And then a competitor (a real competitor – someone who pitches the exact same niche and product/service line) swoops in and you see a few of your favourites defect or at least embrace the new guy whose sole purpose is to crush their competition – which they’ve identified as you.

How could they?!, you ask yourself. I thought they loved me!, you whine. Even though common sense should prevail (because let’s face it, you’ve been around this particular block a few times), it still feels like you’re in the middle of a hostile takeover.

And immediately you hit the drawing board. You brainstorm. You collaborate. You dust off ideas you never had the time or resources to make happen. You plot what you could do with another 40 hours in each week, what you can afford to invest in, how you can create an even bigger wow factor. You even kick yourself (hard) for letting things slide that you shouldn’t have.

You become better. Overnight. You know you’ll overcome and dim the competition’s self-powered (with oodles of new money and energy) spotlight. Why? Because what you offer is better, it’s unique, and you’ve spent years fine-tuning it. AND because you’re about to step it up again.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t feel like you just got kicked in the gut. It’s okay to take business personally. Your clients will always win as the result – which is what they, and you, both want. And so, in the words of immunization nurses everywhere; this will only hurt a bit.

If you want to prevent or remove a virus, here’s 9 of my favourite tricks and tools to make it just a bit easier. IMHO.

1. Avast Antivirus: Offers a free, powerful home version that you can download. Avast allows you to scan right from the boot which is one of the best ways to get rid of a nasty bug. Unfortunately, the boot scan doesn’t work on 86bit computers, but the rest of the program will work. You can run Avast after you’ve been hit with a virus as well and it often can clean things up. For a real first scan, it’ll take hours, so don’t try to use your computer until it’s done. http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

2. Malwarebytes: This hasn’t let me down yet. And the free version does a great job. This caught the big keylogger virus that infiltrated my entire network and website a couple of years ago. I call that time the dark ages. There’s two options. Buy it for about $25 or download the free version. http://www.malwarebytes.org/

3. FireFox: I rarely use Internet Explorer anymore. Firefox often blocks infected websites with a warning message. On a side note, it’s great for web developers. I only return to IE when I’m using my Sharepoint since IE and Sharepoint get along better with each other.  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

4. Panda Antivirus: This software was loaded up by one of my computer guys and it did catch some stuff that Avast didn’t. But then Avast caught bugs that Panda didn’t. Panda doesn’t offer a free version. http://www.pandasecurity.com/canada-eng/homeusers/downloads/

5. HostGator: I host various websites on dedicated servers with HostGator and they have by FAR the best tech support. When one of my client sites was infected last week, I fired off an email to tech support, they scanned the site, found a bunch of bugs and redirects, removed them, and all was well. No extra charge. Replies within an hour at the most. I can’t say enough about the tech team there. And then on my end, I was able to follow up with another scanning of email and file directories using my hosting admin area (cPanel)’s pre-loaded virus software. In less than 8 hours, this gigantic site was good to go. http://www.hostgator.com/

6. Password changes: The best thing you can do when you’ve had a virus is change the password of any admin accounts you have. This might just be the password to your blog, or your FTP password to your website. Anything that allows access to anything you’d like to keep clean should be changed. Easiest and least expensive way to help prevent a reoccurrence.

7. Reverting to a backup: If you have an infected website, your last/best hope is often to just revert to a recent backup. Even if you lose a few days or a week’s worth of work, it can sometimes be the best and easiest option. You still have to scan your website files for bugs in case you had a bug last week but it just hadn’t shown itself yet.

8. Making a backup before you’re infected: If you have just a basic HTML website, it’s easy to just download all your web files via FTP and save them in a safe place. If you have a database driven website such as a WordPress Blog or a Joomla website, you might want to look for a good backup plug-in. For Joomla, I use Akeeba backup plus I have my cPanel set to back up once a day, week and month. It has a great kickstart option and can also be used to create a development version of your site in a new folder if you want to test updates to your site. For WordPress, I rely on my cPanel server backup as well, but there’s likely a plug-in that could do the trick.

9. Call in help: Your least stressful option is usually to call in a good tech support person to help. Keep in mind that most tech support people will tell you the virus software you are running isn’t as good as their favourite. Doesn’t matter what you’re running, everyone swears by their own and ‘poo poo’s yours. No virus software is perfect. The odds are, you didn’t do anything wrong, so don’t let the bug or the techies get to you. If you run three different software suites, you sometimes catch things with one that you didn’t catch with the other. I run two. Avast – all the time – and Malwarebytes – once a week or every other week. Aside from that, the rest is in the hands of fate and of hackers who obviously have nothing better to do.

10. Re-format: If your infection has spread too far, too fast, reformatting your hard drive will fix the problem. Try to back up anything you can beforehand!

* There are countless other ways to prevent and disinfect. These are just my personal favourites. I also never EVER click on links from people I don’t recognize and I always look at the full URL before I do.

* McAfee may be a good antivirus suite too. I’ve heard good and bad things about it but have never run it on my own computer.

With instant access to everyone and everything from the palm of your hand, companies who are most “connected” are the same companies who get first dibs on a ton of potential revenue.

Question. How are we all supposed to run our businesses, stay in contact with current clients, get in touch with potential clients, and yet not spend all day attached to our computers?

Here’s a few things I consider whenever I’m about to go into communication-overload…

In lieu of secretary :: Some companies always have their email autoresponders turned on. I get that it buys them time to work and get back to clients when they’re ready, but yikes! I don’t think I could ever do that. After all, I like revenue. And I like my clients. The way I see it; if you really (and always) need two days to reply to every email that comes your way, you probably also need an office assistant or a Blackberry.

Cherish your leads :: Every time you find yourself getting frustrated with the boatloads of emails and phone calls coming in (most likely emails – do clients use phones anymore?), I remind myself of a time when I would have killed for just one more lead… one more booking… This makes it a lot easier to take a few time-outs throughout the day to reply to emails. I cherish my leads, my happy clients, and – when those golden moments come along – my ability to give a helpful, meaningful answer on the spot without having to run to my computer to research and respond.

Give them a back-up option :: Have someone available to answer emergency inquiries. Now put THAT on your autoresponder… “If you need an answer now, please contact So & So at someemailaddress, so he/she can get you taken care of.”

Get connected :: Let’s face it. If you own your own business and you don’t have the budget for an assistant, then you don’t really get to have a real vacation without the risk of losing potential business. So my advice to myself, to you, and to any entrepreneur who loves revenue, is to suck it up, find yourself a killer smartphone (Blackberry is my favourite for email) and use it to send short, meaningful replies to the present and potential clients who could end up being your next set of raving fans. Just do it a couple of times a day – no need to be glued to your phone at all hours. And if there is an emergency, then you’ll be able to head it off at the pass instead of walking into a storm of drama when you get back from vacay.

In the end, the goal is to use whatever means necessary to strike a better balance between running your business, creating your products and staying in touch with the clients you have, want and love. There’s a million reasons why you shouldn’t have to be a mobile customer service & sales machine. But they only apply if you don’t love revenue and good PR.

Just sayin.

* Don’t worry (and don’t yell at me!). I plan to take my own medicine.

Most autoresponders are professional, to the point, and say something along the lines of “We’re out of the office until whatever date. We’ll get back to you when we return.” Others say “We’ll get back to you within 1-2 business days” and are always turned on. Meh.

But what a client is hearing is probably more along the lines of “Please wait – for days, maybe a week – to give us your business. We’ll get back to you.“  What if all of us measured how many potential clients moved on to a competitor insteading of waiting? What would the tally be? 1 or 2 weddings a year? $500 or $5000? More or less?

It’s hard to know. But what I do know is a fabulous autoresponder when I see one. I love seeing entrepreneurs who use their autoresponders not just as a way to field calls and emails while they work, but also as means to send a real message.

Here’s a fabulous AR I received this week from a wedding cake company…

“Thank you for your email. The kitchen is a very busy place. We’re constantly working on something sweet and exciting. Just like your cake will be our number one priority the week of your event, someone’s cake is our number one priority right now. The end of the week tends to be our busiest time. If you have emailed or called Thursday on please note that we will most likely not be able to get back to you until Monday.”

If I were a client, this message would say to me…

• my cake is important
• this came company is busy with “sweet, exciting” cake orders
• they’ll get back to me on Monday and I can wait that long

LOVE it.

This gave the the whole family (teenager included) a fun way to celebrate V-Day without any of the mess and clean-up afterword. Keira was high on sugar for days. Liam just made his and donated them to the cause, because like me, he’s not really a sugar person.

Des and Brian got funky with their designs and I received a love heart from my man. Awwww!
Click to view slideshow.

The truth is, there’s always another deadline, a fire to put out, or another great idea. But time isn’t a renewable resource and knowing when to call ‘uncle’ is always a good idea. That’s why I made some pretty big (big for me, at any rate) resolutions for 2011. Here they are, in no particular order…

1. Get back to the kitchen, woman! I always enjoyed baking when I was younger. I’m going to spend some time in the kitchen with my hubby and little ones (see #3). My five year old is a big fan of all things sweet – cake, cupcakes, you name it. So I’m going to enlist her help in this area. And Brian is the chef in the house, so I’ll need is help for sure.

Say cheese!

2. Get crafty(er). I do a lot of writing and design work for my job but I rarely have the chance or discipline to take a time out and do some for myself. I’d like to write for myself this year, even if it’s just the odd blog entry, like this one. I’d like to dive into photography. I’ve been photographing for work and play (but mstly work) ever since I got my hands on my first digital camera about 12 or 13 years ago. I’d like to learn how to shoot and edit properly and create my own photography style, even though it’s just for me. I’m also crazy excited because my better half bought me a Nikon D90 (and some fun bells and whistles to go with it) for Christmas. I’ve never had a real pro camera before and know for sure hat this is a resolution I can keep!!

3. Spend more time with my family. This is a no brainer. I have great kids and the best hubby ever. I plan to enjoy them and to work them into some of my other resolutions too!

4. Get healthy. I have a bunch of bad habits, none of which have ever included the gym. So I’m trying to kick junkfood, stop smoking when I’m bored or stressed (ya, ya, I know, its awful… No need to comment cuz I get it. Show me a smoker who doesn’t want to quit and I’ll show you a liar. This is the year!), and get my butt to the gym and the fresh produce section of the grocery store a LOT more often. Brian and I signed up for the local gym and (ugh) for personal trainers. Wish me luck.

5. Play, listen to, and learn new music. I love playing piano, listening to music, and learning the guitar. I just never take the time.

These resolutions are all about lightening up and striking a balance between work and home life. If you’re in the same boat (and up for a challenge) I’d love to hear about how about what you’re doing to find a bit of balance of your own.

So far, my theory was right. It’s a bit of a tease. You can do so much, so easily with an iPad that it feels like I should be able to open Adobe InDesign and edit some magazine layouts. But I can’t. What I can do is watch news, surf my own websites, and with a variety on annoying spelling mistakes, blog. I can play a kick-ass game of solitaire too but that would make this the most expensive card game ever… SO the plan is to attempt to access and update a Joomla website or two, edit a task on my Sharepoint server, and finish loading up a mountain and configure my email.

My goal is to see if this is just a wicked new toy or if it actually has business applications I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck! Sorry about the horrid formatting and spelling.

I installed Headway with no problem. Fell in love with the ability to literally grab chunks ofthe site such as the header, footer, widgets and content areas and move and resize them any way that I like. Seriously, someone pleeeeease do this with Joomla!

So far I’ve used a number of it’s built-in widgets including random image widget, custom footers and headers, and a photo gallery (very slick). I’ve used Headway to switch up my menu, completely change the layout of the divs, and do crazy-easy (and quick) text style mods.

It’s rediculous that it doesn’t have an automatic option for rounded corners or body background images when it has so many other more complicated functions BUT alas, having to use the text editor for a line or two won’t kill me I guess.

With the price and the pure hours of time saved on css modification for layout, Headway’s looking like a great buy so far. Check it out for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Anyways, neither of my sites are launched yet, so once I’ve achieved publication, I’ll update this with my final vote for or against Headway.