In running your business, it’s either a gift you’re born with, or a demand you’ll have to delegate to an assistant.

You may even be multi-tasking in areas you’ve never tackled before. While you may have hired many household tasks done in the past, more of us are repairing leaky faucets, landscaping, altering & mending our clothes, or even cleaning our own homes.

By morning: web developer. By afternoon: landscaping grunt. Not such a bad thing, I think.

I usually begin by sketching out my design idea (whether for a web site, knitted or sewn project) and playing around with images (or fibers, needles, fabric and thread) for awhile. I then just detach from the project and do something else until an idea is formed.

Watching my granddaughter at the sewing machine made me remember that sometimes you have to just go for it.

Even though she and I have sketched out ideas on paper for things to make together in the past, sometimesshe just dives in.

Recently when she had three new pairs of jeans that needed hemming, I measured and sewed the actual edge hem, but she picked out the thread colors and embellishment details she wanted to add. Shen then sat at the Janome and did all of that decorative sewing by herself. This took three hours from start to finish, and she was elated with the results.

I might add that she worked in a pedicure for me and I’m thinking in terms of how that turned out, she shouldn’t give up her day job as a 2nd grader just yet.

All in all though, how often can YOU say you feel elated with your results?

The yang to that yin is that we live next door to a very dilapidated, smelly mobile home. About ten years ago it was hauled away, only to be replaced the next day with one of similar characteristics.

I’ve nothing against well maintained mobiles and actually lived in one when I was a little kid. Sadly, in this case, the view next door was of sub-sub standard living.

Thanks to a new neighbor who has just bought that property, the old piece of crap was finally hauled away, and we understand the new owner is building a regular house next door. Thank you karma. What a special gift for my 17th anniversary.

I used to be a runner and a backpacker; now I am a gramma who hikes a lot, camps in a popup camper rather than on the ground, and rides my bike with my grandkids.

I used to sew most of my clothes. Now I teach my grand kids how to hem and embellish their jeans.

This bike seat cover used to be my friend Susy’s sweater. When the old cover on my bike seat wore out and I found myself sitting on foam, I first whined to my man that I needed a new seat. But then, I instead reached into my bag of felted sweaters and fashioned a new wool cover. Cushy and absorbent: everything I need! Kind of like soakers for grownups.

According to polls, most of us people-of-a-certain-age will be working for many years to come out of need. But if we all keep figuring out new uses for old stuff, maybe we’ll stay entertained, keep our brains and bodies active, and discover that if we economize even further, we may not have to work till we’re eighty.

A large blanket which exceeds its project bag’s capacity, for example, has to stay at home. A pair of socks or a scarf, in particular those whose stitch patterns are easily memorized, gets to go out on errands, road trips and airplane rides.

Somehow I have arrived at a major imbalance, with one item that must be knit only at home and 10 others that are ready to go, anytime anywhere.

Not unlike the way solopreneurs have to balance client projects, I love how my knitting life challenges and accomplishments mirror my professional life.

All around the house are were little baggies full of needles and yarn. Where we eat, where we sleep, under the couch, in the glove box. Eeek! That’s not me! With lots of personal family hubbub in recent months, though, that BECAME me.

So now, all the WIPs have been gathered, labeled, pattern tucked inside the bag, and they are all patiently waiting in a large basket near the front door so I decide who comes along for the ride and who stays home.

Recently acquired stash yarn is another matter… these beauties are still lying all about, having become an important & cozy part of the decor.

Here are a few of those WIPs who are clamoring to go out with me, along with one very special recent graduate (now off the needles and onto the recipient). And if you’re on Ravelry, I’m “LooseKnit” over there, and invite you to view my other projects there.

Facebook just keeps changing. It can be very confusing to stay current with how things work and if you’re supporting clients who need help in this area, the onus is on you to spend considerable effort to stay on top of the latest changes to this ubiquitous social media.

VAClassroom has made a big effort to keep abreast of these changes and is offering a great class for those new to offering FB support to clients as well as those who’ve been doing this for awhile but would like a rigorous, thorough update.

Here’s your chance.

These days we could all use a little more boingy-boingy. Or, in adult terms, a little more faith and optimism.

One child leaving home (for the second time), another well into adulthood and having a birthday, the holidays over, snow on the ground, work AND life to consider…

So, enjoying a few dear minutes or so of absolute alone time today, I got a new client’s project proposal sent off and sat down to do a little sewing for two of the sweet granddaughters in my life who have birthdays right around the corner.

Working from home has many rewards and today I’m thinking the main one is finding the time and quiet in which to appreciate all I have to be thankful for.

a. Meet up with AZVAs cohort Tara Fort for a coffee break with recent podcast contest winner Will Hepburn, owner of Hepburn Capital Management. (See our smiling faces below, during our lively conversation about business strategies over coffee at the Raven Cafe here in Prescott AZ.)

b. Finish up a a couple of little berets for donation to a local nonprofit. The pattern for this design, “Pompon Beret” is by Debbie Bliss and is found in the book “Simply Baby.” Photo below.

May you find a few quiet moments of your own this week in which to ponder the year ahead!

Here’s how to get on board:

If you try it, I’d like to know how it works for you.

Here’s a little bonus on the heels of the latest episode of AZVAs the Podcast.

Friend and colleague Tara Fort and I began our podcast for entrepreneurs and virtual assistants in February 2010. Before starting that adventure we listened to as many other podcasts we could find in that same genre. Doing that was a challenge.

For instance, search for “Virtual Assistance Podcast” on the iTunes store and you’ll get a bunch of returns, but so many are defunct, some are unrelated and others are… well, you know.

Same for searches for “SEO,” or “entrepreneur,” “solopreneur,” “small biz,” etc. Very uneven results, but some gems worth unearthing.

Who listens to podcasts, anyway? Who reads your blogs? Who tweets and FB’s? You can use your analytics to find out, but when you’re the one listening it can all be quite a cacophony.

Here is a podcast for all of you who either blog, use affiliate linking, pay attention to your metrics, and who generally understand that if you have a web presence, you can always improve upon it. And all of us who are small biz owners need every effective strategy we can find to compete online with the bigger guys and girls.

Internet Marketing Podcast is available both from the producer’s website and within the iTunes Store’s Podcast Directory.  A weekly out of Great Britain, these guys, Andy White and Kelvin Newman, really know their stuff.

In fact, they pack so MUCH stuff into each episide, I suggest you print out the program notes for the show in advance and then make your own notes on that printout while listenting.

Some of their podcasts time out after a minute on iTunes (by design, I believe), so if you aren’t getting the whole episode there, just navigate to their site and retrieve and play from there. Also check out their main site, Site Visibility, which focuses on SEO.

Note: as a dedicated WordPress user who’s experienced hacks, injections and other malicious behavior, and the upleasant resultant de-indexing by Google more than once, I really appreciate the episode which discusses tactics for managing security when using WordPress or Joomla as your CMS.  Listen to it here.

What podcasts do YOU listen to regularly and why?

Whatever your industry, getting together for some face-to-face with your industry peers is more important than ever in this virtual world.

Summit sounds like: inspiration, motivation, challenges, friendship, and clicking knitting needles and slurped lattes.

Summit looks like: long lost friends hugging, shrieks of recognition, networking questions and answers, and glowing laptops in dimmed rooms.

See you next year?

Stay in touch, everyone, and best wishes.

Here are more events happening throughout the year where you might want to put in an appearance:

Sharon Williams, CEO, MVA, PREVA (image provided by the 24-Hour Secretary)

Designed to promote the Virtual Assistant Industry during the runup to this year’s Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC), which is Thursday May 20 – Saturday May 22, it’s a great way for VAs at all levels to find answers to questions about the industry.

Join the Tour and Win a Prize!

You can follow Sharon as she travels the Web answering challenging questions about the VA industry. Along the way, Sharon will also scatter clues that, when unscrambled, will form a mystery phrase at each stop, as well as provide a link to the previous stop. Readers visiting the stops along the tour will have a chance to gather up all the clues and win prizes donated by supporters of the VA industry.

Check out the link to the tour above to see who all is participating and on what dates.

Loose Ends will be one of the tour’s whistle stops on Friday, April 23. Making it even more fun is the fact that I’ll be at the 9th annual IVAA Live 2010 Summit in Phoenix on that day! Speaking of that, have you registered for the IVAA Summit? Hurry while there is still space.

These days, you need every competitive advantage to establish, grow and stay in business. There are plenty of annual industry events so consider planning a year out and budgeting for the ones you feel will provide you the greatest benefit.

Here’s a list of some of those other events.

Meanwhile, remember to stop back by here on April 23 to see answers to vital industry questions and to gather clues that might earn you a prize!

One more thing you might like to know: Have you checked out the new self-study Social Marketing Specialist 2010 Program at VAClassroom ? You can save $50!

Or, I should say, speaking of “felt:”

1. Used the sleeve of a lamb’s wool thrift shop sweater that I felted as a dust cloth throughout the house. Does THAT ever clean up.
2. Watered sweet peas and snow peas, planted with Granddaughter yesterday, from one of our water storage tanks.
3. Fed the worm bin.

And for the rest of today, my reward is that I can haul my knitting bag on over to Yavapai College and see how they do today on the diamond. Tomorrow, down the hill to Tempe for an Angels’ Spring Training.

Nope, I’m keeping it simple by choosing a theme, which is the word “fit.”

When deciding whether or not I will do something, I just ask myself, “Is this a good fit?” or “Will this help me be or stay fit?”

It’s such a good choice for me and is working so well in my daily decision making, that it might end up being my theme for the entire decade.

A lot of colleagues are finding VA Classroom to be a good fit for their professional training goals. Check them out by clicking on the banner at right.

So, now, I’m off for my hike with Chester dog.

Hope whatever you do today is a good fit for you.