“The RoseBouquet”

FREE Seminar by Azaleas Virtual Assistants Saturday 9 am. – August 23/08. ONLY 8 Seats Available. Call Ruth Friesen, 653-2417 or 956-7785 to reserve your place. (Lunch is provided). You will learn at least 3 or 4 ways to build a web business, and the pros and cons of each.

(If more than 8 register, Aug. 30 may open up)

If you or someone you know, is within driving distance to Saskatoon, and is interested, then please call me to confirm your chair. The address you will come to is, 401 33rd Street West. Ste 210. You come to the back door and ring the doorbell. My office suite is upstairs.

Yesterday a friend asked why I take time for this RoseBouquet when I am so busy. I have several good reasons and it occurred to me that there are probably others who wonder this too, so I want to take time to answer this well.

1. It is a good business move
2. It keeps me connected to my friends
3. A writer needs a creative outlet for expression

The Business Move

When I first came online in 1999 with a goal of learning to self-publish my novel I slurped up everything I could read or learn about marketing my book – and myself – online. It didn’t take long to learn that you have to have a website, but then, one of the best ways to promote a website and create long-term relationships with your visitors is to have a regular ezine (which is a newsletter or magazine that you send by email). So I started an ezine called the Journal Digest to share my excited discoveries. It did gain me a growing list of new friends.

When I won a domain website, I built it around my novel, and changed the name of that ezine to The RoseBouquet because the theme of my novel was about friendship and mentoring friends, and like the heroine, I tend to think of my friends as unique special roses in a bouquet of friendship. I’ve come to treat this ezine, which has now become a blog and an RSS feed as well, as a more informal, inspirational vehicle, rather than strictly business. But it still accomplishes some of my business goal, of turning visitors to my site/blog etc., into long-term friends, to whom I can promote my book and other links that I want to recommend to them.

An ezine elevates a business owner to something of an expert and professional. Yes, it is work, but I realize that if I dropped this RoseBouquet and then tried to start it up again some months or a year or two down the line, I’d have to start over from scratch. No matter how busy I get, it is important that I keep my writing and publishing commitment to my readers! It’s just plain good business sense.

My Bouquet of Friends

Even though I speak disparagingly sometimes about my social skills, my friends are my most valuable treasures. I try not to crow over a new friend in front of a long-time friend, but I really do feel a special thrill whenever I gain a new friend.

When others get back from trips, they show off their souvenirs. Instead I count up my new friends and try to figure out how to make time to write to them. I used to have an informal pen pal club during those years as a caregiver for my parents. I often put a week into writing a general newsy letter, cranking off copies, and then personal ones to those who had written me. I also made creative decorations for those letters. When I became an online business woman I did not have time for all that work, but The RoseBouquet restores some of that connection for me, and allows me to write a version of my pen pal letter – not just once a month, but weekly!

I already feel badly enough that I don’t have time to nurture and develop each friendship in greater detail with more time. If I were to say I’m too busy to write The RoseBouquet I would feel like I was dumping my precious friends! Horrors! Never! That’s why last year when I was super busy, I think I only begged off once last year. No, I can’t even find evidence of that. The week of Dad’s funeral, and the week after I had an extra short RoseBouquet, but I didn’t just disappear.

A Writer NEEDS to Write!

Only a real writer, who bleeds words when you cut them, can understand this last reason. I am one of those who has to write to stay sane. I write in my prayer journals every morning and find it hard to break away. That keeps me spiritually healthy. But when I don’t write throughout the rest of the day I begin to feel like I’m wearing someone else’s clothes and they don’t fit me!

I recognize that not everyone else feels like I do, but my life online – which includes writing The RoseBouquet, and web pages, and emails – on a good days for about 12 hours straight is designed just for me! I enjoy it very much! Some people are sure they would have a mental break down if they lived my lifestyle. For me it is a dream job.

The only better one would be if I could mentor some friends and show them how to do this too. That’s why I’m looking right now for just the right students for my Azaleas Virtual Assistants business. I want to intern them for this lifestyle. They won’t have to become my carbon copies, but we’ll tailor one web business just for each of them, and I’ll help them discover the delight in doing what they are best at.

So sure, I am very busy, but no, canceling The RoseBouquet is not an option. I suppose I could be boxed in one day in such a way that I have to beg off and excuse myself for a week or two, but you can count on me to resist that with all my might.

I need friends for my business I need to keep in touch with my friends, and I need to tell you my stories. If I get some positive feedback once in a while, and if you find my recommendations useful sometimes – that is icing on my cake!

Last week I spent my birthday celebrating in a rather unusual way. I’d got a book of coupons some weeks ago, and realized that these freebies from Saskatoon businesses will all expire on February 1. But when I’m busy teaching Monday through Friday from 9 – 5 I’m not likely to get around to using them; I better take some time now. Well, why not take the day off on my birthday and see how many free things I could get?

So I did. Some of the coupons ask you to call ahead for an appointment, and some are only to be used at the beginning, or slacker part of the week, so I had made some appointments in advance. At 9 am I took my car two blocks away for a good cleaning. (I had to cut short a long distance call from a good friend in Ontario to do that). When I got back and caught up with breakfast, I started work on my SBI site, but had to walk back to get my car at 10 am. (I also fielded another long distance birthday call).

At 11:45 I went to the office because Joe, Penny & Priscilla were taking me out to lunch at Denny’s. That was nice, but my meal was too big so I took some of it home for the next day.

From there I went shopping for a birthday gift for another friend, and also picked up the commissions at the Christian bookstore where I’ve been selling Dad’s last cross necklaces on consignment. There was enough profit for gas in the car later!

Next I drove across the city to the east side for my appointment at the Arizona Salon. Had to wait a bit, but got well pampered with a good haircut and styling.

Then I went back home and called my brother Tom. He had totally forgotten it was my birthday. However, when I told him I had all these restaurant meal coupons burning a hole in my purse, he was willing to go out for supper with me. We picked Tiffany’s where he paid for his meal and I got mine (same/equal value) for free. It was a huge Greek meal and again, I took home about half of it for the next day.

One of the coupons was for a free specialty coffee a month. Since I don’t drink coffee, and Tom does, I asked if he’d like one free. He was happy to agree. It was caramel this time. I’m going to try to remember to go get him another each month and bring it to him. (That should help keep me more in touch with him too).

Oh yes, I also stopped for the gas from Dad’s cross necklaces. On the way to drop Tom off at his apartment building I mentioned that I had meant to buy myself some mayonnaise. He invited me to take two jars of that out of his fridge as he doesn’t use the stuff. He ended up giving me a ham as well, and a bag of videos for the lending library we are starting at WTM.

I went home and tried to catch up on some emails. But I had this giddy feeling that I’d snuck away for a holiday and it was almost totally free! I just paid for the gift I bought and four small $1 household items for myself.

Speaking of emails…. Oh-veh! Am I ever falling behind! If you’ve written to me lately, and have not heard from me, hang on. I’m hoping to do some major catching up this afternoon. Yesterday was the big August Civic holiday Monday. But I didn’t celebrate it except to go to work. I spent the whole day at my Azaleas office, working on those computers. I’m determined to get four good working ones set up and to start promoting my business in earnest. I even plan to start being there every day, and all day this month, so it won’t be so hard to adjust in September.

However, I’m not really set up to answer emails there yet, and don’t really have time, while I’m bent over this one or that one with a screwdriver, taking one apart to put a hard drive from another one in there, or whatever, and then hooking it up and loading an operating system – or trying to. I had thought that third computer would be easy, but it took a number of drive changes and tries to finally get it installing Suse 11 as I had hoped, about mid-afternoon. It still wasn’t finished at 5:45 pm. when I decided that I had to get home and do supper and my evening commitment to WTM so I left it to finish on its own.

Once that was humming I went back to try something on the second computer. Didn’t work. Undo that. Okay, now it was all right, so I managed to load all but the personal stuff from my backup CD there. That computer is just about ready for business.

The first computer still doesn’t recognize the CD/DVD drives so I fussed on that a while and did research. Then I decided to try that one ornery drive in the Merlin computer. It beeped and beeped…. Discovered I’d put the wrong memory in that one. Opened that and fixed it. But I didn’t dare start to install a new system on it, because then I’d never get away to go home. (An installation, depending on which one, can take from 2 hours to 6 or more!) That’s for tomorrow.

Meantime, if I’m away all afternoon, and have promised my evening to a client, then no emails get answered. They just back up! Or is that PILE up? My goal this week, is to get at least 4 computers working, set up and ready for me to do all my work there, including emails, all that before Friday, when I expect to stay home and take pictures of my old furnace going out the door!

Seems to me I promised a photo story progress report on my garden each month this summer? Is that the way you remember it? Well, I’m sorting through my July photos…. See below.

How can you be sure you would like an e-book before you pay for it? In a store you’d stand and read a couple of chapters first, right? Sit down, take your time; READ eight chapters of Ruthe’s Secret Roses for free!

Whew! These photo stories take much longer than writing an article. (I wonder if I can keep this up).

Anyway… if you’ve been waiting for this, here’s a revisit of my flowerbeds and gardens for July and early August. That’s up to last night. July – August Garden Visit (photo story).