Well no breakthrough has occurred! Unfortunately the saga continues down a path to major breakdown with the website header designed by LogoNerds. They have ignored any attempt to resolve the matter of them using an unauthorized copy of an image from Getty Images.

Getty Images is now hunting me down to the tune of $1,820.00 and has turned the matter over to their attorney. Getty’s ruthlessness in pursing this has made my resolve firm that I will not purchase any images from them. Unfortunately for me they have acquired iStockphoto where I do maintain an account. I guess I will be closing that account and look elsewhere for my stock photos.

I had another small business owner contact me today that has been scammed by LogoNerds.com. He suggested that I contact Paypal to dispute the purchase. I have done that and will be looking into filing a claim with their domain registrar.

My word of advice is to get references. Research a company thoroughly before trusting them with your logo or website design. Getty Images is not interested in pursuing LogoNerds they are only interested in pursuing me, the small business owner.

If you want to read the starting point click here.

Today I decided to stroll through Middletown, Delaware (my hometown) and take pictures of Main Street and some of the fabulous small businesses.

Fromage in the heart of Middletown is a great little cheese shop. They carry a great selection.

A note of history; I did a short stint at this bistro when it was known as George’s Deli. Great subs!

Thank to you to these small business owners and others in Middletown who keep Main Street alive and well.

The most exciting thing about 21st century marketing techniques is the idea that we should not so much market as teach. That is, in our global economy, we profit better through content marketing – providing teaching that incrementally wins over customers – than through traditional broadcast and advertising methods.

This is exciting because when we teach, we heighten our own generosity and establish closer ties with our ‘students,’ our market. We see that, instead of fighting for attention, the seller can establish rapport, which allows buyer and seller to become a team instead of being antagonists.

And the most exciting part of this monumental new way of approaching commerce, in my most humble opinion, is the creativity it requires of us.

Ask any teacher, whether in kindergarten or college, and they will tell you the daily demands on their creative capacities are huge.

In the past, an ‘ad man’ was a similarly creative fellow. Listen to the saga of world-class copywriter John Carlton, in which he describes the sweat and tears he’s shed to provide masterpieces. The tradition continues today in the enormous creativity of TV ad writers.

But now, because of the internet, all businesses are constrained to be similarly creative. Instead of commissioning a billboard once a year, now we’re looking at banners and ebooks, updates and uploads, crowdsourcing and autoresponders being produced nonstop as we continually teach our markets.

These days, we can’t just assign the creativity to some department. Now, we’re all challenged to be creative as we

• Build the company website
• Write copy that attracts the eye and wins the heart in less than 30 seconds
• Post words or pictures to our blog – several times a week
• Exchange social media updates with customers
• Make use of multimedia, and multiple vehicles for our messages

… and take advantage of all the myriad other online opportunities.

This is a tall order. We’re not used to exercising our creativity so often, so intensely. We’re not even used to the idea of creativity being an important part of business.

So if the creative factor has you stalled, my advice is to unplug and spend some time building confidence in your own imagination before continuing. Take a class, paint a picture, plant a garden: there are tons of ways to bring your creative self out of hiding. Do this first, and being creative will come naturally once you are again facing the screen.

One of the perks of my business is when someone contacts me and asks if they can do a guest post. I’m like “are you kidding me?” “Of course!”. Recently an enterprising friend asked if she could write an article “Creativity is the Core of Online Business”. I am thrilled to feature her in our guest blog section.

Come and join us on March 15th as Mary Ruth, owner of both writingVA.com and internetmarketingassistant.com teaches us about global economy, creativity and your online business.  She has been in business since 2007 and has been a great friend and inspiration.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

If you are interested in Olinda Services hosting your guest post and you think you have a tip or trick my business readers would be interested in use my contact form and let me know!

Recently I had a client switch their calendar from Google Calendar to iCloud.  Now began the process of figuring out how to sync his calendar with my Outlook 2010 so I could overlay the calendar with the rest of the team.  It took some trial and error but finally I was able to accomplish my task.

Private or Public

If you have a public calendar it is easy. You just click on the radio button to the right of your calendar name and click “Public Calendar”.

You are then provided with a link that you can share via email to others. Keep in mind though that you may not want your private information available for anyone to see. If that is the case and you want to share your calendar with specific individuals then setup becomes more interesting.

In order to get someone else’s iCloud calendar to show up in Outlook 2010 you have to do a series of steps.

iCloud Account

The first step in establishing a shared iCloud calendar in Outlook 2010 is for you to have an iCloud account. iCloud calendars can only be privately shared with other iCloud account owners. I found no work around for this. If you have one, please share in the comments section.

Go to https://www.icloud.com/ to setup a new iCloud account.

After you establish you iCloud account the person sharing their calendar needs to send an invite to view or edit their calendar. Again go to the radio icon to the right of your calendar name and click “Private Calendar”.

You can then edit whether they can view/edit and click on share.

Now you get a pretty little invite asking you to join this person’s calendar.

Still with me?

Now comes the fun part! No you have to find a way to sync your iCloud with Outlook 2010.

iCloud Control Panel

I assume you are running Windows since you have Outlook 2010. You now need to download the iCloud Control Panel. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1455. After you carefully follow the instructions for downloading and installing the control panel you need to sign in to your control panel with your *.me account. Go to your hidden icons and open the iCloud Control Panel. Here is a quick video of how to access it. http://screencast.com/t/XKVgpxV46.

At this point close your Outlook file. Make sure it is not running in the background. Your Control Panel should be open and click on the elements you want to have access to in Outlook. You can choose only mail, or calendar, contacts, etc. After you make your choices click on “Apply”. The Control Panel with now access your iCloud account and process for syncing with Outlook.

Open your Outlook file and you will probably be asked to enter your iCloud account password. You should now have access to your iCloud information in Outlook.

Warning

Do not delete the iCloud account listed on the left hand column in Outlook. You will see your *.me account and another account called iCloud. I deleted one of them thinking it was a duplicate. I then lost access to the calendar and contacts and had to troubleshoot how to add back on.

Have any questions? Please leave me a comment and I will do my best to come up with a brilliant response!

Okay this is a confession of a workaholic. Yesterday I almost quit! I was completely stressed and realized I wasn’t being nice to anyone – including myself. I tend to hunker down at my desk and lose sight of the fact that I can do fun things to break up the day.

As I reviewed my day I realized that as a business owner I have to make decisions that keep me healthy and strong. It is so easy to get caught up in client drama and lose sight of my business and want I need to accomplish.  My new resolve is to take regular breaks away from my desk. If it is nice out get out and walk, move! If it is cold and nasty outside then spend some time away from the desk.

I started out with my new resolution in mind today. It is a beautiful February day here in Delaware. I decided to take the kids and the dog out to the park for a little exercise and a good dose of vitamin D. We took an hour lunch break but built some terrific memories.

If you have ever accidently deleted a file or a whole folder of files here is a tip and trick to save your bacon!

I was recently reading an article about how the lack of confidence can negatively affect you on a job interview. This was of particular interest to me because I am not a natural extrovert. Although I am highly confident in my skills and talent I don’t always show that confidence to others. The first months of my business were wrought with woes of me not selling my services confidently to clients. This certainly presented challenges to growing my business.

Now the years have passed and I was recently contacted by a newbie Virtual Assistant. She wanted to subcontract with Olinda Services. I replied to her with my usual “Thank you for contacting Olinda Services. Please share with me your strengths and what salary range you…” I received a response back which made me sigh. The poor dear had no idea she had stumbled upon several items that aggravate me. I decided to give her answer a little time before I responded so that I could provide creative, supportive but challenging feedback.

What did her response have to do with confidence?

I am so glad you asked! This list is composed of items I see on a regular basis even within the corporate world. My goal is build you up to show your confidence and wow your potential client.

1. No Signature Line | Do you ever receive an email with no signature or only the first name. You then refer to their email address only to find out that it does not give their name. If your email address only contains a generic string of characters and numbers I have no way of knowing who you are. Be confident when sending out emails. Shout from the roof top who you are! If you are a business owner and have a domain use your domain email. Using a domain email says to the client “I am a real business”. My second choice would be to use my business name such as olindaservices@gmail.com. There have been rare occasions that my Exchange Server has gone down and I had to resort to using my Gmail account. The email address though immediately notified the client with my branding.  Have your first and last name, business name, email address, phone number and web address at the minimum in your signature line. You never know when someone might forward that email to someone else and you are just the person they are looking for. They have all the information to contact you!
2. Know Your Strengths | If you know Microsoft Office tell me what your strengths are in Office. Some people have basic knowledge and some people have advanced knowledge. A client needs to know that to make an informed decision about hiring you. Do you have fortes in customer relations, travel arrangements, video editing, document management? List out what those strengths are. If you have a strength with a particular software or online product give more details. The client may not know what the program Jing is. Say instead “I have a strong talent in producing short informational videos to show customers short cuts to make their lives easier.” You are speaking to a direct want the client has. They may use a different piece of software, but the result is the same.
3. Research Your Client | Before responding to any potential client I research them. I want to know as much about them as possible. Is their business one I want to associate with? Be confident and feel free to say no to a client that is not a suitable match. They will be happier in the end, and you certainly will be!
4. Research Your Rates | Whether you set your rates as hourly or project do your research and have a rate available for the potential client. I remember those first 6 months of my business when I would give my rate out and hold my breath. “They are going to think I am nuts!” It did take some doing, but I found out that the clients who were uncomfortable with paying my rates were not optimal clients for me. Again that confidence comes into play. You have to believe that your services are worth every penny. If you don’t believe it, the client won’t believe it. Jeannine Clontz just posted and excellent article about setting rates. On my LinkedIn Virtual Assistant Tips & Tricks group someone recommended a rate calculator at http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/. I decided to check it and after entering the data it came up with my current hourly rate. A Pretty cool tool.

For all of your seasoned professionals out there what was your worst mistake in starting out? In spite of all of our growing pains and lessons learned while building our confidence, it is all pressing toward the goal of seeing your business grow and prosper in 2012!

I contacted a large software provider earlier this month about a glitch with their program. The first time I called I was told I had to purchase customer support at a hefty price tag. I tried to solve the problem on my own and finally purchased the customer support plan. After spending 1.5 hours on the phone with the company support and speaking with 5 different specialists, the problem remains unsolved. Since their customer service closed at 9 a.m. and they put me on hold at 8:45 p.m. and never picked up I figured I was beat!

I have found that to be true when personally dealing with Amazon. Just a few weeks ago, during the Holiday rush, I ordered some items on Amazon, expecting a delivery in two days. The boxes were on my doorstop in about 18 hours. I was a extremely satisfied customer, and I have retold that story to at least ten friends. And I spread the word electronically to perhaps thousands of friends online. Word of mouth is extraordinarily powerful.

By contrast, a local business recently served me terribly, and I told others in person and online as well. I try to give a favourable report, but sometimes companies don’t try terribly hard to fix customer service problems. The local business called me and left a message on my home phone after I had posted on their Facebook page. Somewhat clueless, since a response on their Facebook page could have solved my problem and shown many other people online how they were trying to help a customer. After that one phone message, they never tried to reach me again.

When I first started out in business, it was drilled into me that the customer is ALWAYS right. Do whatever you can to keep the customer happy and loyal. The rules seem to have changed. Are customers now disposable? What can your business do to enhance the level of customer satisfaction? Do your customers/clients feel that your product or service has met their expectations? A customer service experience can change the entire perception a customer has of your organization, and that can be beneficial or awful, legendary or disastrous.

Do you have a story of outstanding customer service? Please share it with us!

I had a logo and website header designed through a company named Logonerds in May of 2010. I was very pleased with the end results. They worked closely with me and developed a product that I have been very happy with. Great job right?

Breakdown

I received a letter on 28 November 2011 from Getty Images informing me that one of the images used in my website header was not licensed and charging me a whopping $1,225.00 USD bill! I have reached out on several occasions to Logonerd to resolve the problem. I first used the customer login interface and communicated that Getty Images was seeking damages for the unlawful use of the image. I waited 3 days and went to log back in and contact them again. I have lost access to the customer login interface and they don’t even “recognize” my username or email address. I then wrote a polite email again stating the problem and as of today have received no communication from them.

Breakthrough

I really would like to turn this breakdown into a breakthrough. I despise unresolved items and would like to give Logonerds the benefit of the doubt that they have mislaid my email communication and that the lack of access to my customer login page is just a fluke. I encourage them to contact me and help me resolve this.

I have removed my website header designed by Logonerds from my site. Getty Images is promising to pursue me paying the entire amount since they consider Logonerds a third party vendor.

I would love to have your feedback. Have you faced a similar crisis? How did you resolve?