Author Archives: Jessica Granish

Maintaining Your Sanity While Working From Home

Working from home as a virtual assistant is a massive blessing. But sometimes, bad habits can sneak up and make it a curse. Suddenly, we’re frazzled workaholics with a glaze over our eyes. Suddenly, it’s 3pm and we haven’t left our bed or showered. Suddenly, we’re never fully present with our families and are always glancing at our emails.

The work from home life can be whatever you make it (that’s part of the appeal, right?) But sometimes we make it into an exhausting and draining experience- when it doesn’t need to be!

Maintaining your work-life balance while working from home takes some proactivity. Ironically, we need to set boundaries to enjoy the freedom of this lifestyle. Below are some action steps you can take to proactively make your life as a virtual assistant working from home as stellar as it should be.

Create a Regular Schedule

You’re probably thinking, Jessica that’s exactly why I don’t want to work a 9-5! I want to set my own hours and be a free soul working when I please.

And that’s great. In theory.

What actually happens when we fail to structure our day isn’t the balanced relaxed utopia we imagine. It’s a day where work sticks its tentacles where it doesn’t belong. We don’t disconnect from work, and it dominates our thoughts during dinner, during playtime with your kids, during your resting time. Before you know it, you’ve slid into workaholic habits never being able to turn off your work brain.

Creating a regular schedule isn’t about setting rigid 9-5 work hours. It’s about being intentional about separating your work time from your life time. It ensures you stay productive while working…and then leave it at work when you’re finished. When there’s no set lines between work and life, usually work takes over.

You don’t need to set 9-5 regular hours. Maybe you work in the mornings and late evenings when you’re most productive, and schedule a workout or social lunch during your afternoon energy lull. You can plan your day so it works best for you. And each day does not need to be the same. Maybe on Playdate Tuesdays you work from 8 to 10, then 12 to 6. That’s fine! The important thing is clear boundaries of your time.

And please, please, please schedule a cut off time for work! Whether it’s 5 or 8, you must have a designated “no more thinking about work” time. It’s amazing how quickly you will get drained when you lack an end working time for the day.

Designate a Work Area

Just like you need boundaries with your time, you need boundaries with your space. Find a place in your house that’s just for work. Ideally, it will be a separate room. But, if you don’t have the space for a full office, that’s okay. Maybe you can set a desk in your bedroom or the living room. What’s important is you have somewhere to go with minimal distractions.

When you’re setting up your work area, treat it like a real office. Fill it with supplies. Use a desktop calendar. Hang up photos of your family and decorate it. If it feels like a sterile box, you won’t want to work there. Showcase your personality to make it more inviting.

Designate a No Work Area

There are places in your home you shouldn’t work, like the dining room where the family gathers for dinner. Make sure there are clear areas where no work (or thoughts of work) are allowed so you can be fully present during family and relaxation time.

Take Regular Breaks

Sometimes, we get so into our flow we don’t realize we’ve been working for hours straight. The best way to fight stress and burnout is proactively, so it’s important to avoid this work grind. Schedule breaks into your day. Maybe it’s 10 minutes every hour with a half hour lunch break. Maybe it’s the Pomodoro method, where you work for 25 minutes and take a five-minute break. Play around with different strategies and find what works best for you.

Leave Your House

When you work from home, there’s a weird resistance about leaving. Maybe it’s the effort of gussying up to go out in public. Maybe it’s the drive time that could be spent working or resting. Maybe it’s Newton’s third law: an awesome virtual assistant at home will stay comfortably at home unless acted upon by an outside force.

Make sure you don’t become a hermit! You can meet up with your traditional office worker friends for lunch. Grab a happy hour with friends. Enroll in a weekly yoga class. Do something to make sure you leave your house at least three times a week.

Establish Boundaries with Your Family

This isn’t about becoming one of those scary “don’t you dare interrupt me while I’m working” work witches.

It’s about protecting the time you work and protecting the time you’re with family to make sure you’re fully present in each one.

Talk with your family members about what your work from home arrangement needs to look like. Go over when it is, and isn’t, appropriate to interrupt you at work. Go over when it is, and isn’t, appropriate for you to leave family time to go work. Make sure every family member feels heard, and is comfortable and clear with the conclusion you agree to.

Dress Like You’re Going to Work

But Jessica, isn’t one of the best parts of being a virtual assistant being able to work in PJs and sweats? Comfort for the win!

Some people (very few mind you) can work in grunge clothes without it affecting their work. Good for them!

But most of us experience a little phenomenon called “when we wear lounge around clothes, we tend to work in a lazier mindset”

Dressing for work helps shift your brain from relaxed mode into work mode. You can still rock a comfortable outfit, but try a step above the old ripped PJs.

Of course, if you’re work isn’t affected by what you wear then wear those PJs with pride!

[Video Tutorial] How to Set Up a Competitors Stream in Hootsuite

Today’s tutorial request comes in from Pat Balvanz. Pat signed up for Hootsuite and is curious how she can watch and follow her competitors in the Hootsuite platform.

13 + Free Stock Image Websites for Startups and those on a Budget!

There are many costs and concerns to consider when starting a new business, but one that you may not think of is quality images. When building your website, writing a blog, or doing social posts for your business, you will want to add photos to jazz up the look. Imagery is a great way to add imagination and creativity to your website, blog, and social media, but, you need to make sure you are not using copyrighted material. Finding high-quality images can take some time, but it is worth the time to present your business in a good light. (You can also hire a virtual assistant to take the time to find good images and present you with a few to choose from.)

As important as quality stock photos are for any business, you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get them. There are many sites that offer quality imagery that does not cost a thing. They may not always be exactly what you imagined, but you can often find something that will cover your needs at no-cost for your business.

Listed here are several sites that offer images with no charge and no issues with copy right. You can use these images for whatever you would like. Your online business manager may have others you can use as well.

Pixabay is a great tool for all your stock image needs. All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty-free for anything you like, even in commercial applications.

Morgue File contains free high-resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for corporate or public use. This site allows you to search for specific photos and has a very large archive. Be aware, there are links to other photos that you would have to pay for.

Unsplash is a great resource for high-resolutions photos. You must subscribe to the site, but after you sign up, you get 10 new photos every 10 days.

Gratisogroahy is a free high-resolution pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects.

Picjumbo is an easy-to-use site full of different categories of photos that are completely free for personal or commercial use.

Startup Stock Photos is an easy site that you can use all the photos from however you choose. It has an archive that you can browse through. The photos are high-quality but the site is relatively new so the archive is somewhat small still.

FreeImages is a free membership to resources for designers’ backgrounds, images, and photo collections.

Little Visuals is a subscription site. You get seven high-resolution images sent in a zipped file to you every seven days.

Life of Pix another site that allows you to use the photos however you choose with no copyright restrictions. They have a fairly large gallery that you can browse through different categories of photos.

Kabookpics is a Great place to get breathtaking Free Pictures for business or personal projects.

Death to the Stock Photo site is large and full of many different categories of photos. They send photos to you every month, but it does have an option to buy a subscription for premium options.

MMT Stock images are a free for commercial use photos by Jeffrey Betts.

Snapwire connects mobile photographers with businesses and brands that need creative imagery. Authentic, Royalty-Free photos created just for you

SplitShire site is run by a photographer who was sick of trying to find quality images that didn’t cost a fortune. It has a premium option that sends all the photos right to your Drop Box, but the site is large and full of categorized photos all for free.

New Old Stock has many photos that are popular or fairly well known. This site works under “no known copyright restrictions.” This basically means that the copy rights have expired or aren’t likely to be enforced, but they take no liability for their use.

RGBstock site requires registration, but is very large and full of photos that are categorized and have a search option available. The only restriction they have on the photos is that you can’t use them for anything in a resale form. In other words, you can’t print and sell their photos.

Freepik offers users, high quality graphic designs: exclusive illustrations and graphic resources carefully selected by our design team in order to provide our users with great content that can be used in both personal and commercial projects.

Bonus site… because we all like surprises

AllTheFreeStock is the one place to find all the FREE Stock Images Stock VideosSound EffectsIcons & more.. Get all the Free Stock Images, Videos, Music and Icons in one location. All of the sites under [ Free Stock Photos ] offers images listed under the Creative Commons Zero license, so you are free to use these images in commercial projects. [ Free Stock Videos ], [ Free Sound Effects ] & [ Free Icons ] offer different licenses.

I am sure there are many more great sites out there that have quality images free of charge that can be used in your small business, however, your creative heart desires. Share your favorites with us in the comments below.

10 Websites You Can Submit Your Press Release To For FREE

What is a Press Release you might ask...Well, it is a story a company or person wants to share that provide news worthy information about a particular event, service or product. There are many methods of getting the Press Release out to the masses and many of them cost to have your Press Release syndicated over the internet. There are also a myriad of sites that offer internet syndication for free…you just have to find them.

Below I have a list of 10 Press Release sites that are free of charge to submit to. Some have restrictions on how many Press Releases you can submit each day, or have some features disabled unless you upgrade your account, but free is free. You can’t really complain, right? Below are 9 easy to use hassle free websites you can submit your next Press Release to at no charge.

Don’t have time? Does all this info makes you dizzy? No problem, we got you covered. Contact us, today and let Alpine Small Business Solutions take care of all your Press Release Submission for you.

Click the icon to be taken directly to their website for more detailed information.

PR.com is a unique website where companies can promote literally everything about their business in a one stop shop business marketplace. A cross between a public relations and advertising entity, PR.com is a directory of businesses, products and services, a press release distribution service, job search website, and online publication of articles, reviews and celebrity interviews. With a full company profile, each business listed on PR.com has a powerful means by which to generate quality leads as well as gain worldwide and local exposure for all of their products, services and other business information.

PRLog was founded to help small, medium and large businesses and organizations in their online activities. Currently, the website offers following services press release distribution, press room hosting, business directory, job listings, and an expert directory.

Online PR Media was born a news announcement broadcasting solution that offers a perfect blend of traditional PR and SEO marketing. Online PR Media offers affordable multimedia press releases that achieve high search engine visibility — putting your message in front of the right people at exactly the right time. We’ve combined all of the features that internet marketers, business owners, and journalists have asked for in an online press release distribution site.

Newswire get your press release published on 7000+ News and Media Outlets. Your story is syndicated to a wide range of business, financial and news outlets to increase your presence online and in search. From our Basic Press Release to our Premium Distribution, you can select from a wide range of plans. Choose from the many affordable options we offer for distribution. New features include your own Newsroom, Email campaigns and Social Media. Submission is easy. Fill out one form and your press release is ready to be reviewed by our editorial staff. Detailed metrics provide insights on your content’s views and engagement. Premium submissions enjoy a detailed PDF report of your press release syndication.

Submit your free press release to an audience of millions with PressReleaser. PressReleaser is the hot new way to publicize your events, new products and other announcements. It only takes a few minutes to launch your free press release out to an audience of millions.

Directions Magazine is the geospatial industry’s oldest and most respected source of information and news. Engage with their articles, social media and webinars covering the latest trends and solutions. Directions is ready to share your message with their geospatial audience, 150,000 professionals around the world. They will target their 50,000 email subscribers, share on their growing social media channels, promote in their bi-monthly magazine digest, and display registration prominently on their website.

ThomasNet News® is a news service publishing news on new industrial products, services and industry news. If you would like to submit your new product, service or other industry news for review by the editors. If the new product release meets the editorial criteria, the editors will write a 400 to 500 character news summary of your product and you will be notified when they publish if you provide an e-mail address. Industry news may be published as submitted without notification.

PRZOOM is a press release & news distribution online submission service to corporations, PR agencies, market research reports, business journalists, freelance writers, news content providers sites. Their mission is to ensure that every organization has access to the media, regardless of size and geographic location.

Openpr.com reaches a large and constantly increasing number of decision-makers and policy-makers, which makes it an interesting platform for your corporate communication.
Furthermore, your article also appears regularly on Google News, often just a few minutes after its release on openPR.

PR*Urgent is a free press release and news distribution website. We publish high quality press releases, that gets you visibility in major search engines and news sites including Google News, MSN, Yahoo, Bing and much more.

Relax Yourself to Holiday Cheer Part 3 of 3

I know it is hard to believe, but your company will survive without you for a couple weeks. Your emails, voicemails, and to-do lists will all be there when you get back. Everyone deserves a holiday that is stress free, which means you have to trust that people at the office will be able to handle it. There are people who are excited and looking forward to the opportunity for the experience and to prove themselves. Give them this time while you are away to step up. This is a great opportunity for people to learn how to resolve problems themselves.

When you start to feel overwhelmed with all the preparation, remember that you also must take care of yourself. Increased anxiety and stress weaken your immune system. If you aren’t taking care of yourself, you could easily end up sick your entire holiday, and no one wants that. So even while you have many things to do before you go, remember to step back and take a deep breath. Sneak in some time for yourself. Make sure you are still eating all your (healthy) meals and getting enough sleep. Alpine Small Business Solutions Relax

As a small business owner myself, I know that it hard to step back and fully relax, so I compiled a list of some proven techniques to let it all go.

Breathing Technique. Controlled breathing is the simplest and most practiced relaxation technique for anxiety. You can do this anywhere and use it as an instant “reset” button when things start to feel like they are piling up.

Meditation. This is an effective way to enhance self-control, a key requirement to keep anxiety from taking over. Sometimes all it takes is sitting quietly.

Exercise. This may seem like another chore you need to get done, but don’t skip the gym. This is one of the best ways to relieve stress, clear your mind, and take out a little aggression if needed. Think of the way you feel when you are done with a good workout—that high can help your accomplish more.

Do something you enjoy. Whatever it is that makes you happy. Take that time for yourself. Remember this is your holiday!

Be spoiled. Go get that massage or pedicure and enjoy the quiet time. Try a yoga class, acupuncture, or another spa service that will help you relax.

You have taken all the steps to prepare for this, so relax and have a great vacation, in the knowledge that you left everything in the best state possible before going away.

Above all, keep in mind what the true meaning of the holiday season is all about for you. The season can be a special time of the year when you spend time with those you love and reflect on all the blessings in your life.

Organize Yourself to Holiday Cheer Part 2 of 3

Now you are really feeling the crunch. You have your schedule planned but now you must execute it to every detail to make sure your holiday time off goes as planned. Well, here are a few tips on how to keep this time of the year organized and stress free.

Delegate. If you have too much to do, it just might be your fault. Are you using all your resources? Did you contact your VA and pass off a couple tasks that you don’t necessarily have to do? Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy when it comes to always wanting to take control and do everything ourselves. Remember that your virtual assistant is there to help.

Debrief. If your staff members are experienced, you likely don’t need to leave a step-by-step operating procedure, but make sure if any specific sets of instructions are needed, you leave them where they can be found and write them with plenty of time. Brief the people before you leave because usually in your hustle and bustle to leave, you aren’t leaving the most detailed instructions. Even better yet, plan on bringing your replacements in the meetings a few weeks before so they are in the loop, or have them look over your should the week before so they can ask questions and see what you did to complete your day-to-day tasks. This will help them feel more confident about doing the task while you are away, and it will help you avoid calls while you are supposed to be relaxing.

Leave yourself a note. This may sound a little obvious, but you will also want to make your return to be as smooth as possible. Think of the tasks that you may not have completely finished. You will want to be able to step right in and get back to work. Here are some ideas:

Reminder to turn off your out of office reply
Where you are with any unfinished tasks
Immediate action items
Your to-do list your already created
A list of appointment times to meet with the people to whom you delegated tasks

Declutter and clean. When you leave, make sure your desk is clear, and your office is ready to come back to work. It will give you peace of mind as you walk out there door, and it will give you a nice fresh start to help you from feeling overwhelmed the moment you walk in the door. If you have someone completing daily tasks while you are away, make sure they know where everything is and where it goes.

A few organizing tips:

Have a place for everything
Throw away what you don’t need
Label your folders and drawers
Get your desk back in order before you leave each day
Ask for help

Congratulations! You are ready to head out the door and enjoy your time off. Make sure you take this time of to “reset” and recharge. Part 3 has many tips of how to relax and make this time off the best yet.

Schedule Your Way to Holiday Cheer Part 1 of 3

It is that time of the year where the days are getting shorter and the to-do list keeps getting longer. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with how much you have to do, the time you want to take off, the gifts you needs to get, the school needs a volunteer, you have a holiday concert to go to, and so on with the never ending list of holiday festivities. At Alpine Small Business Solutions, we see it every year with clients trying to frantically clean everything off their desks before the end of the year or their annual leave. We have three main tips for you to keep the panic out of the holiday and make sure you are still on top of it all: Schedule, Organize, and Relax. We have a three-part blog series to help you make it to the end of the year and time off in a breeze when you use your online business manager.

Schedule

Begin early. I know we all don’t like the holidays running together. Halloween is displayed before school supplies are put up, Thanksgiving is sold out before trick or treating began, and Christmas has taken over the entire fall/winter season instead of just staying in December. Yes, it gets tiresome, but you should put this practice to use to make your holiday time go more smoothly. Start early and schedule everything you need to accomplish with plenty of advance. Remember, everyone is likely trying to do the same thing you are, and you don’t want to end up at the bottom of a long pile on someone’s desk.

Leave on time. Don’t stay late at work trying to get something else done; you will always find more things that need done and you are neglecting all your other to-dos.

scheduling help

Make a to-do list that is effective. Remember to focus on today and not every single task that has to be done sometime in the future. If you skip a task on your to-do list, it should get a higher priority the next day, and not everything should be in your “red” category—not everything can be an emergency, or there is no point of color coding.

To-do lists are a great way to keep projects organized not only when leaving for the holidays but also on a daily basis. In fact, I recommend taking 15 minutes at the end of each day to create a to-do list for the following day.

Schedule when you are going complete each to-do
item. A to-do list is a good start, but now it’s time to schedule when you will complete each task. If you have items that you need to delegate, book time to hand off the project. Treat each project as its own appointment. Honor that time and protect it from interruptions as you would time with a client.

A schedule is only good if you plan it and stick to it. You will keep yourself on track for your holiday fun. Next, watch for how to get organized to get out the door to family and fun.

Business to Business Facebook Likes Don’t Count

NO! Say it isn’t true!!!

Yes, it is sad but true. B2B Facebook likes are not added to your business page’s like count. Facebook is set up with a complex algorithm that isn’t very business friendly. This algorithm determines many aspects of how Facebook works and what is seen by your followers.

If not getting all the likes you could isn’t depressing enough, actually only a fraction of your followers can see your status updates at any given time because of how Facebook’s algorithm works. This leaves small business owners in the hard spot of having to work hard to get every like they can and pushing consistent, quality content to get people to like and engage on their page. The more engagement you can get the more Facebook allows your content to be seen.

So should I still like their pages?

YES! Still like business pages with your business account, but also do it with your personal account. Engage with content that is relevant to you with your business account—like, share, and comment all you want, the page owner will greatly appreciate it. Just make sure you also like the page with your personal account so the business is getting credit for your like. As important as likes are in the Facebook world, engagement will take you page to a whole new level, so make sure you are posting quality content and talking with others in your field.

Is there anything I can do?

Yes! But you are going to have to pay for it or work for it. Facebook has ads and ways to promote you page to get a larger audience. There are also many organic tactics that a virtual assistant can help you set up to try to grow your page, but it is always an ongoing process. You have to work for those likes and engagement through persistence and content.

It is so unfair!

Yes, it does seem a little unfair to businesses out there trying to grow their page, but the truth is that is exactly what Facebook is trying to do as well. Facebook is like any other business, and they are trying to make money by having businesses promote their page to get followers and have their information be seen.

From small business owner to small business owner, help one another out. We all are trying to grow and get our word out there. Engage, comment, like, and share as much as you can, not only will it help the other business but it will be helping yours grow as well. Go team!

How Mom is Rocking Strategy and Implementation

Moms are the best, aren’t they? They seem like they can do anything at times. They have super powers of being able to make anything happen, but really, they are masters of the business strategy and implementation. There are many factors to running every business. So many tasks and things to do to stay above water (also very familiar with being a mom) that sometimes it is hard to really to take your latest greatest ideas and turn them in to a profit. Simply, that is exactly what strategy and implementation is: taking your brilliant idea and finding a way for it to make you money. Mom may not be making a profit, but she is the master of building a strategy and implementing it to make sure it happens.

Mom makes business strategies and strategic implementation really easy to understand. Strategy is the plan. This is what you want to do and how you are going to get there. Implementation is the process of taking that plan and making it work. These two go hand in hand. A plan doesn’t do any good if you don’t have mom there to make sure it is followed through with.

Here is how to look at a well-run strategy that is fully implemented by mom.
Think of a mother trying to plan a family vacation. She develops her plan. She knows what she wants to do: She wants to take the family to Disney World. Now she does her research. She decides when she wants to go, she is going to get a house sitter and dog walker arranged to take care of everything while she is gone. Mom does her research on costs: airlines, hotels, rides, foods, souvenirs, movies, junk food, snacks, meeting the princesses, breakfast with Goofy, a couple’s massage, etc. Mom thinks of all the goodies that will make everyone in the family happy. She makes sure that the husband has the time scheduled off work. She buys the motion sickness medicine and she lines up everything that needs to happen in order for her family to go on vacation. This is her strategic plan. She knows what she wants and how she is going to get there. She knows how much she has to budget and how long she has their launch (vacation). She has made her plan.

Now, Mom has to implement that plan. This is where mom’s super powers really shine. Now is the time she has to start taking action. She makes sure everyone knows the plan and is on board to make it to Disney World. Now is when she is budgeting for groceries every month and putting a little extra away each week. She waits to buy her the new pair of jeans she desperately need, and puts a little more money away. She rescheduled a new dog walker because the other cancelled. She rents a movie and makes popcorn at home instead of taking everyone out this week. She watches travel sites and books the flights with a killer deal. She stays strong and says no the ice cream run everyone wants and puts another 20 dollars away. She gets the camera ready. She doesn’t get her hair done and goes with a little longer look for the trip, and puts that money in to the vacation fund. She makes sure everyone’s bags are packed and that they have everything they need. She makes sure the family arrives to the airport on time and heads off the family vacation of their dreams. The steps mom takes to make sure that her plan is executed and everyone makes it to Disney World with everything they want is the implementation. Mom is a rockstar!

Your business needs a mom. An OBM mom who can write you a strategic plan and then help you implement it. You need someone who is going to be able to take you from your dream of going to Disney World to actually being there, on budget, with everyone and everything you need. Alpine Small Business solutions can do just that. We have the all-inclusive service that will walk your through the process and make sure all tasks are being done to make your dream a success.