Bonjour! I’m in Europe studying abroad with my MBA program, having a blast, and want to share with you some benefits of doing business online. Having an online business I’m able to stay connected with my family, clients, hot prospects, and business partners via the internet and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. All you need is an internet connection / Wi-Fi and you’re good to go regardless where you are. I’ll be in China in the fall and I’ll also be able to communicate and manage my online business.
I worked a little harder before I left but it was totally worth it. Now I’m able to chill, relax, and enjoy my time traveling the globe. I brought an intern / virtual assistant onboard, Micaela Soria, to help me manage mine and my clients’ social media accounts so I’m able to sit back and inspect what I expect. Very cool and convenient.
You certainly wouldn’t be able to do this with a brick and mortar business unless you have cameras installed, watch them from home, and end up calling your staff asking what they’re doing or what just happened. I mean go for it, but who really wants to be a micro-manager? Not me! I’ve been mico-managed way too much in my career by large corporations and franchises, that’s the last thing I want to be or be like. I always felt extra pressure by my bosses to get everything done before I took a vacation and was always threatened that if anything fell through the cracks my ass was grass when I returned. Developing an ulcer while you’re away from your place of employment because you fear something going wrong isn’t a vacation – it’s a corporate nightmare!
I used Hootsuite, a social media dashboard, to schedule posts in advance for myself and my clients. This automated program allows you to get work done while you’re away from your computer or phone. You compose a message, select what social networks you want it to post to, pick a day and time for the message to go out and like magic it does the work for you. Today I was exploring Dijon, France, and while I was out and about scheduled messages went out. Pretty fabulous!
I also set up an automatic reply on my email accounts so people would know that I’m out of the country for 3 weeks. I’m still able to monitor and see emails that come through but I don’t feel rushed or pressured to respond until I get back unless, of course, it’s something urgent. My phone is on vacation too so I changed my voice mail message asking people to correspond with me on social platforms or send me an email and gave them my email addy.
Having my own internet based business I had no one asking me if this or that got done. I knew what needed to be done and I did it. I had a few wicked late nights of work but it was so worth it! My business partners at Intelligent Marketing Strategies knew months ago I was leaving so all I did was send them an email with an update and asked them to oversee my clients’ projects while I’m gone. Bada-bing, done! We have an online bulletin with all of our projects so they already knew what I had in the pipeline. I sent things to Micaela in advance that needed to be posted and / or managed and bada-bing, done! I scheduled posts in advance with Hootsuite and bada-bing, done! My Momager is also getting a vacation and as much as she misses me I know she’s enjoying her time off. Easy breezy and I’m able to enjoy my time exploring Europe.
I wanted to share these benefits of doing business online with you because I’ve found them to be incredibly helpful and efficient. I look forward to hearing about your online success stories. Please share them in the comment section below and see you at the top!
Editor’s Note: Angel Soria is an Internet Marketing Consultant, entrepreneur, expert contributor for the Tulare Kings Hispanic Times, social author for www.SaltyWaffle.com, and currently obtaining her Executive MBA at Fresno State. If you are business owner and you qualify to work with Angel, with her help you will dominate your market in 6 months or she will do your marketing for FREE until you do. Visit www.facebook.com/AngelSoriaInternetMarketing for more information and follow her @talk2angelsoria.