Social Media gives you fast dependable resources, if your friend or business peer recommends a company chances are they’ve used the service or product herself and been pleased. Last Monday I read a post from Antonette that she had read a post from a fellow VA who had read a post from a previous AU VA who had found a great virtual computer tech! Didya follow that? 😉
I clicked on the link for Call That Girl and was pleased to find an invitation from the weekend with her phone number handily posted. So I reached for my phone to call that girl <grin> and my CPA was on the other end of the line. The phone hadn’t even rung. After a quick catch up chat with Laura Allen, CPA (I’m CPVA) she shared the good news: that we would receive a nice tax refund this year. Yay! I saw this as a serendipitious event—receiving positive news when I was thinking of connecting with a new biz.
In an excellent mood I dialed and Lisa answered immediately and even though it was a holiday her team was working and hooked me up for a remote cleaning of our older computer while we were on the phone. Lisa was friendly, engaging, knowledgeable and flew behind the scenes of our computer too fast for me to follow along. She charges a flat rate even if it takes longer than an hour for clean up, we also discussed a better fit of antivirus protection for older computers and a backup system (Mozy) for my newer biz computer. Lisa wisely offers a package deal to buy time with her before you need it and call in for emergencies or trouble shooting. This is exactly what I need as I find I spend far too much time seeking help when I have a glitch then it often takes to fix the problem. Having an established relationship ready to go when you need it is a smart business solution that could potentially keep a molehill from becoming a mountain.
The old Sony is humming along about ten times faster than it was, and my hubby is humming along with it. I have a new desktop and Outlook 2007 and will use Lisa’s services on my biz computer as well. We plan to travel this summer so now I need to be mobile and see a laptop in my future. The fabulous Franni shared on our VA forum this month a great deal for MS Office 2010 bundles and that will be the perfect fit for my new laptop. (Unfortunately I didn’t see an option that included Groove, which is sad as it’s still my favorite collaboration tool.)
What are your techie plans for 2011? Do you use a desktop and a laptop? Are you lucky enough to have an in-house techie as your significant other? Do you prefer an external harddrive or online backup system? This non-techie mind is curious what works for you. And isn’t reassuring to know you can always Call That Girl in a pinch!
Laura, thank you for the nice blog post! I am excited to be in your network of friends/family and other networking colleagues. Our new relationship will surely rock the Call That Girl world this year and hopefully we all can help each other. 🙂
Lisa, Call That Girl