My husband says, I have been “running the roads” a lot lately.  That’s a southern thing if you don’t understand that phrase.  But he is correct.  I have been going a lot of places in the last couple of weeks and according to my calendar, I’m not going to slow down until around Christmas.

Now for a virtual professional, that’s a bit of a culture shock to actually go outside of your virtual world.  But I love getting out of here.  I love to visit and talk with people and network everywhere I go.

I shared a booth with one of my clients at the National Philanthropy Day luncheon in Knoxville last week and enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones.  And of course, sharing my business and the services I provide for administrative support and online marketing.  I walked away with a great list of people to follow-up with this week.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the East Tennessee Veteran’s Memorial was being dedicated this past weekend and I was honored to be invited to a reception and the dedication ceremony.  The Mayor’s were there, as well as other politicians, high-ranking military personel and many familiar faces from my time with the organization.  The ceremony was incredibly moving and I was proud to be an American and to have been involved in the early stages of the memorial’s planning.  And it proved to be a great place to network.  I was invited to be on a local radio show and several people are interested in learning more about my business.

I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks and the many networking opportunties to share what I do and how I can help other business owners with their administrative and marketing needs.

So Honey, I have a few more “roads to run.”

My work as a virtual assistant began in 2003 with a local nonprofit organization, East Tennessee Veteran’s Memorial.  When I was hired, I was the first and only employee and I worked from my bedroom office.  I set-up a database, marketing materials, assisted with a website and ran the local office right out of my house.  At the time, I had no idea that I was working “virtual.”  I just thought I was lucky to be able to work from home and still accomplish the goals for erecting a memorial and learning center for the men and women of East Tennessee that gave their lives for my freedom.

I think back to this group and the man that made it his purpose in life to see that the memorial became reality.  Retired Colonel J. William Felton, III, (The Colonel to me), is the man who walked on the beaches of Normandy with his wife Betty and reflected on the lives that were lost during WWII.  As he returned to the hills of East Tennessee he wanted to thank the local men and women for their sacrifice, but could find no place in which to do that.  Thus, the vision of the East Tennessee Veteran’s Memorial Association was born.

Saturday morning, November 15, 2008, the finished memorial will be dedicated in downtown Knoxville, TN.  I am honored to be attending the dedication and also honored to have been involved in this extraordinary accomplishment to our brave service men and women.

Just to think, that my journey as a virtual professional began with one man’s dream of a Forever Memorial to our Forever Heros.

I have such a passion for nonprofit organizations and philanthropy.  My background was in nonprofit management prior to starting my own business as a virtual assistant.  I know the struggles and hardships that face nonprofits in fundraising.  Now with the emergence of social media and internet marketing, nonprofit organizations have so many new doors open to them to find those all important dollars.  A Virtual Business Solution offers specialized services to nonprofit organizations by utilizing blogs, enewsletters, social media and other innovative ways to reach your donors.

My client and good friend, Sandy Rees, CFRE was highlighted in an article by the Chattanooga Times Free Press where she commented on using blogs for fundraising.  Follow this link to read the article and listen to Sandy’s audio interview.

If you are a nonprofit manager looking for new opportunities to boost your funding, contact me at A Virtual Business Solution and we’ll work together to develop a plan for your online fundraising success!

Terri Brooks is a Certified Internet Marketing Specialist and owner of A Virtual Business Solution.  With more than 35 years of professional experience, including eight years of nonprofit management, she assists many nonprofit organizations with their online marketing and fundraising.

I don’t know about you, but when I get ready to write a new post on my blog,  more times that not, I can’t think of a single thing to write about.  I want it to be good, valuable information that you, the reader, will appreciate and apply to your personal or business life.  So when I found this great site, I wanted to share it and let you check it out for yourself.

The BlogEnergizer is a site that offers some great ideas to “kick start” your blog posts and much more.  I have already been “energized” just by visiting and now I have so many ideas for future posts.  I’m excited about finding BlogEnergizer.  I hope you will be too.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Have you ever bought a puzzle at a yard sale?   And when you got it home and began putting it together you realized that you had two puzzles in one box?

That’s how projects can be.  Maybe you get all the pieces from a client to pull together a great end-product, and things flow smoothly.  But sometimes you get more than you expect and it takes a little longer to put all the pieces together.  But as long as the client is pleased and you have a quality outcome, then the challenge is worth it.

I love a good challenge.  That’s what makes my work as a virtual professional exciting.  I love working for different groups of people and helping them with a variety of tasks and projects.

Sometimes you get exactly what you planned for, and sometimes you get even more!

How many signs have you seen lately for Fall Festivals?  In my neck of the woods, they are around every corner.  Especially around Halloween.  There’s apple festivals, tomato festivals, water festivals, you name it, there’s probably a festival for it.

I was blessed to be asked to coordinate our church’s Fall Festival and Trunk or Treat event last Sunday.  As a former event coordinator for several non-profit organizations and a virtual event planner, it was a perfect fit for me.  I love planning and coordinating events and working with the incredible volunteers.  I had a fabulous team that helped with the event.  Although many of the aspects of this event was “hands-on”, a large majority of the work was done virtually.  We communicated through email and phone.  We ordered supplies and this cute banner online and we submitted our press release through email.

I’m pleased that we had around 120 families attend our event and served more than 240 hot dogs, caramel apples, nachos and cheese, and popcorn.  We had blow-up games, hayrides, pie throwing, bluegrass music, cake walks, Kids on Parade Costume Parade and great door prizes.

I love my virtual job, but sometimes it’s nice to be hands-on and work closely with others to make things happen.

Need help with an event?  Contact A Virtual Business Solution

Oh, that makes my skin crawl just typing it!  But it happened to me last Friday.  I had a computer tech out to my virtual office for some repairs and I noticed he kept rubbing his head and was on the phone quite a bit and finally I ventured in to ask how it was going and he said, “I have some news and some not so good news.”  Those are just not comments you want to hear when someone is working on your computer, your livelihood!

So basically he was trying to do something that required my product key from my computer and it wasn’t accepting it, which made the computer unavailable for use.  That’s my best description.  I’m a virtual assistant, give me a database or some websites to design or social media sites to update and I’m your gal!  But this hardware stuff is way over my head.  I just know I turn it on in the morning and it usually does what I need it to do.

As I watched him drive away Friday afternoon with my computer on a gurney, my thoughts were, “will I ever see it again and will I ever work again?”   Now I did have the good sense to recently buy an external hard drive and all of my client files reside there, and I have another laptop that came over on the Mayflower that I was able to check some emails and not feel so isolated from the world.  So I knew I wasn’t completely dead in the water, but just the thought of reloading my programs and re-setting all of my passwords on my main computer just made me sick.

Well, there is a happy ending to this story.  Late Sunday evening I got the call that my computer had survived the surgery and was doing well.  I am happy to say I am writing this blog on it even now and I believe it is going to make a full recovery.

In my virtual world, having a virtual shut down is a potential death sentence to my business, but because of a few systems I had put in place I was able to have a little peace knowing that I could still function until all was well again.

What’s your plan when the “Grim Computer Reaper” comes calling?