Gristmill Investments & Terry Waya - Two Scams To Take Note

The junk mail has been busy and must admit kudos to Microsoft for their filtering system.  Two new scams arrived over the past few days and thought I would bring it to your attention.  Now mind you, I am not 100% sure exactly how they work, but I will at least give you supporting links that confirmed my suspicions.

Gristmill Investment Company [ginvestmill6 [AT] gmail.com]

The letter I got was thus:

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

We are brokering an Investment deal in your country on behalf of a client of our firm.

 

This deal will involve the eventual investment of USD 25 M. (Twenty Five Million Dollars) in any of these fields: Manufacturing Businesses, Real Estate and other Small businesses.

 

We are by this letter offering you our partnership in business, so as to allow us have you as the representative and manager of invested funds in your country.

 

Since we can not determine if this email is still functional and also your willingness we have kept this proposal brief.

 

If you are Interested in this offer of partnership, please respond and give us your direct email address, telephone and fax numbers and your company’s full contact information & profile, and in response we will send you an elaborate proposal and details of this offer.

 

Your expedient response will be appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

Mr. Bruce Miller.

Gristmill Investment Company.

First of all, anything related with investing raises my red flag. Personally if I ever do any relationship with any investment company, it will be in the States and registered under the SEC.  Also they are asking for my direct email address, telephone and fax numbers and contact profile…hmmm, did they check out my website? Apparently not.  Here are the links that confirms my suspicions:

• http://antifraudintl.org/showthread.php?t=4124
• http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=585427
• http://www.scamwarning.org/2008/03/31/ref-2008-investment-project-in-your-country/

Terry Waya [waya.terry [AT] gmail.com]

I am not kidding the subject in the heading was “Can I trust you?” Not to mention the “To:” heading was missing (looks like a bulk mailing to me). Here’s the letter:

Hello,

Can I trust you?

I have found your information on the internet very intriguing and implore you to take a moment of your time to do same about me and let’s examine the possibility of a lasting business relationship.

I have a business portfolio in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I need you to handle it for obvious reasons.

If you’d like to work with me, I would expect us to sign a mutual non-disclosure confidentiality agreement, and await your advice on this.

You may provide me with your most secured telephone number(s) so that we can discuss the modality of this business on the phone. Or please feel free to contact me to arrange it.

I’ll call you as soon as I have your feedback.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Terry Waya.

Forgive me, but I really feel the need to tear this apart.  Let’s start with the greeting, “Hello”. Not even a ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, how very rude. That spells bulk mailing.

‘Can I trust you?’ - Creepy sounding to say the least.

I have found your information on the internet very intriguing… - What is so intriguing? And where on the Internet did you find my information? Pardon the sarcasm but the line sounds like a bad response to a dating advertisement.

….and implore you to take a moment of your time to do same about me… - No problem, I did.  This is what I found:

• http://nigerianmasses.com/diaspora_details.asp?id=729&stateid=+
• http://www.saharareporter.com/tabid/58/itemid/29/Confiscation-Hearing-London-Court-orders-Terry-Wa.aspx

 Virtual Assistants and other home office warriors, take note!

Need To See Your Virtual Assistant Face To Face? Consider Oovoo

One of the great things of being a Virtual Assistant is that we have the freedom to try out new technologies to make our work a little easier and our clients at ease!

Many ‘old-school’ business owners and managers still believe that they need to be in the same office and be face to face with an assistant.  The innovative concept of virtual assistance might make one hesitant in giving it a try.  VAs still will not be in building with their clients but there is an alternative if one needs to actually see each other. Video conferencing.

After reading an article in PC World (unable to find article online but an alternative review can be found here) I decided to give it a try. The graphical interface is slick and you can converse and view with up to six people at once. Best of all Oovoo is free with no advertising and pop-up banners!

I had the privelage to have a morning coffee with another VA halfway across the country. For some reason her video camera was not working (Oovoo is in Beta and suggested to her to contact support to figure out the problem), and I could only see her static picture but the video from my end worked great (camera is intergrated into the laptop). One has to get used to allowing another person to speak as there are brief second delays, but other than that I was very happy with the result.

As a word of advice, once you get the software installed and create an account, if you are a very private person, go to the Settings section and adjust your privacy preferences, as by default, you are listed for all to see.

One thing that I was not wholly impressed was phone feature (free until April 1, 2008). I called a potential client and the sound was really choppy. So for now, I will stick with Skype.

At Last! Microsoft To Help Users With Vista SP1 Service Pack Installation

Now they finally get it!  Of course this is after I had to figure out the darn thing myself when the SP1 installation wreaked havoc on my Word 2007 and the ability to use the mouse. The news from C-Net this morning that from now until March 18, 2009, Vista users who encounter problems after their SP1 installation will be able to contact Microsoft to receive help via email, chat or phone (provided they are part of a subscription service), see below…

There are three options available under the free support plan for U.S. users: e-mail support, which will be answered within one business day; online chat, which has a current waiting time of around 40 minutes; and call, available only for users who have a software-assurance agreement, professional contract, TechNet subscription, or MSDN subscription, or for those who come under the Microsoft Partner Program. 

 You can view the Vista blog here. I made the leap from 2000 to Vista and never used XP.  I was getting to thinking, however, that those who used XP and still have the disks and now have Vista, should perhaps look into setting up their PC as a dual boot.  That way programs that are not Vista friendly can still be used.I wish you all luck!I’m off to figure out how to get the Hibernation mode restored. 

Online Calendar Options

Ok, so you’ve considered hiring a Virtual Assistant, but there’s an item of note that is holding you back.  How can he/she set up appointments and keep my calendar in check for me?

Thankfully there are a few free to low-cost alternatives that can keep you right on track.  Here are a couple that I use depending on my client preference: 

Officezilla -  A free site packed with a bunch of bells & whistles.  Calendar can be exported to CSV. One thing that might be a turn-off to some is the Bible Verse section, but it is not in your face. The good news is that the module can be removed by doing the following:

Go to Admin > Configuration > Modules (A million thanks to George Scott of Officezilla for letting me know about this.)  

Individual user privileges can be determined by the administrator. 

Airset -  Another very good site in which you can have multiple groups neatly tabbed.  Calendar is pretty easy to use, and can export to .ics format.  Also calendar events can be set-up to send email reminders. My clients really like this feature, especially in the event I am not in the office to call and remind them of an appointment. One word of advice, DO NOT use add your mobile phone at sign up and do not add it on your profile lest you get a series of text reminders.  A real hassle if you pay-per-message. Again user privileges are determined by the administrator.

There are many others out there and will be reviewed in the near future. 

Remote Admin Services Press Release Is Out!

Remote Admin Services is proud to have submitted the following press release to the general public.

In a previous article, I  mentioned the need to make yourself known in the local community as well as striving for client relationships beyond the border.  I still hold firm by this belief.  Interestingly, I am now beginning to submit proposals outside the borders of my home state.  It will be an amazing journey to see which will come into solid clients.

Now to get into the habit of doing these releases on a seasonal basis.

Tax Time! (or What’s In The Shoebox?)

Not a topic we like to hear, unless you are an accounting professional.  But tax season is well under way! Have you given thought as to what you might be able to deduct?

I was recommended a very good book called, 422 Tax Deductions For Small Businesses & Self-Employed Individuals by Bernard B. Kamoroff, C.P.A. The 7th Edition is out.  As a rule of thumb, it pays to get a new book every year to make sure the deductions are up to date.  Some book publishers offer a discount if you, for example mail in the cover of a previous edition.  But this varies.  The book is a good reference of topics in alphabetical order that can be looked up quickly, like a dictionary. However, as you will see in the Amazon listing, there are mixed reviews, so to each his own.

As always, for the home office warrior, if you are thinking about taking the home business deduction, or deductions recommended from a book such as the above for example, you should consult a tax professional.

Are you overwhelmed with expenses for deductions and no one to help? Consider Remote Admin Services to help sort out deluge. We will organize those receipts in a manner that your accountant will love you for!

Vista and Office 2007 SP1 Service Pack, A Mouse’s Word of Caution

If you do not have Vista on your computer, you are free to come back next week. Or you can waste a couple of minutes and view short snippet from C-Net regarding the new Vista SP1 Pack.

My laptop is set to download Vista updates and for the most part, the SP1 upgrade went pretty well. The system is running a little faster (but not as fast as my Mac…sigh). Then I downloaded the Office 2007 SP1…that’s where the trouble began. The mouse would not work in Word 2007. It worked everywhere else within my system. So after some serious digging into Microsoft’s vast and cumbersome website, I find this. The “symptoms” they listed did cover the problem that I had: 

You install an automatic update for Microsoft Office Word 2007 on a Windows Vista-based computer. Additionally, the computer must be restarted after the automatic update is installed. However, if Word 2007 is running when you restart the computer, you may experience the following symptoms:

• The mouse does not work when you use Word 2007.
• You cannot open a Word document from the Search window in Windows Vista.
• You cannot open a Word document from Windows Desktop Search.
• Word crashes when you try to start or to exit Word.
• Word stops responding when you open the Open dialog box.
• Word stops responding when you save a document.Word stops responding when you close a document.

Reading the instructions I had to deal with deleting certain files from the registry. My worst nightmare. One wrong slip-up and the whole thing can blow. But I gritted my teeth, backed up my registry and critical work files on an USB key, set a system restore point, and deleted the required registry files as instructed. It worked. So if you did the upgrades and having any of the above problems, this might be your answer and you do the fixes at your own risk. If you are really uncomfortable with doing the fix, it pays to bring in the professionals.

As a Virtual Assistant, most of my jobs require word processing. This mouse problem potentially could have had my business crawling to a near-halt, but I did have a couple of back-up options, one of which I utilized:

1. I have OpenOffice Suite, a free open-source version of Microsoft Office. It does not have all the bells and whistles, but it will get the job done.
2. Use Google Docs online. You will need a Google Account to get this.

As an overall word of advice, since most people do not use Word 2007, save all files in Word 97 or earlier. OpenOffice and Google Docs might not support the new version at this time.

What? No Website? Consider Office Live

Not to be tooting my own horn, but when I started Remote Admin Services back in November of 2007, I needed a web presence at little to no cost and no funky advertising.  The solution was Office Live by Microsoft.  

New freebie and relatively low-cost features is written in depth by New York Times’ David Pogue about Microsoft’s revamped Office Live Small Business.

Setting up your own domain and emails (up to 100) is free for the first year, then $14.95 per year after that. Certainly that can’t be beat. You get business contact manager, Office document collaboration space, email marketing (beta, free for now), and a few other perks.

If you have absolutely no experience in website design, no problem, Office Live has a number of themed templates that can be adjusted to your needs from changes in color schemes to columns. Though I would have much preferred using Dreamweaver to make my site (at this time I would have to pay a premium monthly fee to use a non-OL design), I have been pretty happy with the overall outcome. Until I have completed my RAS 2.0 website and find another provider that can accommodate my own files, OL is where I will stay for now.

Some say that you need a lot of eye candy to grab attention.  In my experience for a small business, people want a quick-loading, clear, consistent, easy to find, information. The trick is keeping the content fresh to keep your visitors interested in returning.

Pogue wrote that 70% of one-person businesses do not even have a website.  I’m not sure where he got that statistic, but if he is accurate, that is really a crying shame. 

If you happen to be part of the 70%, Office Live Small Business is a great launching pad. If you do not have the time to create your Office Live presence, Remote Admin Services would like to help you get on the right track. 

Thinking of Taking The Home Office Deduction?

I am not an accountant and I certainly will not tell what one should do.  But if you are contemplating doing a home office deduction on your taxes this year and worry about an audit, read this great article that I found from Business Week.

If you will excuse me, I need to take a picture of my office…

How Virtual Assistance Can Help Small Businesses During Economic Slowdown

There is no denying, it appears that the U.S. seems to be heading for an economic slowdown. I refuse to flat-out say ‘recession’ as I would prefer to be the optimist.

I read a good article in Business Week this morning as to how to prepare your small business to be recession-proof. The bits of advice has opened my eyes into changing my ‘road map’ on things that I need done for at least this quarter.

To keep from losing business, keep in close touch with your customers. “Show that you care. Understand how their business is being affected and look for ways you can help. Lasting relationships are built in hard times.” And look for new market opportunities, recognizing that when the business climate changes, customer needs will change as well. That may mean new markets will open up for you…

When I finish an assignment with a client, I follow-up from time to time just to say, ‘hello’ and inform them that Remote Admin Services is here for them for both big projects and small tasks.  Therefore if my client needs to cut back, they still have me in mind and use my services albeit more likely on a smaller scale. Better to have a smaller assignment than none at all.

…Create a positive experience…Another good option for local businesses is community involvement. “Join the Rotary Club or the Chamber of Commerce. Sponsor a Little League team. Let the Girl Scouts do a car wash in your parking lot. This is part of bonding with your community and becoming an established part of it.”

This is particularly useful if either you are just starting out as a VA or other small business.  Virtual Assistants spend just about all of their time in an office and very rarely do we venture out to the community at large. This is not particularly bad especially if one has their majority of clients that is out of state or even out of country. However, there is something very special when you build a relationship within your local community.  There is nothing like it in the world in which you can go actually meet with your client or potential clients face to face or deliver a finished product in person.

…small companies need to reach out to the new residents in their communities. “They’re going to choose someplace to buy their pizza and their shoes. You want to have an active campaign to greet them and bond with them…”

Technically the above does not really pertain to Virtual Assistants (unless one is niching to personal assistance services), but the concept still holds true if a new business opens up in the community.  If you happen to be driving by a new place of business, make a point to stop by and introduce yourself with business card in hand and welcome them into the community. Checking the local papers or a Google Alert of local press releases might help.

In the article it also talks about hiring, not firing.  Say that a small business has an administrative assistant and business is doing fine, but not growing due to the slowdown. Yet the admin is buried in tasks that really requires another assistant. No problem, a Virtual Assistant can easily take care of the overflow, until business picks up again…and you will be able to hire an additional in-house admin!  Do not have an administrative assistant at all? Remote Admin Services can take care of your tasks until you are ready to hire!

Finally, as much as it is a crunch in these hard times, now is not the time to get rid of your marketing plans…silence your marketing, you silence your business…period.  If you must change to an alternative less-costly plan of action, the article suggests innovative ideas such as e-mail marketing, blogging and online newsletters.

As a wise-relative used to say to me all the time, “this, too shall pass…”