Anita Campbell :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

I have to admit that at any given moment I don’t know whether to be highly impressed or highly amused by the way Twitter, which allows you to share messages with a 140 character limit, has taken the social media world by storm.

Maybe a bit of both. It mightn’t be – no, isn’t – the only game in town, but it is a fascinating game and one I see as going on for quite a while.

And while I don’t know, and doubt that anyone does, how many Twitter users are owners of home based businesses, I’m guessing that the answer is A LOT.

Jeremiah Owyang’s estimate, as of late January, is for around 5 million registered Twitter users and some 3,400,000 active users.

So what would be a reasonable guesstimate of the number of Twitter users with home based businesses or – not the same thing but interesting anyway – users who work from home? A million? Two million?

Whatever the figure is, I find, as a professional working from home, that Twitter has a special appeal for me. On any given day I am as likely to be:

amazed at how a tweet has made me aware of a resource I would not likely have known about otherwise
annoyed with myself for wasting time on Twitter trivia
amused and entertained by the wit of fellow twitterers
inspired by how helpful people on Twitter can be – and have been, to me and to others

In March last year I listed five ways Twitter helps me in business.

And now Anita Campbell, who edits the Small Business Trend site, has put together the ambitiously titled Ultimate Small Business Twitter List.

I have to say I think Anita has been very brave in doing this list. There will always be people who feel left out. As Anita acknowledges, in seeking to list “the people on Twitter who regularly provide information by, about and for small businesses”, she had taken on an “impossible task”.

Nevertheless, for anyone in small business interested in exploring Twitter, this is a great list of tweeple to start following.

Good to see @BeckyMcCray there, whose blot Small Biz Success is focused on business in rural communities and small towns.

Denise O’Berry – @deniseoberry at Justforsmallbusiness.com – has been providing resources for small business for as long as I can remember, as indeed has Anita herself.

What I found more interesting than the listing of individuals on Twitter – “tweeple” – was the listing of corporate Twitter presences.

Some of these are anonymous, others have individuals fronting the brand: there is a third category of what appear to be individuals but may or may not not represent real, individual people.

@AngelaATHP and @tacanderson at HP look like real people.

As does @DannyUrquiea at American Express.

@bbsnewswire is a disembodied corporate id for Better Business Bureau.

@gowithabc is not representing a broadcasting company but a group blog, America’s Best Companies – tag line “The Future of Small Business”.

Some seem confused: for example, at Microsoft there is Louise Rasho as @officelivegal and Amanda as @officelivegirl who has a tweet on Feb 7 saying “Merging accounts here. Please start following me at OfficeLiveGal”. So would that be Amanda or Louise we would be following?

I would love to see a list of Twitter people with home based businesses and Twitter names for companies servicing that market. If you are part of one or both of those groups, please feel free to leave some info about what you do and your Twitter id in the comments here.

If you choose to follow me on Twitter – @deswalsh is my handle there – I’m likely to reciprocate as long as I can see something real about you, preferably a blog, or LinkedIn profile. I don’t usually follow anonymous corporate Twitter identities or sales pages.

Tweetbird image courtesy of ProductiveDreams

Drawing up my wish list for 2008, I thought An Extra Pair of Hands would be a good thing. Or, come to think of it, a virtual assistant.

A virtual assistant, as the title implies, is one who is not physically present at your place of work, but uses communications technology to provide a range of services traditionally provided by secretaries, executive assistants or personal assistants. Or, for many home based business professionals, by the business owner herself or himself. The last-mentioned being common practice, but not really a great idea, at least if we want to work smarter, not harder.

A lot of smart coaches and other business people of my acquaintance get more value out of their working day by engaging a virtual assistant. I’ve thought about it often enough, but have not taken action.

Now, with a contest announced recently (thanks to Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends for the heads up), there is an opportunity for one of us to have our own virtual assistant in 2008. The contest, with a $5,000 grand prize, is being sponsored and run by Elance, a kind of online marketplace for people looking for professionals to hire, and professionals offering their services.

What kind of services could a virtual assistant provide for your business? The contest page has some suggestions:

Travel Plans
Data Entry
Word Processing
Transcription
Market Research
Event Planning
Presentations
Calendar Management
Online Marketing

If you’ve read Tim Ferris’ much vaunted The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
you will have found, in Chapter 8 “Outsourcing Life”, a lot of practical information and commentary on using virtual assistants (as well as a few very valuable caveats).

The terms of entry for the Elance contest are straightforward. Basically, answer the question (hint: use the bullet point list above to help):

How would you use a virtual assistant to grow your business or improve your personal life?

The answer can be in text, audio or video.

You need to be a member of Elance – basic membership is free.

And just so none of us waste time fantasizing that we’ll win the five grand and use it to book a Caribbean cruise or a villa in Tuscany, the Grand Prize is not actual money in your bank account but “Elance promotional credit redeemable for the purchase of $5,000 in services on Elance”.

Closing date is January 25, 2008 and the time of day is 11:59:59pm PST.

I’m going for it. How about you?