I attended a NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) event again last week. I had so much fun! It’s great to gather with so many successful women and have the opportunity to learn and share with them. This will be my second time attending this group’s event so I will need to join if I plan on continuing the relationship. It will be an investment on my part and I plan to join by Mid-March.
Making the decision to join a networking group is not an easy task. It’s important to be sure they are worth the time and money. As a small business owner, and a fairly new one, I don’t have “extra” funds and have to ration out where every dollar goes. The conclusion I keep returning to though is that I need to meet other small business owners and I need to get my name out there. There really is no better way than face-to-face.
What I have decided is to join NAWBO now and choose another group in September; maybe BNI. One tip I can offer is to research, research, research any group before you decide to invest in it. Visit a meeting and see how many people attend and how active they are within the group.
At NAWBO, becoming a member doesn’t mean only investing money and attending the networking events, it means being active in the various committees and offering up my services. The other businesses will begin to see what it is I do and how I can assist them in their businesses. I think I can call it an act of “goodwill” and that can go a long way towards building my contact list and my credibility within the small business community in Western New York.
I love PowerPoint! It is by far my favorite Office program. It is a “Power” program that if used with creativity and purpose can produce enjoyable and informative slideshows. I believe because I have such an affinity for PowerPoint I bring a nice perspective to client ideas when it comes to putting a presentation together.
I have had such an interesting PowerPoint journey that I want to share some ideas that I have come to rely on when producing a client presentation. This series of posts will focus on how you can utilize PowerPoint to achieve the slides you envision.
1. Think Outside the Box
If there’s one thing that can be a determining factor as to the level of creativity you can bring to PowerPoint it’s to Think Outside the Box!
I want to offer two examples of this idea.
1. Templates serve a great purpose for many MS Office users. Most users are simply trying to make a presentation with few slides and no frills, bells or whistles. However, if you want to really “Wow” your audience you need to move beyond the barriers of the template.
Starting with a template can be a good jumping-off point. That should be all it is though – a place to begin. The mind is very capable of creating a presentation with a personal touch that can scream “This was MY idea. I thought of this design, brought it to life and was able to move the audience with its message!” This can be a very rewarding experience.
2. You can do a great many things with PowerPoint - import graphs, charts, images, etc. However, if you have a graph or chart that your client faxes to you in handwritten format, you must rely on your “outside the box” creativity to produce that graph/chart.
I once worked for a company that relied heavily on PowerPoint presentations to convey their message to clients, co-workers, vendors, government agencies and others. When I arrived for my job interview it consisted entirely of creating 5 PPT slides from scratch. They consisted of text, clipart, graphs, charts, symbols and more. There weren’t any additional documents from which to gather the data. So I quickly went to work making my graphs from rectangles, lines, arrows, text boxes and more.
One slide needed a red to green shaded bar to show a gradual progression towards an end. I could not, for the life of me, find that bar in the clipart. I was having a hard time creating this. I finally decided to create the bar on my own. I made three rectangles and filled them with a two-color shade that made a gradual red to green fade.
Finishing, I completed the 5 slides, printed them and gave them to the interviewer. She was very happy with the results. I personally wasn’t so impressed because they could have been much better if I wasn’t pressed for time. Suffice it to say, I got the job and ended up making countless PPT’s from hand-drawings that my bosses would fax and mail to me.
When I left the job I discovered why my boss was so impressed with the slides I created. The possible replacements for my position could not even get through 3 slides. As I watched each of them working on the 5 slides I noticed how automated their movements were. That’s the thing with Microsoft – all the MS programs are so similar and the toolbars so uniform that you can practically perform each function the same way you would in the other office programs - Word, Excel, Publisher, etc.
This integration can be a great thing, but it can also stifle that urge to Think Outside the Box. You get caught in the cycle of moving through the toolbars and processes that seem natural but in the end you can’t make a chart or graph without having the data to import. You can’t create an image that isn’t located in the Clipart Gallery.
You have to be able to build from the ground up any element you want on a PPT slide. This can be done if you Think Outside the Box.
I guess I should say I’d like to have a new and more productive year. On a professional level I hope to achieve self-sustaining levels by the end of the year. I don’t want to work for anyone else and I need to push myself to reach this.
So, for 2008, I have baby step goals for my business:
1. Have 2 new clients by February 29 - Kudos to the Virtual Assistant Forums for this one. Because of their future perspectives I have this goal in place. They are currently running a contest for VAs to reach a goal they set by February 29. So, I post on my thread the progress I’m making, any setbacks or issues I face, etc. Others can post and comment on my thread and I can do the same for other contestants. Great Idea, Tess!!!!!
2. Quit my job by March 1st. I cannot stand working for someone else. I don’t like being made to feel less than others. Bosses can often times do this to their employees. It may not be a conscious thing, but they do it nonetheless. So, being able to get out from under an employers eye will be a tremendous relief.
3. Join and stay active in at least 3 networking groups. I am looking to join BNI and NAWBO in my area and join a few chamber groups. Western New York offers a plethora of small businesses with which to offer my services. I am looking forward to beginning this one by the end of the month.
4. Update my blog at least twice a week. Either with articles, tips & tricks, or other pertinent VA info, I will set out to share with others the knowledge I have acquired throughout the years. I hope to offer something as a token of my appreciation of having the opportunity to learn from many I have met.
5. Redo my brand/logo/website/marketing material. If I can enlist the assistance of someone else I will. This can be costly so I will probably have to do this on my own. But I will have a new look by June.
6. Submit a press release once a month.
7. Post to the forums every day. VA Rev, VA Forums, VACOC are the top three that I plan to post to. I need to get out there and “meet” other VAs and volunteer my services when I can. Posting on the boards helps to achieve this.
This is it for now. I know there are more but I am going to stick to the most important ones for now. I will post my progress here and I hope that 2008 is successful and productive for all of you.
Happy New Year!