Tracey D’Aviero, Virtual Assistant

It seems that more and more websites I visit lately have an audio component. Some of them auto-load and some of them you have to click to start. When you work virtually, that can be a scary concept when all of sudden someone is talking to you and there is no one in the room! It might scare the wits out of me some days, but I have to admit that it’s very effective.

I often open more than one tab or website at a time, and when I all of a sudden hear someone start talking to me, it definitely attracts my attention! I will always go and check out the talking page!

Many of my clients are coaches and so they use an audio service like Audio Acrobat all the time in their businesses. Whether they are recording coaching calls or conference calls, it’s a big part of the service they provide to their clients.

Of course, not all of my clients are coaches, so I thought it would be a good idea to check out what a service like Audio Acrobat could offer to other solopreneurs and small business owners. If I come across an interesting product or service, I try to introduce it to my clients if I think it might help them with their Internet marketing needs.

I was surprised to see what other things you can do with Audio Acrobat:

• record an audio by telephone, by computer microphone or by uploading a previously recorded file
• combine audio files so they play in sequence
• customize a webpage with audio notes for those you are sending audio to
• use guest lines to have guests record testimonials, comments or even events
• create podcasts
• record or upload video up to 256 MB in size

It’s such a simple system to use, and it’s very cost effective. For less than $20 a month, it’s a service that anyone can use to incorporate audio into their business. They have a terrific affiliate incentive too … you can put your affiliate commissions towards your monthly bill if you want to.

Go and check it out!  It’s an opportunity for you to bring some fresh ideas to your clients about how to repurpose their content and how to enhance their online presence with audio or video.  I know I’m going to!

You know what they say about the best laid plans … even the most carefully planned projects can throw you a wrench when you least expect it.

Picture this: it’s Monday and you set up your task list for the week. Looks good, you have fit everything in and you know you can deliver it all on time.  But what happens if something goes wrong? Do you have a ‘plan b’ in place so that you can still manage when something goes wrong?

Say on Tuesday one or more of the following situations comes up and threatens to mess up your tidy task list.

• you get sick or injured
• your child or a family members gets ill and requires your care
• a great client calls with a last minute project that they need you to find time for
• you have technical difficulty with a task that you only allowed a set amount of time to do
• you lose your internet connection for a prolonged period of time
• you get more than one referral or prospects call needing proposals

Do you have a backup plan?

If you haven’t thought about what you would do in any of these situations, now is the time to do so! By the time you need to have a contingency plan in place, it will be too late. The time to get your plan in place is when you don’t need it!

Your contingency plan doesn’t have to be complicated – just put together the basics when you have time:

• find someone (or more than one someone!)  who can help you out when you need it
• put together procedures for the tasks you take care of on a daily basis
• set up an intake process for new clients
• develop a project management protocol

Don’t wait until it’s too late!

As a solopreneur,you can sometimes go from 0-60 in no time flat. Make sure you are prepared for that before it happens by going through the steps above and developing your contingency plan.