I know this may be a little early to promote now, but I wanted to go ahead and let my blog readers know that I will be putting together WordPress website and blog design packages together very soon and will be promoting here on this website and also promoting the packages on my new website, Wordpress to Website. My new site is still in its planning stages, but it will be fully functional soon.

Right now, the WordPress to Website site is my teleclass promotion that anyone can still sign up for and be a big part of a ground-breaking call that opens up the concept of using WordPress not just for blogs, but also for a fully functional website too.

So be on the lookout for these website packages to come your way soon! I CANNOT wait to share them with you.

As a professional Virtual Assistant and website designer, I have the opportunity to work with other colleagues in my industry to form a joint venture (or JV) and offer a complete package of services that would include all of our expertises rolled up into one deal for small business owners. And I’m not just talking about two people here. We’re talking four individuals that have a lot of creative services that would round out what a client would need.

So not to let the cat out of the bag too early, I will tell you that I will be offering WordPress site packages, coupled with training services for the program. As the venture starts to shape up, I will share my experiences in how well it’s coming together. I believe that not only will it be a fun, collaborative effort, but it will also be an opportunity to make another source of income for our businesses. Really…it’s all about making multiple streams of income and this is just one of the many avenues that I will be focusing on this year.

Discussing the topic of cheap services is nothing new to the Virtual Assistant or small business industry and I have actually wrote about this before, but thought it was necessary to re-educate the VA community on what seems to be the norm now more than ever.

I recently had a prospective client consultation and I really felt a synergy between myself and this “PC”, but what ended up being a great prospect turned out that this business owner wanted to hire a Virtual Assistant overseas where he was only paying a few dollars per hour for a large number of hours per month. Sound familiar? This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. As a matter of fact, I am seeing it happen more and more because biz owners want to go “cheap” and hold on to every dollar they have. And it’s the fear of the recent sagging economy that is causing people to look for a better value for their money. But really, they are not getting a better value!

I know of a number of times that I have had prospective clients come to me that used the service of a company or a solo VA overseas, and they ended up having to discontinue the service due to miscommunication or a lack thereof. Sometimes getting through the language barrier becomes an issue between the VA and the client. When a client invests their money into a company that they end up canceling with, they have lost money and they have not gained a DIME of extra income.

Another observation that I discovered is when you work with a VA company or a solo VA abroad, you may only get someone that performs tasks and it not really be someone that can invest their time to help you build your business. And that is what a successful Virtual Assistant or an Online Business Manager should be able to do for you…they should be the right fit for your business model, having knowledge of your industry and your business processes.

Finding a Virtual Assistant that can be proactive in assisting you in areas of marketing, organization (setting up and implementing streamlined processes), or taking on a bigger role as your online business manager, can take some time to choose. But choose wisely. Do not sign up with the first VA company or VA professional that has the cheapest price. In my opinion, a rate of $5 – $10 per hour is way too low to partner with a VA. When you review the higher rate of a professional VA, consider the return of investment once you realize the money that the VA has brought to your business because they helped you promote your products or services. It’s well worth spending that extra money so that you can focus on what really matters to you…working on your business, growing your business to its highest level.

It seems lately that there has been a lot of conversation around the topic of having a life and work balance if you are a business owner. And one aspect of being able to make the balance work is to set boundaries within your business. The boundary concept was put best in Vickie Turley’s recent blog posting, How does a Small Business Owner Have a Work/Life Balance? But what I want to focus more on is not necessarily the boundaries you make, but the kind of schedule you can create for yourself that will allow you to work at a certain time of day and still have time to spend with family, particularly your children if you have youngsters in your life (like me!).

What makes a usual work day productive for me is to have a set daily schedule of the number of hours I work that day, the clients that I will be working with and times within the day that I can take breaks, especially a lunch break. It is important to also nourish and take care of yourself so that you are a productive and happy biz owner. I cannot stress that enough. Sometimes you catch yourself skipping breakfast, followed by a sparse lunch and you wonder why you feel so sluggish and lethargic by the end of the day. It doesn’t make for a great attitude towards your family when you haven’t taken care of yourself. Trust me…I’ve been there.

One other thing I want to add about having a set schedule (and it can be as simple as a Word or Excel document you create) is that it cuts off at the same time my office closes. Before I stop working on client tasks at the end of the day, I go ahead and answer any emails that need my attention before the following business day. It sure cuts down on emails I need to reply to first thing the next morning! That also means that I do not work on client tasks in the evening. That time is my family time. It allows me to prepare meals, help my children with their homework, make sure they are fed and bathed each day and it allows me to relax after a busy day working with clients. And sometimes, I need to have that “away” time as I attend women’s meetings or prayer meetings at my local church.

So being a business owner doesn’t mean you have to work 24/7 to make your business work. You will find the time to continue to work your business AND build your business. But it also means you take care of what is really important FIRST: that’s you and your family. They come first whether you have a business or not. Succeeding at the life/work balance is not a science. It’s like a see-saw. It does have its ups and downs! But once you start to take action and make subtle changes in your schedule and set the boundaries that Vickie speaks of, you will start to see that see-saw balance out and you will see the difference it makes in your daily interaction with your clients.

I would love to hear from you if you have success stories (or horror stories) that have challenged your life/work balance. There’s not a wrong answer here. Your comments and questions are welcome!

Over the weekend, I managed to click on a video link embedded in one of my Facebook friend’s personal message not realizing that it would end up being a headache later on. That link ended up being a malicious, virus-infected web page that decided to attach itself to my hard drive and continued to irritate me to no end. It turned out that it was a bogus ad telling me I needed to download their virus protection software, when in fact, it was a way for malware and trojan files to attach itself to my own hardware files. Yikes!

Quickly I visited the Facebook security section and the virus was one that came out back in December 2008 called the “Koobface” virus. Here’s a complete definition of the virus:

Koobface is a worm that infects computers by using the messaging system of social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Other Koobface known variants are Boface, W32.Koobface, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, and W32/Koobface. The Koobface worm attacks profiles by sending an email to a user’s Facebook inbox with subjects like “You look just awesome in this new movie” or “You look funny in this new video” and the email message provides a link to a malicious video website. The malicious video website will prompt the user to download the fake video codec file flash_player.exe under the assumption that the user needs to update the Flash program to view a video. The flash_player.exe is really a doorway meant to let Koobface infect your computer.

Once installed, Koobface downloads a program called tinyproxy.exe. Tinyproxy.exe loads a proxy server called Security Accounts Manager which Koobface uses to monitor traffic on TCP port 9090 and proxies all outgoing HTTP traffic. Koobface hijacks search results from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN and replaces the results with links of malicious websites.

Koobface may redirect you to malicous websites that sell rogue security tools. Koobface has the ability to recreate itself after reboot. It is strongly recommended to remove Koobface from your system upon detection.

I knew that I had good virus protection software, but still felt unsecure knowing that I have my own personal information stored on my computer. I ended up losing sleep over the fact that someone could be spying on my computer within the short time that I had the infected files on my hard drive. But it also forced me to realize that I needed to continue to change my userid and passwords on a regular basis so that I can deter the potential invasion of my personal information (bank information, credit cards, etc.)

I ran several scans on my computer, finding some infected files, but most of them were cache files that I cleaned off my computer. Plus, I also restored my computer back before the infection incident. That did clear up the “ad” problem I was having too.

Did I learn a lesson here? Oh, you bet I did! One of the most important lessons that I want to ingrain in everyone’s mind is before you decide to open a questionable message or link, consider that you are running a business and know that this type of activity can impact your client base if they are associated with your database. Have the mindset that you are running a business, not catering to your personal needs and opening up every email, every link that hits your inbox.

If you want to learn more about how to secure yourself on Facebook, visit their security section at www.facebook.com/security. They have a great list of resource sites for security protection which I strongly urge you to have on your own computer. It will give you that peace of mind you deserve.

Well, it’s official! I’ve redesigned my website powered by WordPress and it’s looking better by the minute. Yes, it needs a few tweaks here and there, but I can rest easy knowing that I’ve moved most all the old content from the old site to the new site.

Keep checking back to see how things are shaping up. Oh, and be sure to sign up for your complimentary special report on your shopping cart system and how you can benefit from just some simple tips on how to maximize your system and see it make money for you…without much effort!

Until next time…