Working from Panera today

Today is one of those days that I am so glad that I picked this work at home business. I really do love being a Virtual Assistant. Today, I decided to have a little bit of a change of scenery. Since I had an outing planned with the Mr. tonight, I packed up the munchkin and his stuff a little early, headed to Grandma’s house (and she rocks!) and set up shop at a local Panera Bread for the afternoon. Love taking advantage of their free Wi-Fi and yummy goodies.

It’s great to get out of the house, and have a change of scenery. And oddly enough, I manage to be a little more productive when I do this. I’ve already finished up several client projects, and started writing a bunch of blog posts that I’ll schedule to go out later.

It is the beauty of being virtual. I can work from anywhere. I can work in my pajamas/work-out clothes. I can work with my son yelling and carrying on in the background while I handle all my projects via email and internet access. I can work while I’m out of town (though my family would rather I leave the laptop at home and  shut off the phone while on vacation). Though operating a small business like this is hard work, it really is one of the more flexible business opportunities out there.

Some days, you just have to get out. Today, I jumped at the chance.

I needed a concrete answer to that question “What is for dinner?” I needed a meal planning intervention. Meal planning is nothing new. Millions of moms for generations have done it. But I needed an option that didn’t involve much of my time, where I didn’t have to search through recipes and write out the list each week. So I went on the search for different meal planning ideas and meal planning services online to see what could help my dinner dilemma. After looking around at different services for a few days, we settled on a site called Relish!.

I have been using it for a year now, and the more I have used Relish!, the more love it. At first, I really liked the flexibility of being able to choose from several recipes, and the nice interface. Some other services didn’t give you an option to choose recipes, and when you have a picky eater at home (and I’m not talking about my son), it would not be helpful to be stuck with recipes they don’t like. So Relish! gives you a selection of several different recipes each week, ranging from “kid-friendly” to vegetarian, crockpots to quick meals. And I so far the recipes have all been delicious and flavorful. You can also add your own recipes into the system.

Every week you select as many as you need for the week (including freezer options, and breakfast recipes), select for how many you are serving, and then it will spit out a shopping list for everything you will need. You do not knwo how much this has saved me in my sanity and my bank account. I am no longer wandering aimlessly through the grocery store grabbing what sounds good. And by sticking to my printed shopping list, it helps keep the grocery bill within budget. Relish! states that 5 dinners and sides keeps the grocery bill under $90 per week and I find that really rings true.

Plus, things are not going to waste, and that is HUGE in my house. Our shopping list is scaled down to just who we need to cook for, so I’m not having a problem with leftovers going to waste, or food going bad that I never got to cooking.

The subscription costs around $7 per month, and I find it is worth every penny!  It has saved this busy mom’s sanity, that’s for sure. To find out more about them, visit them on the web at www.RelishRelish.com.

Relish! might not be for everyone as there are dozens of other meal planning sites I ran across that might work better for other families. If you use some type of meal planning, or have meal planning tips and suggestions, I would love for you leave a comment here! I love to hear what other moms suggest.

*Disclaimer: Megan Barber and VAMommy is not an employee, not a representative, or in any way affiliated with Relish!. We did not receive any money or compensation for mentioning them in our blog. We just simply are a fan and love the service they provide.

That is what I had been telling myself for months since the birth of my son. I would think that I’m simply a stay at home mom who happens to run a business from home too. “Working moms” go to work outside the home and use daycare, nannies, etc, I thought. “I’m not a working mom. No, not me!”

(Just to clarify, I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with moms who choose work outside the home.)

I was in a bit of denial. Yes, I am at home and I am the primary caretaker of my son and the laundry, and the dishes, etc. But I also own and run a business that has to run pretty much full-time in order to make a good income. I finally came to the realization that I am a working mother, I just do it all under the same roof. Essentially I work 2 full-time jobs; that of mommy/homemaker and that of a small business owner. Neither one is an easy feat by themselves.

Now I am not the traditional working mom that goes outside of the home for her job. I have do not have to answer to any boss but myself (well, my son is the boss some of the time too). I get to make me own schedule and decide where and when I work. I also have the luxury have having no commute.

I do have some childcare needs like most working moms do, especially since my son is so young. I tried to be supermom, but quickly realized I cannot do it all without some help. Working moms can try to do it ALL, but you end up doing none of it successfully. And on the business side, I also have some fabulous help in the way of my VA team members. My team has taken much of the busy work off my plate so I can have more flexibility to be a mom and a business owner at the same time.

It has been a bit of an internal struggle, but now I really don’t mind the term “working mom” as much as I used to, and applying it to myself. It really is what I do and not a bad thing at all. It  doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but I get to be home with my kid and make some income for my family. It’s not for everyone, but it is for me.

Image via Wikipedia

The damn goats next door woke up my napping son today. And it’s not the first time it’s happened either.

This is probably not something you hear every day. But it is the reality of where I am living. You’d think I was living in total bumpkin-ville. There may be a lot of farm land surrounding my town, but really it’s not that bad. I live in a traditional looking house in a traditional looking suburban neighborhood. My property just happens to be bordered on 3 sides by a property owned by “Farmer Bob”, who may possibly be starting a zoo.

I can go on about the weirdo things “Farmer Bob” has been doing of on his property, but will not go there now. Rumor has it that he wants to start a horse farm on his property, and has one sad looking horse I see roaming around behind the chain link fence. He also had chickens with a lovely rooster that crowed all hours of the night. Now, there are goats.

I first noticed about a dozen goats wandering around on his property about a month ago. Didn’t think much of them other than, “Holy cow! That is a lot of goats!” And we would take the little one to the fence and show him the goats and tell him what sound they made. Baaa! So cute, right? Great teaching moment, right?

Well recently, I have noticed how loud these things are when they are hanging out close to the fence line. BAAA! BAAA! I have especially noticed this now that we had the A/C off and the windows open. Bordering on annoying. And has become a nap interrupter.

Now, nap times are very precious to me. They have been since my son was a newborn. As a busy work at home mother, I NEED those nap times to accomplish as much client work, laundry, dishes, etc as I can in that 2 hour time period. And my lovely son takes 2 of these blessed naps a day still. I will weep on the day that he stops this.

My son was sleeping blissfully, and then 45 minutes in, there is some apparent goat fight happening right behind the fence. And apparently, the babe can’t sleep through incessant “BAAAs” going on outside his windows. Crap! And now he is super cranky because he didn’t get enough of a nap. Double crap! My uninterrupted work time is going out the window today.

I am so hate those goats right now.

I must be honest here. I am not having an easy time of it lately, trying to balance it all.  I started this WAH business to with the idea that I would be able to be home, take care of my kids and house, all while making a great income. This was all before I had a child. Now, I’ve been in business for 5 1/2 years. My business has taken off even more, and my 1 year old son is at an age where he gets into everything and needs lots of close supervision. I am finding it incredibly hard to keep it together, keep from stressing, and keep the mommy guilt at bay.

I am working at home to be with my son, I keep telling myself. But at times, I feel like my son is getting the short end of the stick. I always seem to be trying to get “just one more email” out. My mind is elsewhere thinking about client calls and projects that need to be done, while I am playing with my son. This is not what I envisioned.

I do have a Mother’s helper 2 days a week that helps out a little. But even with that, I feel under pressure to justify that whether or not the extra cost of child care makes up for the little bit of extra time I get to work.

So I want to hear from all work-at-home moms out there that have been there. Please leave me a comment and share your knowledge. What is your secret? How do you do it? I need to get all the tools I can. I need to know if I can still do this.

via activerain.com

This post from Active Rain is a fantastic read. Internet leads have a tendency to take a long time to convert. You need to incubate them and create front of mind awareness for a quite awhile before they are ready to make their move. Many agents give up on these “cool” or slightly warm leads and chase after only the “hot” ones. Have patience and be consistent in your marketing efforts. Go read this great post!

Posted via email from megbarberva’s posterous

Many of my friends and readers know that I LOVE VAClassroom and all that Craig Cannings and the gang have to offer. They have quality training programs for our Virtual Assistant industry, a few of which I have taken myself. So I registered and I am really excited to attend the Summer Skill Camp 2010, which starts July 6th. I’m always looking to sharpen my skills and learn something new.

So what are we going to learn in this 10 week summer camp?

• Develop the right system to creating a profitable, in-demand Facebook Page Service.
• Receive an easy-to-follow blueprint for building an effective online newsletter or ezine.
• Discover proven techniques for designing a winning WordPress Blog.
• Uncover and implement the right kind of WordPress plugins to ignite traffic and results for you and your clients.
• Learn how to leverage a freebie offer or information product to attract and win new clients.
• Discover a simple formula for crafting and delivering top-notch social media presentations to your clients and community.
• Master a proven system for seamlessly organizing your many social networking activities.
• Learn how to effectively measure your client’s Internet Marketing results and success.
• Receive an easy formula for writing articles and press releases that produce results.
• Develop a winning squeeze page or landing page that converts for you or your clients.

So doesn’t that all sound great? Plus Craig is offering several bonuses as well with this fantastic program. And there’s an Early Bird discount if you sign up before June 3oth. Use the promo code SUMMER by 6/30 and get $100 off of your registration fee.

So join me there and lets go to camp together. Sign up at this link – http://tinyurl.com/282wkrp

See you there!

Just a few things I learned:

• From our awesome keynote speaker, Marsha Petrie Sue,  When you run into issues and problems, you have 3 choices in life: Take it, Leave it, or Change it. So what’s your plan?
• Speaker, Karen Gridley really made me reflect on if my thoughts, feelings and actions are really aligned. How am I getting in my own way?
• Learned that I need to refine my processes, especially my lead follow up.
• I need to screen new team members carefully, or “Hire slow and fire fast” according to Donna Toothaker.
• That other VA Mommies of small children like me do not do it ALL. They get help now and then too.
• Never realized how I don’t talk very much while working at my home office. I spent the end of every day at the Summit hoarse from gabbing so much with my VA colleagues. (Sorry if I talked your ear off!)
• My friend, Dana Fortier is a total Rockstar.
• Some VAs have really awesome clients that send them really awesome cake for Administrative Professionals day.

As you can see, I had a fabulous time at the Live Summit and I came back with a motivational fire under me to set some great new things in motion. I also came back with so many new friends in the VA world. I feel so lucky to have met them and look forward to “seeing” and getting to know them in and around the social networks and forums I frequent.

One thing that made my year is that the 2011 Live Summit will be held in Portland, Oregon. I’m not sure if anyone was more excited than me, since I am originally from that area. My family will be thrilled that I have another excuse to come out and visit.

So have I convinced you yet?  Are you ready to invest in yourself and your business to take it to the next level? Then the 2011 Live Summit is one that you can not miss! And don’t use finances as an excuse, start saving! Starting now, put aside $25 per week in a “summit fund”. By the 1st of July you’ll have enough to cover your summit registration. By the 1st of November you’ll have enough saved to also buy your plane ticket. And by mid-January 2011 you should have enough to cover your hotel room too! So start saving, mark your calendars, and I will see you at next year’s Live Summit in Portland.

Tomorrow, I’m leaving on a jet plane and I couldn’t be more excited.

The past few days I have been preparing to to travel this week to Phoenix, for the IVAA’s 9th Annual Live VA Summit. I am super excited to get out of my office, drop off my little boy at grandma’s, jump on a plane, and descend upon Phoenix with 100 other Virtual Assistants to network and learn. It is giving me a chance to get out of the isolation of my own home office and to meet in person with other Virtual Assistants, many of which I have come to know and respect from my online social networks and VA forums. It’s an opportunity to be “Megan” instead of “Mommy” for a few days.

This brings me to the tremendous importance in-person networking for the Virtual Assistant. I’m talking about getting  out from behind your computer screen, and networking in person with other Virtual Assistants or small business owners. Working from your home office can feel somewhat isolating at times. You don’t have the regular in-person interaction with co-workers or customers and clients. I have my moments where I feel like I don’t have much social interaction with anyone beyond my11 month old son and my husband.

I really look forward to the times where I get to leave my home and go to one of the regular DVVAA luncheons to be in the company of other Virtual Assistants. We talk and at times, commiserate about the ups and the downs of our VA businesses, our awesome clients, and what is generally going on in our lives. I love getting together with this great group of people and it makes me feel less alone in my online business world. Not to mention, I have fun Getting out and networking is necessary for my own sanity.

I highly recommend that all Virtual Assistants get out and network, attend luncheons, chamber events, business conferences, whatever, and just get away from your computer. If you are a brand new Virtual Assistant, try looking to see if there is another VA that lives close to you and take them to lunch. Or perhaps there is a local VA networking group like mine (DVVAA) that has networking lunches or events. And last but not least, save room in your budget for attending one of the live VA conferences like IVVA’s Live Summit or VA Networking’s conference slated to happen in 2011.

And if you’re heading to Phoenix this week for #IVAA10, be sure to say hi and exchange cards.

**Contest Alert** I have a Rockstar Poken to give away to a lucky VA while I’m at the Summit in Phoenix. The first person to come up to me in person and say “I want to be a rockstar” gets the lovely rockstar Poken. What is a Poken, you ask? Check out my review of them at my other blog here.