News & the Holidays

With the end of year speeding up and some news here I thought I would do a quick update on the blog.

Working Solo News

First, and most importantly,  I have hired some support in the form of a studio manager. Jamie is a former retail manager with loads of experience in customer service, sales and has a broad working knowledge of the online world. She started working here at the end of November and is already proving to be a godsend.  At this stage she will be here 4 days a week (Tuesday-Friday) but we hope to extend that to 5 days in March or April. If you call and get her instead of me you are welcome to ask her the question or make the request that you might have had for me. Having Jamie here will free me up to focus on the things that really add value to clients.

Christmas/New Year Operating Hours

I know that you probably don’t want to know about it but Christmas is just over a week away (where the hell did the year go). The office will be closing at noon on Friday 19th and all client work will be finishing up on Wednesday 17th (jeez that’s tomorrow and there is still so much to be done). Jamie will be opening the office up on Monday 5th but I won’t be back on board until Monday 12th. It will be a both a busy time and a relaxing one with things like my step-son’s 21st, father-in-law’s 80th, and a good deal of time spent watching and listening to cricket. I hope that you’re getting to have a good break as well.

Getting a mention in traditional media still counts

Even in the world where online media is prevalent is still gives me the warm & fuzzies when we get mentioned in the traditional mainstream media.  That happened yesterday when we were listed next to people like Flying Solo (Robert Gerrish), Alister Cameron and Martin Neumann as some of the best business bloggers in Australia.  What an honour it was to be in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age yesterday.

A big thanks goes our to Martin Neumann for listing us on his Top 15 Business blogs a few months ago.

Redesigned Site

Over the Christmas/New Year period the long promised redesign of this site should appear so stay tuned.

Working Solo now does Support

Many of you know how passionate I am about demystifying technology for small business women (and even the odd handful of guys). It can get me quite fired up that there are clever, cluey women who don’t have access to understandable, practical and cost effective answers to their technology questions.

Monday morning (wow that’s tomorrow) sees the formal start of a new service offering – Solo Support Services.

For a numbers of years I have been the helpful, practical advisor on the other end of the phone or email, and even in person for clients who come to visit me in Sydney. Now it is time to formalise these services and reach out to a wider range of small business women.

I’m not going to do the hard-sell, that’s not how I do things. You can find out more about it here, and even sign up to the specially discounted Patron Account (only until March 15th), if you think that having some support might help you along.

If you are an existing client there is no need to worry about me stretching myself to thin. Things are changing here and 2008 will see me growing a Working Solo team (yes I know that it’s an oxymoron to have a “working solo” team ). Stay turned for more announcements about that later this week.

If you’ve got any questions about this just let me know.

New Year – New Changes

First and foremost let me wish you a very happy 2008! May this year contain all the things that you are wishing/planning for.

The second, and main purpose of this post is to ask you a question (yes you sitting there quietly reading away thing that no one is watching).

Even though I’m on my mid-summer/new year holidays and there is plenty of others things to be doing (like watching cricket and hanging out with my man) I’m also in planning mode for Working Solo. There are already plans afoot for 2008 that are very exicting but one of the things that I’m going to complete before I get back to officially working (on Jan 14) is a new look and feel for this site.

So I’m asking for your feedback …

If you could change ONE thing about the Working Solo website, what would it be?

Any and all suggestions will be considered.

Contact Leah

Contact me Via Email

Note: I always reply to my email. If you don’t get a reply
within a few days, it’s because the email system has broken again, and
I have not yet detected it. Please leave a comment at the bottom of
this form if you think this has been the case.

Email – leah.maclean@gmail.com

Contact me Via Phone

My business number is 02.9599.9266 (if you are calling from outside Australia you can dial +61.2.9599.9266

Contact me via Skype

My skype name is :  leahmaclean

(My current skype status is noted in the right-hand colum of this page)

Working with Leah Maclean & Working Solo

General info
Doing the type of work I do is in my blood I think.  For the past 20 years I have revelled in the ability to be the conduit between the world of business and the world of technology.  I even think that I was born to be a solopreneur.  Even before the word was invented, back when most teenage girls were toodling fashion, I was toodling business ideas. 

So these days I have a real passion for working with small business women and helping them to demysitfy technology and find ways to grow their business, online and off line. My mission is to enable more of these women owned businesses to use the web, systems and general technology to their advantage (and not hide from it because they don’t understand).

What Kind of Work Do I Do?

Online Business Manager
One of the primary relationships I have with clients (and my preferred way of working) is as their online business manager (OBM).  As an OBM I play an integral role in the development and grow of a clients business in the online world.  The services provided depend on the client and the stage of their business but include areas such as web and blog design, optimisation for findability and search engines, monitoring vital statistics and measureables, fine tuning, recommendations for increasing awareness, managing newsletters and blogs, creating e-books and other information products ….. (the list keeps growing at this stage).

If you are spending more time managing your online business and less time working on the things that leverage your strengths (and earn you the best return on your time) then contact me and I will be happy to have a discussion about where I could help).  Even though I only take on a small number of OBM clients at any one time I will be happy to chat about your needs.

Webs and Blogs – Creation, Design, Upgrades and Consulting
A small business without an online presence these days is like a small business owner without a business card – it lacks a level of professionalism and credibility that most clients are looking for.

You could get a website or blog designed by one of the tens of thousands of designers and developers (professional and otherwise) that are touting for your business.

My promise is simple – I won’t confuse you with technology, recommend a site that is pretty but unfindable, or promise results that are unachieveable.  I WILL take time to get to know you, your business and your clients and provide you with an online presence that fits.

And if you have heard about these things called blogs (you may even read a few) but don’t now how to take advantage of them (or even if you have the time for them) I will be happy to teach you how to leverage them as a communication and marketing tool in your business.

Personalised Technology Training
You know there is more to know about the technology you use but you don’t have time to decifier the uer manual (to be honest you are probably not much of a manual person).  You want to me more productive and cut to the chase about how to get the best from your small business software and hardware.  I can great a short or long course of personalised technology training which will have you operating things like email(like Outlook), presentation software (like Powerpoint), spreadsheets (like Excel) and other office type applications.

Help Desk Support
How much time do you spend trying to work out your technology and all you really need it someone you can ask a question of who will give you an answer that is timely, in plain english and that you can trust.  My help desk support is a simple as that.

Why Do People Like Working With Me?
First and foremost I think that the clients that love working with me come from the basis that I love working with them.  This is because one of my first rules of engagement with a client is that i DON’T work with a client I don’t get along with. 

You see I don’t work with technology, I understand technology – I work with people.  And I don’t have enough time in life to work with people I have to tolerate.

There are many times you will hear laughter pouring out of the office when I am speaking with a client, we generally speak about their business, the world of technology and a range of other things that interest us both.  A business relationship for me is more than just the project – their is always a far bigger picture than just that.

So why specifically do people like working with me ?

• There is a high level of trust in place at all times
• I am interested in them, their business and their clients (no just their money or the project)
• The techno-jargon is kept to a minimum (plain english is the language of choice)
• I will not talk down to a client if they don’t understand what I am taking about (technology is a different language just like Spanish, Italian or Russian and is takes time and experience to learn).
• The quality is high but the prices are not (I am sensitive to the costs of running a small business)
• I know, understand and live what it is to be a female small business owner.
• When I have a thought or come across information that would grow my client’s business I won’t just put my head in the sand and stick to the project or technology – I share the information and strategies to grow the business.
• I take pride in my clients and their achievements.

These are the sorts of things that make my clients come back and recommend others to me.  And in the words of one client -

“I am not a total technology clutz,
but come fairly close some days – so having someone like Leah on my team
is an absolute necessity.  When we first joined forces, and Leah became my
‘Online Business Manager’, I knew she would provide me with great back-end
technical expertise to set up and manage my website, my e-zine and possibly a
shopping cart.  What I didn’t know at the start was all the other value-add
stuff she has contributed to my business – including a creative design that
perfectly matched my design brief, introduction to blogging and the associated
community and awareness this has brought, and basically all the technology
infrastructure that lets me get on with my business – all delivered with her
trademark humour, insight and always, always delivering more than promised. 
Leah is indispensable!” – Karen Wallace – The Clearing Space