me. It’s not nice, it’s very inconvenient and you can guarantee there is always something you forgot to back up!

I have portable hard drives, CD and DVD writers, USB sticks and what good are they if you forget to actually back up!

So when I set up the business it was vital to me that I found some way of backing up without thinking about it.  But I wanted more…I know, typical woman, never happy!

I tried a few systems and looked at costs and recommendations and then did my usual and went off and did my own thing anyway.  I chose to use Sugar Sync.  It does backup without me thinking about it, as long as I don’t do all my files it is within my budget, and best of all, it syncs files between my computers and my iPod Touch/iPhone.  I can also share folders with clients as well.

I download a small piece of software on each machine I want to sync with. That’s all. I then set up the folders I want to sync.  I personally chose not to sync music and pictures as these are all personal and take up a lot of space and try and remember to back them up to a portable hard drive every so often.  Most of the pictures are on CD anyway or stored on Photobox website from when I ordered them.

I can access my files from any pc with an internet connection, I can email a file to a client from any pc.  I am sat writing this blog on my netbook but the file will be there, in the blog folder on my laptop just a few moments after I hit save.  I don’t have to mess around with usb memory sticks, cart around a portable hard drive or pay a fortune for it either.  And it will sync files between a Mac and a PC. You can find more information on Sugar Sync here, including a free 2GB storage to start you off. Sugar Sync

I also have the Outlook add in for backing up outlook, which came in very handy after the last hard drive failure, which can be found here: 

So listen to someone who has been there, done that and has the tshirt. Back up your important files.  Write a diary note if you have to, stick a post it to your screen, do whatever you need to do, but back up!

Follow Friday Recommendations 4th December 2009

Wow, I cannot believe that it is Friday already again! Where has this week gone?

Okay, let's see, who have I been interacting with this week on Twitter? 

Firstly, an old friend has made herself known on Twitter, @Den_Interior , she is only just getting used to Twitter but is a great Interior Designer who has some amazing projects on the go including hotels and restaurants, and someone I really enjoyed working with, and who's cheery smile I miss each day.

I have to say a huge hello to some of my fellow York Tweeters, we had a mini tweet up last week by accident and it was great to see the real people behind the tweets.  @elizabethwells @confidentladies @vhavercroft they also deserve a special mention as they have all done fantastic work for charity this year.

I had a lovely chat with @amyaccountant this week, following on from the teleseminar I did with @efficiencycoach, and she has shared some really good advice on Twitter this week.

Thanks as always to @kipfxdesign who is helping me sort out my newsletter which will be launched shortly, you can sign up for this if you would like using the link on the right of this blog.

I cannot end this blog without mentioning @toptentips, a new site aimed at getting the best experts in each field to share their knowledge with the rest of us, I really wish this had been available earlier this year when I was starting out, it's what I love best about social media, this great exchange of information.  They now also have a group on LinkedIn as well as their website, I really think that this is going to be a fantastic venture, so experts be warned, get in now while it's starting out, don't miss the boat!

On the same note the concept behind the #12DOC on Twitter is fantastic, each day a new topic is proposed and we are asked to submit via email our best tips for that topic, at the end of the #12DOC these will be published, some of the contributions have looked really good and I for one am awaiting the results with interest. For more info on this follow @rebeccaintuit

I could go on forever about the people that I love from Twitter as there are so many, but I will just have to keep sharing them with you each week.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Call Answering Service launched

Well as it's coming up to Christmas what better time to launch our new call answering service!  We could have made you wait till the new website is launched, but we thought we would treat you to a sneaky advance peak of what is coming!

HLS Business Solutions has joined forces with Call Team, a group of professional Virtual Assistants, to offer a new call answering service.

Did you know that 1 in 10 callers who hear an answering machine hang up? You could be missing out on calls while you are travelling, in meetings, away on holiday or simply trying to get some work done.

Can you really afford to lose out on these important calls?

Let us answer your calls for you, our experienced team will answer with your company name, portraying a professional image, and allowing callers to believe that they are talking to a member of your team.

Our team of experienced Virtual Assistant professionals, work together to provide a very high standard of call answering for our Clients.  As Virtual Assistants we have experience up to PA level, and will add value to your business.  Call Team offer an intelligent call answering service.

Remember, if you don’t answer your calls your competitors will!

So what does this cost you? 

The monthly fee of £20.00 includes five phone calls, and additional calls are charged at just £1.00 each. We email your messages to you. If you would like to receive messages by SMS as well as email the cost is £1.20.

How it works

You provide us with some basic profile information on your company, and we provide you with your own telephone number to divert to.

When your clients ring your number they are greeted by our team of experienced call handlers, who answer the phone in your company name.Your caller will be informed that you are not available and they will be asked to leave a message. All the necessary details are taken and your message is relayed to you instantly via email and/or SMS.   

Should you need more than just a basic call answering service we are able to take orders, bookings, manage appointments etc as long as we have the necessary information from you.

Want to Sign Up

Just drop an email to helen@hlsbs.co.uk with any questions that you have, or to request a sign up form.

So what is a Virtual Assistant?

So what is a Virtual Assistant then? Lots of people ask me this when I tell them what I do.  So how do I describe it? The best description I have ever seen comes from Barbara Adams website, ClassicVA:

“The term Virtual Assistant (VA) is an entrepreneur who provides administrative, technical and social assistance to clients from their own professional office”

Basically I like to think that I take your headaches away!

To me, a virtual assistant is like having your own PA; I just don’t work from your office.  The majority of PA’s have years of experience as PA’s or Office Managers, they bring with them the knowledge they have acquired over those years, the contacts they have cultivated, the shortcuts they have learned, and an extremely professional attitude to business.

In my experience no two employers require exactly the same from a PA.  It’s the same being a Virtual Assistant.  You have a standard scope of services, but you work to the clients’ requirements and needs.

A Virtual Assistant can work for any size of company from a sole trader to a large PLC. I have been approached by all of them.  From the traditional PA roles such as managing your diary and email, to writing your confidential mail, making follow up calls to your database, to more specialised skills such as managing your social media accounts and Facebook page, designing your website, and even managing your SEO for you.

You hire a Virtual Assistant for a specific project, a set number of hours per month, or on retainer basis.  It’s a bit like having a pay as you go service, something you can switch on and off as you require, but I suspect, that like many clients, once you have tried it you won’t want to give it up.

Some Virtual Assistants have a particular niche, it could be specialized knowledge of a particular industry such as HR or medical, some have foreign language skills; others are expert at transcription, bookkeeping or credit control.

A group of us now work together for the benefit of our clients, the VA Support Group covers pretty much every skill you could ask for, so that if as an individual we don’t cover that aspect of your business, we can probably utilise the skills within the group to ensure your task is carried out, we can also call upon each other for assistance to ensure that urgent tasks are able to be carried out at short notice.

We even have our own call answering service which I will cover in a future blog.

Don’t be afraid to outsource, it can save you time, money and headaches.  Look at the tasks that consume your time, are you working in your business or on it?  Could someone else carry out that task for you in a more efficient or time saving manner? Ask yourself these questions, and then look at how much additional income you could generate for your business by outsourcing.  Consider the impression this additional resource would have on your clients and their perception of your business.  For example, when I make a call on behalf of a client I introduce myself as their PA or credit controller, immediately their business is perceived as more professional and larger than it actually is.

A couple of my Clients just like to know they can phone me when they need to and bounce ideas off me.  They will still go ahead and do whatever it is they wanted to do, but they like the fact they have someone they can talk to, in confidence, who understands their business and their situations and is on call when they need me.  I can also ask the odd question which they may not have considered.

Others like the fact that I am on the end of the phone when they are in a panic! Be it stuck in the middle of a shopping arcade and needing to find an urgent birthday present that day that is out of stock, or asking me to ring and arrange a surprise golfing present before they arrive at the golf course with their client, or looking at their diary and rebooking an appointment they can no longer get to.  Remember what I said earlier, it’s like being a virtual PA.

So please feel free to contact me should you have any questions about how a VA could help you or your business, or if you would like me to help you find your own Virtual Assistant.  Remember, because of the support of the VA Support Group we can now cover pretty much every requirement you ask of us – put us to the test today!

My Follow Friday Recommendations 27th November 2009

This week my blog is all about collaboration.

I would like to start by repeating one from last week, huge thanks to @EmmaWarren1 for introducing me to @HiHoTweet who sent a very generous jewellery gift for the Help for Heroes auction in memory of Matthew Hatton, and helped us raise a fantastic £6,800.00 on the night.

I have come across a new site @TopTenTips via Twitter over the last couple of weeks which is a really refreshing site; people who are experts within their fields are sharing their knowledge freely in articles covering many topics. Their website states:

“Developing the best resource for UK small business through relevant, reliable and reputable information to build business success

www.Top10Tips.co.uk is an online resource for people interested in the “how to’s” from business.

Provided by independent UK practitioners written for the UK market. Donating to UK charity”.

It’s the sort of site I would have liked to have found several months ago when I was just starting out, but it is relevant to all stages of business so I will be following it with interest.

I have had a great deal of pleasure from supposedly having encouraged some fellow tweeters into blogging this past few weeks and look forward to reading their blogs, @kipfxdesign, @creditmandotnet and whilst on the subject of blogs and articles that are always of interest to me have to mention @lawyer_coach, @Richard_White, @mattchedit and @efficiencycoach

Another one that has been mentioned before is @oddjobswap, a site where people can trade jobs or services, its such simple idea but such a good idea as well, remember to join before the weekend and complete the survey for your chance to win a £30 gift voucher.

Huge congratulations to @NikkiPilkington who made it onto the Forbes Thirty women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter list this week!

In terms of someone who deserves a huge well done this week I have to mention @ElizabethWells, she has just completed her first year of trading from her lovely shop in the Shambles in York, and was interviewed by local radio this week, as an example of people doing well during the recession. I have had the pleasure of meeting her and she really is lovely, she has been very supportive of charity this year and is just a great example to us all when everyone else is moaning about recession, she has just gone out there and made a success of it.

Talking of being interviewed I had my first ever interview this week, in a teleseminar with @efficiencycoach (my first experience of a teleseminar as well). It was all about saving businesses money on their IT and marketing costs in the first year, and I would like to thank @efficiencycoach for her help and support. I will be covering some of these savings In my regular weekly blogs starting next week so do keep an eye open.

I would like to say thank you to some people, they either make me laugh, or RT a lot for me, or are generally just really nice people to follow and make Twitter such a nice place: @amyaccountant, @markbnorwich, @yourfirstpa, @confidentladies, @ToniHunter, @befabulous and @fuzzyduck

So enjoy your Friday, hope you have a great weekend and look forward to seeing you all on Twitter later!

To blog or not to blog?

Okay, I am a relative new comer to blogging.  I confess that I received some one on one coaching from @efficiencycoach  which gave me a little confidence, and helped me focus on my blog more, however, I don’t claim to be an expert at it.  I just feel slightly more comfortable with it than I used to.

So why should I blog? Well as much as I like twitter it isn’t always easy to get your idea across in those 140 characters.  To me, my blog should be an extension of my website. It will be soon when I move blogging platforms.   It’s a tool for sharing my ideas, my knowledge, my experience, my recommendations and my opinions with my audience.   I would also like to think that it was a tool for two way communication as well.  The blogs I have posted that have received comments really make it worthwhile, and reading the comments that have been posted is  a great way of seeing things from someone else’s perspective, or reinforcing what I already believe.

I don’t always want it to be deadly serious; I would like to think that an injection of humour is allowable, when appropriate.  After all, I am a northern lass!

And, I am sorry, I make no apologies for expressing my opinions in my blog, after all it is my blog, but I will listen to what you have to say, consider it, and still go off and do what I want anyway J

I would love it if my blog inspired someone else, perhaps to try something new themselves, to follow someone new on Twitter, or to consider an alternative opinion.

But most of all, I would like to think that people will enjoy reading what I have written, that it will add value to someone’s day in some shape or form.  

So I look forward to your comments, to seeing you post your own blogs, to interacting with you on yet another virtual level.

And in the meantime… I hope you have a great day!