DOTGs Virtual Assistant Podcast

Business + Emotions = Emotional Plan

Lisa Stots — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 16:39:15 GMT

Business + Emotions = Emotional Plan As a small business owner and entrepreneur I can safely say that the “emotional rollercoaster ride” as it is affectionately known just comes with the territory of owning and operating your own business. Its interesting prior to starting my own business I can remember trying to read every book and find any article that would offer up insight in what it meant to be a business owner and in my case what it meant to be as a small business owner. Every book discussed business plans, financial plans, and marketing plans, these books also talked about how to set up your business….you get the idea the only thing these books never talked about was the emotional plan or the psychological plan as I call it. Out of all the books that I bought, borrowed and read not one of them ever talked about the emotions of being a business owner. This led me to believe that either the authors didn’t think it mattered or that the authors weren’t actually business owners at all or at least that they never struggled with their businesses. The Emotional Plan is an important one and for all of you out there that are planning on starting your own business or that are in business….Read On! This podcast isn’t a step by step instruction on how to write an emotional plan but it is about how to prepare your self for the emotional ups and downs. My first three years of business were probably the worst from an emotional perspective some weeks were good and some were not, I can honestly say that in the good weeks emotionally I never felt more ambitious, together and ready to take on the world…those were the good weeks. But in the bad weeks (which in the beginning were more common) I consistently felt like a failure and I constantly questioned what I was doing and was always getting ready to quit…Sound familiar? I knew that if I was going to survive the emotional rollercoaster ride then I was going to have to develop a plan or system to help me get through the bad weeks. As in any business big or small momentum is critical and without sustaining it you will lose hence the common knowledge that most small businesses go out of business within the first year of operation I never truly understood what that meant until I started my own business and really began to understand what momentum was all about…but that is another podcast. The main step I took to get me where I am today is that I realized that in order to achieve success in my business I needed to remember that sometimes you have to fail and you have to question yourself and that the old saying that “nothing comes easy in life” is true you must struggle and work in order to reap the benefits of being successful. Many small business owners look at large companies that started with nothing and assumed that they were just destined to be successful but in reality those same small business owners that did become a success went on the same “emotional rollercoaster ride” and also realized that they needed to have an emotional plan to get them through the bad weeks. No one business owner big or small is alone and every business owner is obligated to understand this. I hope that by discussing this issue it will help those of you who have discovered or are about to discover that having an emotional plan is the greatest asset to your business. This is DOTG signing off please remember to tune in regularly and to take us take us wherever your business is going!

Speaking the language of tech...

Lisa Stots — Tue, 23 May 2006 17:43:03 GMT

Welcome back to DOTG! Our topic today is speaking the language of tech. Do you speak tech? Do you know the tech lingo? Can you hold a conversation with a "tech savvy" person? I can't and I consider myself to be very technically inclined. In my line of business I meet many people who are very "tech savvy" and really know their stuff when it comes to computers, software and the like but for some reason I always have to shake my head after I have spoken to them because well frankly they lose me after the first sentence. Here is some advice that every person should know about when they are speaking the language of tech....If your speaking to someone who is very "tech savvy" and your just not getting it tell them to stop and to explain in more simple terms what it is they are talking about, many times I see people nodding their heads in agreement about a particular technical issue and they really don't understand what is being said but they really want to understand what is being said and at the risk of not wanting to look foolish they just agree with what the "tech savvy" person is saying and never really walk away with a full understanding. You can apply this advice to any technical situation and remember its okay to tell someone to explain it again. The more questions you ask the more you will learn. There is nothing wrong with asking questions and I often will be the first person to say “I don’t understand” please explain it again…I have discovered that if I am the first person to admit I don’t get it then other people will start to ask questions but if I say nothing and don’t ask any questions then it is like being in a bobble head conference – everyone’s head is just going up and down in agreement. I hope that this advice will be useful to some of you and that it will make you feel a little but more at ease with asking questions and learning how to speak the language of tech. That's all for this week please join us again next week for another edition of DOTG...Remember to check out our website at www.documentsonthego.com and take DOTG wherever your business is going... This is DOTG signing off.

I Use A MAC & I Use A PC...Don't Believe The Hype

Lisa Stots — Tue, 16 May 2006 23:47:59 GMT

Welcome back to DOTG... This weeks topic...To Use A Mac or To Use A PC? Lately, I have noticed that some of my clients are buying into the 'hype'. What hype you ask the MAC vs. PC hype that has slowly been creeping up on all of us. I mean there has always been competition but never quite like this. I use both a Mac and a PC for business and for personal use and I have to admit I don't really understand the 'hype'. It seems to have become trendy to say "I use a Mac" or "I use a PC"...When I really think its amazing if anyone can use both. I think that both Mac and PC are equally good in their own ways and are appealing to different people for different reasons...What do you think? When you get down to it using a computer is all about what you want to do, create, or communicate to an audience, another person, or another computer and it is definitely about what environment your most comfortable doing those things in. Don't Believe The Hype! Remember to subscribe to our weekly podcast and check out our website at www.documentsonthego.com and remember to take DOTG wherever your business is going...until next week this DOTG signing off.

DOTG - MAC Pro Care Membership

Lisa Stots — Mon, 08 May 2006 22:16:05 GMT

DOTG - MAC Pro Care Membership Let me start by saying that not unlike any of you I don’t always want to spend any more money then I have to on computer equipment and software and I can even go as far as to admit that when I purchased my laptops I wasn’t so enthusiastic about spending money on warranty, but not unlike my car I wanted to ensure that if anything happened I was covered...I mean after all this is my business and my clients are very important to me. So I purchased my regular Apple Warranty and then I purchased my MAC Pro Care Membership. What do you get with a Pro Care Membership? To mention only a few Personal Training, Yearly Tune Up’s, and the ability to have priority repairs done on your computer. Having a Pro Care Membership is one of the best investments I have made and I urge other MAC users to consider purchasing one. This is something that I often advise my customers on as well if they choose not to take the Apple Protection Plan it is a nice alternative and even if they don’t have Apple protection by being a Pro Care Member they still have the ability to take their computer in (if there is a problem) and have it looked at by a MAC Professional, when the repair goes beyond the software. While I am in the business of offering technical support and training to both MAC and Windows users I am also in the business of assisting my clients and providing information to them that they might never know about otherwise. Its easy to assume that other people know and understand technology related information but in my experience that is often not the case. As the saying goes it is better to be safe than sorry..... Until next week...this is DOTG signing off.

DOTG - Something New

Lisa Stots — Fri, 05 May 2006 14:17:44 GMT

This is the official first Podcast for DOTG! We are thrilled to be able to speak to our many clients and potential clients via our new Podcast and we look forward to bringing you weekly potent podcasts for your all of your business support needs. We encourage you to tune in weekly and to subscribe to our podcast so you can take us where ever your business is going! Please send us your comments and e-mails we want to hear from you.