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I sometimes wonder what goes on in the minds of other people when participating in chat forums.

I belong to a lot of email based business network forums, mainly through yahoogroups.  It seems to me there are 3 types of people who participate in these forums.

1.  The person who replies and leaves all of the previous email(s) and so we get a trail of messages repeated over and over again, especially if others add to it.  The poor people on daily digest, or on dialup - having to pay for the download of repeated messages.  These people either don’t really understand what it’s all about, or perhaps they are just plain lazy - maybe they don’t even think.

2.  The opposite (extreme) - deleting everything, even what they are responding to, and thereby leaving others guessing what it was they were responding to. The subject heading doesn’t always give a clue, particularly if it’s gone off topic.  These people are too pedantic - not everyone is on your wave length.

3.  The person who does trim the email, leaving enough so that others can see what is being responded or added to - this is the preferred option and keeps things running smoothly.

Actually, there are others.

4. The lurker - those who read everything, devour what info they can and possibly apply it, but give nothing of themselves and don’t contribute back to the group.  These are the takers.

5,  The responder - to everything. They have to have a word about everything that is taking place, even responding with just ‘thank you’.  Some of these replies just aren’t needed, at least via the forum - you can always email the person direct.  We all get enough email as it is, don’t you think?

Tags: Email Etiqutte by Kathie Thomas
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LinkedIn is a marvellous way to grow your online business network and get to know people from all over the world. But there are also very quick ways to annoy people as well. And one of those ways is right at the beginning of the process - inviting others to connect with you.

LinkedIn encourages you on your homepage to connect with others you know but they don’t really give you much information on the ‘how-to’ process in doing this. So I want to save you some angst and help improve things for you.

When you put in someone’s email address and name and click on that button to invite them, what happens? Well, if you’ve not actually explored what the invitation says (and many don’t in the early stages) you might be surprised to find that this is all it is:

Kathie,

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

-Steve

Nothing else. Now, when I receive that invitation it doesn’t tell me much. I can go to that person’s profile because it is linked to the invitation but if I don’t know that person, or don’t remember them, it’s not going to tell me why they want to connect. And even if I do know them, I still don’t know the reason. Having received one of these invitations proves to me very quickly that the sender hasn’t read my profile.

I do have a request on my profile that I don’t accept ‘canned’ or ‘blanket’ invitations (of which the above is definitely an example) and prefer to receive an introduction and reason for connecting. I don’t want to become just another number to people.

It’s amazing but one of two things happen when I reply to a blanket invitation, asking them the reason for their interest:

1. They ignore me and don’t respond. Their loss - they have a limited supply of invitations and have just wasted one because they didn’t want to really get to know me.

2. They come back with this amazing story of having heard about me from somewhere, or seen me at a conference, or via a forum, or perhaps they’d just been learning about the VA industry and wanted to know more. How am I supposed to read all that in the invitation they had just sent? I always accept after receiving further info - I just like to know what the interest is so that the networking process can truly begin.

So, if you’re new to LinkedIn, or just been in the habit of sending out heaps of invitations but haven’t personalised them, I encourage you to take the time to explore the process further. Building relationships are always worth spending time on.

Oh, and one other suggestion. If you see a really well-worded invitation that comes your way, don’t copy and paste it and start using it for your own - I’ve seen that happen a lot too. Once makes it special, twice makes you wonder, three times makes you realise that some people just don’t have any originality of their own!

Tags: LinkedIn by Kathie Thomas
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Many of my readers will know that I’m building up my ‘professional speaking’ side of my business. As a published author I am now getting booked to speak at events and I have begun to actively pursue this kind of activity.

But, after being home for 14 years in my business, I didn’t want to appear too ‘homely’ on the stage so I took the plunge and engaged the services of an Image Consultant. I rang around a couple of consultants to interview them on the phone and sought references from people I knew who’d used their services before making my decision.

Yesterday was the big day - at least, the first one.  I nervously awaited her arrival. I had no idea what to expect and didn’t dress up for it, nor wore any makeup or anything. I wanted Claire to see me as my natural self and to go from there.

We went through some assessments to work out my personality and styling.  Then we did the scary thing - looked inside my wardrobe.  Eek!  So many things in there not right for me - style wise that is. I already had a good idea of what colours were right for me, so that was a plus.  And I was surprised by other colours Claire said made my skin glow - colours I’d never really thought about wearing.   And it’s not all that bad - whilst there are things in there I need to get rid of (things I’d never worn, go figure!) there is much in there I will be able to mix and match with my new clothing.

Today was the next big day. The urgency was that I’m speaking at a business breakfast tomorrow morning, with a fairly large audience, so it’s important I present as well as possible, as soon as possible.  So I met Claire at 2pm today for a shopping expedition.  1.5 hours later, laden with bags and some $500 less in my pocket (figuratively speaking) I have a good selection of items I can mix and match.  A jacket, trousers, skirt and 3 different tops means I now have at least 6 different outfits.  I also bought a couple of more casual tops that will look great with the trousers and then bought some chunky jewellery in 3 of ‘my’ colours so I can add more colour when I need or want to.  Oh, and I got the most gorgeous pair of shoes too which was a bonus!

Because my topic is based on my book "Worth More Than Rubies: The Value of a Work At Home Mum" I wanted to bring in a ruby theme into the things I wear and use.  A month ago I bought a lovely small ruby coloured suitcase on wheels to carry my books in for book sales and events.  And the jacket I bought is ruby coloured, as are the shoes. Thank goodness ruby was one of ‘my’ colours, as opposed to bright red, which I’ve been known to wear in the past.

Funny really, I loved the combination of red and black, but in my maturing years, ruby and charcoal grey are much better for me and that’s what I’m now focusing on.  I really feel this has been a worthwhile exercise and I have my colour wheel to take with me for whenever I shop alone in the future.

Tags: About business by Kathie Thomas
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I’ve been looking at what’s involved in creating a viral email. You know, those emails that get passed around because they are funny, have a point to make, or are a feel good email. I want to create the latter and recently discovered Window’s MovieMaker program. I converted a PowerPoint presentation to a movie clip, added royalty free music (the images are royalty free too) and then uploaded it to Youtube. In the space of a week it’s had over 200 hits and I’ve been looking at how to turn it into a viral email to pass on the message of how much mothers are worth to their families. This is about the Proverbs 31 Woman.

For all those mothers out there. Do you know your true worth to your family?

Please do pass it on!

Proverbs 31 Woman, Worth More Than Rubies, Work At Home Mum

Tags: Work From Home by Kathie Thomas
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Telecommuting is beginning to emerge as a truly viable way to work nowadays as it’s proven to cut down on costs from an employer’s end and make life easier for the employee working from home.  Employers used to believe that people working from home were more apt to not get the job done but that has been proven to be an error in thinking.  As more mothers are working now than ever there is a lot of competition out there to land a job working from home.  Here are a few tips for job seekers:

1. Network!  Network!  Network!  Let everyone know that you’re looking for a job working out of the house.  Numbers indicate that at least 75 % of jobs are landed through networking.  Go around and talk to people with small businesses that may need some extra help.  The only way a job will ever fall into your lap is if you make the first contact and get the ball rolling.
2. Be proactive, not reactive.  Not every employer is going to make their positions immediately available for work at home.  So go ahead and apply to positions that could potentially be done from home.  Data entry and bookkeeping are a couple examples of positions that could be easily transferred to the home.  After you’ve been at the job for a while go ahead and approach your boss about moving the job to your home.  Just be ready with statistics that prove that working at home is productive.
3. Be prepared to enter the work force.  If you feel like your skills are a little rusty then you want to be sure you’re ready to jump into a job when you’re ready.  Improve your skills and confidence with computer training classes at a local community college.  Also, take a look for online tutorials that are often free and very informative.
4. Recruit yourself.  Don’t be shy.  Go ahead and put your resume in freelancing job banks.  If you can get a part-time job doing freelance on a contract there is a good chance that you can develop the position into a full-time gig.
5. Make your resume spotless.  The number of people that apply to part-time work will often be in the thousands of respondents.  With these figures in mind it’s imperative that your resume can stand out in a crowd.  If you’re worried about your resume take it to a career counselor and be receptive to constructive criticism.

By-line:

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and credit writer, as well as a regular contributor for Business Credit Cards, a site for comparing best business credit cards. She welcomes questions, comments, and freelancing job inquiries at her email address heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

Tags: Work From Home by Kathie Thomas
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