It’s still hard for me to believe that it is 2020 … harder still to believe that I’ve been sharing blog posts with you since 2013! Time sure flies ? At the beginning of each new year, I usually go over website stats for the previous year. Those reports showed that these ↓ blog posts were the most popular.
#10 – A Personal Assistant ~ What It Is & What It Isn’t
https://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/personal-assistant-isnt/
#9 – Holiday Pet Care
As June is coming to a close, I’ve been thinking about the past year quite a bit. June marks my one-year anniversary of improving my health through changes in my nutrition.
As you probably know I actually started my health journey in January of 2016. I was very overweight (yes, obese) and quite unhealthy. I had high blood pressure and my Dr. told me I was on a fast path to Type 2 diabetes if I didn’t make changes soon. Continue reading
Today, March 21, is our anniversary 🙂 It’s hard to believe that Tracy Helps You is celebrating 5 years of being in business! I still remember all the time I spent dreaming and researching that cold winter season. I talked to many friends for their thoughts about starting a business. There were as many ideas as there were people I talked to (no surprise there). I would bounce ideas off anyone who would listen. Finally, I had the general idea of what my business would be, I wanted to help people.
Then came even more challenging decisions to make … not the least of which was the name of my business. My cousin was helping me brainstorm, I had a long list of possible names that we narrowed down to three I really liked. Of course, we then discovered that the domain name was not available for any of those 🙁 It was like 11pm, both of us beyond tired, we were at our wit’s end … We were like “how many other ways could we phrase “Tracy helps you” ?? Then a lightbulb went on … that’s it – Tracy Helps You !! I loved the sound of it, the domain was available, it was available on all the social media platforms … It was meant to be – Tracy Helps You was born on that cold night back in 2013.
Then came weeks and months of learning how to run a business (I love that learning is an ongoing process) and all things entrepreneurial. So many decisions needed to be made … so many things to learn.
Over the past few years, I’ve added and eliminated some services that I’ve offered. Two years ago, I added Virtual Assistant services. This year, I am adding Health & Wellness Advocate services as another area that Tracy Helps You can be of service.
As many of you know, I started on my “getting healthy” journey about 2 years ago. It started out with a weight loss goal and has now expanded into a yearning to live a healthy lifestyle. I’ve lost a lot of weight (still a little more to go), I try to choose real / natural foods (whenever possible) without all the chemical & preservatives. I feel my health is more important than the convenience of pre-packaged foods. I use intermittent fasting to cleanse my body of some of the environmental toxins. I walk at least a mile every day to incorporate more activity in my day. I feel fantastic, better than I have is more than a decade. I want to “help” everyone to feel as good as I do!
As a Health & Wellness Advocate, I plan to help by coming alongside you and “help you” as an accountability partner and give encouragement. I can help you with meal planning. I can share ideas for ways to burn calories doing fun activities. Since I have experience with several well-known weight loss systems, I feel I can help guide you. I can also coach you in my nutritional system, Isagenix. It has programs geared to help with Weight Wellness, Healthy Aging and Athletic Performance.
So now, Tracy Helps You can help in three different areas:
Having a Grandma around is nice – they read story books and watch movies with you. They make you chicken soup and hot tea for you when you aren’t feeling so good. They take good care of you and help you feel better ?
This winter sure has been a rough cold & flu season … and they say it isn’t over yet. They are saying that there are so many various strains of the flu this year, that the flu shot only has a 50/50 chance of working … not great odds. The flu is a very serious illness that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Let me present some reasons why …
People start their own business for a variety of reasons. They want to follow their dreams. They want to work in a field they are passionate about. They want to make a difference in the world. For many (me included), they want to be in charge of their own schedule … not be told what/when/where or how to do their work. They want to be charge of their own time, and since they will be the “Boss”, they would hopefully have more “free time”. Free time … what is that?
As a busy entrepreneur, you wear numerous “hats” on any given day. You are the head of the Marketing Department, the Accounting Department, HR, Sales … you get the drift, you are the one in charge of everything. Every business decision lands on your shoulders.
What they didn’t realize is how time consuming the “running” of the business would be. They want to spend their time doing the work they love. Sadly, many get bogged down by having to handle the administrative side of running a business.
That is where having a virtual assistant comes into play. Having a VA handle certain tasks frees up your time to concentrate on doing the things your love about running your business. Tasks that you are the best person to handle … things that grow your business and make money. One of the best business decisions you can make is to delegate / outsource certain tasks to a virtual assistant.
Well-informed small business owners know the importance of having an online presence in today’s high-tech, 24/7 world. Social Media Marketing is necessary for all types of business, large and small. The difference is the large corporations have a Marketing Department. The small business – not so much. Unfortunately for the small business owner, social media management is one of those (very) time consuming tasks. On the up side, social media management is a task that many small business owners delegate to their VA. Your VA will work with you to put together a workable strategy and schedule for posting on your various social media platforms. You will decide what content will be posted to each platform, as well as, the timing and the frequency. After you and your virtual assistant have come up with the best social media strategy for your business, you can then hand that task off to your VA, knowing your SMM is in good and capable hands.
Delegating the task of social media management (or a multitude of other tasks) to a trusted VA will free up some time that you can then use to tackle the other tasks on your to-do list ?
It’s May in Chicagoland, to me, that means lilacs (my fav) ~ May also means Mother’s Day to us Americans.
On Mother’s Day, we honor our mothers with gifts and cards. Flowers seem to be a particularly popular gift. Many families treat Mom like a queen on Mother’s Day … treating her to breakfast in bed and a day of relaxation by taking over her usual household duties for the day. Many families go out to share a meal together.
Speaking as a mother, and I’m pretty sure I speak for most (if not all) mothers, when I say one of the most wonderful gifts to receive is the gift of time spent with my family. Just spending time together, reminiscing and making new memories together is the best way to spend the day ❤
Everyone needs some free time / me time, especially Mothers. Sometimes, Moms can feel a little guilty about taking some time for themselves in their busy life. There is always so much to get done. While I am taking care of her To-Do List, she can be relaxing without worrying about things not getting done.
While you are making your Mother’s Day plans and choosing the perfect gift for her ~ remember that your Mom deserves to be pampered & treated far more often than just on the holidays. While you are with her this weekend, helping her out with some of those chores around her house, give her a Tracy Helps You gift certificate. It’s like giving her the gift of free time.
Owning your own small business is very rewarding … and, at the same time, quite exhausting! There is never enough time in the day. It is very time consuming to create relevant content for your audience and/or find inspiring quotes and tips to share. Hiring a virtual assistant to handle posting to your social media platforms is the answer to having enough time to manage all the other aspects of running your business.
Of course, you may be thinking that the VA may post something you wouldn’t like and/or you wouldn’t have posted. You may be thinking the VA wouldn’t convey your company’s “voice”. As a virtual assistant, I spend time learning my client’s personality and company “voice” via scheduled phone or Skype calls. My clients provide me with content ideas and relevant articles to use as reference for creating industry related posts.
You may be thinking it will be expensive to delegate your social media tasks. It is money well spent when you consider the time you will be saving (time that can now be devoted to growing and building your business) by taking this task off your plate every day (and you should be posting consistently/daily). It will give you peace of mind knowing that your social media posting is being taken care of by a trained professional. Tracy Helps You offers Social Media Packages that provide a certain number of posts per month, as well as, managing engagement (likes, shares, comments & messages) with your followers on your behalf. Think of it as you would any other necessary expense for running your business.
You may be wary of completely outsourcing your social media postings. The good news is that we can work together in creating and implementing your social media strategy. Tracy Helps You can create and schedule the bulk of the posts and you can add some personal content type posts. You can also respond to comments and messages. Another great idea is to post Live Streaming video. This gives your online presence a face and a voice for your followers to connect with. Interacting and building relationships is the main reason to use social media as a business tool … it’s social 🙂
It’s that time of year again, reflecting and looking back on the last year while making plans and goal for the next. While reviewing the site stats for my website, these were the top 10 blog posts of 2016.
#1 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/lending-a-helping-hand/
#2 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/locks-of-love-donation/
#3 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/labor-day-weekend-summers-last-hurrah/
#4 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/list-helps-stay-organized/
#5 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/leap-year-thoughts/
#6 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/back-to-school-homeschool-planning/
#7 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/back-school-college-bound/
#8 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/autumn-fall-decorating-halloween-thanksgiving/
#9 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/show-everyone-real-love-valentines-day/
#10 http://www.tracyhelpsyou.com/spring-break-getaway-staycation-clean-week/
Is there a specific topic you’d like to read about? I’d love to hear your suggestions or thoughts 🙂
Tomorrow, we flip over another page on the calendar … to the last month of 2016. December is a month full of fun, holiday celebrations, but regular life still goes on. All the normal day-to-day responsibilities don’t necessarily take a break during this “most wonderful time of the year”, which means your schedule is even busier than usual.
In today’s world, most of the mail we receive is computer generated – sometimes its addressed to us by name (computers are smart 🙂 ), but many times it is addressed to “Current Resident”. Companies spend a lot of $$ to send you these advertisements, but most people consider it “junk mail” and toss it.
Most everyone loves receiving Holiday cards. I’m talking about physical, snail-mail cards. It’s fun to check your mailbox each day, hoping to find something for you personally. I think of them as “fun” mail … something I want to open right away. I enjoy reading the Holiday Letter that many people include with their card. It’s a good way to catch up with the happenings in their family, especially for those who are not on Facebook 🙂 I also love getting packages in the mail, many of which are gifts I have ordered online … who doesn’t love seeing the UPS, FedEx, USPS or Amazon truck pull up in front of their house (please tell me you do too, that it’s not just me)?
All that to say, sending Holiday cards are is time honored tradition of the season, but also a time-consuming task to do in an already busy time of year. Tracy Helps You can take this task off your to-do list for you. Whether it’s your personal family cards, or cards sent out to your business clients and colleagues, we can take care of it for you – freeing up some time for you to handle all the other things on your to-do list.
This hectic season is the perfect time to delegate some tasks to your personal / virtual assistant. Time is a valuable commodity! Let Tracy Helps You save you some valuable time 🙂 Call today!!
There is a saying, “Money makes the world go around” ~ and it does in the sense that it is the currency that our world operates by. Money is part of our day-to-day lives. It changes hands daily for goods and services. We buy items at stores … we buy food at restaurants … we buy gasoline for our cars … we pay our bills. Like numerous other businesses, Tracy Helps You provides a service to our clients, and we get paid for those services. For payment, we accept checks or cash.
Earlier this week, I got a crash course on being on the receiving end of several counterfeit twenty dollar bills. Like many people, I pay most of my household bills online. It’s simple and convenient – schedule the amount and the date, click OK, and you are done. Except, that I forgot about an annual insurance payment that is taken directly from my account each year. Not a big deal … I just had to deposit more money into the account before the bill payments cleared. I also forgot that the banks aren’t open on Labor Day, so I did the next best thing. I counted out $300 in twenty dollar bills (counted out 15 bills, checked 3 times), put them with the deposit slip into a sealed envelope and put them in my banks “night deposit” vault.
Tuesday afternoon, I signed into my online banking to just make sure that all the payments and the deposit went smoothly. I’m glad I did, because instead of a $300 deposit pending, there was a $240 deposit pending. I made a trip to our local bank branch and was informed that 3 of the $20 that were in my envelope were counterfeit bills and were being sent to the Secret Service. To say that I was shocked would be huge understatement.
They explained that they confiscate the bad bills and sent them off to the Secret Service for verification, and that I basically just lost $60. She advised me to check out their website to learn more about how to spot a counterfeit bill and what to do if you find one.
So, I went home and spent a couple of hours learning about counterfeit money. I encourage you to please take some time and learn for yourself … here is the website www.secretservice.gov. Just click the Investigation drop-down menu toward the top of the page and then click on “Know Your Money”. It takes you to a PDF file showing all the safety features that are incorporated into each denomination of US currency.