My name is Carol Deckert, and I am the founder and owner of Referrals Unlimited Network and Carol Deckert, Virtual Assistant. Referrals Unlimited Network (RUN) was founded in 2007 as a result of many years spent learning about referral networking but not finding a group that would support those efforts.  All those other groups had all kinds of rules, fines and other things that kept the focus away from the business – getting to know one another in order to build relationships.  Build relationships, build business.  Consequently, RUN is the result of those efforts.  I am a people person and networking is a natural extension of my business.  When I started my business in 1993, my husband was very supportive of the idea of me being self-employed and did whatever was necessary to keep the household going, however, there were no funds available to use for the business.  Networking was the only way I had to get the word out about my business and what I could do to help other business owners.  Here I am, 14 years later, and still in business.  Word-of-mouth, networking, relationship building built my business and continues to do so today!

My husband, Larry is a USPS Letter Carrier (and has been for 34 years).  We have been married for 18 years and between us have 3 children and are now empty-nesters, except for our spoiled rotten Cocker Spaniel named Rosie and our Senegal Parrot named Nathan!  Both Caryn and Jason (the two oldest ones and the ones I brought to this marriage) were married in the same year – 1999 – one on June 14th and the other on August 14th.  Talk about being busy that year!  Jason and Lisa decided to go to Jamaica to get married, however, there was a large reception a few weeks after they returned home.  Caryn and Marc had a local church wedding and we had about 300 guests – that was hectic!  Amanda, our youngest daughter (the one Larry brought to this marriage) has decided to take the single mother route and has given us our cute little Shyla Marie who is 3 and getting into everything!  The other grandkids call her Baby Shy-Shy, but shy she is not!  Jason had a ready-made family with Tyler (17) and Morgan, (14) – he and Lisa gave me my first natural-born granddaughter, Ravyn Skye who is 5.  But you know, step- or otherwise – they are all mine!   Caryn and Marc gave me my first natural-born grandson, Luke and he is also 5.  Remember, Caryn and Jason married 2 months apart and now the kids are 3 months and 3 days apart in age!  Now you all know what I do in my “free-time!”  Grandma is the best title I could ever have and I love spending as much time as I can with all of them!

Larry and I love to travel, however, we have not had much opportunity to do so in the past few years due to some health issues I have had.  In 2006, we went on our first vacation in several years -  Las Vegas, NV for 4 days and then flew into San Jose, CA and spent he next 6 days traveling from Carmel/Monterey area up into San Francisco.  We traveled with another couple and we were very anxious to go west!  None of us had ever been to California before this and the websites we visited told us the countryside is just beautiful!  The websites certainly did not do those locations justice at all!  We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful countryside.

I am very fortunate in the fact that both of my parents are still alive at the age of 83.  Mom has been in a nursing home for the last 5 years following a stroke that has impaired her “good judgment” so she doesn’t always remember people or things.  Dad still lives independently and builds birdhouses, feeders and other small wooden lawn objects to keep him busy. 

My business as a Virtual Assistant is now 14 years old.  I think I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up!  I have changed my niche quite a few times over the years, and now have finally decided that I like the marketing support and will focus on that arena.  My target market is the small or home-based business, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, independent consultants with 0-5 employees.  One of my most recent clients is an Arbonne Consultant and I have been helping her with renting a mailing list and designing/printing 10,000 postcards for recruiting; designing and mailing sales flyers; building and maintaining her client/prospect database; sending out birthday and holiday greeting cards, and many other ‘much-needed” marketing support.

This brings me to one other point . . . how many of you know the anniversary date of when you started doing business with each of your clients?  If you do, a great surprise to the client is to send out an anniversary card and thank them for being your client!

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Contact Carol Anytime at (717) 394-6453