I was saddened this week to learn that Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, passed away just a couple of days ago at the age of 64.

I hadn’t thought of her in quite some time, other than buying some goodies at The Body Shop just last week. But when I heard of her death, I was surprisingly affected.

Anita Roddick is one of the reasons i’m in business for myself… her book Body and Soul was a HUGE inspiration to me after graduating from college back in the 90s. Her story of how she got started, along with her business sense and ideals, really expanded my concept of what business can be in the world. For example, her policy of ‘Trade not Aid’… rather than giving aid/money to people in less fortunate countries, she instead *employs* these people to create the products that she sells in her stores.

That example in itself speaks volumes to me, of how even a business that sells ‘cosmetics and such’ can be so much more than just a retailer… they can also provide an environment for others to create prosperity and happiness in their own lives. Very cool.

Which of course makes me pause here today… what am I doing in my business to affect the ‘world at large’? How can I take what I do already and create prosperity and opportunity for others? Not too sound too cheesy, but how can I make the world a better place? (k, thats a bit cheesy

Something for me to ponder, as I look at some new directions here in my business and life.

Who inspires you in your business? And what can you do to celebrate what they have taught you? Feel free to share.

Filed under: General Biz | 4 Comments »

Really great article by Eban Pagan of GetAltitude.com… i’m going to make this required reading for anyone looking to build their team. Enjoy!

You can successfully delegate almost EVERYTHING in your business.

Really.

And I can teach you exactly how to do it… in a way that will truly free up your time and energy to focus on higher and higher value efforts.

But if you get “addicted” to delegating things, or you delegate ONE thing that you shouldn’t, you can find yourself in a very expensive situation.

You see, we entrepreneurs who have started our own businesses just LOVE the idea of having others “working for us”… so that we can sit behind our desk and let the money just flow into our bank accounts.

It’s a great, inspiring image.

I’d like to teach you five things that you should NEVER delegate (not entirely, anyway).

Delegate these at your own risk and peril.

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Filed under: Build Your Team, General Biz | 3 Comments »

Received this question from Casey Truffo this morning:

Hi Tina

We had our host tell us that too many aol people had called us spammers and I ended up having to move my email stuff (Autoresponse
Plus) to another server because my current host told me that I had to delete all my aol people. (I have a membership program so that didn’t seem like an option.)

I have also noticed that my open rates are much lower than they used to be so I think it may be time to clean the list. I have never cleaned it. My list is about 4800 and those have come over 5 years.

Do you have suggestions? How to do that? Have you guys done it?
Wondering what I’d use for a subject line to get them to opt-in again… I haven’t sent out any newsletters in about 6 weeks now - I was kind of scared to after that happened.

I am considering double-opt-in …right now I have single opt-in but I am not sure that would make a big difference to the people who (I imagine later) call me a spammer.

Anyone who has an ezine knows the challenges of getting blacklisted these days… my answer to Casey:

Who is your host? It seems odd that they would tell you to ‘get rid of aol or else’ sorta thing. Most hosting companies these days have someone who is pretty much working f/t to get themselves off any blacklists… ie: we are with Hostgator and whenever we get ‘blacklisted’ by an ISP we just tell them and they do their thing to get it fixed. This is so common these days, I don’t think there is any such thing as not getting blacklisted from time to time. Tis the reality of hosting…

As for cleaning your list, honestly I don’t think I would worry too much about it. If you ask people to re-opt into your list it is pretty much a guarantee that you will lose half your list if not more (much more in many cases). Regardless of a good subject line asking people to re-opt, those emails will go astray or people will miss them for whatever reason… I’ve seen it happen many times. There are people who may not read your emails everytime, but still want to be on your list… those are the ones who will miss the re-opt in request for sure.

Does your broadcast system have a way to track bounces at all? If yes, you could set it to track bounces (invalid email addresses, returned emails, etc) and get those off your list. We use ListMailPro for all our ezines which has that feature… you can say ‘if an address bounces x times remove it from the list’ and it does a clean up that way. So a cleanup would be based on actual undeliverables, and not requiring someone else to re-opt in to your list (take out the human element! hehe).

Filed under: Automate Your Business | 1 Comment »

Received this email the other day from Vicky White of LifeDesignStrategies.com and wanted to share:

I do really well participating in programs - get way more done than most people - and there’s a program I’m considering doing for the rest of this year which will support me in that. But what I really need is help with strategy in my business. I’m very action orientated, and very detail oriented, but can’t see the big picture so easily.

I’m looking at options for coaching or a program - may end up doing the one I’m considering but want to be open to other possibilities too.

I know I need to do things differently if I want different results - and I’d like to create a strategy that will support my vision of incorporating traveling and just maintaining my business from where I am - rather that working the hours I work at home.

Anything come to mind?

My answer to her, which you may find helpful as well…

One thing that comes to mind Vicky while reading your email is the thought of ‘training yourself out of your business’… making your business as automated as possible (via online tools, shopping carts, fulfillment services, etc) and building a great team to take care of the rest.

I’m not sure what your business looks like right now, but the toughest part of this process is usually getting ourselves in the headspace for this. As small business owners we tend to do so much of everything ourselves, by necessity in the beginning and then by habit as our business grows. Which of course creates a business tied to us, even when we want to escape at times!

One thing I like to do is start asking myself a question during my day to day biz activities - Am I the only person who can do this?

Ask yourself this question throughout the day, whether you are coaching or marketing a class or picking up your mail… the key is to get in the habit of asking, and then of course to keep track of your answers.

There are some obvious answers, such as say bookkeeping… for most of us this is a big NO and we look to hire someone to manage our books.

There may also be some ‘not so obvious’ answers… say with coaching. For a lot of coaches they think that they are the only ones who can do the actual coaching in their businesses. At face value this is true, but really…
hiring associate coaches could be an option for a business. Maybe not tomorrow, but it can be something to work towards in the future and to just keep in mind for now.

Pay special attention as well to those spots where ego may be getting in the way… we all have certain things that we know we are ‘the best at!’ in our businesses. And really, it may be true that we are the best at those things… but is ‘the best’ necessary for all things? Maybe if you passed something off to someone who does it ‘almost as well’ it is still a job well done AND then off your plate.

When you get in the habit of asking that question, you start to build a list of things that you can remove yourself from. It may take a few months or even years to really remove yourself from the equation, but having a list gives you something to work towards.

Interested in expanding your business team?

Join me for July’s Advanced Coaching Group on the topic of:
Increasing Your Biz Capacity | Hiring, Managing and Retaining Your Core Team

Whether you are making your first hire, or looking to expand your existing team… we will be taking a good look at:

- how to decide what elements of your business to hire for, and what to keep doing yourself
- where to find the best people to hire for your business
- how to get new team members trained quickly and efficiently
- the key to managing your core team, including the Who’s the Boss of You material
- ensuring that your team members stick around, and keeping them motivated

A pretty meaty topic, but oh so essential for your business growth. If you are interested in joining us for this topic click here to register.

Filed under: Build Your Team, Automate Your Business, General Biz | Add a Comment »

Hiring a virtual assistant is a pretty big step for folks. It can be hard to know how to choose a VA, especially if you are:

a) hiring your very first VA, and new to the whole process
b) hiring another VA after having been burned the first time around by a bad experience or
c) hiring to replace a current VA, who has had to quit or move on leaving you with a need to fill quickly!

There’s a few little things I recommend paying attention to that can tell you alot about a potential hire, before you even have a conversation! I use these tips all the time in hiring VAs for the Multiple Streams Team (MST), and those who fail simply don’t join our team.

• How fast do they respond to my email?
  In most cases your first contact with a potential VA will be through email, so take notice of how fast they respond. Is it within a day? Or does it take them days to get back to you? If it takes them longer than 24 hours that raises a red flag for me (weekends excluded of course).Being that VAs work virtually they need to be on the ball with email correspondance, and if they can’t reply in a timely manner before you hire chances are it will become an issue after you hire.
• What kind of response do they send?
  What is the style of writing in their emails? Do they have a ‘good’ voice and a complete response? Or are they sending you incomplete or sloppy responses?Let’s say i’m sending an email request to book a time to chat about working with us and have provided some days/times we could chat. A VA who replies and says “Thanks for the opportunity, yes I would love to chat. The best time that works for me is X, etc…” is just the type of response im looking for. Vs. someone who says “sure, call me sometime next week”. In that case I wonder if they even read my email?
• Do they show up for your scheduled phone call?
  I’m honestly surprised how many people do *not* show up for a scheduled phone call… this happened to me again just today. When someone is a no-show, I will pop them an email to say “hey, I thought we were scheduled to chat today… want to reschedule?”If I get a response that says “hey, let’s talk now instead” or one of my all time favorites “i was out walking my dogs, can we talk tomorrow?”… that person is immediately crossed off my list. This says that they don’t respect my time and our agreement, which reflects what a working relationship could be like.

  If someone responds and says “oh my goodness, i’m so sorry! i totally forgot to put this in my computer” or “my apologies tina, i had to go pick up my son from school cause he was sick”… if it is a good reason or they truly apologize i’m willing to reschedule a call (but just once!

• Send them a little ‘get to know you’ reading project
  Required reading to join our team is to read Andrea Lee’s book Multiple Streams of Coaching Income. This is what I call our ‘get to know us’ project, just to make sure we are a fit for each other. Once i’ve talked to a potential VA who looks like a fit I will send them a PDF copy of the book to read along with a ‘mini-quiz’ to ensure they understand the concepts.Be sure to give them a deadline, a week or so depending on your timeline and the length/depth of what you are sending them. If it’s an article a day or two is plenty of time. If it’s a full size book (such as MSOCI which is over 300 pages) a week or so is reasonable.

  Do they meet the deadline you agreed on? Or better yet, do they finish early? We’ve had some people read the book within a day of our initial conversation, which shows some great initiative! Of course, if they miss the deadline without a good reason to do so this is another red flag for me.

That’s it! These items are short and sweet, but oh so telling.

Filed under: Build Your Team | 2 Comments »

An excerpt from Andrea J. Lee’s 39 Lessons

(This is one of my all time favorite articles from Andrea… a ‘common’ topic but she takes a really simple and effective approach to customer service. Make sure you share this with your team!)

In the world of online business, it’s still remarkably easy to distinguish yourself with a little customer care.

This means an opportunity for those who wish to seize it.

Today’s lesson is based on several recent coaching sessions with one-on-one clients. In them, the clients have impressed me with their pursuit of that special “X” factor that will make their companies truly great. In these discussions, customer service always comes up.

If we were to talk about this topic as it applies to business offline, I’m pretty certain you would already have stopped reading. The topic of customer service has been covered so many times from so many different angles as to be completely banal.

But when it comes to the online business world, there are a few things that if not original, are not being said clearly or often, and represent an opportunity for you to make your mark in the mind of your customers.

Whether You Admit It Or Not, You Like Speed, and So Do Your Customers
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Filed under: Build Your Team, General Biz | 1 Comment »

25? 100? 1000? (Yes, I do know someone with over 1000 emails in their inbox, yipes!)

If you have more than 50 emails in your inbox right now that is too many… in fact even less than 50 is ideal.

Working virtually as so many of us do, our inboxes literally become our offices. So when our inboxes get out of control it is the equivalent of walking into an office covered in paper, folders, books, sticky notes… and hey, is that my lunch from last week in the corner?

Seems a silly topic in some ways (clean up my inbox? yawn…) but really, if you feel at all overwhelmed by ‘what to do first?’ when you open up your email it is time to do something about it. An inbox out of control can be a real drag on your motiviation (and hence your bottom line).

Cleaning up the flow of your inbox can help improve the flow of your business.

Now available, recordings & notes from the live class led by Tina Forsyth of OnlineBusinessManager.com

Escape from Email Hell | How to Make Peace Out of the Chaos of Your Inbox

In this recording you will learn:

• what emails to answer asap, what can wait and what to delete!
• how to setup a folder system in 10 minutes
• a no-brainer way to sort emails automatically and get them out of your inbox
• using autoresponders to answer your most common/repetitve questions
• how to use your inbox to help manage your daily activities

The goal? To have a simple system in place so you can keep your inbox to 50 emails or less every day.

And if you already have less than 50 emails - congratulations! Buy the recording to learn a system to keep it that way, or even less.

Class Recording & Notes are just $27 - includes MP3 file and PDF version of Notes

>> Click Here to Buy Now

You will receive a confirmation notice within a few minutes that contains the recording and notes information.
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Filed under: Offers & Goodies, Automate Your Business, General Biz | 2 Comments »

I’ll admit it, I rarely read business or personal development books anymore… I think I OD’ed on them in my twenties, hehe.

But after having been interviewed by Tim Ferriss last year while he was writing this book (i’m on page 136), and having a total of 10 hours available while on a trip this past weekend… I decided to grab myself a copy and dive in for the trip.

Tim’s book is called The 4-Hour Workweek (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/) and is an exploration of what he calls living like the ‘New Rich’.

What is the new rich? It is living and working free of the restrictions of time and location… creating a lifestyle where you can pretty much live anywhere, work when it fits your schedule and still make a living.

The theme of this book is right up my alley… as i’ve been working this way now since I left my downtown corporate job in 1999. So I certainly applaud Tim’s message… and he does a *great* job of illustrating how this can truly be done in today’s day and age regardless of whether you are a business owner or employee. Anything is possible.

And yes, Tim does work 4 hours a week. I’m certainly not at that point, but after reading Tim’s book I took a look at my hours & income last year… and i’ve been working an average of 16 hours per week and have literally tripled my income in the past few years. Now, to shave another 12 hours off each week… hmmm.

I came away with a few great ideas for my business, particularly around automating a few more things and hiring some folks for our online store. Basically to get me out of the picture even more (ala the EMyth which is another great book).

This book will especially appeal to anyone who dreams of traveling more (or at all!) while still working for a living. I especially loved the story of the guy who was working his job while in China for a month… and his boss didn’t even know. And how much more productive he was while doing so… funny how getting out of the office can really boost efficiency.

The thing I love the best about this book though is this - whenever someone (friends, family) look at me strange when I try to explain that “yes, I do what I like, work from home, set my own hours and make money at it at the same time” I can hand them this book and say “read this”. And if they still don’t get it, well i’ve done all I can.

Anyhow, if the idea of working just 4 hours a week appeals to your… or if you just want to work less and make more then go ahead and grab a copy of Tim’s book. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Filed under: Recommended Resources, General Biz | 2 Comments »

I love this question from Judy Tedford!

And the answer is yes, you can be both a VA and a Coach BUT not for the same person at the same time.

In our experience, mixing VA services and coaching with a client does not work… expectations get too mixed up and cloudy. Is the client expecting you to ‘coach’ them or to ‘do stuff’ for them?

For example, one of our coaches was working with a client on various projects, including creating a book. This particular coach also provided book writing services, and so he also offered to help with the ‘doing’ side of the project as well.

What would happen is that it wasn’t clear who would be doing what. During coaching calls the coach would ask ‘did you get this accomplished?’ and the client would say ‘I thought you were doing that?’… you can see where this gets messy yes?

And beware, it can be tempting to cross that line from time to time. If you are working with someone as their coach resist the temptation to do so! This can be especially tough if you are a ‘get it done’ person by nature… I know I have to reel myself in here with my coaching clients.

However, if you are working with a client as their VA chances are that some coaching may ’slip through the cracks’ inadvertently at times. This just seems to happen when we are a coach, it’s in our nature.

This isn’t quite as dire as it is with a coaching client, however do try to keep the coaching in check… for the simple reason that you are being paid as a VA and not a Coach. A good VA does end up coaching their clients a bit from time to time, but you don’t want to become their full time coach at a VA rate.

So please pretty please, keep the 2 separate to save yourself any headaches and to ensure a clear and successful coaching relationship with your clients.

Filed under: Build Your Team | Add a Comment »

I got an email this week from a former coaching client of mine, Peggy Porter. Which was funny cause I had been thinking of her just a few weeks ago… gotta love how life works that way.

It is, of course, a treat to hear from Peggy… who is just an awesome lady all around.

And her new website gave me such a kick that I just had to share it.

From Brief to Thong - Break free from life’s panty lines and thrive in a Thong!

Talk about a great BOP statement, sure grabs your attention no? (BOP = your Bold, Outrageous and Provocative stance in your niche market. Step #8 in the Multiple Streams Model)

Her target market is mom entrepreneurs, which is of course close to my heart. She is offering a variety of coaching services, including the Inspiration and Panties New Year’s Coaching Club (hence the subject line of this post, I couldn’t resist!)

I also had an extra chuckle thinking of the first and only time I bought thong underwear. I was in highschool - 16 or 17 years old - and strangely enough my thong disappeared after I put it in the laundry basket. I can only assume that my mother ‘disposed of it’ when she went to do laundry, hehe. Can’t say I blame her, thinking of my own daughter Sam wearing a thong when she hits her teens… harumf.

So ladies, are you ready to start off the new year in your best pair of panties? Maybe dare to break out a thong?

And for the gents… no panties of course, perhaps a nice pair of boxer shorts instead?

Filed under: Marketing/Traffic | Add a Comment »