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Epees, Foils, En Garde! Oh My!

April 14, 2011 By I.Vazquez 2 Comments

There is such an austere beauty in fencing. It’s about position, movement, strategy and flow. Once the fencing masks are on, it is difficult to distinguish one fencer from the other. With the exception of how well you move, everyone starts out the same, looks the same and seemingly moves the same.

VIVA Virtual Assistants Blog

Fencer (left) in the lunge.

Maybe I’ve watched too many Errol Flynn/Zorro movies, British period pieces via Masterpiece Theatre or maybe it’s in my blood via Spanish ancestry, but I’ve always had a fascination with fencing! So great has been my interest that from an early age I would visualize myself in a sword fighting scene, my heart racing, my feet moving quickly, sword extended, En Garde! Fast forward many, many, many (okay that’s enough) years later, I’ve taken six lessons to date since March. It has been awesome!

Each week, as I go through the process of warming up, stretching, listening to instructions and learning how to stand, thrust and lunge I can’t help but think about my business. Standing face to face with your opponent, you salute. Epee up (parallel to your nose), down with a *swoosh* (yes, it really makes a *swoosh*…very cool).

EN GARDE!
The French term synonymous with fencing or indeed sword fighting in general means “On your guard”. You may know your opponent exceptionally well or not, it doesn’t matter as you must always be on your guard. Will they advance (the aggressive position) once, twice or three times, while also throwing in a retreat (stepping away, which allows you to advance) to lull you into a false sense of security? You have to be aware of their movements and ready to be just out of their reach when they decide to thrust and lunge. If contact is made, points are scored.

POSITION
Maintaining your position is critical and difficult. You must stand with one foot directly in front of you and the other perpendicular to it about a step and a half behind. Knees bent, left arm behind you, right arm with elbow tucked in, thumb in the 12 o’clock position, the epee held in a firm yet delicate grasp. This is the En Garde. If your feet are too far apart, you will not be able to hold your stance, become tired, you will lose balance and not able to retreat quickly and fluidly, opening the way for points to be scored by your opponent.

EXPERIENCE
While I think that it would have been wonderful to learn to fence when I was younger, I realize after a few lessons that I listen to instructions better, understand how the symmetry of the foot, knee, elbow, hand and nose aide in the graceful movements required. There is a deeper understanding of the why of positions, etc, and a greater appreciation for this beautiful sport. My years of experience help me understand first and as a result move better, even against much younger opponents.

Are you aware of your business climate, clients and competitors? Are you En Garde!?

What is your position in your market? Are you able to easily fill or meet a need?

What has your lifelong experience taught you? Do you apply what you know and learn each day in your business?

Think about your answers and the comments I hope you will post :) . In the meantime, here is A timeline of fencing for your enjoyment.

Salute *swoosh, swoosh*

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Tapping Your Small Business

March 8, 2011 By I.Vazquez 4 Comments

At this time each year, my family and I hang a few sap buckets on maple trees around our house. Recently, I sent this photo to a Twitter friend, Jayme Soulati aka @Soulati who was in turn inspired to write a post of her own on her business blog The SMB Collective (a link to that post provided below).

Just as Jayme was inspired by this photo, I too am fond of making a direct correlation between everyday tasks or events and my business. To further explain, I will provide a little glimpse into what it takes to make Maple syrup, along with the business perspective.

MAKING MAPLE SYRUP & BUILDNG YOUR BUSINESS

PLANNING

SYRUP: Before you start the process you need a cordless drill, a 9/16 bit, hammer, buckets, lids, taps and obviously, Maple trees. While some people can tell the type of tree by its bark (in March when there are no leaves), I walk around my yard in October (when the leaves are still on the tree and I can easily identify the Maples) wrapping surveyor’s tape around the trees I want to tap in March. I avoid trees that have been tapped too many times, those that look old and dry or those that are less than 6” across.

Because we get quite a bit of snow in Maine, I plan to have the buckets near the entrance to my shed, that way I can easily access these no matter how snowed in the shed may be later in the winter.

BUSINESS: In order to start the process of obtaining clients and providing goods or services, you should have a business and marketing plan, company name, bank account, designation, types of goods or services, sources of goods, office, equipment, website, etc., etc. Have you identified your target market? Think very seriously about who your clients will be before you go out to tap them for business. Is it a business that already purchases from many of your competitors; have they been around for so long that they can’t see the need for hiring or buying from you; is it a young business with very little cash flow, not yet ready to do business with you?

You should also plan for what you will do if you do not get clients right away, if you can’t sell your goods based on your initial timetable, if you don’t have money coming in to cover your living and business expenses.

TIMING
SYRUP: The best time to hang your buckets is during that particular week in March when we start to have 40+ degrees during the day and below freezing temps at night. Warmth during the day, cold at night after a good snowy winter creates the optimum sap season.

BUSINESS: Timing is everything, and more so in business. Don’t sell too hard if you think you have a potential client. They may not be ready now but soon enough either their needs or business/cash flow circumstances will change. By having properly identified your market, you will be the first business they call for your particular goods or services.

TAPPING:

SYRUP: With everything in hand and ready to tap, I put on my snow shoes and tamp down a path to each tree. This will allow for easy access to the trees when collecting the sap…you’ll have a heavy pail in hand full of sap, snow/ice underfoot and many trips back and forth to the trees. Tap the trees that are furthest from your house first working your way back home.

BUSINESS: By having all of your business operations and processes in place and running smoothly prior to having clients, you will be in an optimum place to start producing for your clients. Once busy and focused on the goods or services you are providing to others, it is difficult to implement methods to help with your own efficiency…smooth out your own path before you begin.

COLLECTING

SYRUP: Check the buckets every day (this is my 10 year old son’s job) and empty into your five gallon bucket. Bring it home to boil (if you do it indoors it creates an enormous amount of steam and sticky yellow drips stains on the walls). If you have a sugaring house, you’ll need to keep that fire going steadily, using over a cord of wood on average (for small operations).

BUSINESS: Keep in touch with clients and prospects on a regular basis. Send a “nice to meet you” e-mail to a new business acquaintance. Check-in with your social media community, offer advice, support, etc. when applicable. Keep your own business fire going steadily, stoking your goals, plans and ambitions.

FINISHED PRODUCT

SYRUP: Don’t expect to get massive amounts of syrup from all of your hard work. Why? Well, here are some things you perhaps didn’t know about the process:

• Each bucket holds approximately one gallon of sap.
• You need to collect and boil down forty gallons of sap to get one gallon of syrup, 40:1 ratio.
• Constant skimming off the debris, etc. from the sap as it boils
• It takes approximately five hours to boil down a five gallon pail of sap to produce one pint of syrup.

BUSINESS: It takes a lot of work to have your own business!! Attending networking events, and webinars, going to workshops, trying to find the best places to be where your prospects and/or clients are can be exhausting.

Tapping Your Small Business You may not think that the thousands of business cards, emails, newsletters, blogs, tweets, etc. you produce each day will yield clients but…be patient. Continue to skim off what doesn’t work for you. This is all part of being in business and the more you do the greater the likelihood that you will be first in your potential clients’ mind.

Just think how delicious the syrup will be over those pancakes or waffles…and how wonderful you will feel when you can look back and see how successful you’ve been with your small business!

Tell me what you think.
Is there something you’d like to share? Have you seen an example of life imitating business? I would love to hear from you!

Read Jayme Soulati’s recent post “Tap Your SMB; Get Maple Syrup” on The SMB Collective

Filed Under: Connections, Relationships, Small Business, virtual assistants Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

There’s no app for that

March 10, 2010 By I.Vazquez Leave a Comment

The use of technology enables me to provide services to my clients no matter what the geographical location, within my virtual business support services company. A recent experience made me realize that some things cannot be done electronically.

My client (we’ll call him Joe), works in the New York Tri-State area, hired me to research hydrographic surveying information for his business. A few weeks after he purchased a block of time for my services, I received an e-mail in which Joe first apologized for his yet to be disclosed request and then went on to explain that he would need me to research something entirely different than originally planned.

On a recent trip to Vermont, he visited his parents’ gravesite, only to discover that there was no headstone. Long story short, his understanding was that another sibling was to take care of this important task on behalf of the family. Immediately, Joe set out to correct the situation but found that he didn’t know where to begin and as he was traveling for business, he would be unable to do the research himself.

With an internet yellow pages site, I compiled a list of approximately twenty businesses, nine of which were closest to the town where the family plot is located. Not thinking twice, I looked for a website for each company. After the first three, I realized that there was an interesting trend developing…not one of the first few businesses on the list had a website or if there was a link, it did not work. I thought “No matter, there is a phone number that I can call”. Easy.

Six of the nine companies I telephoned did not answer. Three of those six did not have an answering machine or voicemail. Of the three with an answering machine, one in particular had a message which said something to the effect of “We’re closed for the Winter. We can’t work the ground during this time of year. Call back in the Spring.” I sat back in my chair and laughed. All I could think was “Oh my word. How can anyone work this way?!”

My answer would come in the voice of two of the three people who did answer the telephone that day. The first lady did not quite understand why a man in New York, was using a woman in Maine to purchase a headstone in Vermont. I tried to explain that I was a virtual assistant, “A what?”; I’m sure she thought it was a joke. During our conversation, I learned that her husband’s family had been in the business for over 50 years. In her voice I could tell that she was around 65-70 years of age, as was the second lady I spoke with.

They were both very knowledgeable and experienced in what they offered. There was no need for internet, voicemail, e-mail or websites in their line of work. Local people found them either through the funeral home director, cemetery or because they had done such a beautiful job on a family’s monument that they became the headstone installers of choice for each individual family. With the help of these knowledgeable people, I had what information was needed such as, where the granite is quarried, the best time of year to install a headstone in Vermont, dimensions, lettering, and the process of installation.

My client is happy and the process has begun – a headstone will be placed at his parents’ gravesite within the next six weeks, “when the ground can be worked”.  Me, well, I am now a virtual assistant who is well versed in procurement, placement and installation of headstones in Northern New England.

When my task was done for Joe, I sat back and processed my experience, as I often do after a project.  I realized that we have all plunged so strongly and so rapidly into this world of instant access to information, instant gratification, of working and socializing virtually and “click of a button, it’s done” mentality that we may be unaware of people and jobs that have no need for technology in the context in which the rest of us use, rely, live or work by each day. Yet, we all have (or will have) need of their non-technical, non-virtual, knowledge, experience and skills. What will happen when they are gone?

Who will be available to carry on the traditions of a headstone maker? What of some of the other primitive skills such as blacksmith or farrier? Some jobs cannot be done via e-mail, smart phone or in the cloud. Some people, their knowledge and skills will be sorely missed when there is no one to continue the work. There truly is no app for that!

INFORMATION, CONTEMPLATIONS AND MUSINGS OF A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

Ivonne Vazquez is Principal of VIVA-Virtually Indispensable Virtual Assistants, LLC, located in Maine, USA www.vivavirtualassistants.com

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