I'm delighted to have been interviewed by Suzanne Murdock for her Powering Productivity Podcast which is out now!

The idea behind these podcasts is Suzanne asking other business owners to share their stories and top tips on how to be super productive, flexible and really thrive as a small business owner doing what you love doing whilst keeping those energy batteries tiptop!

You can check out all her interviews so far here https://www.thehubnewry.com/podcast/

I am episode 8 and we talked about

- automation and planning for an easier working life

- collaboration not competition with other VAs ⠀

Watch the video HERE or listen to the full podcast episode 8 HERE

#podcast #productivity #business #entrepreneur

I'm delighted to have been interviewed by Suzanne Murdock for her Powering Productivity Podcast which is out now!

The idea behind these podcasts is Suzanne asking other business owners to share their stories and top tips on how to be super productive, flexible and really thrive as a small business owner doing what you love doing whilst keeping those energy batteries tiptop!

You can check out all her interviews so far here https://www.thehubnewry.com/podcast/

I am episode 8 and we talked about

- automation and planning for an easier working life

- collaboration not competition with other VAs ⠀

Watch the video HERE or listen to the full podcast episode 8 HERE

#podcast #productivity #business #entrepreneur

Privileged to be invited to be a guest blogger for Louise Brogan’s Social Bee Academy on the topic of becoming Virtual!

Do you find yourself overwhelmed at periods throughout the year and start researching who you could hire to take some of the time consuming tasks off your long to-do list but then get stuck and convince yourself of a 100 reasons why you can just continue doing it all yourself? Hiring a Virtual Assistant (a VA) can be life changing and before you say ‘I can’t’ read the reasons why you can!

I was recently at the excellent Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council workshop delivered by Digital DNA (part of the optimise 2.0 programme) about writing web /article content and the speakers suggested always writing about topics that you have a certain amount of expertise in, so I’m writing this article on Top 10 places to meet for business outside the office. This is written from several perspectives:

Despite virtual nature of my job, I am still of the generation that likes to send snail mail and was writing a card to my former boss in Luxemburg the other day who has just retired. As I was writing it, I was thinking if someone had said to me in May 2013 that I’d be leaving Luxembourg to go back to Northern Ireland by May 2014 and that by May 2015 I would have started my own business, I would have laughed. Yet here I am in Moira, Co.Armagh, May 2016 an entrepreneurial business woman and not totally broke!

When I was writing the card it made me think of the YB12 (Your Best Year Yet) workshop that I did with John Higgins last September and one of exercises was to write an email to your future self. I found mine the other day and am proud of what I achieved in the last 12 months, though of course there is still lots to do to build my virtual empire!

What does it take to make the leap to self-employment?

This is the question on the lips of anyone who’s ever thought about leaving the security of a full time job to go it alone. Making the decision is the first step, but how to turn that into a reality and stick at it is not always as clear cut.

Three years ago, I was working as a Personal Assistant (PA) to a senior Director in the headquarters of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg where I’d gone to work 9yrs previously as a bi-lingual Project Administrator. I’d got to the stage in my career where I could go as far as I wanted in my grade and had already taken a sideways step to get more experience. I knew I wanted to use the skills I already had developed in 14yrs of varied administrative posts: customer –orientated , knowledge sharing, adapting to different personalities , evolving with new technologies and working with a high level of autonomy but I wasn’t quite sure which way to turn as I couldn’t find a role which was demanding and interesting enough.