My name is Lesley, its nice to meet you all...
Greetings from the West Coast of the United States. I say the west coast as I am in between locations: currently in Portland, OR, but am heading back to Monterey, CA.
My name is Lesley, and its nice to meet you all.
I use a Mac (a brand new MacBook Pro), but have a Windows machine should I really need it (I rarely need a Windows computer even for technical work). I am working as a technician right now, but am headed (hopefully) to layoffs in the very near future. When I am free to go elsewhere, I will aim to work remotely as a technician (VNC, GoToAssist) and as a VA. I also am very good at Professional Organizing, but that requires "being there" and I think I only like doing that for free, anyway.
I am on "holiday" and am just going to "talk" for a bit. The reason I will just "talk" is to give people a chance to "profile" me, get to know how I think, where my head is -- at least right now.
Food for thought that I do not necessarily want an answer for:
Is the economy making people close up store fronts and making MORE use of virtual assistants, even if there are less administrative assistants (layoffs)?
Right now I am in the mode of preparing my office environment for working at home. I wanted far more privacy for the patio and sliding glass door are because it is right next to my desk. I made a game of it to get lots of potted bamboo, and a dog door, for as little money as possible, maybe even for free. At minimum, I did not want to spend $60 per 5 gallon pot of bamboo as I needed 5 or 6 pots. So, I put an ad out on craigslist looking for people who wanted me to do the labor and dig up some of their bamboo that needs to get weeded out. I was looking for Win/Win situation. I got two responses for the bamboo, and everyone was happy. You do not need to spend much money to do a lot of projects. I also put a craigslist ad out for a dog door and got a $200 dog door for $50 (what I stated that I wanted to spend). In the end, I got more gorgeous bamboo than I could really utilize, and the dog and I both love the addition of a door just for him.
The above is just one example of how I can take control of my life. I declared what I wanted and I set the price. I also had the benefit of them coming to me, and all I had to do was type up the request and post it. Interestingly, one person responded about the dog door and said she had one, but wanted $70.00 for it. My thought was -- okay, put your own ad out there, say that is what you want for it -- and it will probably sell. Me? I wanted a door that was worth $50.00, and I was seriously not picky. The one I got happened to be worth far more -- but, I would have been thrilled with anything that worked just as long as I did not keep having to open the door all night long!
In any event......
No matter what I end up doing after I get laid off -- I encourage you all to keep up the good work. Its great to see people getting out there and putting their best foot forward, making the most of their best talents.
If you need any Mac advice -- or just computer advice in general -- feel free to ask. I will say, I am not versed on Quickbooks. My tips? Turn on your firewall for Macs and PCs, lean on ethernet whenever possible (wireless only when you really need it), keep Windows system trays lean (MSCONFIG), and buy as much RAM memory you can afford for your computer. Macs have free tech support if you just go to your local Apple store and put your name on the list.
Thank you for putting this forum together!
Lesley
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on the new door for the pup! 
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