Mary Lutz

I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress this week in my new VA business, as far as getting it started! Monday I received my VBSS starter kit and have gone through 9 of the days and 1/2 of the 10th day.  It’s awesome!!! It takes you step by step, from even thinking about starting a business from home, being self-employeed, and if being a VA is for you! Then it takes you through the steps of how to get your business started, from what type of ownership, choosing a name, logo design, etc.  That’s where I’m at right now, logo design.  I really want a snazzy logo, so I want to be sure I pick something that is eye-catching and memorable, functional and scalable, and professional. 

I also have worked out my new cell phone issues, like getting my ringtones to work and configured my email exchange server for my ProVBS email account.  I am pretty proud of that accomplishment because I had no idea what I was doing.  But, I found the info I needed for my incoming and outgoing mail servers and what type of account it is (POP3 or IMAP), so I was able to enter all that in my phone and it actually works! So, now I can send out pictures and stuff with ease!  I STILL have to find the file on my PC where I saved my contacts from my old phone so I can copy them to my new phone.  No success there, yet, even after doing a Search on my computer.  I have email addresses because I got them from my Gmail account, but not phone numbers.  I wonder where they could be??? I know I saved them, I saved them at the same time I saved my ringtones, so I know it’s on this stinkin’ computer somewhere!

Google Calendar has a new feature that allows you to sync with your Outlook Calendar.  But, it has a few glitches.  Jeff and I both have calendars; Mary’s calendar, Jeff and Mary’s calendar, Jeff’s calendar, Jeff’s work calendar.  Crazy I know!  Well the sync feature will only sync one calendar, not all of them (at this time).  So, we condensed everything into Jeff and Mary’s calendar (as simple as a few clicks) and now I’m waiting for Google Calendar to sync with Outlook so I can see if it worked or not.  I hope it does because that is the calendar (outlook) that shows on my home page on my phone and it would be really nice if it was up to date! 

Next week, I set my goal to go to the County Clerk’s office and register for my DBA (doing business as).  And I’m going to work on my logo, and start working on my business cards.  That’s all pretty exciting stuff.  I really have to look into webdesign software because that is where I am going to get most of my business from, the internet!!! VBSS kit came with a tutorial for Dreamweaver, so I’m going to use that, and then, if I like it, (and I do so far after a brief look today) then I will talk to Jeff about purchasing it.

Also, as I was studying my VBSS kit today, I think I’m going to target Pastors and Youth Pastors for Event Planning as one of my niches! I have lots of experience in this area and would love to offer my services.  If it catches on, then it will probably be my main niche because I absolutely love it!!! But, we will see what direction everything takes, once I get started.

Okay, I’m really starting to love my new cell phone!  I was able to enter most of my contacts email addresses from Gmail to Outlook and then sync my phone with Outlook…love that part!  However, I still haven’t been able to get my ringtones to work.  The file was copied from my PC to my Mobile Device file, but they have not loaded on my phone.  They are in MP3 format, and my phone is Windows based, so I’m not sure why they are not loading into my phone. Also, Jeff and I haven’t been able to get pictures to send from our phones.  He was going to go to Alltel today to find out why, but was running late, so probably tomorrow!

Other than that, I really love all the functionality my phone has to offer!  I’m learning my way around it, and figuring out all what it can do, which is a lot and I love it, especially for my new VA Business!

Okay, in my previous post, I mentioned that I got my new MotoQ SmartPhone from Alltel today.  And I am happy with it.  Still am, just a little frustrated at the moment.  Jeff and I had, from our previous Razr phones, Motorola Phone Tools software that allows us to exchange data between each of our phones and our PC.  Loved it!  So, I’ve been trying to get the aforementioned software to detect my new phone, and it won’t.  In addition, ActiveSync kept popping up everytime I would connect my new phone to the USB port on the PC, but it wouldn’t detect my phone either.  Finally, after talking to Jeff, who read my previous post, I’m assuming mentioned something about updating ActiveSync.  Well, being the genius I am (LOL!) I informed him that the Cd that came with our phones had an update for ActiveSync on it, and I already updated it.  Well, as I was troubleshooting ActiveSync, I noticed that they suggested updating to 4.5 version, and I’m pretty sure that version on the Cd was NOT 4.5, but something lower.  So, I updated it again.  Voila’! It detected my phone.  But, that still does not do me much good, but it will help Jeff.  Why won’t it do me much good, you may be asking? Because, I don’t use Outlook on this computer, Jeff does: I don’t use the calendar on the PC, I use Google Calendar; and I don’t use any of the other applications on the PC.  The ones I use are already accessible from the web (which we have unlimited internet on our phones) like Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Notebook and Google docs.  Plus all the other places I go are on the web as well.

What I do want to do is retrieve my contact info, ringtones, pictures, etc. from my old phone, via the Motorla Phone Tools mentioned earlier, and send them to my new phone.  But, no.  It won’t detect my new phone, so I’m frustrated!  I don’t want to have to manually enter them all!!!!! I don’t wanna!!!!

And, neither Jeff or I have been able to send pictures from our phone Makes me mad.  I supposed I ought to go to bed now, and work on it tomorrow, or at least let Jeff because I tomorrow is my day to work at the church, so I won’t be home to fiddle with it :( 

It is a Moto Q. Jeff and I went with it because of the functionality, price and it was the best of it’s type our Alltel office carried. I must say, I love it! So far. I am working on getting it syncronized right now and having some difficulty doing that. ActiveSync keeps coming up, but it’s looking for Jeff’s PDA. I think I have to delete his PDA, but don’t want to do that when he’s not here. And, knowing Jeff, he probably has another solution, so I will let him mess with it.

Features I love:
Unlimited internet access.
Access to up to 7 email accounts
Camera
Video (although I haven’t figured out how to use the video yet)
Voice Recorder (yeah! for when I get blog ideas while driving, etc.)
Calendar
Tasks
Games (yeah! I love games!)
Gosh, so much more, but I’m getting too tired to list them all right now…LOL!

Anyway, a couple of people suggested other phones, but our Alltel dealer doesn’t carry them, and this one seems to have all the functionality I need at this time! It will be perfect for my VA business, once I get it up and running!

Well, I better go fiddle with it some more!

I let the youth pastor of our church know that I’m starting my own VA business.  As you may or may not know, I am a youth leader and the administrative assistant for our youth pastor, on a volunteer basis.  Wednesday, when I was working in the office, the youth pastor approached me about possibly hiring me to do some work for a conference we put on yearly.  Last year, I volunteered my time and services, and I’m sure there will be lots of volunteer time this year, but it’s cool that he wants to hire some of my services this year!