Oooooh, I am so excited! Today marks a really important development in Business in Blue Jeans history! Today, I’m launching my affiliate program!

This is a fantastic program- totally win-win. You sign up and refer people to the Business in Blue Jeans web site, you earn commissions on anything they purchase- products and services. That’s the win part for you. And for me, the big win is that I get to share Business in Blue Jeans with more people (and yeah, I get to earn some money, too). But what makes it fantastic is that you can earn 15% commission on anything you sell. That includes my Relaxed Fit 90-Day Startup Program.

I’m so excited that I’m about to have help sharing Business in Blue Jeans with the world!

Learn more, sign up and start earning commissions!

I know, you think you can’t afford it, right?  Having an assistant is something you find in larger enterprises, something celebrities have.  But guess what?  Having an assistant IS affordable and you can’t beat having someone at your beck and call to help you manage your business.  Let’s take a look at five reasons having an assistant will save you money in your business:

Reason #1: An assistant will free up your time so you can spend it on income-generating activities.
Your assistant will take care of all those silly and unpleasant tasks you just don’t want to do.  For example, I recently needed a list made that required some searching on the internet.  It was easy enough work, but a trained monkey could do it and I have better things to do with my time that actually generate revenue.  So I had my assistant do it and I was able to finish several projects in the meantime, projects that will earn income in the long run, and having my assistant handle these tasks cost me less than $100, a far cry from what I earned on the activities I spent my time on.

Reason #2: An assistant will make you shine.
I once had a client who needed a compelling PowerPoint presentation completed.  Now, I have no trouble admitting is that I am terrible at graphic design.  Once I was done with editorial work and amping up the text in the presentation, I called my assistant and he handled it with grace and finesse and had the presentation on my desk within 48 hours.  It made me look really good and the client was thrilled.

Reason #3: The right assistant can manage your business as it grows.
I used to have a lot more time than I do now.  Handling e-mails and replying to clients was easy because I had the time to put into it.  These days, I really need more help and as my business grows, it’s only going to keep getting more complicated.  Currently, my assistant helps with the easy e-mail responses and order processing.  He can answer questions, provide technical support, and handle almost anything that doesn’t require my personal expertise.  I’m free to do what I do best and he’s taking care of things that he’s become an expert on.

Reason #4: An assistant can make your personal life more manageable.
I know, I know.  How, right?  This is one of my favorite stories about my assistant. Last year, I visited Montevideo, Uruguay and was there for my fiance’s aunt’s birthday.  Before I left, I decided that I wanted to give my fiance’s aunt a watch for her birthday- nothing expensive or extravagant, just a nice little watch that would make her smile (she is the sweetest little lady you could ever meet and I completely adore her).  I had some very clear ideas about what I wanted but when I searched online, I couldn’t find anything that met my needs.  So I sent the specs to my assistant, and 24 hours later, had a Word document with 12 options, complete with pictures, pricing and the web address where I could get each option.  And don’t even get me started about how my assistant called 37 shoe stores looking for a pair of shoes I was obsessed with!   Do you think I would’ve had the time to do that?  Nope- and instead, while he was hunting down a pair in my size, I was earning the money to pay for those shoes!

Reason #5: Your assistant can earn money for your business.
While you’re out doing what you do best, who’s marketing your business?  Who’s out there finding out where you should market, who your competition is, and what other services or products you might want to offer to better serve your clientele? Your assistant can make a huge difference to your business by either engaging in awareness-building activities or doing market research to help you figure out where your efforts will be best spent. This alone will save you money AND make you money at the same time!.

So after all this, how can you get an assistant of your own?

It’s called virtual assisting and it’s incredibly affordable. Virtual assisting is where you have an assistant who doesn’t live in your area and doesn’t come to your office.  90% of my work with my virtual assistant takes place via e-mail.  I e-mail a request and the request gets handled and sent back to me. I have spoken on the phone to my assistant a couple of times, but more often than not, it’s just as simple to shoot him an e-mail and know he’ll be back with me in 48 hours.

Granted, you won’t have someone at your beck and call in person, and they won’t walk your dog or pick up your dry cleaning.  But they’ll free up your time in ways you never expected and you’ll be free to do what you love and what you do best.

Choosing a virtual assistant isn’t always easy- you don’t have the same kinds of interviews as you’d have in person.  You’re better off with a team than an individual- if your assistant gets sick, there’s always someone to take over and make sure your tasks are still completed.

READY TO WORK WITH A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT OF YOUR OWN?

I’m so excited to tell you that my virtual assisting company, Kaya, has put together something really special for me to introduce them to you.

We’re offering you a 10 hour FREE TRIAL on all of their Virtual Assisting monthly service plans.  There are monthly plans starting at 20 hours/month going all the way up to 160 hours/month, but you can also work with them on a pay-as-you-go plan or on a single project.   The trial is available to you within the first week after you inquire about their services. If you decide to continue the service after the trial period you will be charged for the 10 hours; if not, then there is no charge.  Depending on how many hours you use your assistant, your rate could be anywhere from $7-12/hour.

If you’d like to get started today, visit the partner page Kaya, my virtual assisting company set up for this offer at BlueJeansVA.com and fill out the form. You’ll work directly with my friend Bokhari. He’ll take great care of you and find the best assistant for your needs.

I love my virtual assistant team and I give this company my absolute highest recommendation.  They’re always prompt and have wonderful attention to detail.  They’ve come in on weekends to finish up a last-minute project and have always come through for me on anything I’ve needed. I can’t say it strongly enough: the team at Kaya seriously rocks!

A friend recently asked me, “When you have a Business in Blue Jeans, what do you do all day? Do you work?”

At first this made me giggle. Of course I work! Any business, requires work, at least in the initial stages, and most businesses, especially the ones we love, need our presence some of the time. Anybody who tells you otherwise is just lying to you.

When I first start a company, my days are pretty full. I spend most of the day working on developing the concept, building the idea, the brand. And once the concept is established, then there’s a corporate identity to build and a list of products and services to create. There are marketing plans and set up and tax IDs and web sites and financing and e-zines and future planning…so much goes into the initial stages of a business, and skimping on this time is a critical error that a lot of people make.

That said, a lot of the work done in these stages can be (and is) outsourced to trusted professionals. I have a team of people I’ve worked with for years and I trust each of them to know what I need them to do and to do it well.

When the company is launched, the kind of work you do changes. Now you’re spending more time doing what you love, combined with getting your name out there. Here again, creative outsourcing can free up a lot of your time. As your company grows, you’ll spend more and more time doing what you’re truly passionate about, and you’ll have more and more free time as well, if you’ve structured your systems properly.

So what does my life look like? I put in two hours at the gym, five days a week. I work most, but not every, day. Some days I may work for 1 hour, responding to e-mails and emergencies from my outsourced professionals. There are occasional 12-hour days when I have a Relaxed Fit client who’s launching his/her business. But those long workdays are few and far between. My days are typically more like today, when I’ve worked off and on for about four or five hours, while simultaneously baking an herb-olive ciabatta.

For me, a Business in Blue Jeans is all about flexibility. I can take my business anywhere in the world, and I have.  I’ve worked from cafes in Paris, Edinburgh, London, and Montevideo. I’ve worked in Chicago, L.A., Orlando, Hilton Head, Houston, Dallas, and San Francisco. I can work from home, the library, the art museum, coffee shops, and wherever else I feel like working that day. Point is, if I’m in a fantastic place like Paris, I can work for an hour and then go enjoy myself. And I’ve set up my systems so I can pretty much leave for a couple of weeks when I want to see the world and everything continues to run perfectly.

During regular times when I’m not traveling, I have a lot of free time. I’ve structured my business that way. I have a team I can call on, so whether I’m baking fresh pitas, playing with my cats, or traveling the world, they’re making sure everything continues to run smoothly. And if I had children and wanted the freedom and flexibility to spend more time with them, it would work the exact same way.

That’s what I do. I design businesses to suit your lifestyle and what you want that lifestyle to look like. I work with you to create a business that fits the needs of your life and your family and that provides you with the time you want- whether it’s to travel the world or stay right at home.

That’s what I do with my Business in Blue Jeans. What could you do with yours?

This week I heard from a few people who said, “I’d love to go out on my own, start a new business, but I’m waiting until the economy gets better.”

Okay. Fears about the economy are completely understandable. A lot of people are scared right now and it’s not hard to relate. But are you really safer with a big corporation than on your own? Let’s look into that a little:

• Do you know what’s going on with your company?
  Are you familiar with the books and do you know how stable the company is? What if your company isn’t doing as well as you think? Big corporations often work to build consumer and investor confidence, using press releases and other morale-building techniques to let everyone know how safe and secure everything is. It’s not unheard of for a company to conduct massive layoffs, just days after a positive-sounding press release. So again, let me ask: do you know what’s really going on with your company?
• Do you know if your company plans lay-offs?
  I’ve heard from some of my friends that their companies have made assurances to some while laying off others. Does anyone really know if their job is safe? Even in a great economy, you might feel safe, but most of us have had unexpected things happen. Let’s face it- companies aren’t evil but they may not always tell you everything. And it’s entirely possible that they may truly not plan to fire people, but may ultimately have to down the road.
• Do you have a backup plan?
  What’s your backup plan, in case something in your situation changes? Do you have one? Are you prepared, in case something goes wrong? Even if you think you’re safe and your job is secure, now is a crucial time to set up a backup cashflow. If you set things up now, you have plenty of time for your business to build and grow, so that if/when you need that income, it’s already in place.

I’ve shared two articles this week, one from Forbes.com and one from WomenEntrepreneur.com. Both say that now is a perfect time to start a business. The reasons why? First, you’ll find that services are more affordable. You’ll be able to get help for your startup are more reasonable pricing, and outsource at better prices as well. Second, this is a time when you’ll be more invested in the success of your new venture, so you’ll work harder and be more likely to succeed.

Although your instinct in a time like this is to play it safe, now is the time to take a risk. You can mitigate some of that risk by avoiding ventures that require a large initial investment or overhead (Business in Blue Jeans is all about safety- and all of my products and services focus on it!). You can also mitigate your risk by starting something part-time while you’re still employed. Hiring someone to help you can be the key to your success.

I know starting a business now can feel like a scary endeavor. But I can absolutely promise you that now is the time to do it and if you do it now, you’ll be glad you did. What would have happened if Walt Disney, Bill Gates and others like them decided not to start their companies when they did (and remember, Disney, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard are just three of the many companies started during economic conditions just like these)?

Everybody’s agreeing with me!  LOL  Entrepreneur (actually, it’s WomanEntrepreneur) says in this article that “though it may seem counterintuitive, hard economic times like these can actually be a good time to start a business. With layoffs occurring more frequently in the corporate world–and pensions and full health-care benefits a thing of the past–workers are risking less by exiting their corporate jobs.”  They recommend following your bliss, mitigating risk, and sticking with it.

Wow, that sounds like something I would say. 

I just read this article and Forbes is agreeing with what I’ve been saying in my e-zine for months now! Forbes says this is a great time for a startup and many of our strongest, most well-known companies (like Disney, Johnson and Johnson and Microsoft) were started in recessions.

Check out the article and start thinking about your startup today!

Whoa!  The Mr. and I just watched “The Ultimate Gift,” the movie adaptation of Jim Stovall’s book of the same name. I’ve always loved the book and thought it was an absolute necessity in any personal growth library. But when I discovered the book, I just wasn’t sure I’d like it. I actually had it sitting here for a couple of months before we got around to watching it!

And you know what? It was AMAZING. The actors are fantastic and it’s not a low-budget, no-name movie like I expected. The characters were played by actors with names and faces I know, and they outdid themselves in this film. Now, there are some sad moments, I’ll tell you right now, but I have to say that the payoff makes it worth it in the end.

I’ve added both the book and the movie to the Business in Blue Jeans Recommended Reading Bookstore, so hop over and get your copy of this amazing movie (or if you’re more inclined, check out the book)!

I’ve just learned about the World Laughter Tour and I’m totally grinning from ear to ear, just from reading about it. This is the coolest business EVER!!!  The World Laughter Tour is the brainchild of Steve Wilson, who calls himself…are you ready?…Cheerman of the Board. The history of how this company got started is fascinating and if you want to read about it, check out their web site.

The things that really touch me about this company are:

• It’s a passionate business- the people who run this company are deeply passionate about laughter and changing the world, really making a difference, through laughter.
• The path the company took is inspirational in and of itself. That in their history, they refer to one of my personal favorite stories, Acres of Diamonds, is pretty telling, in my opinion (not because it’s one of my favorites, but because of the message of that story, which, if you don’t know the story, check it out, I’ve Googled it for you and everything).
• People, their business is laughter. That is just so cool that it makes my heart squeeze a little.

I love laughing. Love it. How can you not? Don’t you love those moments when you’re laughing so hard that you can’t speak, can’t breathe, your stomach cramps up a little and you’re not even making any sound, just little squeaks and trying desperately to say, “I….can’t….breathe!!!”???  I mean, those are the moments I cherish in life. It’s one of the reasons I married my husband, actually…because he makes me laugh like nobody else in the world.

And also, laughing is an excellent workout for your abs, and super-healthy as well, in case you didn’t know it. Check out this great (and brief) article on the medical benefits of laughter.

Bill Cosby said, “You can turn painful situations around through laughter.”
Victor Borge said, “Laughter is the closest distance between two people.”

And whoever said, “Laughter is the spark of the soul” was right on the money.

The Business in Blue Jeans web site launched today and I am SO EXCITED!  I’m already getting some incredible, positive feedback from folks and that makes me enormously happy. I am deeply, profoundly passionate about empowering people to discover the business that resides within them- something that is already there that is waiting to be discovered, something that you can be truly passionate about. And Business in Blue Jeans is all about that.

I’m so excited about what’s in store for 2009. I have so many wonderful things that I’ll be bringing to you. And I just can’t wait to reveal each of them as the year goes on!!!