Kathie Thomas for President?
What do you think – would you vote for me?
Entries Tagged as 'Author’s Thoughts'
Who’s Looking At You?
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
What makes a website truly global?
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.
- On phone and fax numbers include your country code.
- Include your state in full with postcode/zipcode.
- 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.
- 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.
A number of milestones in my anniversary week
The week of 24th March marked a number of milestones for me. 14 years in business, I reached the 1,000 mark in LinkedIn connections (thanks Mike) and had published my 300th post on my VA blog.
Those of you who read my VA blog will know I had a week of giveaways for new subscribers to the blog and it produced a whole lot of interest and fun.
What have I learnt in those 14 years? Lots – like don’t hold back on an idea but surge forward with it and action it if you believe in it. I did and ended up pioneering a new industry in my country even though I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time. Hindsight is such a great thing, isn’t it?
Networking is another valuable thing I’ve learnt. You never know who is going to be able to lead you to whom or where so it’s important to treat everyone as you would like to be treated yourself. You never know when you might need those contacts. I’ve been able to introduce my daughters to some interesting people for their own life plans as a result of being in the right place at the right time – so leaving the office and actually going out and meeting people is a good idea.
Be prepared to learn new skills and don’t knock back opportunities. Much of what I do today for clients is as a result of saying ‘yes’ when a client asked me to explore something on their behalf. Otherwise I’d still be doing just typing and data entry and nothing else.
Finally, have fun. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing on a daily basis, then perhaps you need to reassess what’s happening in your life. If it’s for the short-term and you have a definite goal in mind, then that’s fine. But if it’s long-term and you have no goals, then something is adrift – time to find out what and why.
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Time in my office is:
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