Creative Chat Cafe - How Small Businesses Work Smart In A Virtual World.

This week on Creative Chat Cafe ...

"How Small Businesses Work Smart In A Virtual World."

Cohost and guests:
1. Super Julie Braun of Super Interns.
2. Noah Netzhammer of Super Interns.
3. Mary Joyce aka ResourcesQueen.

Conversations on:

• Reasons why small business owners chose to work virtually and what they have done to be successful at it.
• Challenges of working virtually and how to overcome them.
• Get the resources to build your virtual team that would help you build your business!

The conversation.

1. How do you work smarter in a virtual world?

• Don’t take off your slippers!  Embrace technology that will help you work from anywhere. That would mean using an online office, a place to house your projects to be able to collaborate, online timekeeping, online scheduling, customer management system, video conferencing, and so on.  Get started with one thing and go from there.
  

2. What are some of the challenges of working virtually?

• If you are like me, I never leave “work” because I work from home.  One solution is to to really define what is “work time” and what is “personal time” and create personal and professional boundaries around that.

3. Do you ever feel isolated or lonely working virtually?

• Sometimes I do!  Even though I might be on camera with 50 people a week, I might want some really face-to-face time so I plan once a week to get out and do that with a friend or colleague.
  

SUPER JULIE BRAUN
www.SuperInterns.com

"Super Julie Braun is the Co-founder of SuperInterns.com and she has worked with hundreds of employers and schools, and thousands of virtual interns all across the country.  As a thought leader in working virtually, Super Julie has helped companies and organization transform their “brick and mortar” thinking to “online” thinking and having the opportunity to work any time and from any place in the world with interns."

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MARY JOYCE
www.ResourcesQueen.com

"Mary Joyce aka the Resources Queen is a gifted intuitive Coach, Speaker, Writer and mum to two beautiful young children. She works with business owners, organizations to maximize their resources, leverage strategic partnerships to grow their tribe and build a solid profitable business. She’s a master connector and a born leader who has a global network of partners who support and promote her client’s services."

1. Mary, if I had to make a “brilliant guess”, you and your NY biz partner met online and have been working virtually a lot! Am I right?

• Yes you are right, I met Tricia Dycka online, I’m in London Uk and she’s in NY , its was on facebook actually about 5 years ago as she posted a request for writers for her online magazine.

2. So what about you? How do you work smarter in a virtual world?

• Well I’m the Resources Queen so I use a lot of tools to run my business virtually. My business is around 90% virtual as I run my trainings online, host online events and work with Clients via Skype and Hangouts.

3. What are some of your challenges of working virtually?

• Sometimes the technology can let you down, On one of our previous telesummits, the call didn’t play so everyone on the line could just hear the hold music luckily as there are two of us, we were quickly able to let the audience know what was happening, the call was recorded so they got access straight away

4. Do you ever feel isolated or lonely working virtually? What do you do to manage or overcome that feeling?

• I’ve got a pretty massive network so am never lonely. I have a structure to the amount of time I spend online and stick to my schedule, I also do a lot of offline talks and trainings so enjoy the best of both worlds - I have two kids so only a small time frame to get all my business completed daily online. I use a lot of automation tools, so much is automated in my biz. 

5. What do you love about working virtually?

• Connecting with so many amazing clients all over the work, I have clients from  over 80 countries so its exciting to be able to reach so many without leaving my house, all you need is a laptop & internet connection or a smartphone . 

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1. What attracted you to a virtual internship and how have your expectations changed?

• I had been looking for an internship that was able to work with my school and work schedule, and I realized that a virtual internship would be the most flexible.  I also felt that a virtual internship would give me a different experience than your average office internship.  Plus, I’m a pretty bad driver, so a virtual internship also negated that need for transportation.  I started my internship with the wrong attitude, thinking that virtual internships didn’t carry the same weight as “real” internships.  However, working with Super Interns has refined my idea of a virtual internship, and from experience I can tell you that it’s actually a lot of work.  Interns need the motivation and determination themselves to get their work done and make a successful internship.

2. How have your experiences differed between having a virtual internship and more traditional internships?

• The biggest difference I’ve seen is in accountability.  In virtual internships, you don’t have that physical office where your supervisor or team members can walk right up to you and check your progress on a project or where you can walk right up to them with a question.  Virtual internships still have those meetings and exchanges of ideas, but you’re less likely to get that immediate feedback.  The intern has to be self-sufficient and confident in his or her judgment while skilled in time-management.

3. What opportunities has working virtually given you?

• Ultimately, the people I’ve met are people I probably would’ve never had the chance to meet without my internship.  I think college networks are location-based with diverse career backgrounds, but now I’m building a background where the locations represent diversity.  Even just within my team, I’m building a network where our similarities are career-related rather than locational.  However, it’s important to make the effort to look into these relationships.  For example, at Super Interns, we start our meetings with an icebreaker designed to start a conversation.  At one of our last meetings, one of our team members realized she knew another team member’s uncle from a local festival, even though these two teammates lived states away from each other.We would’ve never made that connection if we hadn’t taken the time to ask about a unique custom or holiday we celebrate. 

NOAH NETZHAMMER
"Born and raised in New Orleans, Noah Netzhammer is currently a senior majoring in Management and Marketing at Tulane University.  By working as an HR Talent Scout at SuperInterns.com, Noah has been able to meet and work with interns from around the country to give himself a diverse and unique internship experience."

Tips - Tools & Solutions

Here are some online tools and solutions that are our panel's favorites. Watch the video above to see how they use these tools to help them work smart virtually.

Google Hangouts.

Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts is a unified communications service that allows members to initiate and participate in text, voice or video chats, either one-on-one or in a group. Hangouts are built into Google+ and Gmail, and mobile apps are available for iOS and Android devices.

This is Zef's favorite!

Schedule Once.

Schedule Once is a highly versatile scheduling platform that can be used in a wide range of scheduling scenarios.

This is Super Julie's favorite!

Instant Teleseminar.

Instant Teleseminar is a tool for online seminars and webinars.

This is Mary's favorite!

Resources.

ODesk.

Are you looking to build your business team by hiring freelancers? oDesk is a global job marketplace with a series of tools targeted at businesses that intend to hire and manage remote workers.

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"Would you like to be a guest on our show? Do you know of a non-profit that supports entrepreneurship or one that is worth mentioning in our show? Send us your comments below. We would love to get your ideas and feedback."