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Last week on my Virtual Assistant blog I wrote about the support VA communities provide through their forums.  Ironic because only one day later our darling Miriam, aged 24, died whilst her father and I were away in the country.  We rushed back home as soon as we heard.

I’m not yet ready to resurface to all the forums through LinkedIn, the VA communities and elsewhere. We have family with us from around the country and they’ll stay on for a few more days after Mirri’s funeral which will take place next Monday here in Melbourne, Australia. But I did want to let everyone know how much we’ve appreciated their prayers, emails of support, phone calls, cards, gifts and flowers from all over the world.  You have overwhelmed me with your love and support and if ever I was in doubt of just how many people really connected and cared through internet forums and groups, I’m in doubt no longer.

Miriam was my stepdaughter and had been in my life since she was 5 years old. She was a big part of my life and she leaves a big hole.  She was so vibrant, full of energy, lived life to the full, always pushed the limits - she was our tomboy who followed her dad around everywhere. She was his mate and they rode their mountain bikes together and did so much together.  It will be a long time before the pain and ache begins to subside.

I’ve spent the past few days scanning over 100 photos of Miriam and putting together a movie clip set to a song her cousin wrote and performs on his CD, which was written for someone in his own life sometime ago.

If you’ve tried to get in touch with me, please bear with me for another week or so as I’ll be tending to my husband and our family but I will resurface and be back amongst you all again soon.  Thank you all as you have shown me another reason why I love connecting with you all so much online.  And knowing that I’m home already has been such a blessing - having a ‘job’ away from home would be very difficult.

Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
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Great Good News!

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Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
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What do you think - would you vote for me?

Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
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Is your webcam on right now? Did you even have to look to answer that one?

I was participating in a Skype meeting the other day with a client and she asked me to switch mine on. I told her I was a mess and really didn’t want to be seen. It wasn’t that bad really but if I’m going to be in a face-to-face meeting I’d rather present as well as possible. When working at home I’m usually in jeans and a jumper or top of some sort, but my hair isn’t that neat, I don’t have makeup on and I look very homely.

I’ve always conducted my business professionally and if I’m going to face clients and others for business purposes I like to present professionally too.

It hadn’t occurred to me to switch off my webcam until a couple of months ago when someone called me unexpectedly on Skype (I usually schedule meetings) and I was suddenly faced with their picture and a smaller version of me and realised that I didn’t want people to see me as I am. I’ve now got the camera turned away from my seating position and it faces inwards to my shelving so if it is accidentally left on, I can adjust or switch it off without feeling embarrassed or unprepared.

Do you have any embarrassing stories of your webcam being forgotten and left on? I’m sure readers here would love to hear about it - if you’re willing to share!

Technorati Tags: webcam,skype meeting,professional

Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
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A recent discussion via the MyLinkedInPowerForum asked why US members don’t include their country code in their phone numbers. By that we mean, adding the country code, +1. There are a lot of members on this list, from many different countries.

A discussion ensued which indicated it hadn’t occurred to many in the US to do that, some saying they never call outside of their country so they hadn’t thought about those who call in.

This prompted me to add other frustrations I experience with respect to people not indicating their location for determining time differences or using acronyms that mean little outside of their country. By this I mean things like CST, MDT, PST, EDT, and so on if they’re listing an event for people to attend.

Recently I received a phone call at 2am from someone in another country. Unfortunately their accent made it difficult to understand the number they were giving, they didn’t tell me what country they were calling from (or if they did, I didn’t understand it) and I had no idea whether I had the right number because I had no country code to add. The call went unreturned and these people probably think I was rude and disinterested. They haven’t followed up.

I decided to make some changes at my end. My voicemail message now states that my timezone is +10GMT so that callers from outside of my country understand why I haven’t answered their call during their daytime.

I’ve added a date and timestamp to my website so that visitors can see what time it is right now where I am.

I’ve always added +61 to my phone and fax numbers so that international callers know exactly what to dial.

I’ve added Melbourne, Victoria, Australia for those who need to have a good idea of where I am. Listing my own suburb, and an abbreviated form of my state won’t help those who aren’t in the know.

So, here is my check list for service based businesses with websites that are designed to attract international business. This doesn’t necessarily mean all websites should have this but if you are operating internationally and it’s reasonable to expect a phone call from overseas now and then, this would be good to do.

1. On phone and fax numbers include your country code.
2. Include your state in full with postcode/zipcode.
3. If running an event that requires attendees to dial in or login at a particular time, don’t just put a timezone abbreviation such as EST but include your nearest major city and state. If possible add a link to a meeting planner to assist visitors in working out the time differences.
4. Consider adding a timestamp as I have done, if you provide a service based business for international clients.

Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes and wonder just how much ‘local’ knowledge they might have if they live outside your country. And then adjust your website or webpage to accommodate them.

After all, we all know that this is a common sight in Australia, don’t we?

Oh, and by the way, I heard the other day that some outside of Australia think the kookaburra is a myth! I assure you it isn’t.

Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
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