Maura Raffensperger, Author at Your Chief Simplicity Officer

Black Friday Weekend Deals and Holiday Gift Ideas

There are some terrific deals this weekend on several products I highly recommend (I use them myself). It’s a good time to snap up some savings and/or consider what might be a good gift for others on your list. And you don’t need to leave the house to do your shopping!

WEB HOSTING

Blue Host* is who I use to host all my websites. Great 24/7 real person phone support; they can walk you through setting up or transferring your website. This would also be a great gift for someone you know who is starting a business. Doesn’t matter if you (or they) are not quite ready, because you save so much on this deal, it’s worth locking it in. Nothing to risk, because they offer an anytime money-back guarantee.

$3.49/mo through Monday.

unlimited domain hosting (that means you can have as many websites as you want – great if you want separate domains for different promotions or just have more than one domain name.)
unlimited hosting space
unlimited file transfer
unlimited email accounts
supports FTP, CGI, Ruby, SSL, PHP, MySQL

ONLINE TRAINING

Lynda.com*

FREE 10 day trial

I recommend this resource to my clients often. Need to learn about WordPress, Excel or Photoshop? Lynda.com has a video tutorial; in fact they have 3145 courses on all sorts of topics. Begin learning software, business, and creative skills—anytime, anywhere—with video instruction from recognized industry experts. Use for yourself, or to train employees. Also a great gift. Check out their list of courses here: Get 10 days of free unlimited access to lynda.com.

*Disclosure: I earn an affiliate commission when you purchase through my links. Your price is not affected.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

When Is It Better To Give Than Receive in Business?

By Maura Raffensperger Leave a Comment

With the holidays approaching, the question of how much your business should give to sponsor worthy causes comes to the forefront – and may provide a basis to create a sponsorship budget for 2015. Maura Raffensperger, founder of Your Chief Simplicity Officer, and a proud Elite Member Sponsor of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Ventura County (NAWBO-VC) knows this dilemma well after 17 years in business. “Like many business owners, I am frequently asked to sponsor non-profits;” says Maura, “It used to be hard to say ‘No’, but I have found answering five key questions makes the decision easy, and creates a ‘win-win’ for both of us.”

Maura offers these 5 tips to help simplify your business sponsorship decisions:

The organization aligns with your values.
NAWBO, for example, is ‘a cohesive community of women business owners sharing best practices and support for each other’ which is a great fit for my mission statement and business and personal values.
The organization has a written sponsorship policy.
What do they expect of you? Are there multiple types of sponsorship? Pick the best fit.
There is a responsive contact within the organization for sponsors.
In a non-profit, this person may change every year. Do you know how to contact them? Do they get back to you? Ideally, you would like to build a relationship with this person.
You will take advantage of most, if not all, of the sponsorship benefits.
You may think they just want your money, but they want your participation, too. If your sponsorship includes seats at a banquet, for instance, they want to see those seats filled. You can be creative, and offer the tickets to clients, employees, or a student who might benefit, but it is your responsibility to make sure there is not a lonely empty table with your company name on it.
They want to recognize you – make it easy for them.
Respond promptly with their initial requests for your logo and company description, so they can add you to their promo materials and website.

You are free to publish and repost this content as long as long as you attribute to Maura Raffensperger and link back to this post.

As part of my sponsorship of NAWBO-VC, I am the title sponsor for their November 20th meeting and I would love to see you there. Click here for more information and to register. Use Promo Code MAURA to receive a 10% discount on your (non-member) registration – if you register by Monday, November 17!

Filed Under: small business marketing Tagged With: NAWBO, planning, promotional marketing, small business, small business accounting

My Favorite Time Tracking Apps and Tools

By Maura Raffensperger 1 Comment

The first step to improving your productivity is to track your time.

The mere act of tracking is likely to improve your productivity; you’ll think twice about playing that game of solitaire when you have to log it. It’s the same principle Weight Watcher’s uses when they have you keep a food journal to track your points. Whenever you start to gain weight, it’s usually because you have stopped tracking.

Tracking your time is tedious.

The data is priceless, however, so it’s a good idea to track for 1-2 weeks every year. You’ll be amazed at the patterns you’ll see – and it is the quickest way I know to find the time vampires that are sucking your energy – and profits! – away. That’s why it I require it of all my coaching clients – using the data from time tracking lets us get to work right away and make progress much faster.

I used to have my clients keep a paper time log. Easy to use, but it took time to collate the data so you could see total time spent on particular tasks. Then one of my clients created a spreadsheet to collect time tracking data. Easier to sort time spent on tasks, but a little clunkier to use.

Now there are some great time tracking apps and tools.

Here are four of my favorites. Each is simple to use (I named my company Your Chief Simplicity Officer for a reason!), free (or very low cost) and each is useful for a particular purpose.

Rescue Time

Tracks where you spend your time on your computer. Once installed, runs in the background and can be set to send you a weekly report. The beauty is you don’t need to turn it off and on – it automatically tracks your time. Only tracks time actively spent in a program; no worries if you leave a program open on your computer all day, but only use it occasionally. Great for tracking time spent on email and social media.

ATracker

My new favorite. This app lets you track your whole life by tapping on your phone to start or stop each activity. It then produces reports on your day, and beautiful piecharts of how you spent your time. Apple only. You will need the paid version (a very reasonable $2.99), as the free version only allows you to track 4 tasks. Worth testing the free version to see if you like it. Con is that you must remember to touch the task to start and stop the tracker. Which is why I also recommend using:

Your SmartPhone Stopwatch

Just set it to ring every 15 minutes (or bark, in my case.) That becomes a backup to remind you to start (or stop) ATracker.

Toggl

My VA uses this app to keep track of the time she spends on my account. I’ve been using it to keep track of the time I have been spending on volunteer work for a professional organization. Works on both Macs and PC’s and there is a SmartPhone App too. Not quite as easy as Atracker, but nice that it works across platforms and syncs with your smartphone. Hint: it is important to track volunteer time so you can set some limits if it starts taking too much of your time.

I challenge you to start using one of these time tracking apps. Then share what you found most surprising as a comment below this post.

Filed Under: Getting Stuff Done, time management

How To Be a Winner When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

By Maura Raffensperger 1 Comment

I started working with a new Virtual Assistant (VA) this month, and three steps in the process may help you get ready to hand off some of your work, too – whether you hire a virtual assistant or employee.

I won’t lie – there is time involved in prepping to work with a VA. But a little prep time helps forestall two common reasons why hiring a virtual assistant fails for the business owner.

The two most common reasons hiring a virtual assistant fails for the business owner are:

A lack of preparation by the business owner.
Being unclear on what you want the VA to accomplish.

The time you put into preparation will pay off in a smooth working relationship.

Here are the three things I did as soon as we agreed to work together:

Created an email address for her using my domain (i.e. Cindy@ YourCSO.com)
Made her an admin on my Facebook page
Gave her limited access (yes, you can limit this!) to my Paypal account

Here is why each is important:

When Cindy sends out an email for me, she’s not using her personal email, which would not be recognized by my clients; it is clear to the recipient that she is with my company.
Now I can have Cindy go in and do some routine updates and make changes to my Facebook page.
Cindy can go in and create ‘buy’ buttons to add to my webpage, and process returns for me – without having access to the rest of my Paypal account. What a relief! I didn’t know you could do this until Cindy told me it was possible.

Not sure how to set up 1,2, and 3? Here are the quick directions:

Log into your domain host, click on ’email’, and add a new account. Pretty simple, and takes 5 minutes. If you have a host like Bluehost*, you can call their 24/7 phone support and they can walk you through it. P.S. This also gives you the ability to cancel the account if you change VA’s.
You should already be an admin on your own Facebook page, and will see ‘Settings’ as a tab on the top left of the page. Once in “Settings’, click “Page Roles’, then ‘Add Another Person’. You can choose how much control to give the new user by which ‘Role’ you assign them. Also a 5 minute task.
You must have a Paypal Business account to do this – but you probably do if you are selling using Paypal. This one is not as intuitive, and I ended up calling Paypal for help – so it took 15 minutes, instead of 5. They do have live person support, which I appreciate. Basically, what you need to authorize for a third party to create ‘buy’ buttons for you is ‘API Access’, which is under ‘Tools’ in their menu. Or just call Paypal and let them walk you through it.

By the way, even if you are not ready to hire, you may want to set up some email accounts you can hand off later when you do hire, like support@yourdomainname or accounting@yourdomainname. That way you can train your customers & vendors now to use specific email addresses & not have to re-train them later not to send all email to your inbox.

My next post will cover some other important steps to take when hiring a virtual assistant or employee for your small business.

*Full disclosure: Bluehost is my domain host, and I do make an affiliate commission if you become a Bluehost customer after using my link.

Filed Under: Delegation, entrepreneurial mindset, System Development, time management, working with a virtual assistant

Overwhelmed With Your To-Do List? Try Trello

By Maura Raffensperger Leave a Comment

Overwhelmed with To-Do’s?

One of the most powerful tools you have in dealing with an overwhelming to-do list is your goal list. Post your goals where you can see them as you work; when you have too many tasks to accomplish in too little time, look at your goals, and prioritize the tasks that move you closer to attaining a goal.

But, ah, you say, my list of goals is almost as overwhelming as my task list! Read on for some solutions to your dilemma.

Aarg! My Goal List is Overwhelming

Here are some tips to solve that problem:

Don’t confuse a goal with a task. A task is something that moves you towards a goal. Calendar a task, or write it on a separate “to-do” list.
Trello is a wonderful (free!) tool to keep track of tasks and projects. I made a 5 minute video to get you started with Trello. It’s so easy to use, that may be all you need. Watch the video.
Limit your goal list to 3-5 goals. It’s great to brainstorm a long list of goals, but that’s only your starting point. Your next step is to highlight those goals which are most important to you, then try and combine similar ideas into one goal.
Sometimes it makes sense to work on one goal before taking on another; in that case, put the only the first goal on your short list (the one that you see daily). Keep the brainstormed list in a file; when you attain a goal, revisit the long list and add a new goal to your short list.
Make your goals measurable.

Filed Under: Apps to Help Run Your Biz, Getting Stuff Done Tagged With: Trello

Keep Your Contacts Up-To-Date Without Ever Entering or Scanning a Business Card Again!

By Maura Raffensperger Leave a Comment

If you hate to type new contacts into your contact database, have been disappointed with apps that are supposed to scan business cards, or have business cards piling up on your desk or desk drawers, you are going to love this solution! No scanning, it’s free, takes only minutes to set up & then automatically keeps your contacts up-to-date. And it works for both Macs and Outlook.

All you need is a Linked-In account and Outlook 2010 or a Mac running Mavericks OS. I show you how it works and how to set it up in the video below.

This is a perfect app to demonstrate how the right app can help you automate and eliminate a task from your to-do list – freeing you to be the CEO, not the secretary, of your business.

I was blown away at how simple and seamless it is. Watch the video and see how much time this will save you!

By the way, if we are not already connected on Linked-In, send me a connection request. Include a note letting me know it’s because you read this post.

Filed Under: Getting Stuff Done, System Development, time management Tagged With: Apple, clearing desk, Contacts, how to, LI, Linked In, Mac, Outlook, scan business cards

Creating Your Ideal Life

By Maura Raffensperger Leave a Comment

The poet Robinson Jeffers built Tor House in 1916 on a cliff in Carmel, CA. It absolutely enchanted me when I toured it a decade ago. The guide mentioned that every morning Mrs. Jeffers (Una) would sit at her desk in a corner of the peaceful living room and write letters to friends and family. Something about that connected with me on a visceral level, and it became my ideal to create the same habit.

That is still my (as yet unmet) ideal – but it occurred to me today that Facebook has become a viable substitute. Yes, it is possible to get distracted by cat video posts, but, at heart, Facebook is a way to stay connected with friends and extended family – and take a lot less time than 4 hours every morning to do so – especially if you ignore the animal videos.

I’ve heard people vilify Facebook as nothing but a time suck, but is it really such a bad compromise to substitute less than an hour on Facebook daily for the 4 hours Una Jeffers would schedule to write letters? I don’t think so, especially since I still need to find time for the work that brings in income.

Creating your ideal life is a balancing act. Facebook is part of that balance for me. So is scheduling regular vacation time and hiking time, and one day a week to spend with my elderly mother. I enjoy my work, and I do it better when I honor, and allow time for, all aspects of my life. You do too.

Your weekend is before you; schedule time in it for one aspect of your life you’ve been neglecting.

Filed Under: KEEP, time management Tagged With: Facebook, Robinson Jeffers, Tor House, Una Jeffers, work-life balance

Small Business Systems Development

By Maura Raffensperger Leave a Comment

Don’t you love systems where you get other people to do the work for you? Whatever the setting, that makes for effective delegation. I’m always impressed when I see well executed examples. Let me share one with you.

I’m just back from a lovely weekend retreat with 19 other women. At the conclusion of your stay, you are asked to do two things:

make your bed with the linen you will find in the bottom drawer of the dresser in your room
deposit your used linen in bins under the staircase

You can see the bins in the photo. Very clear labels instruct you where to deposit your pillow case, fitted sheet, flat sheet and towels. Imagine the time saved in housekeeping by having the linen from 17 rooms stripped, in one place, and pre-sorted. No wasting time sorting it again when it leaves the dryer, either, since all the fitted sheets, for example, will be in the same load. And let’s assume 5 minutes to make a bed – having each retreat participant make their own bed saves the housekeeper an easy hour and a half.

This is especially important because only four (religious) brothers run the retreat house. They have a very small staff that includes a cook, a dishwasher, and housekeeper. They need to run a lean operation, both to keep costs reasonable, and also to allow them time to focus on their priority: their religious life. See how this is starting to relate to your small business?

Effective delegation demands you have a clear and easy-to-follow system in place. Let’s analyze what was done right in this example, so you can apply to your own small business systems development:

Tell people what you expect in advance: We were given a short orientation talk the first night of our stay, which included a reminder to make the beds before we left, and the location of the dirty linen receptacles.
Use pictures: A picture is worth 1000 words – 1000 words you don’t need to write. In your business, don’t forget the power of videos to capture each step you use to do something on the computer. You can use apps like Jing to easily create a screen capture video.
Use the power of many to reduce the work of a few: It did not take much time for each individual to strip and make their bed – but may have saved paying for an extra staff member.

Filed Under: Delegation, System Development, time management Tagged With: retreat

Giveaway

By Maura Raffensperger 3 Comments

Win the Make More, Work Less Power Package – a $300 value!

I’m happy to announce the winners of the giveaway!

Grand Prize Power Package Winner: Maria Vences: Check out Maria’s Business

Second Prize Winner: Joseph Gannaban: Check out Joseph’s Blog

This Power Package includes 3 of the most recommended books on entrepreneurial success ever published. All are best-sellers – I’ve included links to a review of each book below.

And the books are just the tip of the iceberg. The grand prize winner will also receive an in-depth business analysis from yours truly – you’ll walk away with a detailed, custom plan for your business that has identified ways for you to work fewer hours, make more money, and grow with less stress.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review of The 4-Hour Workweek

E-Myth Book Review

Think and Grow Rich Review

Filed Under: business management, entrepreneurial mindset, System Development, time management Tagged With: giveaway, Michael E. Gerber, Napoleon Hill, the 4 hour work week, The E-Myth, Think and Grow Rich, Tim Ferriss

Black Friday Weekend Deals and Holiday Gift Ideas

WEB HOSTING

ONLINE TRAINING

When Is It Better To Give Than Receive in Business?

Maura offers these 5 tips to help simplify your business sponsorship decisions:

My Favorite Time Tracking Apps and Tools

The first step to improving your productivity is to track your time.

Tracking your time is tedious.

Now there are some great time tracking apps and tools.

Rescue Time

ATracker

Your SmartPhone Stopwatch

Toggl

How To Be a Winner When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

The two most common reasons hiring a virtual assistant fails for the business owner are:

Here are the three things I did as soon as we agreed to work together:

Here is why each is important:

Not sure how to set up 1,2, and 3? Here are the quick directions:

Overwhelmed With Your To-Do List? Try Trello

Overwhelmed with To-Do’s?

Aarg! My Goal List is Overwhelming

Keep Your Contacts Up-To-Date Without Ever Entering or Scanning a Business Card Again!

Creating Your Ideal Life

Small Business Systems Development

Giveaway

Win the Make More, Work Less Power Package – a $300 value!

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