Interview with Lisa Hovnanian from Lisahov's Health & Fitness

Name: Lisa Hovnanian

Company: Lisahov's Health & Fitness

Website: http://www.lisahovhealthfitness.com

Please tell us about your business:   I am an Independent Beachbody Coach, focused on helping people eat smarter and "clean", and live a healthy lifestyle that includes a balance of diet and exercise. As a full-time pharmacist and mom, I bring a unique perspective to healthy eating, since I can see how Beachbody's products, like Shakeology, can be an important nutritional supplement that, in conjunction with cleaner eating and exercise, can help people meet lead a more healthy, fit lifestyle.

How long have you been working from home?   1 year

Do you work from home full time or part time?  Part time

How do you stay connected with colleagues in your field?   I do a lot on Facebook. I have a private Facebook group for my team of coaches, where we collaborate and share ideas to help each other grow. I'm also part of several broader Facebook peer groups, and a customer challenge group as well. I make myself available through emails and chat.

How do you deal with the isolating nature of working from home? It's the ideal situation for me because I choose to coach through digital media, not in person. With three young children, I need the flexibility to be able to answer questions and market myself on my own schedule.

How do you stay motivated without the accountability of a "time clock"?   I've always been very disciplined with my scheduling. I devote at least a half hour in the early morning and an hour at night strictly to work. During the day, while managing my other responsibilities as a wife, mother and pharmacist, I use mobile and digital media to run my business.

What are the biggest challenges you face when working from home?  My peak hours for customer and marketing activity are actually different from the hours I have scheduled to be in front of my computer. So that's where my iPad and phone are critical.

What is the best part about working from home?   The flexibility to determine how much time I want to dedicate to my business on a given day.

What is the one item that you find vital to have in your home office?  My corkboard. I have all my notes, follow up reminders, and marketing ideas pegged on it! Well, obviously my computer, phone and iPad are a no-brainer, too.

What is the one piece of advice that you can give to those just starting out working from home?  Be disciplined about the time you dedicate to your business. Especially if you focus your marketing efforts on social media. It's very easy to get sucked into these sites, and you will find yourself wasting valuable time. Go online with a purpose, get the job done, and have a fantastic rest of your day!

Continue the conversation...
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If you are an entrepreneur that works form home and would like to be highlighted in an interview, please submit your information here.

How to Cultivate Clients in Online Environments [Post and Podcast]

Today on Solutions for Success with Rachael, I talked about cultivating client relationships virtually using the following methods:

• Social Media (G+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) (Automation vs.  Authenticity)
• Online Forums
• Niche and Broader Communities
• Niche Groups (Direct email marketing)
• Blogs (Don’t just post and forget it)
• Industry Periodicals (on & off line)

I will be conducting a longer, more in-depth discussion about how to cultivate clients online via a Google hangout on- air (HOA) in the coming week. Click here to be notified or to join my free new Successful Solution Community.

Have a listen and let me know what you think: 

Listen to internet radio with Solutions for Success with Rachael on BlogTalkRadio

Interview with Stephan Hovnanian from Shovi Websites

Work at Home Wednesday

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Name: Stephan Hovnanian    Company: Shovi Websites

Website: http://www.shoviwebsites.com Blog:  http://www.websighthangouts.com

Please tell us about your business:   My company provides website design, management and marketing to small businesses and non-profit organizations. Our clients look to us to help them attain a better, smarter web presence.

Stephan Hovnanian

How long have you been working from home?   8 years

Do you work from home full time or part time?  Full time

How do you stay connected with colleagues in your field?   mostly email and some social media.

How do you deal with the isolating nature of working from home? I try to meet local clients at their places of business.

How do you stay motivated without the accountability of a "time clock"?   If nothing gets done, I don't get paid.

What are the biggest challenges you face when working from home?  Kids' schedules tend to get in the way, but I prefer it to commuting and having to juggle schedules.

Do you work in your underwear?   No

What is the best part about working from home?   Flexibility. If you're disciplined about the time you put into your work day, you do not have to feel guilty about running an errand, meeting a friend for lunch, or even playing outside with your kids. After all, how is that different from having meetings scheduled during those same blocks of time?

Stephan Hovnanian in his Home Office

What is the one item that you find vital to have in your home office?  Dedicated space. Obviously I need a computer and the equipment necessary to do my job, but dedicated space has made all the difference in the world to my success.

What is the one piece of advice that you can give to those just starting out working from home?  Be disciplined. Treat your office like your office, not your dining room or bedroom. When it's time to work, get dressed and go to work.

Continue the conversation...

  +Stephan Hovnanian    @stephanhov http://linkedin.com/in/stephanhov                                         

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If you are an entrepreneur that works from home and would like to be highlighted in an interview, please submit your information here. 

Conducting Business Using Google Hangouts

[Post, Podcast, Video] Google hangouts have been an invaluable resource for my business. I typically use them to provide client consultations, mentoring, workshops, and virtual meetings.

As a solopreneur, I gauge my efforts not only by the return on investment (ROI) but also by the return on time (ROT). This means that productivity planning is a big part of how I manage the administration and operational aspects of Rachael Alford Consulting Services .

Recently, I hosted a Google hangout on-air (Hangout about Hangouts; see below) with +Anetra Henry Hunting of the Hunting Group (http://www.anetrahenryhunting.com). I shared tips and techniques for providing  agenda and SWOT analysis templates using the productivity application +Symphonical integrated with the +Hangout Lower Third. Anetra Henry Hunting discussed suggested best practices and techniques for conducting on-air hangouts.

Even though the instructional on-air hangout was 1 hour and 15 minutes, I did not delve into setting up Symphonical templates for business consultations. I continued the conversation in the second episode of Solutions for Success with Rachael.

In the podcast, Virtual Business Consulting Using Google Hangouts,  I discuss how using Google Hangouts to conduct virtual business consultations are beneficial for both the potential client and the consultant. I also discuss how using Symphonical during virtual business consultations boosts consultant productivity as well as increases sales. LISTEN NOW

You will need to queue the following walls before you watch this video:

Demo Wall: Hangout Agenda

Demo Wall: SWOT Analysis

Hangout about Hangouts with Rachael Alford & Anetra Henry Hunting

Additional resources for preparing to host and marketing a hangout on air can be found in segment 4.

I Dare You to be Bold

Remember when, as kids, you couldn't pass on a dare? Well, in that spirit- today I dare you to be bold in the pursuit of your dreams.

This past weekend, I joined a terrific G+ community (+virtual assistants) and soon after, one of the members contacted me privately. She was an administrative professional who was ready to throw in the towel, feeling overwhelmed with launching her home based virtual assistant business.

She worked as an administrative assistant for several years and felt secure in her administrative abilities but found the whole start-up process daunting. Most people agree. But so what?

The more we talked, the more I heard a laundry list of excuses. We finally got to the root of her issue: she was afraid of failure and success. I find this is often the case with budding entrepreneurs.

We went through an exercise of "what if" where I introduced several success and failure scenarios and the more we went through the "what if" situations, the more confident she became when she realized that either she already knew her next steps or knew where to look to find solutions. 

So today, I challenge you to delve a little bit deeper into your internal well and boldly acknowledge your obstacles- and one by one- conquer them.


Tag, you're IT!

Virtual Professionals United

I am really excited about seeing people finally migrating to or adding Google+ to their social toolkit.  Even though it boasts over 175 million users, it really has been such an under utilized platform by most entrepreneurs and virtual professionals.

I wanted to call your attention to two new communities that have just sprouted up that are designed specifically to connect virtual professionals with other virtual professionals.  Get in on the ground floor and help in building new two awesome communities: +Virtual Assistant Forums & +Virtual Professionals Mingle

Feel free to invite my audience to your G+ community by adding the link and brief description in the comments section of this post.  (Add me +Rachael Alford  to your circles & I will do the same)