It’s important to look at Adobe BC from an efficiency point of view. How much time can be wasted when trying to mash together completely different solutions that were not inherently designed to be integrated in the first place? Surely it can be done but at the expense of productivity and at the further expense of style and branding. Don’t forget that when you work with a solution like this that was designed to be seamless you create a very professional picture in the mind of the client.

E-Commerce is the fundamental reason for having an online presence in the first place for most entrepreneurs. Certainly some are in the business of simply delivering content and establishing a name for themselves but the bottom line is that we need to be able to sell to make it all worthwhile. With the Adobe product e-commerce is a fundamental integration, as is e-mail marketing. The capability is very functional, easy to use and not an afterthought.

When you develop your business, records and information become the lifeblood. When you consider that you can build an unlimited number of customized databases within Adobe BC you know that you will be able to make the best use of that information treasure trove. You will not be second-guessing yourself and worrying whether you are taking advantage of your intellectual property.

As a small-business owner do you often feel as if you’re operating in the dark to a certain extent, because you don’t have instant access to true analytics? Well, because Adobe BC is such an integrated all-in-one product you won’t lose any more sleep here. You will immediately be able to see how productive your business really is from a bottom-line perspective by simply logging into the dashboard. You will be able to see how many visitors you’ve had to your site, how many subscriptions you’ve picked up for your mailing list, how many people are now accessing your member areas and how much revenue you’ve wrapped up in sales. While it’s good to see those dollar figures you also need to be able to analyse your strategy. Here in the dashboard you can even see who is clicking on certain links and perhaps more importantly what links are not being so productive. Which e-mails have been opened and how “hard-hitting” are your headers and titles? More than just helpful, this kind of information can be crucial to make sure you are moving forward as productively as possible.

Let’s face it we’re always looking for systems that make the best use of our time and resources. In Adobe BC, the answer is right there in front of you.

The post Why Adobe Business Catalyst Is Such A Unique, All In One System appeared first on Synergy Assist.

Look at it as having a free website, if you want to. You will be able to detail all your services and products and take advantage of a number of different multimedia opportunities. Those videos that seem to work so well on your website can work equally as well here on LinkedIn. Arrange with your virtual assistant to update this particular property frequently and even on a daily basis. You may well already have such a philosophy in place for the likes of Twitter and Facebook, so go the extra distance and feed your LinkedIn company presence equally as well.

Due to the fact that LinkedIn has a very sophisticated search engine, enabling searches of great depth and specificity, make sure that your LinkedIn page is front and centre and optimised as such. It’s no fluke that references to LinkedIn pages appear often on the first page of those search engine results.

Today many a small business owner wears more than one hat. If you have a number of business operations, or simply have different activities within one corporate body you can still have more than one company page on LinkedIn. Once again it’s worth the effort to delineate this properly and get your virtual assistant to set it up in such a way that each entity can be controlled and managed on a regular basis.

It’s quite possible that several different people are involved in your organization, whether they are principles, associates or key contractors. Make sure that their personal and professional profiles link to your company page and ensure that the description of your company or business entity is comprehensive and relevant.

Even though LinkedIn is seen as a marketplace that may be primarily aimed at the business-to-business sector remember that each person viewing your profile is also a consumer. Depending on the type of business you’re in exposure here can have an exponential effect on sales and general publicity. Once again, though, remember that you need to work with your virtual assistant to ensure that the up-to-date information is contained within and that your page is frequently updated.

Also, remember that in the new world of online marketing and SEO “social search” is the buzzword. This is why it’s important to spend time updating your LinkedIn pages and profiles.

The post How A VA Can Support Clients By Running LinkedIn Company Pages appeared first on Synergy Assist.

Times have certainly changed, as online marketing techniques are in the process of a vast transformation. Now, it is not only smart for the small-business owner to engage a professional virtual assistant but it is even more critical for success.

In relation to the landscape of today old-style, search engine optimization could be said to have been relatively straightforward. A lot of it was based on specific technique and in numerical analysis, associated with keywords, rankings and back links. Today a lot of that old-style approach has gone out of the window, as Google leads the way in transforming the very look and feel of the Web. Now, if you focus too much on “the numbers game” you’re likely to find that your site will be penalized. The new look SEO has a much more personalized feel to it and basically your site needs to be seen as natural and contributory.

The virtual assistant today understands that search engine optimization is much less a focus on link building and much more a focus on brand building. The search engines are looking for social signals to see just how your brand fits in your particular niche. Social media engagement is critical today and you cannot expect to operate in a vacuum, business-wise. You need to be able to reach out to other experts in your sphere, to contribute. Guest blogging is a great way of going about this, for example.

Does this mean that you should seek to join as many blog networks as possible? This could be a fatal mistake if you go it alone and decide to be your own SEO expert. Many blog networks of old were made up of fake blogs and sites that were specifically made to create income through clickable links only. Google can quite easily determine whether or not you’re making an effort to create links to such sites through substandard blog networks. If this is one of your homemade strategies then don’t be surprised if you see a significant drop in the rankings overnight.

Remember, the professional virtual assistant is there to help you engage in practices that are sustainable. Without the help of your VA you may find that you have to spend time in the future working out how you’re going to recover from a catastrophic, overnight drop in rankings caused by your inability to understand. Once the damage is done it will be no good trying to plead ignorance as the search engines are very unlikely to listen. Isn’t it far better to engage the help of a professional to start off with?

The post Why You Should Hire A Professional Virtual Assistant And Not Go It Alone appeared first on Synergy Assist.

If you’re a busy business owner you probably understand what it’s like to have your daily or weekly schedule begin to carom out of control. Author and business coach Michael Hyatt makes a valid point in the quote above: the choice in that dilemma is completely yours.

The use of time blocking will help you better control the demands on your available hours is an ideal way to maintain your productivity – both in business and in your personal life. It’s also an effective tool that a savvy manager may wish to share and encourage among her employees to increase work efficiency.

Developing a smart time block strategy has been a goal of mine recently, so I searched out suggestions from some very smart business minds.

In his blog post “How to Better Control Your Time by Designing Your Ideal Week,” Hyatt offers you the opportunity to download a copy of his own, personal Excel spreadsheet as a start on your own template. I’m providing a link to that here:

http://michaelhyatt.com/myresources/my-ideal-week.xls

A key is to give each day a theme, while segmenting the day into specific focus areas: this includes blocking out hard times for meetings, exercise, and yes, even your special interludes with family and friends. An even more important key is to maintain the discipline of sticking to it. While you’ll always want to bend with some flexibility in your scheduling, the intent to maintain it must be there.

After all, this is your life and your time that we’re talking about. And I think we’d all agree that time is pretty much the most precious commodity that we possess. I know that I have a budget for my personal and business financial life. Therefore, it only makes sense to establish one for my time, as well.

At Synergy Assist, our virtual consultants and office assistants are all about just that: helping you to recoup some of the time that you may otherwise devote to back-office work. Our passion is to fulfill those necessary tasks while you focus on building your business and finding time for other important endeavors.

Let’s schedule a block of time and discuss how Synergy Assist can save you time and frustration.

The post Time Blocking for a Better Life and Business appeared first on Synergy Assist.

If you’re like many entrepreneurs, you may hear that song of the siren on a regular basis. Another way to phrase it – in more common terms – is “Shiny Object Syndrome,” a moment in time where an opportunity seems bright, sparkling and yes, very, very shiny. After all, as entrepreneurs and business owners, we’re trained to stay sharp and aware of new opportunities that contain great promise.

The fact of the matter is that even though we all strive to be excellent, pragmatic business people, many of us are also dreamers. It’s imperative that we balance that obsession for shiny objects with a solid approach to reality. You owe that to yourself and those who work with you.

In no way am I suggesting that you should fail to encourage creativity or avoid taking the occasional, well-informed risk. If that’s part of the makeup of your company, it’s something you must do. But reaching for the brass ring and seizing the day must be tinged with smart appraisal.

First and foremost, ask yourself if the idea solidifies and strengthens the original vision of your company. Does it stand strong with your mission statement? Are you able to be the absolute best at carrying it out? And, of course, do you have the resources to do so?

If the answer to more than one of these questions is no, then the opportunity is probably one to be avoided.

At Synergy Assist, we understand the makeup of today’s entrepreneurs and business leaders. Our job is to handle the back-end tasks that otherwise clutter your day. Every one of our virtual assistants and virtual office staff understand that their job is to make yours easier and allow you the freedom to dream, explore, grow your business, and produce dollars.

For information on how we can help, let’s talk, explore your dreams and vision, and then get down to business!

The post How to Avoid the Siren’s Song of Questionable Opportunity appeared first on Synergy Assist.

I also love to stoke my fire by occasionally browsing through success-oriented quotes from some of the magnificent entrepreneurs of recent times. I though I’d share some of the great ones that I’ve come across recently.

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs
“You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.” – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn
“Be a user of your own product. Make it better based on your own desires. But don’t trick yourself into thinking you are the user.” – Evan Williams, Twitter
“The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.” – Marc Benioff, Salesforce co-founder
“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” – Peter F. Drucker
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby
“Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual.” – Natalie Clifford Barney
“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are asking, What’s in it for me?” – Brian Tracy
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” – Bill Gates

At Synergy Assist, we provide office assistants, office staff, support staff, and other professionals in a virtual manner. Our job is to handle the backend and make your company shine behind the scenes while you utilize your entrepreneurial spark to push your company into the stratosphere. So, let’s talk about working together so you can focus on making your company the one of your dreams!

The post 10 Entrepreneurial Quotes to Stoke Your Fire appeared first on Synergy Assist.

Over the past few years, we have seen a revolution on ways to read hit this country, like print-on-demand. This allows you to print the newest book you’ve found online to read at a later time. Amazon has made it so easy to order books on line now, just a few clicks, your credit card and in no time, that new best seller is at your door step.

Audio-books are a great invention for those who are on the road a good amount of time. You can simply pop in a CD and listen to the latest best seller as you cruise the roadways of America. For the techie people that just can’t get be without the latest greatest gadgets, the Kindle has brought a whole new level of reading to our worlds.

Are you a member or leader of any non-profit group, or frequent visit, volunteer at a library? Start a drive to get those that live in your neighborhood to donate their old books to the library, children shelter or other shelters, children hospitals, etc.

To get others motivated in reading, visit Goodreads,the giant book review and recommendation site, and start a discussion about an interesting aspect of publishing. Or ask your followers what their favorite book may be. You’ll probably see some new books you’ve never thought about reading yourself.

When you find that book that you just couldn’t put down, pin to your Pinterest board of favorite books. Again, today’s technology at it’s finest. Visit your followers pins and find a good read for yourself and re-pin it to your board.

No matter how you like to read a book today, just do it and encourage others. Let’s start the campaign for Entrepreneurs to “Just Pick Up a Book and Read”!

The post National Book Week – Pick Up A Book And Read! appeared first on Synergy Assist.

So take just a moment to stop, review this blog and start your New Year over today!

Here are a few ways you can change your business practices in 2013 and make you and your business work better, accomplish more and be successful.

Be More Efficient: Leave It To Others

Every business has something in this category. Is that one thing you’re struggling to get done really adding value at the end of the day or year? Is it making your business profit? Money and time are both valuable commodities and resources, don’t waste them.

As the face of your business, you need to do what brings in new business and stay in touch with existing business. While you are responsible for your company’s fiscal health and things like taxes, you also need to keep the wheels turning and keep that passion alive that you’ve worked so hard at in the beginning stages of your business.  Hiring a virtual assistant can help elevate your stresses and allow you time to put your focus back into your business.

Advertise: Social Media Is The Road To Success Today

Have you made changes to your company’s services or product offerings this past year, or have plans to do so in 2013? Shout it to the world! You did great getting your business up and going, kicked off and running, but things have changed in the past year in regards to promoting business. The first thing people utilize now to find products and services is the Internet. Long gone are the days of the yellow page searching! Are you utilizing Social Media Marketing to leverage your brand? Think about your ideal client and what social media outlet they are using. Take your time and focus your efforts in the social media outlets like Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest that will work for you instead of being overwhelmed trying to cover all your bases!

Keep It Real: Don’t Expect Overnight Miracles

Congratulations on making some changes and setting up some New Years Resolutions. However, be realistic and know that you can not always have instant improvement in one day.

To make change work and worthwhile, you need to take it in steps. Making sure each brick you lay toward paving a better 2013 is laid with care, allowing it time for the mortar to harden. Keep in mind also, new processes may have a stumble or trip occasionally, don’t let that distract you for your goals. Pick yourself up, dust off and in good time, you’ll be looking back this time next year, amazed at how much smoother things went than they did in 2012. Chances are you’ll have some new grand ideas for your 2014 New Years Resolutions by then too!

Communication: Keeping your Team Informed

You know what comes to your mind in the middle of the night, but does your team? Keep a note pad handy to jot down your ideas and thoughts and then hold a regular staff meeting. Whether you do it daily, weekly, or monthly, you need to keep everyone on the same page in order to keep things flowing smoothly. This includes any third party you may bring on board such as Synergy Assist.

We appreciate the opportunity to work with you and look forward to being a part of your 2013 New Years Resolutions. Give us a call with any questions you may have, we’re here to help!

Happy New Year to you and yours from Synergy Assist!

The post New Years Resolution For Your Business appeared first on Synergy Assist.

Large companies pretty much flow like clock work, but when you are an entrepreneur, you can sometimes get lost in the hustle and bustle of the holidays with a day off here and there, shorter working hours, kids home from school, family in from out of town and maybe even the spouse is off for the holidays.

Now that we are approaching the end of the year, how and where do you start preparing yourself for success in 2013? For starters, begin with the one thing we spend more time on then we should, our email. There could be just a few new emails in your in-box or there could be hundreds you have been archiving. Are they junk emails or are they important?

Like most people, you probably have signed up for newsletters throughout the year and for the sake of sanity, while they may have seemed important or of interest at the time, you can’t remember why you want them now. You could go through and unsubscribe from each one immediately, however what if they have something of interest next month? There may be a feature on something you could utilize or benefit from even though this month might be unrelated to you and your business.

Instead of unsubscribing from all of these, you should determine if it would be better if you just change your preferences by changing the email address they will go to. Synergy Assist suggests setting up an email account that is for nothing but those newsletters, as your first step in organizing. With this system, you can log into that specific email account from time to time and see what newsletters have come in that has something specific to your interests or needs. That way in a click or two you can access them when you want and avoid filling up your in-box, distracting you from what really needs your attention.

Now moving on to your physical desk, the actual paper work that piles up. You can increase your efficiency by clearing off your desk and only keeping the items you really need within arms reach. Anything that you do not access frequently throughout the day should be moved off your desk to allow your mind to stay focused on the task at hand while you’re working.

How does your file pile look? If you’re like the majority of entrepreneurs, filing is your last priority and falls short on your to-do list. You know you’ll want to get that done before you start pulling tax records out, so you may as well just sit down and get it done! For many businesses, other than retail, this can be a slow time of the year. This can be a great time to rearrange your office space, including your desk, file cabinets and other furniture. Moving your desk closer to the window to allow for direct sunlight might even help boost your productivity!

While you’re moving that furniture around, start making a list of all the things you still need to finish from 2012 and consider using a third party source such as Synergy Assist. We can arrange a short term contract to make those follow up calls for you and organize your electronic files. While we’re at it, we’ll send out those holiday cards and calendars you didn’t get around to yet!

Who knows, you may find having virtual assistant support is pretty nice to have about and want to extend your contract. Just knowing you have help a phone call away can make 2013 look pretty easy to handle.

The post Holidays Are Over – Business Is Back To Normal appeared first on Synergy Assist.

In order to be successful in business, every entrepreneur, every business owner must understand that change is imminent and learn to appreciate and embrace it.  The survival and success of your business will depend on your attitude and how you handle change.  Instead of fighting change or worse, ignoring change as if it didn’t exist, your business may not fail, but it won’t grow either.

However, while it is important for an entrepreneur to accept and embrace change, you should be careful with change as well. When change has came to your business in any way, make sure you understand it and how it will affect your business. Understand the ins and outs of any change and the possible repercussions to your business internally and externally.

Why should you embrace change when the old way is working fine? Try to step back and look at the whole picture going forward. Will it make a process easier, quicker? Even though the old way has worked just fine, the new way can make things simpler and maybe even more thorough.

Be honest and open minded and ask yourself how will this change help you? What can you gain by embracing change? Yes, sometimes change can be hard and in someways, it may seem to make things harder. However, by embracing change, accepting that it is there and happening, can make you grow as a person and your business grow as well

When you embrace change with open ears, eyes and mind, you can keep your business growing. You’ll keep your business, or yourself, from becoming stale. When you embrace change, you are making moves in the right direction to grow your business.

When change has presented itself to you but you aren’t sure how to handle it, you may need to consider outside help. Letting a third party become a part of your business, a right hand so to speak, it can be easier to embrace that change and make the most of it what it brings to you.

That is where Synergy Assist can come in the picture. We offer virtual assistant services for every aspect of running you business, leaving you to do what you do best and what started you business. Our specialty is helping Entrepreneurs with the things that can drag you down and take the fun out of why you started your business. Let us lighten your burden so you can focus on you, your business needs or personal needs.

The post Embracing Change in 2013 appeared first on Synergy Assist.