success Archives :: From the Desk of Janet BarclayFrom the Desk of Janet Barclay

Do Your Management Skills Need Improvement?

Categories: Networking Nuggets, Success Strategies

Tags : Business, management, networking, public speaking, success, work-life balance, writing

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Woman manager One of the “special dates” marked on my blogging calendar for March is “Improve Management Skills Month.” I haven’t been able to find any information about the origins of this event, but it did inspire me to write a series of posts last year which, in my humble opinion, are well worth reading again.

Essential Skills for Business Success

Public Speaking as a Management Skill

How to be a Better Business Writer

Don’t Commit These Networking Faux Pas!

Five Ways To Keep Your Business From Taking Over Your Life

What part of managing your small business is most challenging for you?

Introducing “Your Organizing Business”

Categories: Blogging Bits, Newsworthy Notes

Tags : blog, Business, organizing consultants, professional organizers, success, successful

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As you probably know, I just love to blog! Wanting to improve my blogging skills, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and decided I’d like to try what the experts refer to as a “niche blog.”

It can be tricky to find a niche, because if it’s a really popular subject, there’s a good chance that there are already lots of people blogging about it. On the other hand, if you try to come up with something really unique, it might be hard to find to find readers. You also have to make sure that you won’t run out of topic ideas!

After realizing that a high percentage of my readers and my clients are from the organizing industry, I came up with my niche, and am now thrilled to announce the launch of Your Organizing Business!

Since the mandate of my new blog is to help professional organizers to achieve business success, many of the topics, such as marketing strategies, will be similar to what I blog about here, but with examples that are specific to organizing consultants. If you’re a professional organizer, be sure to check it out and tell your colleagues about it!

If you’re not an organizer, don’t worry; I will continue to blog From the Desk of Janet Barclay! However, since serving my Organized Assistant clients is still my first priority, my schedule probably won’t allow me to post quite as often. To make sure I’m covering the topics that interest you most, please leave a comment or send me an email to let me know the type of posts you prefer, referring to the Category list on the left if possible.

How Do You Define Success?

Categories: Motivational Moments

Tags : definition of success, quotes, quotes about success, success

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Every month, Virtual Assistant Forums challenges their members to blog about a given topic. Volunteers select the best entry, and the winner receives a brand new business or VA book of their choice from the VAF library. I had intended to enter last month, when the topic was “Success As A Virtual Assistant Is…” but March just seemed to slip away, as months often do, and I missed the boat. Although I’m too late for the contest, I have given the subject a lot of thought, so I’ve decided to go ahead and blog about it anyway.

In my opinion, success as a virtual assistant, or in any other endeavour, is in the eyes of the beholder. Some measure success by the amount of money they have in the bank, or that they bring in each month. For others, success is equated with being well-known. I’m inclined to agree with my online friend and former POC colleague, who said,

Success is what I want it to be, what I’m happy with.

Jacki Hollywood Brown

When I left my job in 2005, my goal was to earn enough money from my business to make a living without going back to outside employment. Since I have achieved that, I consider myself successful, even though I don’t live in luxury or wear the latest designer fashions. Although I certainly wouldn’t object to making 6 or 7 figures, it’s not really important in terms of what I want to achieve in my business and in my life.

The winner of the March Blogging Challenge agrees:

Success as a Virtual Assistant is whatever you want it to be. If you love what you are doing and are doing it every single day…than as far as I am concerned, you are indeed successful.

Darlene Victoria

How do YOU define success?

In Celebration of Women

Categories: Just Jan

Tags : international women's day, success, women

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Sunday is International Women’s Day, a day that’s been observed since the early 1900s. Society has changed a lot since women marched through the streets of New York City in 1908, demanding shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights, so although women have not achieved full equality with men in all areas, International Women’s Day has evolved from a day of protest to one of celebration.

On that note, I’d like to tell you about three women who have had helped me to reach my current level of success.

Heather Sullivan

I met Heather long before I had any thoughts of starting my own business. When I started my government secretarial job in 1990, Heather was one of the vocational rehabilitation counsellors I supported. She seemed to have a lot of respect and admiration for my work, and continued to come to me for help after she left the department. She also arranged for me to do some transcription work on the side for her husband, who had his own business – I guess that was my first taste of working as a VA! Since that time, Heather has also left the government and started her own business, and she has not only hired me for her website design and admin work, but recommended me for the Face to Face Job Fair team, a project I’ve enjoyed working on for the past three years.