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Browse published articles attributed to Lyn Prowse-Bishop, with full-archive search.
WHAT IS MENOPAUSE? To the MD, menopause is the last drop of blood a woman sheds. A woman can be peri-menopausal (around menopause) or post-menopausal (after menopause) but she can never be menopausal, according to this definition. n To most women, however, the years between the first suspicion ...
What do you do if you’re a sole operator or independent professional/executive in need of professional, confidential admin support, but don’t want to go to the expense and hassle involved in hiring your own staff? What if you don’t have the space for staff, or necessary ...What do you do if you’re a sole operator or independent professional/executive in need of professional, confidential admin support, but don’t want to go to the expense and hassle involved in hiring your own staff?
I am in despair!!! For the last few years – five at least – I’ve been trying to teach newbie virtual assistants about how to increase business, stay in business, keep clients happy and so on. By ‘newbie’ I mean anyone who has been in business less than 2-3 years. Forgive me for being blunt but if you have only been in business 12 months to 3 years you are not a veteran VA and you are still learning. I’d even go so far as to say you need to be in business for 5 years before you can wear that tag – given the statistic that over 80% of businesses fail in the first five years.
"Dearest granddaughter, come close and look into my eyes." Grandmother Growth beckons and her voice grows deeper and more resonant. "Look deep into my eyes and acknowledge the beauty there. "Yes, my skin is wrinkled. My face is the face of age, and to many, that is fearful. But my beauty, like ...
As we reach the end of another year my thoughts often turn to gratitude. I’m grateful to my clients who enable me to live this lifestyle, to be available for my daughter every day rather than having to ship her off to daycare, and generally be more relaxed about work. I’m also grateful for my husband and daughter, and our wonderful friends. But it’s interesting how many don’t display any amount of gratitude at all.
With the resurgence of interest in breastfeeding, there is increasing demand for natural remedies for the minor problems that accompany nursing. These remedies, taken from my book Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, offer simple, safe ways for nursing women and their infants to counter ...
Are you wanting to get on Twitter but are not sure if you have the time, energy or ability to use it effectively? A virtual assistant can help you get started - and keep going - on Twitter. This is a perfect 'back office' function you can outsource to your VA. Here are some of the things a VA ...Are you wanting to get on Twitter but are not sure if you have the time, energy or ability to use it effectively? A virtual assistant can help you get started - and keep going - on Twitter. This is a perfect 'back office' function you can outsource to your VA.
With the economic downtu I've noticed of late more and more discussion on various networks about worry about work dropping off, finding part time jobs and so on. I think it's important to remember this: as virtual assistants we are in business. We are business owners. This means we are responsible for our work/cash flow and that can be hard to get your head around if you've only ever been an employee in the past when work was simply handed to you and you were paid whether you were working or chatting in the tea room.
There has been lots of discussion of late on various Virtual Assistant (VA) lists around the world about what VAs should be calling themselves.
If you don't understand what that title means, the answer is probably no! It seems that what started out as something a CNN jou alist inaccurately described as "a place where teenagers were posting what they were doing throughout the day, from the cereal they were eating to the movies they were ...If you don't understand what that title means, the answer is probably no!
Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic inflammation of the space between lining of the urinary bladder and its muscle. Please allow me to offer you some ways to deal with your interstitial cystitis. I agree that antibiotics are not the best choice. Women with cystitis have bacteria in their ...
When Greg Cole, Research Director and US Principal Investigator of the Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development (GLORIAD) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Tennessee, decided he needed an extra assistant, he resolved to look for a Virtual Assistant. But this VA ...When Greg Cole, Research Director and US Principal Investigator of the Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development (GLORIAD) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Tennessee, decided he needed an extra assistant, he resolved to look for a Virtual Assistant.
Breast self-massage is simple. Breast self-massage is pleasurable. Breast self-massage helps prevent cancer as well as detect it. Breast self-massage helps keep breast skin supple. Breast self-massage is a way to be intimate with your breasts. Breast self-massage is a piece of women’s wisdom. ...
"Pack your bags for the jou ey," Grandmother Growth advises softly. "Your Change may be rough in places, so cushion yourself. Your Change may have some hard edges, so let your contours round. Your wise blood is stirring and you are learning to let it move without attaching fear to its ...
The most fertile years of a woman's life are those between 18 and 28. Even into the mid-thirties, it is usually fairly easy to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term. During these years the hormones that control ovulation, enhance conception, and ensure a healthy pregnancy are usually made ...
Rising fuel costs. Interest rates going up. Returns on investments going down. Dire warnings about the economy sliding into recession. It’s clear that there has been an abrupt slowdown in the Australian economy over the last year. In the current economic climate many business owners begin ...Rising fuel costs. Interest rates going up. Returns on investments going down. Dire warnings about the economy sliding into recession. It’s clear that there has been an abrupt slowdown in the Australian economy over the last year.
BIOFLAVONOIDS Plants containing flavonoids (from the Latin, flavus, yellow) were originally valued as dye plants. Today we appreciate them because we know they are anti-inflammatory, antihepatotoxic, anti-tumor, antimicrobial, antiviral, antioxidant, antiallergic, antiulcer, analgesic, and ...
As a successful Virtual Assistant, the question I am asked most frequently by new VAs is what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started. Without doubt, the answer is the power of niche marketing. When starting out, most new businesses try to be all things to all people. This just is ...As a successful Virtual Assistant, the question I am asked most frequently by new VAs is what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started. Without doubt, the answer is the power of niche marketing.
If having enough energy to earn your daily bread and to get all your chores done is a struggle for you. If you go to bed tired, but wake up even more tired. If you can't get up and go without coffee, or can't slow down and relax without alcohol. If your fatigue is ruining your mood and your ...
You found it on the internet to it’s free to take and use right? Wrong. Just because you see something on the web doesn't mean you can grab it and pass it off as your own. Recently I was alerted to the fact that someone had taken an article of mine, changed 'VA' wherever it appeared to their company name, and then uploaded it as their Benefits page. This is NOT okay.
My favorite herbs for post-menopausal women are horsetail, oatstraw, red clover, stinging nettle, seaweeds, and the plants rich in flavonoids. These gentle green allies are more like foods than drugs; they offer bone-creating, heart-protecting, disease-preventing, sex-enhancing optimum ...
Are you wanting to get on Twitter but are not sure if you have the time, energy or ability to use it effectively? A virtual assistant can help you get started - and keep going - on Twitter. This is a perfect 'back office' function you can outsource to your VA. Here are some of the things a VA ...Are you wanting to get on Twitter but are not sure if you have the time, energy or ability to use it effectively? A virtual assistant can help you get started - and keep going - on Twitter. This is a perfect 'back office' function you can outsource to your VA.
Wise Woman herbalist Susun Weed gives us a few simple, easy ways to nourish and tonify that vitally important little organ. n Here are ten easy steps to better heart health:n n 1. Stop smoking. Nourish yourself with a handful of sunflower seeds and a cup of nettle or oatstraw infusion daily ...
Artemis - Goddess of the herbalist - gives her name to a genus of marvelously aromatic, safely psychedelic, highly medicinal, dazzlingly decorative, and more-or-less edible plants in the Asteraceae family. I love Artemis, and I love her plants. WHO IS ARTEMIS? Amazonian moon goddess. Goddess ...
As a successful Virtual Assistant, the question I am asked most frequently by new VAs is what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started. Without doubt, the answer is the power of niche marketing. When starting out, most new businesses try to be all things to all people. This just is ...As a successful Virtual Assistant, the question I am asked most frequently by new VAs is what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started. Without doubt, the answer is the power of niche marketing.
"It is a bone-deep change you are going into, my beloved," counsels Grandmother Growth. "You must open to your very marrow for this transformation. No cell is to remain untouched. You are to open more than you ever dreamed you could open, more than you have opened in birth or in passion. You ...
“If you let that fiery wise blood just sit there in your belly, great granddaughter,” admonishes Grandmother Growth, “you'll get the urge to quench that heat. You'll get a tickle, a twinge, an urgent call. But you won't have the moisture you need. It's boiled away. It's gone up in steam. “So ...
With the resurgence of interest in breastfeeding, there is increasing demand for natural remedies for the minor problems that accompany nursing. These remedies, taken from my book Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, offer simple, safe ways for nursing women and their infants to counter ...
* Don't take calcium supplements. Calcium makes bones more massive, but more brittle. A stout dry branch breaks easily, while a green one, no matter how thin, won't break at all. Food sources of bone-building minerals (such as yogurt, nettle infusion, dandelion vinegar, and cooked kale) include ...
"Dear woman," Grandmother Growth's voice seems to float in the deepening twilight, echoing, reverberating, ringing in your ears. "Bring me your soreness. Bring me your pain. Bring your aches to me. Bring your burdens. Bring all you can no longer stand, can no longer bear, can no longer carry, ...
Don't kill, spray, tear up, or destroy the weeds in your garden, yard, and fence rows. Many of them are actually highly regarded, widely used, and extremely valuable medicinal herbs! What could be easier than growing an herb garden with no effort? Of course, you'll have to harvest your weeds, ...
For thousands of years knowledge of the herbs and wild plants that could increase fertility were the secrets of the village wise women. But after the holocaust against European Wise Women (the "burning times") and the virtual extermination of Native American medicine women, this knowledge ...
Wise Woman herbal and home remedies are simple, safe ways to help yourself when you have a diagnosis of uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids are solid muscle tissue growths in the uterus. They are also called fibroid tumors, myomas, or leiomyomas. Fibroids occur so frequently (in up to half of ...
“Oh, how densely packed your head is, my sweet,” sighs Grandmother Growth. “I'm afraid there's no room for new growth. If you could empty your mind, leave off worrying and planning for a while, and give in to the chaos and its random pleasures, just for a short time, I think you'd feel less ...
What do you do if you’re a sole operator or independent professional/executive in need of professional, confidential admin support, but don’t want to go to the expense and hassle involved in hiring your own staff? What if you don’t have the space for staff, or necessary expertise to complete a particular job? Your best office support staff member goes off on mate ity leave and you think your only alte ative is to hire an expensive temp?
Sometimes it seems that every magazine, newspaper, radio show, and piece of mail has a headline declaring that every woman’s risk of developing breast cancer is increasing. There is a numbing feeling of inevitability in these pronouncements. More and more women think about breast cancer as a ...
Step 1: Collect Information As the mix of hormones in your blood changes during your premenopausal years, you may notice the effects on your gastrointestinal tract both directly - estrogen is a gastrointestinal stimulant and varying levels may swing you from loose stools to dry ones - and ...
Almost every woman has, at one time or another, felt so fatigued she wanted to cry. But for some women, and for a variety of reasons - including menopause, caring for a new-born, working odd hours, chronic anxiety, and poverty, to name only a few - fatigue is a constant, not an occasional, ...
THE MISSING PART OF YOUR DIET MAY BE IN YOUR OWN BACK YARDnn(Boost Your Immunity and Prevent Cancer With Dandelion, Honeysuckle, Clover and Other Ordinary Weeds) Did you know that many of those unglamorous "weeds" that you've been poisoning or pulling out of your garden and lawn are some of the ...
“Why are you so thin? You look so tired all the time,” I hear my mum say for the umpteenth time. “I don’t know… you girls today. In our day, we just coped! None of these Day Care Centres and nannies and what not! I had three kids under 3” blah blah blah.
Herbal medicine is people's medicine. So why don't more people use it? Because it can seem complicated and scary, for starters. That's the reason I urge you to use herbal medicine simply -- one herb at a time. And that's a good reason to have a green ally: one plant that teaches you the ...
Summertime means insect bites and stings. Ouch! Take a leaf from Susun S. Weed's storehouse of natural remedies: Soothe, heal, and prevent bites with safe herbal remedies that grow right where you live: north or south, east or west, city or country. The best natural remedies for insect bites ...
The Silly Season is upon us but that doesn’t mean you have to be silly. The ACCC is warning that at this time of year scammers prey on people’s generosity and vulnerability. Their SCAMwatch site has revealed their “12 Scams of Christmas” which include scams around holiday accommodation, flight bookings, charities, online shopping, parcel delivery, social media gift vouchers/free products, door-to-door scams, telephone scams, Christmas e-cards, romance scams, weight loss scams and lottery scams.
It’s not often you get to meet someone who’s Googled you! But I did… yesterday and of all places at a school graduation. Still not 100% clear how it happened but apparently he was looking for my husband, knew I ran a business and ‘vaguely’ what it was about and voila! Actually, I just tried it – Googled my name as he’d have known it and ’secretary’ and there I am in living colour!
Here's an example situation - one which I know has been happening around and about of late: A carpentry business employs tradesmen carpenters. The boss tells his tradesmen that they would be better off as contractors to the business because they can charge a higher hourly rate than he currently pays them, and they can claim their tools and other things as business expenses. He lays them all off, gets them to go off and get an Australian Business Number (ABN) and then RE-contracts them as 'independent contractors'.
I know, I always seem to be harping on about customer service but seriously, it is imperative you get this right if you want to stay in business – particularly during an economic downtu and with the increase in the number of customers now heading online for their needs. The Sunday Mail recently reported Queensland has some of the worst customer service in the country, despite it being touted as THE tourist destination.
One of the most frequent enquiries I receive in my practice is for transcription services - digital, microtape, standard tape - not just from potential clients but from new VAs wanting to ‘get in on’ what seems to be a burgeoning niche in the Virtual Assistant industry. So, here are a few tips and facts to help clients understand the costs of providing transcription services, and ‘newbies’ who want to add this service to their practice. A: Transcriptionist -v- Typist
If you’re a new virtual assistant you’ll want to take up the advice of the veterans and join a few networks. You get some great support, encouragement and advice particularly when starting out. Most networks will offer a discussion board, and for financial members a publicly-available listing on their website, and potentially access to job leads – which will go out to all on the list depending on how the network is set up. A few things, in my experience, networks should never do: - Ask you to assign ownership of your domain name/URL to them;r
Getting clients is a big issue for small business owners – how to keep them is probably the next most common question I receive! But when it comes to getting clients one thing you can’t go past is follow up!
As we begin a new year, now might be the time to review whether your tech is working for you … or controlling you. It seems that managers and executives are busier than they’ve ever been, working longer hours, burning out faster, and complaining they have no time. And this seems to correlate with advances in technology. But isn’t tech supposed to make our lives easier? So what’s going on?