Okay I confess.  I’m a technology geek. A technophile. A computer nerd. A gadget freak. And I love it! If there’s a new technology to be had, a new piece of software, I’m out there researching it, testing it, telling my clients about it, boring my friends with it and generally getting unnaturally excited about it. My latest piece of technology (that should be arriving any day!) is a Nokia N95 in the very hard to get and extremely classy Sand colour (a pale goldy bronze). Because of course, technology has to be attractive* as well (*not really, but it makes it more enjoyable to use!). This little beast of a “mobile phone” is actually far more than just a phone. It is a PDA, GPS navigator (you can download maps from Nokia), MP3 player, video recorder and player, email sender/checker, and modem. It doesn’t come cheap but I did find a bargain online (email me if you want to know where!) Finally a device that will allow me to be truly mobile and not miss any important emails or get lost finding a client’s premises.

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I’m a regular subscriber to the Flying Solo newsletter which is always entertaining and full of great tips and advice for solopreneurs . This weeks’ newsletter had a great article on a simple little end-of-year exercise which I would encourage everyone to do. Looking back on your business over the last year, ask yourself the following three questions:

1. What are you happiest about right now?
2. What are you most excited about?
3. What are you proudest of?

In the spirit of practising what I preach, here are my answers to these three questions:

1. That I have a thriving, profitable business in an industry I am passionate about and that I look forward to working in every day.
2. I am excited about all the big changes and growth that Net Secretary is going to experience in 2008.
3. I am proud that I have steered Net Secretary to the business it is today, and will be, entirely through my own efforts and initiative.

Have a wonderful New Year everyone.

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Today I want to write about Linked In, an online business ‘virtual’ networking site. I have been a member of Linked In for about 18 months now but I have really only just started making the most of what it has to offer. At the moment I have 19 ‘connections’ and 1 recommendation. Connections are usually clients, customers and colleagues in the real world that you connect with on Linked In and can refer work to them, they can to you and you can also introduce other connections of yours who they may not know and you think could be useful in their industry. Recommendations are just that - testimonials by clients, colleagues or customers to tell the rest of your network how great you are. There is also a job board that members can post job leads on and a Question and Answer section. You can post answers to questions asked by other members (not necessarily in your own network) that relate to your industry - i.e. how do I print mailing labels from my Outlook contacts? (You’ll have to contact me to find the answer to that one!) You can also pose your own questions for other people to answer. The beauty of this is that it gets you known and you can add more contacts to your network. Check out my Linked In profile, become a member, add me as a contact and start growing your network!

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After a lengthy and valuable session with my business coach this morning, I have a long list of things I need to organise for Net Secretary. ‘Organise’ is the key word here. Implementing systems and procedures in a business is a crucial tool for increased productivity and streamlining business processes. Systems allow all of that information that you store in your head to be put into some sembalnce of order and method on paper - into a type of manual for your business - and this has many benefits for small business, both virtual and shopfront. These benefits may include:

• Enables you to see where the business is at and where it is going, it gives you focus
• Becomes part of your risk management strategy
• Provides a tool to review current processes and discard those that are not working for you
• More efficient use of your time - you know when, where, how to do something and are not as likely to forget to do something
• Makes it easier for someone to caretake your business if you are ill or away.
• Makes it simpler for new staff coming on board to learn about the processes in your business together with its vision, values and mission
• Allows a process of review to take place - a constant evolution of the systems to maintain best practice and incorporate feedback from clients and customers about things that may not be working or could be improved
• Facilitates benchmarking

 If you are new to implementing systems that work, start off with baby steps. Simply diarising or marking on your calendar the regular things you do in your business (bookkeeping, updating your marketing materials, computer back-ups etc) is a good start. From there, you can start to detail the actual process step by step. Eventually you may want to have a manual for your business in A-Z format which details a policy or procedure for each aspect of your business.

 I firmly believe in the saying “With systems I am safe” - now I just have to live it myself by implementing some systems in Net Secretary!

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I’ve just finished a 31 page draft of my business plan. I have had a Business Plan in place for Net Secretary from Day One and when I look back now on what the original was, I’m amazed at its simplicity. The business plan has had a few incarnations over the years and I have always been quite good at revisiting my plan once or twice a year. However now that Net Secretary is growing, I really needed to revisit where I was and where I wanted to be. It was an exhausting but rewarding process and I found some things out about my market and my competition that I hadn’t previously given much thought to. When I say the plan is a draft, its been sent to my business coach to look at, so there will probably be more work on it soon. Not that a business plan is ever really finished in my view. I see it as an evolving, living document that should be updated regularly and referred to often. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. I also really like this quote from Alan Lakein ~ “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now”.

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