Posted by Maggie Langley on Thursday, September 6, 2012,
In :
How To
Attention Estate Agents:
Do you want to learn to be a Estate Agent that your customers love?
I wanted to get you thinking about the frustration your customers feel when they hear a voice mail message.
I am speaking from personal experience as a consumer here, your prospects and customers will be more patient if they get to speak to a real person when they leave a message.
What do your customers think of you?
I am an American business owner who has bought and sold two properties since living... Continue reading ...
Posted by Maggie Langley on Sunday, June 24, 2012,
In :
How To
This video shows you how to add an email signature to Outlook. It shows you how to include your contact information, your company logo which clicks through to your website and clickable Social Media icons. Continue reading ...
Posted by Maggie Langley on Wednesday, June 13, 2012,
In :
How To
TED is a non-profit dedicated to ideas worth sharing. If you haven't watched a TED video before get yourself over to their website and watch some of their videos after reading the rest of my blog.
How to avoid the speaker's worst nightmare If you have ever delivered a speech or a presentation, you'll know that it can be a bit nerve racking. Unfortunately, most unexpected events during a presentation aren't as colourful or interesting for the speaker or the audience, as in this TED video.
Posted by Maggie Langley on Thursday, May 10, 2012,
In :
Productivity
How to choose productivity tools that get the job done
Every business has to manage information.
The Essentials Contacts Calendars / diaries Email
The Usuals Invoices Tasks / To Do Lists
The Should Haves Social Media Time Tracking Shared space for Team
The Advanced Ticketing system Gant Chart Project Management system Real time collaboration tools
Although every business needs to use some kind of tool like Outlook or Google Apps to manage The Essentials, choosing the best productivity tools depends on the... Continue reading ...
Posted by Maggie Langley on Sunday, March 11, 2012,
In :
How To
Do you have to manually back up your documents? Have you ever accidentally forgotten to save a document with a different name, overwriting the old version you also needed to keep?
If you you answered yes to either of these questions, stop messing about and sign up for a free Sugarsync account. You get 5GB of online storage for free!
If you're a Mac user, you may be used to Dropbox. Sugarsync has some great extra features.
Share folders - sync with your other computers team members. (You won't ...
Posted by Maggie Langley, OfficeHounds Virtual Assistant Services on Tuesday, January 10, 2012,
In :
Get organised
For many of us, email is a bad habit, a time killing addiction. We check it on our crackberry’s. We often stop what we’re working on to get our email fix.
Don’t play Email Russian Roulette with your work time.
I’ll quickly check my email. Then I’ll get started on that important task.
BANG – I can’t start that important task yet. I need to reply to this email.
We’re addicted to looking. Our brains love variety, but productivity demands focus and discipline. We’re add...
Posted by Maggie Langley on Friday, August 19, 2011,
In :
Top Dog Tip
1 Make 2 columns on a sheet of paper.
2 Label one column Task Was Essential to do Today. other Could have waited until Tomorrow.
3 Each time you complete a task no matter how small, mark it down in one of the columns. (If it's a particularly large task circle or highlight the mark. Then you can easily identify tasks that required more sustained concentration vs a quick task.) Anytime you complete a task related to an email (can be a reply or an action requested of you in an email), write down...
Posted by Maggie Langley on Tuesday, May 3, 2011,
In :
Social Media
Okay, so it's a little late at night (sorry about that), but I wanted you to read this in the morning. I'm a bit excited about some projects I've been working on, and I thought you might be interested.
Over the weekend, like many other Small Business owners, I managed to squeeze in some work between the Royal Wedding celebrations and the surprising news of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.
So, what have I been working on?
I have created a Social Media Toolbar for your browser. It is curren...
We live in a fast paced world. As business owners, we don’t
want to wait to get our contracts or important documents signed. As consumers,
we expect signup processes to be quick and easy. The perfect solution is EchoSign
Electronic signatures by email is the fax machine of the 21st Century.
Previously, it was standard to hand a copy of a
document to a potential client in person during a meeting or send it in the
post. The glorious fax machine once...
Posted by Maggie Langley on Sunday, January 16, 2011,
In :
How To
There may be several reasons why you need to be logged into two Skype accounts.
It is possible to open two instances of Skype by clicking 'Shift + Right Click' and choosing 'Run as'. This should allow you to log into to accounts, however my computer decided it only wanted to allow it to work some of the time.
Posted by Maggie Langley on Sunday, January 16, 2011,
In :
Get organised
Take action each time you read an email.
If no action is required
1. If you don’t need it delete it!
2. File it
3. If the email contains information or attachments that you need to read later, file it in a folder called READ. Once you have read it, remember to file it in an appropriate folder for future reference.
If action is required
1. Take appropriate action and either delete or file the email.
2. If the action required will be ongoing or you do not have time to respond, find your preferred...
American ex-pat living in England with hubby & hounds. Love helping businesses to get organised and offload those time consuming tasks that my Virtual Assistants do efficiently.
American ex-pat living in England with hubby & hounds. Love helping businesses to get organised and offload those time consuming tasks that my Virtual Assistants do efficiently.
