Donna Gunter's Blog – October 2007 Archive (16)

I was working on a PowerPoint presentation and needed a pie chart graph to represent the results of a survey I wanted to discuss. I used to know how to create such a graph from Excel, but haven't done that in a long time and didn't have the patience to figure out how to do that again.…

After many months of procrastination, I finally got around to adding a hover ad to my website. A hover ad is a type of pop-up ad that appears in your browser window from the side or top of the screen, or may just slowly float in front of the page you're viewing, or may suddenly pop in and bounce up and down for a bit. What differentiates a hover ad from traditional pop-up ads is that it's not blockable by pop-up blockers built into web browsers.



The…

This week Eric and I became the proud parents of a....gong. Yes, you read it correctly. Eric has wanted a gong for a long time, and over the weekend he decided now was the time to stop thinking about making this purchase and actually do it. We searched a couple of sites (including Amazon.com, where Eric does ALL of his shopping). However, he didn't see anything appealing. I had gone gong shopping a few years ago with a…

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• Free Accounting software from Quickbooks…

vLetter is a technology that reproduces your own handwriting as a font to use on your computer. It captures the natural variations in your handwriting to give your letters, cards and other correspondence a unique, personal touch.

However, my interest in this…

One of the biggest mistakes that I see service business owners make is taking on as a client anyone who has a 98.6 degree temperature who can pay them money. This is especially prevalent with new service business owners, as they are willing to do almost anything in order to land that first couple of clients.



Invariably, what they quickly discover is that their practice is full of a bunch of clients with whom they hate working. Does this sound like…

I'll be a guest on two teleseminars in the next week:

1. IVAA 2nd Annual Online Summit: I'll be speaking on Friday, Oct. 19 at 9:15 AM Eastern time on the topic, How to Get More Clients for Your VA Business with Article Marketing. A full-day pass to this event is $75. To register, visit…

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• Online event calendars…

Are all the good domain names already taken? Probably not, if you have BustaName.com to help you brainstorm domain names based on keywords that you enter.…

Time management advice is found in great abundance on the Internet. You can determine how to schedule your day, how to set your priorities, how to delegate, and how to tackle your to-do list.



As a service business owner, you face an enormous number of tasks and responsibilities each and every day. What I've come to realize in my years of self-employment that my most valuable asset isn't my contact database or my marketing materials or my business plan.…

Eric, my fiancée, is a shift-worker for a local synthetic rubber manufacturing plant. This means that when he works, he works 12-hour shifts for 4-7 nights in a row (and some days). Because of this work schedule, he gets roughly a week off each month at the end of his shift cycle (if he's not called in for overtime). This means that he is home when I'm working in my…

Recent Forum Posts

• Credit card fraud on websites…

Promobuddy is a fr*ee software download that helps you organize your online business.…

How many hours have you spent this week with prospective clients who are great at draining your time and energy but can't seem to find the money or desire to hire you? I've had my weeks when the number is larger than I'd like to admit. Consequently, several years ago I implemented one strategy that has been my secret weapon in my client cultivation process -- I use my website to disqualify as many prospects as I can.



You may be saying, "What kind of…

One of the great joys (and biggest curses) of being self-employed is the ability to consider other opportunities as they come you way and ascertain how well they might work in your business. However, many entrepreneurs (myself included) love the idea creation/development stage but hate the follow-through, as we've already been distracted by the next opportunity or a new idea. I refer to this as the Bright Shiny Object…

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