National Entrepreneurship Week February 23- March 1, 2008

During my search for great blog content to provide to my readers I came across this event for 2008. It's an appropriate end to Entrepreneurship Month here at the Virtual Nation and I hope to join many of you there!

CELEBRATE
2nd Annual National Entrepreneurship Week
NATIONAL - STATE - LOCAL LEADERS

FEBRUARY 23 - MARCH 1, 2008


Click here to JOIN US NOW

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

TVN Tip of the Week October 29, 2007

This month's theme is entrepreneurs but here's a tip that can come in handy for anyone using email. Need to reformat some text for an email blast? Check out http://www.formatit.com It's super easy to use and comes in handy. Also, it's "cousin" Re-Formatit (same URL): "If you have text that has been previously formatted (such as e-mail you have received) and you would like to reformat it."

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

TVN Tip of the Week October 24, 2007

The entrepreneurial lifestyle is one of the major factors that drives many entrepreneurs to the decision to start their own business. It usually involves long hours, especially when starting out, but a great deal of flexibility as well. Juggling work and personal life can be a daunting challenge. As the driving force behind The Virtual Nation, I have had to set boundaries and structure my day to allow for the most and best of my energies to be divided among both. I now check my email less frequently and set definite times to end my day. I also have put together a top notch team that can be relied on for delegation of tasks. What can you do differently to allow for more balance in your life?

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

3 Ways to Speak so Clients Listen

Preparation, presentation and passion- three simple
concepts that when used correctly can make you a great
speaker. In private and public life these principles
apply, and if you look closely at the successful
people in your life, you are certain to find them in action.
If you prepare in advance and take the time to present
yourself and the material well, your passion will come
through, and that's when people will really listen.

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

Being an Entrepreneur

Look up Entrepreneur on Wikipedia and one of the things you will see about the concept is "... A more generally held theory is that entrepreneurs emerge from the population on demand, from the combination of opportunities and people well-positioned to take advantage of them. The entrepreneur may perceive that they are among the few to recognize or be able to solve a problem ..." We live in a unique time with all of the information and technology available to so many people. Have you recognized your unique ability to solve a problem? What are you doing to act on that idea? Let me know your story and perhaps you can be a featured speaker on one of my monthly teleclass calls in 2008.

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

Riches from Giving to Others

As a firm believer in the Law of Attraction and Abundance, I was pleased to see an article on Entrepreneur.com saying that there is now scientific proof that these things do exist and giving to others is beneficial to the givers. Writer Arthur C. Brooks says this "This is precisely what is found in the S.C.C.B.S. data: More giving doesn’t just correlate with higher income; it causes higher income. And not just a little. Imagine two families that are identical in size, age, race, education, religion, and politics. The only difference is that this year the first family gives away $100 more than the second. Based on my analysis of the S.C.C.B.S. survey, the first family will, on average, earn $375 more as a result of its generosity." Sounds good to me. Can you think of ways that you could give more or ways that giving back has benefited your business?

Entrepreneurial Forums

Participating in forums is a great place to "meet" potential clients. You can meet many other entrepreneurs at websites such as:
http://www.startupnation.com
http://www.womenentrepreneur.com
http://www.businessforum.com/
http://www.smallbusinessforums.org/
http://www.businessforum.net/
http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/forum/
http://www.ibf.com/

Why not join in?

_______________________
With Gratitude,
Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

TVN Tip of the Week October 15, 2007

Enhance your entrepreneurship: invest in learning. Not only in money, but in time, keeping up-to-date with things happening in your field is very important to keeping on the cutting edge of technologies and trends that lead the industry. Find some experts or leaders and sign up for their newsletters (and read them), take teleclasses (free ones are listed on http://www.seminarannouncer.com/ and http://www.teleclass.com/ and offered by The Virtual Nation, monthly).

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

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The Entrepreneur

"The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We're born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies." - Michael Gerber

Are you living your full potential as an entrepreneur? What ideas have you had that you haven't acted upon? What if you pursued just one of those ideas? We can't be afraid of failure because there is no success without it. Try something different today and see what happens.

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

How to Negotiate Without Manipulation

Diamond In The Rough Teleseminar

We have an exciting teleseminar coming up on October 24th!

Expert Teleseminar Series featuring Somers White, Business Coach, Consultant, and Speaker

Topic: How to Negotiate Without Manipulation

Date/Time: Wednesday, October 24, 5:00 pm Pacific, 6:00 pm Mountain, 7:00 pm Central and 8:00 pm Eastern

Who Should Attend: Coaches, Entrepreneurs, Executives, Leaders, Managers, and Sales Professionals

Details: A day seldom goes by in business or in your personal life without the need to negotiate.

Join me as I interview International Consultant and Speaker, Somers White, CMC, CSP, CPAE on the skills of negotiating. Somers is CEO of Somers White Company, Inc., a Management, Marketing & Financial Consulting Company which he founded over 25 years ago. He is a former Arizona State Senator and served on the Arizona State University Faculty teaching courses in Management and Bank Management. Somers holds a Bachelors Degree from Amherst College and a Masters Degree from the Harvard Business School. He started his business career on Wall Street with the Executive Training Program of the Chase Bank. While in charge of a new bank, Somers brought bank deposits from zero to over $33 million in just eighteen months. He is an in-demand speaker and has spoken in all 50 states and on six continents. Somers has written over 400 professional articles and is the author of twenty audio courses, including the 8-hour Audio Course "Increasing Negotiating Skills Without Manipulation."

I am delighted to have Somers as my guest for this teleseminar. I am equally delighted to have this opportunity to share his knowledge and experience with you. He has been my coach and mentor over the years. Many of you have probably heard me mention his name numerous times regarding his business and life enhancing strategies for my business and me.
Are you ready to uncover your negotiation brilliance? If you answered "yes" then you don't want to miss this month's teleseminar entitled "How To Negotiate Without Manipulation."

You'll Learn:

• Four keys that give you the most power in any negotiation
• How to be more successful in giving concessions
• How to avoid the #1 trap for a lop-sided deal
• How to become the one-minute negotiator
• How to gain leverage as a negotiator
• Three battle fields you can choose for negotiating and why one produces more victories
• Three components you must know in any negotiating session

Teleclass format:Barbara Davis, founder of Whitaker Davis & Associates as well as Uncover Brilliance, will host a round table session with Somers White. For more information on Somers White, http://somerswhite.com/biography.html

Registration: This is a complimentary teleseminar – Just go to our website at http://www.uncoverbrilliance.com/teleclasses.shtml, fill out the form and we’ll email you the teleseminar telephone and pin number. We’ll send a reminder a few days before the call. If you do not receive this information, please contact Michelle Ulrich, my assistant, at michelle@whitakerdavis.com.

More about practice

The response to my Monday post was so great that I would like to share some more advice about the topic of "Practice" -It's not only practice, but also knowing when you need to ask questions. Sometimes, a simple clarification is all that is needed to complete the project. So, ask, ask, ask. : )

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

I'm a Star!

I'm a Star!

Over the past week or two a colleague and I had been emailing back and forth. She asked me some questions and I took the time to answer her questions and give her some advice. Little did I know how much this interaction meant to her. Apparently, it meant more to her than I had realized because she made me a star on her blog yesterday.

Check it out: http://merrickmgt.com/virtualassistant/?p=42

It reminds me that I have so much to be grateful for. I truly enjoy giving of myself, my knowledge and my time. Time these days is very precious for me, yet I find little ways to always give. I do not expect anything in return either. That makes it so special to me when someone says thank you or goes the extra mile like Taryn did in her blog to let me know how much these seemingly small interactions mean to others.

Do you take the time to give even if it's just a little? I'm sure most everyone has heard of some of these sayings.

• It's all in the details
• Little things do matter
• "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." -- Vincent Van Gogh
• "Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." -- Mother Teresa
• "Doing little things well is a step toward doing big things better." -- Harry F. Banks
• "Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." -- Antonio Smith

I really believe that all the good things in life is wrapped up in the details. How much better is it when you receive a gift and the package looks so carefully wrapped with love and care? When you receive an enduring hug just when you really needed it? Or, what about a little note tucked into your lunch that simply says, "I love you?"

We can all be stars in our own lives and in the lives of others if we just give a little each day.

With Gratitude,
Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
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The Virtual Nation™
A community of learning. A nation of culture. A virtual village.
________________________________________

PO Box 3692, Citrus Heights, CA 95611
(916) 536-9799 Office | (866) 844-9360 Fax
Michelle@TheVirtualNation.com | www.TheVirtualNation.com
Michelle@MichelleUlrich.com | www.MichelleUlrich.com

"If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a virtual village to grow a successful business." ~Michelle Ulrich

TVN Tip of the Week October 8, 2007

Remember the expression “practice makes perfect”? Well, it doesn’t. Practice does, however, make progress. It is better to keep trying and accept that you are making progress than to quit because you can't get it "perfect". Many of the tasks we perform in our businesses are new to us or complicated and it is important that we keep our eye on progress instead of perfection.

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

October's Teleclass Presents "Cure EADD"

The Virtual Nation Expert Teleclass Series Presents...

"Cure EADD: Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder™" with Matthew Best, Business Coach of Someday Island

Date & Time: Tuesday, October 16, 2007, 10:00 am - 11:00 am Pacific;

Who Should Attend? Coaches, Sales Professionals, Solopreneurs, and Virtual Professionals

What You Will Learn:EADD is a term that Matthew Best coined to describe the symptoms that many of his clients suffer from when they first begin working with him. It stands for Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder.

Topics we'll explore:

• Create and maintain focus on what’s really important, not just what is urgent.

• Develop the effective attitudes needed to accomplish goals.

• Develop time strategies that work for each client so that you can be more productive.

• Identify purpose and meaning in both a client’s personal life as well as their professional life.

• Focus business direction.

• Improve sales.

• A sense of personal and professional balance in your life.

• Control time management.

• Continuous achievement of goals.

• Clarity of what you should be doing next.


Format: Teleclass Format: Michelle Ulrich, founder of The Virtual Nation™ will host a discussion with Business Coach Matthew Best. For more information about Matthew, you can check out his website at http://somedayisland.com.

Registration: This is a Complimentary Teleclass - Just click on the link below and fill out the form; that's all you have to do! You do NOT have to provide your credit card number; that’s if this were a paid event (which it is NOT.) We'll email you the teleclass telephone and pin number and send a reminder a few days before the call. If you do not receive this information, please email us at info@thevirtualnation.com.

Register: http://www.thevirtualnation.com/teleclass.htm

How to be successful

Being a small business owner is both rewarding and challenging. As an entrepreneur , you will need a commitment to make your business work because it will take time and persistence on your part. Don't be fooled into thinking it won't take hard work to make your business successful. You must always be motivated, creative, willing to learn, reliable, and professional.

______________________
With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

Put your best foot forward

Always remember that wherever you go, you are representing your business. You never know who you, or your clients are going to bump into and a personal referral is the best one you can get.

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With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/

TVN Tip of the Week 10/1/07

Don’t get caught by telemarketers off guard. If you want to keep them from calling, you will need to enroll your telephone numbers (home, home office, cell phone, home fax, etc.) with the U.S. Do Not Call list at https://www.donotcall.gov/. See the news item below:

Telemarketers may be rejoining some consumers at dinnertime
Phone numbers added to the U.S. Do Not Call list are valid for up to five years, so many numbers will begin to drop off the list beginning next summer. The Federal Trade Commission, which maintains the national registry that launched in June 2003, says persons interested in remaining on the list can simply re-enroll, although some lawmakers think this may be unduly burdensome for consumers. The Washington Times/Associated Press

______________________
With Gratitude, Michelle Ulrich, Chief Villager & President
The Virtual Nation(tm) http://www.thevirtualnation.com/