Article

Check it out:

Employees Benefit from Seated Chair Massage

Article Checklist Template

Your target reader loves checklists because they distill the essence of what someone else (you, the expert) have painstakingly identified as being important for a particular problem.

Example of checklists you could make:

• Wedding Checklist - 12 Things You Must Do Before Your Marriage Begins
• Job Search Checklist Essentials
• Traveling Success List - Your Checklist To Speed Pack Before Business Trips
• 12 Point Checklist When Working With [Insert Your Industry]

Your "Checklist" article template should include:

1. An article title that includes keywords relating to the type of checklist you're creating plus the word "checklist".
2. (1) or (2) paragraph opening that explains what and why the checklist exists.
3. The actual checklist of items.
4. A conclusion that encourages the reader to pay close attention to the benefits of the checklist as you've just described.

Mistakes in this template to avoid: Failing to make your checklist into a checklist. Don't ramble on and on and on without using brackets [ ], bullet points and/or a numbered list. Your checklist should be fast and easy to read including delivering on the promise you made in your article title about a checklist actually being included in your article.

Examples of EzineArticles experts with various forms of article checklists:
(to help you with a little inspiration)

• A Promotional Items Checklist
• Your Dating Checklist
• 12 Point Checklist When Working With a Poster Printing Company
• Moving Checklist - Moving Day, Delivery Day and New Home Checklist
• An IT Audits Checklist
• Picnic Checklist
• Backpacking Checklist

Two Important Article Title Tips:

1. Avoid starting your article title with a conjunction or junk words such as "An" or "A" or "The" and roll right into the keyword relating to your expertise and your checklist.
2. Don't make a 2 or 3 word checklist title! Instead, make sure your checklist article title is at least 5-9 words that further explains the benefit of what's included in your article checklist.

Can you see the possibilities? :)

Now, go write your next original article as a checklist that helps your reader save time while you're positioned as an expert in your niche!

Want to share my Article Checklist Template with your blog audience? Here's the URL: http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2008/01/the-checklist-article-template.html

To Your Article Writing/Marketing Success & Passion!

Christopher M. Knight, Publisher
http://EzineArticles.com/

Working from home works for bosses

Monday, December 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM

I am a telecommuting convert.

Before this year, I spent nearly 12 years working for a large corporation where I was trained to believe people who worked from home could never get the job done. I believed that, if I couldn't see my staff, chances were the work was not getting done. Real work meant time in the office.

My first experience disproving this theory was a revelation. It came on a day a few years ago when I was feeling so ill I couldn't make it to work. Since I'm not the kind of person who can happily sit back with a box of tissues and cold medicine in front of a television, I grabbed my BlackBerry and laptop and decided to catch up on e-mails. I got more work done in my pajamas that day than I had all week.

I've since moved on in my career, creating a startup venture called Carolyn & Co. My business partner and I began by working from our home offices. As the company grew, so did our demands. We needed staff, but didn't have office space. We found ourselves hiring people willing to work from home.

I'll admit: The whole scenario made me nervous. Very nervous.

What a lesson I learned. Not only was the work getting done in a timely matter, the results were impressive. We were able to negotiate contracts, make decisions, plan, create, implement - efficiently and seamlessly - without sharing one square foot of office space.

I don't believe telecommuting is for everyone. Some industries and positions aren't well-suited for it. And there are those employees who simply lack the discipline and organization to effectively work from home.

But it works well for many, especially people with kids. As important as it is to have face time in the office, it's more important to have face time at home.

When I work from home, I see my 5- and 7-year-old off on the bus in the morning, then get right to work. I take a lunch break at noon with my 5-year-old when she gets off the bus, and then it's back to business.

Work is still work, but life is a little easier when you have more flexibility to balance your career with all your other priorities.

For employers, there are adjustments to be made to accommodate telecommuters. But there are enough advantages to make it worth it.

For starters: There's a whole pool of barely tapped talent out there; people with great skill and experience who simply can't or won't work in a traditional job or office setting. Being open to telecommuting naturally enhances the desirability of any employer with jobs to fill.

In return for giving them greater flexibility with their job, employees who telecommute tend to be highly motivated and loyal, gracing bosses with a lower rate of job turnover. Also, many telecommuters want to work part-time, decreasing the cost of their benefits. And telecommuters cut back on office space overhead.

Employees and employers need to think it through, but I'm now a true believer that, when it works, it works for everyone involved.

Your Money columnist Carolyn Kepcher, author of the best-selling business book, "Carolyn 101," is the former "Apprentice" star who thrived working for one of America's toughest bosses. She's now CEO of Carolyn & Co. (carolynandco.com), an enterprise created by and for career women.

Read the entire article HERE

The Next 20 Years

Although the excerpt from the following article was about the Accounting Profession, there was some interesting information about Virtual Assistants:

Today, Crosley has an administrative assistant working from home in Denver whom she has never met. Hiring and communication was done by telephone and online, a foreshadowing of the future, according to Crosley. "I think that we'll have total virtual workplaces and what I will call electronic-based relationships," she said. "As this new generation comes onboard, they are used to electronic-based relationships, and because we have such scarce resources, it will just kind of be the norm."

That vision also rings true for Bob Gaby, CPA, CITP and principal of Arxis Technology Inc., in Simi Valley, Calif. Gaby said that he sees meetings being held via video conference, and traditional in-person client engagements will be only for the "technology-impaired."

The new generation will also be working in a totally paperless office, Gaby predicted. "Working with and storing paper documents will be a foreign concept to young accountants, like vinyl records and eight-track tapes," he said.

And so will the traditional time-and-billing system, according to both Crosley and Gary Boomer, chief executive officer of Boomer Consulting in Manhattan, Kan., and long-time Accounting Today columnist. Billable hours will be reserved for cost-accounting purposes, rather than pricing, Crosley said.

"I think we will be working towards a results-based economy, out of an efforts-based economy," Boomer said, adding that firms will become team-based, with people being employed for their unique abilities. "Pricing will become for value, rather than based upon cost plus a profit."

Read the FULL ARTICLE HERE

The Virtual Assistant Profession is only getting bigger!

Why Blog At All?

More quickly than most anyone imagined, blogging is growing up. From the blogosphere's anarchistic roots, a professional cadre is emerging that is creating an industry whose top-performing businesses now earn serious money. The industry is expanding at warp speed. Blog-based media could just be poised to elbow aside traditional print and broadcast outlets to become one of the dominant sources of news, information and opinion, many observers believe...

The blogging world has tremendous strengths - original voices, provocative opinions, imagination and intimate knowledge of a variety of subjects. But it is also an industry struggling to mature, many observers argue. They say blogging companies must overcome the industry's reputation as a sort of digital Wild West where anything goes, and confront such questions as conflicts of interest, product hype, bias and low standards of accuracy...'

Read the Entire Article HERE

Focus on Your Business

I am still promoting the IDEA of a Virtual Assistant most because it is still a new profession. Word is getting out and more and more people are catching on.

Newswire Today had this to say about the industry:

More and more of these business owners are wasting their time ON their business and not growing their business. [Italics Mine] For most, they do not require a full-time employee to assist them. A viable outsourcing solution is the answer! They can partner with a Virtual Assistant.

The concept of Virtual Assistance is still new to the Raleigh, NC and surrounding areas, but with continuous efforts to educate the public here and nationwide, it will soon be a household name. It is a rapidly growing industry, leveraging the small business owner and entrepreneur to have a competitive internet presence because they choose to utilize the resources of a Virtual Assistant.

A Virtual Assistant or VA is an independent contractor and service provider, specializing in providing remote support, working with clients on an ongoing, collaborative relationship. A VA works from his/her own office and uses today’s technology to deliver their services and effectively communicate with their clients (defined by the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce). Because they are subcontractors, they pay their own taxes; use their own equipment therefore eliminating the cost of hiring a full-time employee. VA’s work with bright, successful individuals with a vision…authors, sales executives, high level executives, consultants, coaches, entrepreneurs…anyone who wants to achieve a well balanced life with more free time to concentrate on their own success—their own business.

Find the full story HERE.

My Website

I have been working on my website, K4VirtualAssistant.  I think I have finally gotten it working properly.  Only time will tell.

Next, it is my intention to attempt to add this blog to my site.  Maybe that will work.  I will keep everyone posted about my attempts to do this.

Keep watching this site for updates.