Small Business Labs

MAY 12, 2015

Last week the results from the spring coworking space member survey were released at the Global Coworking Conference Unconference (GCUC). Emergent  Emergent Research (that's us) partnered with GCUC and Jacob Sayles of Office Nomads on this study. The key finding is while coworking spaces are definitely workspaces, they are also much more. They are places where members work, network, learn and socialize together.    In other words, coworking spaces are human spaces.

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2015 Networking Learning Skills 217

Dumb Little Man

MAY 13, 2015

Ah, to find your life’s calling. It might be big, it might be small, but it will definitely be meaningful. It might be something you do for a living, or it might be something you do on the side, but it will definitely be fulfilling. Without further ado, let’s jump right in to the 6 techniques you can try right now that will help you find your calling in life! #1: 1: Your Rant What topic can you really rant about? What gets your blood boiling and your voice fierce?

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2015 UPS 210

Practically Perfect PA

MAY 13, 2015

The word networking can strike fear, horror and / or joy into the best of us. Networking is without a doubt a valuable skill set and resource tool but for many it can involve going outside our comfort zone when confronted with the notion of chatting to a complete stranger. I won’t lie – I was feeling slightly daunted when faced with the prospect of attending the Gala Dinner Networking Event at Executive Secretary LIVE on my own.

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Networking 2015 Collaborate International 199

Eco-Office Gals

MAY 13, 2015

By Jane Blanchard via Modernize. When you’re preparing to sell your home, any upgrades that add value are worth your time and effort. One of the hottest trends in real estate is green, sustainable living–making changes to your home that decrease the amount of energy you use and your impact on the environment. Read on to learn more about the best “green” upgrades that not only are kind to the Earth, but add value to your home.

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2015 Environment Learning UPS 184

Small Business Labs

MAY 11, 2015

Pew Internet's U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015  profiles American smartphone usage and the growing role that "smartphones play in helping Americans access, share, and create information and communicate with others." " And while the growth of smartphones and smartphone usage is not new news, it's nice having detailed data illustrating it. The key quote from the report is: 64% of American adults now own a smartphone of some kind, up from 35% in the spring of 2011.

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2015 2011 UPS 183

Dumb Little Man

MAY 11, 2015

I still remember one of the first days after starting at University. Sitting at the back row of the auditorium, shooting the s**t with the others, hot girls with short skirts, no worries what so ever. It was all good and terrific for a young man growing up in a village of 200 inhabitants. Coming straight from high school and somewhat still being breastfed from home we thought going to an University was like a morning breeze and was all about socializing. Little did we know.

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2015 UPS 203

Office Organization Success

MAY 15, 2015

You’ve done all the hard work in getting your blog site up and running… You’ve even got a sign-up box on every page of your site. Now all you need to do is get your web site visitors to part with their name and email address so that you can start and build your database of potential clients. But the question is … how do you get them to do this?

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2015 Email Gifts Filing 182

Practically Perfect PA

MAY 12, 2015

In conjunction with Tate , we are running a prize draw and one lucky person will win a £150 Red Letter Days voucher. Just complete the contact form ( for those reading this on email click here for the contact form ): [contact-form]. Tate is the perfect partner to host this giveaway. They really do understand the importance of career planning and training for assistants, particularly those assistants who want to climb the career ladder.

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2015 Forms Training Email 159

Dumb Little Man

MAY 15, 2015

I do not think that if you repeat a thousand times a day: “I am tall,” you will grow by the power of self-suggestion. Nor do I believe to repeat: “I am rich”, will miraculously turns it into a rich person for the night. But many people believe that. The other day I entered the house of a girl and her walls were written the words: “I have a rich husband,” like the Bart Simpson paying a penalty. Positive thinking and self-suggestion are the same thing?

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2015 Restaurants 196

Office Organization Success

MAY 12, 2015

Our house move went smoothly, except for the cable/internet connection! Although the installation happened the week before we moved (I was trying to be super organized and not interrupt my work flow), it wasn’t until we actually moved in that everything started not to work, and I was without internet for three days last week! I had four technicians out in the space of less than a week and they finally got it fixed.

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2015 Training UPS 145

Simple Productivity Blog

MAY 13, 2015

"Out of sight, out of mind" is an old adage that I find holds true, particularly when it comes to the things I need to pull together, organize or simply remember. Yes, I have my task list, but it is the collection of these items that snags me, so often these things don't make it into the task list. When I was perusing various teaching organization systems, I saw a picture of something that I knew I could adapt to help make task collection easier.

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2015 Twitter Facebook 167

On The Job

MAY 11, 2015

How many times have you made a New Year's resolution, or a promise to yourself that you will change? But within a few months of making such an assertion, you have fallen back into the same old behaviors. You make excuses to yourself, of course, but those are often ridiculous. In a new book, " Triggers ," author and leadership guru Marshall Goldsmith says that these "excuses" you make to yourself are really much more.

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2015 Assertiveness Goals UPS 185

Dumb Little Man

MAY 13, 2015

All too often our finances get most of the attention, and our emotional health gets put on the shelf to be visited another day. But the truth is, gaining financial health means nothing, if we can’t enjoy it once we get there. But how do we manage our emotions? I mean, with finances everything is laid out logically, but with emotions, the spectrum is overwhelming.

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2015 Health Management Finance 187

Productivity Bits

MAY 14, 2015

Between meetings, emails, projects, reports and presentations, you might not think there’s room left in your work schedule for much else besides, well, work. You might want to reconsider, though, because a mid-day workout could be just what you need to power through your packed schedule. It might seem counter-intuitive to add yet another bullet point to your to-do list, but the benefits of exercise far outweigh the time it’ll take to reconfigure your daily agenda.

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2015 UPS Agenda Email 116

Simple Productivity Blog

MAY 14, 2015

In this video I talk about how a simple sticky note keeps projects from falling through the cracks. The post Thursday From The Trenches Episode 13 appeared first on Simple Productivity Blog. More great content can be found on the site at Simple Productivity Blog., or you can find me on Twitter ( @SmplProdBlog ) and Facebook ( Facebook.com/SimpleProductivity ). Productivity trench

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2015 Twitter Facebook 152

Office Dynamics

MAY 11, 2015

“You are your most precious asset. You are your most precious thing in your world. You must invest in yourself every day. Never be cheap on yourself. You are worth it. Everything you are and everything you will be. is the result of how you use your mind.”. – Brian Tracy. Last week, I announced the launch of a BIG Life Mastermind Program.

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2015 Mentoring Learning Skills 158

Dumb Little Man

MAY 14, 2015

Starting a workout routine can be a hassle for a lot of reasons, for those of us that enjoy working out you’ll be pleased to know that working out has never been easier but for the REST of us there are a lot of “hurdles” that come with starting a workout routine and MAKING it work.

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2015 Health 186

Step It Up VA Coaching

MAY 14, 2015

by Donna Toothaker. For any business, there are oodles of benefits of having effective systems – increased productivity, greater profitability, and ease of growth, to name just a few. Yet sometimes one of the overlooked benefits is to give empowerment to your team, allowing them to find the information needed to be able to make decisions.

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2015 Central Desktop Basecamp Policies 109

Simple Productivity Blog

MAY 15, 2015

On Fridays I pull the best of my blog readings to share with readers. Topics can come from anywhere, and cover anything. This week I highlight articles on: Getting more done on side projects. Replacing your blender with a smart stick (I don't think son!). How the color blue is modern - older cultures didn't see it. Some great things about engineers. A simple guide to getting organized - and how to make it stick. The impact of tasks made tiny by technology.and more!

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2015 Twitter Facebook 125

Office Dynamics

MAY 13, 2015

“The desire to know is natural to good men.” ” – Leonardo Da Vinci. One of my favorite books is the fascinating book by Michael J. Gelb, How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. It would take an encyclopedia to begin to share the full scope of his accomplishments. Leonardo the artist is known for transforming the direction of arr. He pioneered the use of oil paints. His universally recognized paintings like the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are works of superb creativity.

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2015 Agenda Skills Learning 157

Dumb Little Man

MAY 12, 2015

You’re nodding along as the other person talks to you about something. She might be an acquaintance you bumped into, or someone you’ve met for the first time. And as the other person finishes talking, she waits for you to say something. Then, it happens. The deadly, awkward silence. It reminds us that we’re not very comfortable with the other person we’re chatting to (at least not yet), and can sometimes leave us with a dreadful feeling that we’re not as socially smooth as we ought to be.

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2015 UPS 178

Clutter Coach

MAY 11, 2015

by Originally posted 2012-11-27 22:08:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter. When I’m stumped for blog topics, or I just want to see what people are saying about organizing, I go online and surf around. Today I came across a post from someone who had a bad experience hiring an organizer. If you’ve had this issue or have read about it and been scared off hiring someone, read on.

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2015 Confidence Copyright Promotion 109

On The Job

MAY 15, 2015

If you’re a leader and your team complains about being overwhelmed, you’re not alone. We often blame technology – whether it’s the telephone 50 years ago or social media today – for much of our ills at work. But the real problem may not be your team tweeting too much but rather your poor communication skills as a leader. Think about it: How many times have you sent an email to a team member who is sitting in the same room?

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2015 Email Social Media Skills 151

Productivityist

MAY 15, 2015

I journal so that I can celebrate the day gone by…and to plan for the day to come. Without writing out my successes and failures of the day, I’d have less direction to go forward. I journal to review and reflect every day so that when I attempt a deeper reflection and review I’m better prepared to do so. I no longer have to review every week as a result.

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2015 87

Daily Writing Tips

MAY 9, 2015

More than one reader has chided me for writing “comprised of” in a recent post. Here’s the culprit: In the ancient Roman army, a centurion was the officer in charge of a century, a unit originally comprised of 100 men. Anyone who has ever read a popular language blog has seen this dictum stated as an adamantine rule: One must never use the phrase comprised of.

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2015 Forms Email UPS 82

Office Dynamics

MAY 15, 2015

Question: “I recently had a performance review in which a couple of the things that were said about me were simply untrue. These comments took me completely by surprise, and I realize that in defending myself I probably came off as whiny and was very ineffective. Only now that a week has gone by do I realize exactly what I should have said, and how I should have said it. I got my raise and a decent overall mark, so is it just too late now to state my case?

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2015 Training Management 115

Men With Pens

MAY 12, 2015

Click here to read the full article →Another rocking post from Men With Pens! How to Stand Out in a Sea of Content first appeared on Men With Pens Copyright 2006 — 2015, All Rights. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]. Better Blogging

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2015 2006 Copyright 62

Productivityist

MAY 11, 2015

Over the past few weeks, I’ve published a series for newsletter subscribers that discusses why I am no longer using Getting Things Done as my personal productivity approach. If you’d like to give all three parts a read, here are the links to those newsletters in the archives: So Long, GTD: The First Reason Why I’ve Left Getting Things Done Behind. So Long, GTD: The Second Reason Why I’ve Left Getting Things Done Behind.

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2015 Cubicle Email Promotion 81

Daily Writing Tips

MAY 15, 2015

A striking headline from The Daily Beast got me thinking about all the expressions that make use of the noun belt : The Rustbelt Roars Back From the Dead. I thought a post about belt idioms might be especially useful to ESL speakers. A belt is a strip of flexible material, such as leather, plastic, cloth, used with or without a buckle for wear (usually) around the waist. Some idioms are based on a belt’s narrow shape, like the following epithets for different sections of the United States.

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2015 Clothes Management UPS 75

Small Business CEO

MAY 11, 2015

Working for yourself and running a start-up business can be a dream come true for many, being both rewarding and profitable. However, if taking the risk and setting up on your own is something you’re willing to do, make sure you know which financial pitfalls to avoid. We’ve put together a guide below, covering some of the common money worries new business owner have, plus how to avoid them with our expert pointers. Just Starting Out? Get advice before you jump ship and set up.

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2015 UPS Finance 78

Administrative Arts

MAY 12, 2015

I was just reading an article at Office Ninjas about Journaling in the Workplace. It’s a good post and well worth reading. Be sure to follow her links, they’re quite interesting. It made me think of an experience I had a few years ago. I was working at a small non-profit (the home of wearing many hats). I had system admin duties as well as working as the Executive Assistant. I had been tasked with finding a certain file containing a memo that no one could remember who wrote.

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2015 Agencies Filing Networking 49

Daily Writing Tips

MAY 11, 2015

We all know that spell checkers aren’t much help in catching homonyms. English speakers are still expected to discern the difference between pear , pare , and pair by drawing on what they should have learned in school. Some words, however, have no sound-alikes. Spell checkers do a great job of flagging one-of-a-kind words like tragedy , definitely , Wednesday , February , separate , argument , calendar , and truly.

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2015 Agenda Calendars Travel 75

Daily Writing Tips

MAY 10, 2015

In response to my post about the use of the word unctuous in the context of cooking, several readers suggested that speakers might be confusing unctuous with sumptuous. If they are, they must not know the meaning of sumptuous. English-speaking cooks who use unctuous to describe pork roasts are referring to taste, texture, and juiciness. The word sumptuous , although often used to describe a meal, has nothing to do with the taste of food.

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2015 Expenses 2006 Forms 74

Daily Writing Tips

MAY 12, 2015

A reader wonders if there is a significant difference of connotation between the verbs “to note” and “to notice.” The question arose as he tried to decide between the following sentences to express the inner dialogue of a character: Rory noted that the CEO never asked for details. Rory noticed that the CEO never asked for details. Note , as both noun and verb, has been in the language since the Middle Ages. The earliest meaning of the noun was “a sign or symbol used in writing.”

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2015 74

Daily Writing Tips

MAY 14, 2015

A reader offers this interesting use of dissembled : On CNN a state department spokesperson just referred to our soldiers having dissembled some weapons in the hands of Iraqis. If what the soldiers did to the weapons was take them apart, then the word the spokesperson wanted was disassembled. If the soldiers were disguising the weapons in some way, then dissembled might work. To dissemble is to conceal the truth of a situation.

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2015 UPS 70

Daily Writing Tips

MAY 13, 2015

A reader wonders about the verbs garnish and garnishee : I have been hearing a radio commercial that mentions how the IRS can “garnish one’s wages.” I always thought garnish referred to decorating food or something, but when I looked this up online, apparently garnishee is the word that has fallen out of use, and garnish in reference to wages is correct. Can you tell me if this is in fact the case? Both words are used in the sense of taking money owed to a creditor from a person’s wages.

2015 69

2015 Legal UPS 69

Small Business CEO

MAY 12, 2015

Social media is increasingly becoming a tool for organizations, both big and small, to promote their business and create awareness about their current and upcoming offerings. Most of you would agree that it is important to understand the different facets of any tool to be able to utilize it optimally.

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Social Media Promotion 2015 73