VACOC Monthly Guest Expert Teleseminar Series

I want to let you know about another upcoming FREE teleseminar sponsored by the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce.

VACOC Monthly Guest Expert Teleseminar Series:

You’d Protect a Human Child, Why Not a “Brain Child?” Intellectual Property for Solopreneurs

Presented by Nina Kaufman, Esq., Wise Counsel Press

Date: Thursday, June 21, 2007
Time: 5:00 p.m. PST/6:00 p.m. MST/7:00 p.m. CST/8:00 p.m. EDT
Length: Sixty minutes
Cost: FREE!

This class is open to all Virtual Assistants, Small Business Owners and Independent Service Providers. Feel free to invite your colleagues and clients.

Do you know the difference between a trademark, a copyright, and a domain name — and the rights each one entitles you to?

Do you want to avoid messy (and expensive) disputes with other business owners?

Want to know how to protect your valuable intellectual capital so that you’re the one to profit from it?

Just as human children need our protection, our “brain children”– or intellectual property — also need our protection. Unfortunately, solo professionals often don’t realize (before it’s too late) that they had protectable intellectual property and what they could have done to protect it.

Given the fast pace at which information flies in the Digital Age, forethought and intellectual property planning is absolutely necessary.

Join me to learn how you can identify your “brain children” and protect yourself economically. A few of the scenarios that we’ll cover include:

• What’s the difference between a copyright, a trademark, and a domain name?
• Can I get a trademark once I have a domain name? And what if someone tries to get a trademark using my business name?
• What if my articles appear on someone else’s website (or blog) without permission?
• Who owns the program that I collaborated on with someone else?
• Can I use ideas in my business that I generated for a client?

And much more!

Free giveaways will be provided to four lucky call participants, so be sure to register today to reserve your spot!

Sign up here: Teleclass registration.

About Nina Kaufman: Nina L. Kaufman, Esq., is a rare combination: a small business attorney, entrepreneur, and stand-up comedienne. Through her humor, wisdom, and legal acumen, she helps entrepreneurs and small businesses protect their companies and develop a solid legal foundation for growth and success. She specializes in working with service-based businesses. Her mission is to help demystify legal concepts and mumbo-jumbo so that business owners can make smart legal decisions, protect their companies, and save money . . . wisely.

For over a decade, she has worked with solopreneurs and small business owners through her NYC law firm, Paltrowitz & Kaufman, LLP. A prolific writer and legal blogger, Nina is the founder and President of Wise Counsel Press, LLC, which produces legal information products for entrepreneurs. She blogs regularly on business partnership and partnering relationships in her Business Partnership Central blog and is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur magazine’s new online portal for women business owners, WomenEntrepreneur.com. Her new book, The Key Questions: 100 Questions to Ask Before Going into Business with Someone Else, is soon to be released through iUniverse and will be available online through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. She is married and lives in New York City.

Sign up for the teleseminar! I think you’ll enjoy it and don’t forget . . . it’s FREE!

 

Productivity Group Writing Project

TAG! I’m it! So is Suzanne Evans!

TAG! You’re it, Tracey Lawton! And you’re it, Silvia Shields!

This ultimate guide to productivity meme was started by Ben Yoskovitz at Instigator Blog and Vickie Turley of A Balanced Alternative (transforming from Elite VAs) tagged me and Suzanne.

The question: what’s your secret to being productive?

Well, it’s not really a secret; it’s more of a practice. Some might even see it as being a bit on the obsessive-compulsive side. It’s the way I work best.

I believe in the old adage: a place for everything and everything in its place. My home, which contains me, a five-year-old boy, four cats and two fish, tends toward messiness. It also seems to generate things that prove the placard hanging in my kitchen: if the dustball moves, it’s probably a cat. The dustballs bug me, but I can coexist with them. I cannot coexist with disorder.

Like the rest of my home, my office is organized and ordered. My home is small and the office is a small alcove within the home. The operative word is small. If things are not where they belong – and it only takes a few things – small becomes smaller. I haven’t reached smallest yet . . .

Everything in my office is within reach. I can swivel my chair and put my hands on anything I need. This proves to be very efficient. I don’t get a lot of exercise, but that’s not the point. Efficiency breeds productivity and that’s the point. As something comes into the office, it’s dealt with immediately, even if that’s just putting it in its place. A piece of paper is put into a file/folder and the folder may be put into the bin. Or that piece of paper is put into the follow-up file with a corresponding entry on the calendar. The objective is two-fold. Keep the files complete and try to put my hands on a piece of paper as few times as possible.

So that’s my “secret.” Some might call it a disorder. I call it order; it’s organized, efficient and . . . productive.

Okay now – here are the rules of this project from Ben’s Instigator Blog forwarded to me by Vickie Turley:

1. Write a post on your best productivity tips. Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip (although this isn’t a requirement; you can give us more if you want).
2. Include links to other people that have written posts, or include their tips in your post with proper attribution.
   

   Note: I’m not asking that you link to everyone in the group writing project meme; pick the ones you want to connect with. You certainly can link to everyone, but it’s not a requirement. I like leaving more decision making power in your hands so this isn’t just a link grab, but you’re thinking about what your audience & community wants to read about.

   A link back to this post is appreciated though, to help spread the word!

3. If you use Technorati Tags then tag your post “ultimate guide to productivity”.
4. Tag others in your post to spread the meme. Tag as many people as you like!
5. If you link back to Instigator Blog and email me at byosko@gmail.com, I’ll make sure to include at least 2 links back to you. But this isn’t a requirement, it just helps me keep track of what’s going on.

 

Time with My Grandson

This morning I woke up after having fallen asleep on the couch AGAIN. It was 5:15 a.m. I quickly cued the program I was watching when I fell asleep, then watched the last seven minutes so I could erase it from the DVR. Still groggy, I set my cell phone’s alarm for 7:15 and climbed into bed to catch at least an hour of rest in a totally stretched-out position.

I dozed for about twenty minutes and woke thinking about my grandson. He’ll be in kindergarten next year. The pre-school he now attends decided to cancel next year’s kindergarten class. I know it was a difficult decision for the school to make; however, my plans for Jayden now have been dashed against the rocks of life. So who said life was fair, or easy, anyway? Not me.

I know God will provide a way for Jayden . . . and me.

Back to my waking thoughts. Jayden has grown so quickly – even more quickly than my daughter did. But that’s because I’m older. Because I’m older and am trying to get my business to soar, I tend to sit at my computer for too much of the day. The stress of the last six months has taken its toll on me in many ways — two of which are that I’ve spent even more time at the computer and I’ve gained more weight. I’m tired. And I’m sure it has nothing to do with falling asleep on the couch . . .

I’ve spent less time with my grandson.

As I was waking, I thought of what I could do with my grandson that would make him happy. I realized that there was something we could do today that we might not have the opportunity to do for too much longer. When he got out of his bed and came to mine, I asked him if he wanted to walk to school. His face lit up and he said, “Yeah!” The next thing I heard was him making his lunch for school. Imagine that – five years old and able to make his own lunch for school! I told you he’s growing up quickly.

I was excited to walk to school and to spend time with him. Not as excited as him, mind you, but excited. There’s something about walking together that insulates us from the outside world. It was just the two of us.

Today he’ll take a nap at school. Tomorrow, if it’s not raining, we’ll walk to school again.

 

Insulate Yourself from Your Competition – A Free Teleseminar

Here’s one more reason to love the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce (VACOC): on a regular basis, usually monthly, an expert is scheduled for a free teleseminar. Yes, that’s right – it’s free! What’s even better is that it’s open not only to the members of the VACOC, but also to their colleagues, clients and other independent service providers.

This month’s guest expert is Jim Logan, a marketing consultant. The title of the teleseminar: How to Insulate Yourself from Your Competition, Protect the Price of Your Services and Avoid Becoming a Commodity.

Date: Thursday, May 17, 2007

Time: 5:00 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. MT/7:00 p.m. CT/8:00 p.m. ET

The teleseminar is for one hour followed by questions and answers.

Some of what will be discussed:

• Three things prospective clients think when deciding to purchase your services
• The most important thing to highlight when describing your services
• Why the least valuable thing you have to offer your customer is your time
• How to increase your hourly rate without billing by the hour
• How to differentiate your service from your competition
• How to attract your ideal client

I’m looking forward to hearing Jim speak! As a business owner, I’m always looking for help on how to improve my company and my services. If you want the same for your business, then come! Please register at http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/teleclass-register.htm

If you’d like to learn more about Jim Logan, please visit http://www.jslogan.com/?page_id=2

 

. . .and now for something completely different

Sometimes my sense of humor gets me in trouble. Most of the time, it gets people laughing. Here’s a little something I wrote about an incident that occurred the other day . . . I hope it brings a smile to your face.

We’ve all fallen victim to them. Whether it’s been on a carpet, a seamless wood floor, or the smooth marble of a mall, we’ve all been attacked at one time or another. One moment, we’re walking along, doing what we do as naturally as breathing, and then suddenly it happens. We trip! Then we turn around to look at where we were that split second before to see what was in the way. And we see . . . nothing!

It’s a common phenomenon. Now it has a name: Floor Gremlins. Before now, Floor Gremlins were known to act only in pairs, their chance of success, 50%. However, just as certain strains of bacteria have grown in strength and are now resistant to antibiotics, so now Floor Gremlins have increased not only in strength, but accuracy. And they’ve moved outdoors.

Case in point: last night I was walking back into the house along the even pavement of the walkway and the next thing I knew I was moving headlong into that pavement. In that moment, the memory of my five-year-old grandson throwing his new Frisbee at me with the speed and accuracy of an Olympic champion went through my mind. My hands! I’m going to break my hands!

I fell flat against the pavement, my $200 reading glasses landing three feet in front of me. I laid there for a moment and happily realized that no blood was spewing from my mouth and my teeth were intact. But what about my hands? I rolled over onto the grass and for the second time in my life, saw stars. Then I felt the sting.

My natural reaction had been to stop my fall with my hands – my most precious tool after my brain and my computer. As I lay there, I tried to curl my fingers – just to see if I could. Ah – they curled; then they clenched.

I began to feel the coolness of the wet grass and decided that I needed to get up and go into the house. Upon entering the house, I immediately took four aspirins and got the Boo Bunny out of the freezer. The vein in my left wrist was three times its normal size and the skin on both palms was ragged. With a sigh of relief, I discovered there wasn’t a scratch on my Skagen watch. But my right hand, my predominant hand, was beginning to stiffen. My chest felt like it had been sanded. And I knew without looking, my knees were bruised.

Today, I’m as stiff as an eighty-year-old couch potato. I sat at the computer most of the day and when it was time to fetch my grandson from school, I could hardly get out of the chair.

Let this be a warning! Floor Gremlins are growing in strength and number. They are no longer constrained to living indoors, waiting for the unsuspecting. They are expanding their territory and can be found places never found before. Beware!

 

The Thistle . . . and my logo

My logo has gone through a few iterations and this blog is a good way to explain just what my logo is. When it came time to choose a logo, I couldn’t decide. Then I came across a brooch that my grandmother left me. That was it! There was my logo.

I liked the first iteration but something wasn’t right. The second was better, but when people kept asking me about the “little alien face” I knew the image, and my branding, was not quite coming across. Then came the third – perfect! It’s a beautiful representation of my grandmother’s pin. I think she and my grandfather, both born in Scotland, would have been honored. And my logo is to honor them.

 

Hello world!

Well, here I am! This is my blog and I admit that it’s a new venture for me. I’m sure I’ll make mistakes – that’s how I learn. My name is Karen Del’Marmol and I own KDM – A Business Support Service Company. I’m a Virtual Assistant. If you don’t know what a Virtual Assistant is, I invite you to visit my website: www.kdmbusinesssupport.com.

I’ve noticed that people use blogs for different reasons. I’m going to use mine for a variety of reasons, but mostly to practice writing. I love to write and don’t do it as much as I should. So this is a venue to do so. I’ll also help to educate y’all on the subject of Virtual Assistance and, of course, my company and me.

I welcome comments and advice to make this a blog that you actually want to read!

So here we go . . .