VirtuallyMary - Profile

I wonder how virtual time off would work?

Time off that is not in the same physical environment as the person using it.

Like accrued Time Off In Lieu, maybe?

I think before any more virtual philosophy I need to finish my very real, very lovely, not-virtual-at-all first cup of tea of the day.

It does look like a virtual address is the way to go. I found a few of them, all with different pricing structures. Just got to pick one and then sort everything out before my existing PO Box expires in the first week of January (starting everything with the calendar year seemed such a clever idea when I was setting up).

An American friend tells me it's not just here, though. Apparently PO Boxes are the most expensive real estate per square inch in her State.

Right!

*rolls up sleeves, hefts frying pan in a menacing way*

I'm back, and I'm not here to rant about such wishy-washy topics as religion and politics. No, I'm going in straight at the top with ROYAL MAIL! May they fry on the pitchfork of Satan's little helpers and never win at Angry Birds!

I work from home and I have a PO Box address for my business. I don't use it for much, to be honest. Most of my communication is electronic. The main purpose of it is to avoid having to list my home address on my website whois or my promotional materials.

The first year I set it up, it cost the princely sum of

It's interesting that you mention Argos. Based on their website alone, I would not want to shop at Argos. However, they have the nationwide network of stores, the familiarity of their brand, and the sheer scale of the operation, which all help reassure the consumer that they're not fly-by-night cowboys or amateurs who should stick to the day job. So I think if anything it's more important for small, unknown businesses to present themselves well.

Think about it like an employer. You might be perfectly happy for your existing employees, who you are familiar with and know well, to wear jeans on an average working day. But when someone you've never met before turns up for an interview, you expect them to have shined their shoes and ironed a shirt because you expect them to be trying to impress you.

Same thing consumer-side. When a customer who isn't familiar with your company and has no idea of your reputation is at the "am I going to give you my money or not?" stage and looking at the introductory pages of your website or your glossy sales brochure, you need to impress them, you need to show that you've made the effort.

You're quite right that humans are fallible and errors will be made. As a consumer I can easily understand that someone doing the data entry for hundreds or even thousands of products is going to make the occasional typo. But if they've got a feedback page proudly entitled "HERES WHAT ARE CUSTOMERS SAY!" then I'm going to recoil. That's the shop front, that's the interview stage, and it needs to be immaculate.

Oh, I know what you mean about spotting errors everywhere... it's hard to just turn it off!

It is sad, though, and I really believe it does cost businesses money. More anecdotal evidence, but during the wedding planning I was on forums with a number of brides-to-be who were trying to find vendors. First preference was personal recommendation, but failing that, we'd search on Google, and we all shied away from using companies who had shoddy websites covered in spelling mistakes.

We talked about it among ourselves and we acknowledged that this was a ridiculous way of eliminating potential suppliers - that a person's standard of written English was in no way an indicator of their skill at decorating cakes, or arranging flowers, or applying make up. However the fact remained that a vendor could be the most wonderfully skilled hairdresser or photographer or chauffeur in town, but if they couldn't present their online "shop front" properly we didn't feel confident to hire them.

Not sure. I think there are restrictions on how many hours of music you can listen to on a free account, as well as how many times you can listen to a particular song. I believe they pay licensing to the record companies in the same way a radio station might.

I believe it's ad-funded (not just easily-ignored visual, but also audio ones like on a commercial radio station) but you can sign up and pay for an ad-free version, and purchase individual tracks like you do in iTunes.

Absolutely. And by the same token, content writers normally aren't designers - I readily admit I have no design aptitude whatsoever, and so I hired an artist and a web designer to sort out my website based on my back-of-an-envelope ideas.

You're going to point and laugh at me, but I'd like to work in a library. I don't mean I'd like to be a librarian, nor do I mean I have some kind of romantic yet misguided idea that it would mean spending all day reading book after book after book (although wouldn't it be wonderful if it did!). I mean I'd like to work on the 'shop floor' in a public-facing role as a library assistant. Putting books back in the right places on the shelves. Going on hunts for books that haven't been put in the proper place. Helping people use the computers even when they're at the "mouse? what's that?" stage. Booking stock in and out. Managing a noticeboard of local events. Organising reading groups and children's events and suchlike.

Bookshop would also be good, but then there would be an employee discount and I'd need a bigger house.

Well, the obvious answer would be the 'chair, and I couldn't run my business at all without a computer and an internet connection...

I think my telephone headsets made an important difference. I often need my hands free to type, move around, manage paper files, etc, while I'm on Skype or phone calls. The built-in mic of the computer conflicts with the clacking of the keys, and typing while trying to wedge a telephone handset against your shoulder is no fun for anybody.