Living the dream …

Well, it has been about a week since my lovely virtual assistant started from way overseas… there has been some learning on both sides of the sea.  She works from 2am – 6am our time.. I thought I would not like this or not like having to rise early enough to communicate with her.  Quite the opposite, I enjoy waking up each day with a log of what was completed and seeing I have actually found a way to work in my sleep….

For all you small biz who are boot strappin’ it… Canva is your friend, Recur post works great and spend a 30 – 60 min a day on accounting, replying on IG, keeping up with the tweets … living the dream ..

Best Virtual Assistant Services….

This week I hired my first virtual assistant from overseas.  What I am hoping for is the “best virtual assistant services”… we will have to wait and see.   When I started to write down a list of places a VA could help me (with a focus on social media as that is what I never have enough time for) the list got pretty long, pretty fast… no wonder I feel like I never have time to do anything! This coupled with 4 shiny MBA students working on my next business plan has me liking this idea of paying others to do work to free myself up.  Don’t get me wrong I do not have any more time than I did before… just less of the feeling of being overwhelmed with what I have to complete this week.

Good thing I like organizing… the project plan is my friend.  How else will I track my 10th phone call to my debit machine company to get them to finish the task ? How else will I know that a sea of pink means I have been negligent? Now if I can just find someone who wants to photograph me all over town in a mermaid costume and I am set.

Livin’ the dream… livin’ the dream … LOL

When work doesn’t seem like work….

I have the good fortune of working with a group of MBA students who are helping me hone my business and the next steps.  Today, they made me think about my business values, my fundamental purpose, my mission… it has been awhile since I did this exercise.  The last time was when I wrote my business plan over  years ago.

There are things I do because  I have to.  There are things I do because I get lost in them for hours.  In business you should focus on what you are good at, the value you add to your business and try as much as possible to fan out the rest.  Today I got lost… in what I do best creating, inventing, planning… organizing.  It reminded me of what I should be working on and accept the painful truth that I need to hire some assistance for social media and bookkeeping.

While being lost I found this great picture of these beautiful Spanish ladies… I will find one of those dresses and I will strut around market pouring wine for others and spreading joy… another thing I am good at.

Under construction… designing for happiness

“When I was a little girl I didn’t dream of princesses and castles, I didn’t dream of my wedding, the dress and shoes..  my earliest memory with the answer to “what I would do when I grew up” was to be a business woman.  That was the moment I became responsible for my own happiness.  My parents job to guide me to think for myself, understand what would make me happy was completed.  Happiness is a feeling… and not in things.

This was the moment I began designing what happy would look like for me …the notion of wearing a power suit and driving a fast car was my idea of what a successful business person looked like. (It was the 80’s after all… so that meant a leather blue, power suit, with big shoulders)

It wasn’t typical for women to be in business, I never seemed to notice. One of my favorite things to do growing up was discovering markets around the world, and slowly exploring all the amazing things they had to offer.  Flea markets in Greece, night markets in BC and Italy, farmers markets in Montreal, street vendors in Belize, garage sales at home…. I could spend hours doing it.  I was always trying to find a night market here at home that gave me the same feel.

That was my “a-ha” moment…. if I couldn’t find a night market,  I had to build it myself and if I built it they would come :).  It has not been an easy journey with many hills on the way.  I have some great vendors who continue to be part of my journey and for that I am thankful…”