Winner of the Virtual Assistant Forums February 2009 Blogging Challenge

I am honored to receive the recognition for creativity. The prize is a book from the Virtual Assistant Forums library. ~Janine 

 

Throw on my sweats, brush my teeth, wash my face,
Feed the cat, feed the teen, 'Yes, it’s oatmeal for darn sakes.'

'Leave the iPod at home, don’t even ask.
And please don’t forget your books and school lunch pass.'
(Help me this day, as I ignore his morning sass!)

We’d better get going;
I’ve got much on my plate; emails, Twitter,
social networking won’t wait.

Already my head is a-spin;
I may be going berserk,
but I can’t sit down ’til I finish my mom-work.

A quick drive to school, 'Good luck on your test!'
A kiss and a hug, 'And, please do your best.'

He turns with a grunt and then pauses to say,
'I love you too, Mom but please go away.
My friends are all looking, you see,
so please go to work, you’re embarrassing me!'

The drive back home, I’m thinking of work;
a new client today, perhaps a contract to sign,
This is a great job, with so many fun perks.

I take off my taxi-cap and up to my door,
smile to the neighbor,
(oh, that man’s an incredible bore!)
Pick a few weeds, in the box goes the Netflix,
I’ve arrived right on-time,
oh, this office is a mess!

Phone conference at 10, computer goes on;
I must prepare.
Toss in some laundry, oops, that sweater’s mohair.

Heat up the first coffee now cold from before;
only one cup remaining, shall I make some more?

Click on my Inbox, checked only 12-hours-past.
Emails pour in like a flood,
I’d say, 20 mbps is rather fast.

Check boxes for client-rush requests,
check VAF for new posts,
comment LinkedIn, post Twitter
I’m working hard to deliver.

Look at my calendar, I’ve got real estate work,
new listings are posted with virtual tours to stitch.
I’ll have to redo my weekly to-do list.

A client has emailed me she wants something fast.
A newsletter copy; she can’t know I’m behind.
I’ll open the attachment, what will I find?

Newsletter copy that needs more than a tweak,
bad spelling and formatting,
it does look rather bleak.

I get started on this rush project, in comes new real estate listings.
Get these up on the ‘net, the agent is insisting.

Time moves quickly and I’ve completed all three tasks.
Sent off that newsletter, will the client approve fast?
Now I’m writing a blog post and stitching photos again,
I have to push hard, client conference awaits
and it’s already 10.

Break away from my work to make my call,
new client is pleasant and seems rather fine.
Will he sign my contract and do so on-time?

Yes, I can update your ads and post listings to your sites,
write your blogs, articles and newsletters;
and make them look right.
Yes, I can help you for as long as you like, but remember,
your budget is really quite tight.

My day continues, finishing work as it comes in.
The newsletter copy is returned no changes! Great, it’s a win!

New client sent contracts, we’ll get started the next day.
Set up new folders, passwords and names.

(This is a real business and I don’t play games.)

I’m learning new programs, have QuickBooks Pro in the wings,
I’ll be loading new software and reading manuals and such things.

The blog is nearly finished. I’ll post to Active Rain.
What will be the next topic?
(Occasionally, I do think I am going insane.)

I finally step outside for some much-needed fresh air.
The blue Florida sky, the graceful palms and the birds.
How proud that this is my office; my life in my own words.

Time to pick up the teen, 'Lord; give me strength if you may.'
Surprisingly he asks me, 'Mom, how was your day?'

He doesn’t like his teacher; he wants to play with the Wii.
'Mom, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll do my homework for a fee.'

I don’t change diapers or take care of new babies, you see,
but I remain a VA as my teen still needs me.

Peer pressure, girls, homework and school,
he still needs a mom to listen each day;
albeit I’ll agree, I am really 'uncool'.

My VA job allows me to choose,
the work that I like to do,
I contract with quality people
More or less, or perhaps just a few.

The best part of all, is that I can
be a Mom too.

Janine Gregor

Email correspondence is an extremely powerful communication medium and with power comes responsibility. Poorly constructed e-mails have been known to ruin careers and cause mistrust among clients and employees.  It can be difficult to rebound from the effects that bad e-mail has on a business’ reputation because e-mails do not just ‘go away’.  People remember the bad e-mails and they are often saved for posterity in other e-mail folders, which also do not ‘go away’.  E-mails live, breathe and multiply across cyberspace so it is truly important to keep nine basic rules of e-mail net etiquette in mind:

1) Overuse of the ‘urgent’ exclamation tells the same tale as ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’.  If every e-mail you send is tagged with the red ‘urgent’ button, eventually your readers will ignore this tag.  Use the ‘urgent’ tag sparingly and only when it really is a matter of urgency.  Even then, do not expect your readers to open the e-mail even if it is tagged as ‘urgent’.  E-mail can be opened at any time.  If a matter is truly urgent, better to pick up the phone and let the recipient know the important information is on its way.

2) Be cautious of unseen recipients. Never use unsecured e-mail to send confidential documents.  A misstroke on the keyboard to the wrong-named person and the documents can make several trips around the world landing in e-mail boxes whose recipients could possibly hurt solid business relationships.  A quick slip in the use of ‘autocomplete’ in the TO line of an e-mail to someone with a similar name as your intended recipient and your documents can creep through communication channels you never knew existed.  Review the TO line before you hit send.

3) Make the last sentence of your e-mail count.  This is the sentence or question most readers will remember.  If you have numerous questions which need to be answered in an e-mail, collect them into one section and use a bullet or a number feature. Spotty questions throughout an e-mail may not be answered unless the reader is a meticulous e-mail-reader, and many people are not. E-mail is a fast medium, open one e-mail, move onto the next, so streamline the content and leave the ‘action’ question or statement for last. Your reader will more than likely remember the last item they read and act on it much more quickly.

4) Never forward e-mails addressed to you to someone else without the permission of the initial sender.  Truly the highest form of etiquette! It takes a few extra minutes, but the best method is to create a new e-mail with a new subject title.  Some people will edit an e-mail before forwarding to the next person, but even this practice is questionable.  Sometimes the subject title does not match the forwarded topic and there are some unedited items left in the e-mails which can still be damaging (and embarrassing) to the initial sender.  Edited forwarded e-mails always look like they have been edited and that too can lead the initial sender to mistrust the recipient as well as the extended recipient wondering what it was that had been edited and why.  Forwarding e-mails without the sender’s permission is just plain bad business manners.

5) My time is as valuable as your own.  Sending e-mail to everyone, including those who do not need to read your e-mail is also bad business manners.  Adding a disclaimer such as “If this e-mail does not pertain to you, please ignore it” does not justify having sent an e-mail to someone who had to take the time to read this e-mail only to find out the information had nothing to do with them at all.  In fact, people get paid to read e-mail so if you send unnecessary e-mail to those who do not need to receive them; you are in the end, paying them for doing nothing. Take a few minutes to look at your TO line and rethink whether everyone in this line really needs to read your information.

6) Send bad news on a Thursdays. All too often Monday morning e-mail is filled with bad company news which can set the mood for a difficult work week. If you must send negative company news such as termination announcements, departures, decline in profits or stocks, budgetary cuts, company closings, etc. try to send this information later in the week, if possible.  Thursdays are a good day because it gives the recipient time to absorb the information; perhaps another day to respond and/or read what others might have to say and then offers two weekend days to soak it all in. When the new work day starts on a Monday, stress levels are lowered and people can begin the week on a more positive note.

7) Use ‘return receipt’ sparingly. If it is important for you to know whether someone has received your e-mail, the best method is to pick up the phone and let them know the e-mail is on its way. Overusing ‘return receipt’ implies that you do not trust the recipient to either read your e-mail and/reply to it. If you need your recipient to reply to your e-mail, politely ask within the body of the e-mail if they would reply via directly by hitting the reply button.

8) Never terminate someone’s employment via e-mail.  As intonation, facial and body language expressions are not transmitted via e-mail; this is the worse way to deliver bad news.  Out of respect for your other employees, department heads and the individual being terminated bad news should be delivered by telephone or if possible, in a one-on-one situation.  These more humane methods offer the individual an opportunity to ask questions and respond to the astonishment of being ‘let go’.  In the event that a wrongful termination suit might follow, notification by personal means would cast a more professional image on the company than using electronic notification.

9) K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. Remember this slogan from the 1980’s? The same concept holds true 25+ years later when constructing an e-mail.  Keeping sentences clean, brief and without a lot of unnecessary chatter will give the professional impression you need to offer your readers in your e-mail.  Your e-mails represent not only you and your mark of professionalism but also that of the company you work for.  Keep fancy fonts, colors, backgrounds, extended closing advertisement and photos out of e-mails (for some industries such as real estate, and entertainment photos are important to the image, but it must be a professional photo.)  Photos in business e-mails playing with your pet should be left out of business correspondence.  Not everyone is a dog-lover and would only wish to view you as a well-groomed professional and not in overalls and a tee-shirt.  If someone wants to print your e-mail and its content is filled with pictures, colored background and fonts, this can be annoying as these types of correspondences ‘eat up’ expensive printer cartridges.  Play it safe and construct your e-mails in an easy-to-read black font, Times New Roman, Verdana or Courier on white with as little closure information as possible.  (Ever get an e-mail thread with closure information one page long per e-mail reply…this can become quite a task to scroll through this information to find the original message!) Your client in Peoria may like the polka-dotted background but the Los Angeles client may think it to be a bit ‘odd’ in your color selection. You would not want a potential client to doubt your professionalism based on a color scheme. Colors also create moods and give impressions of the type of business you are trying to project. If you sell baby products, it would be ‘cute’ to use blue or pink e-mail background if your recipients are new mothers.  But that same color combination may not be acceptable in an e-mail to your baby products sales people or company director.  Keep it white and there are never any color choice or font distractions in your e-mail to take away from what it is you really want to say.

In 2008, Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice area ranked 11 in the country for lawsuit foreclosures. Due to the excess in the courts, 12th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Lee Haworth put a new rule into place.  The lenders’ law firms must meet with the homeowners to discuss alternatives to foreclosing. The attorneys must appear, physically, in court. But even with this requirement, of the 79 foreclosure cases set for hearings last week, only 5 attorneys showed up in court representing the lenders. 

Foreclosures In Manatee County – BayNews9 Report 4/9/2009 from Your Virtual Wizard on Vimeo.

[caption id="attachment_22" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Flame"][/caption]

So basically, this law was ignored. So now the Judge is clamping down and is fining lenders’ attorneys who do not show up in court.  Beginning in March, they must appear in person; and not just on the phone as was the usual practice.  

 

Interestingly, only a few law firms actually represent lenders in the state of Florida.  They are not located in Sarasota and Manatee counties, so they usually appear in local courts via telephone to save money.

I really do believe Judge Haworth might have something here.

Law firms will now have to hire local attorneys (stimulate the local economy) to attend the foreclosure hearings. But this also means that the lenders have to spend more time making sure the “checklist of requirements are met”; which, according to the Judge, includes abiding by “…the requirement to meet with homeowners within 45 days after the foreclosure is filed.”

Most homeowners who face foreclosure usually want lower payments or lower rates in order to save their homes. However, lenders are so backed-up with foreclosures that homeowners have to wait months to receive a call from the lenders to work out any negotiations.  And in some cases homeowners never receive a call from the lender until the case is actually in front of a judge. The Herald-Tribune reporter ads, “The lack of communication makes it impossible for a homeowner to question a debt, or to work out an arrangement other than a foreclosure until the case is in front of a judge.”  By then, the homeowner is out and has moved on.
 
Judge Haworth’s newest penalty requires the lenders’ attorneys to appear in court AND forces the lenders to communicate earlier in the foreclosure process with the homeowner.  Judge Haworth says, “I just think it’s important homeowners have an intelligent conversation with guys from the other side to see if there’s a way they can save their home.  It’s too important an issue to ignore.”

I learned that the law firms who represent the lenders contract the foreclosure cases in “bulk at a flat rate”.  There is an enticement to get these cases through the court system rather quickly so they can be paid.  However, as the article indicates the ‘line attorneys’ do not have the authority to make negotiations with homeowners to avoid foreclosures so it is inevitable that the foreclosure will occur any way.  This also means communication between lender and homeowner is further stalled.

Another interesting fact from this article is that two-thirds of all the mortgages in the past eight years have essentially turned into bonds.  This means that a mortgage might be split between four different trusts that oversee the bonds.  Apparently, these bonds then have different criteria for when to negotiate and when to foreclose.  Hillard, a former investment banker is quoted, “They would have to get authority from four different entities to settle these cases.”  

With more than a 600 percent increase in mortgage foreclosures since 2006, forecasts in this area seem rather bleak but I applaud Judge Haworth’s plan to financially force lenders’ attorneys to show up in court.  This is definitely a step in the right direction to at least open up negotiations between homeowners and lenders. If anything, it will get homeowners the opportunity to work with lenders’ earlier in the foreclosure process and possibly prevent cases from even getting in front of the Judge.

You can read the full article here .

 
Janine