Tag: small business help

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blogging, buildyourmlm, business management, Implementation, Marketing, organizational behavior, process management, sop creation

Organizing Your Home Office

Genean

When you work from home, your office space is sacred as it is where all of your important documents and information are kept. With all the paperwork and office items you have on your desk, it can start to feel overwhelming. Clutter can take a toll on your health by increasing stress levels, you may not even be aware that it is happening. One way you can help to reduce this stress is by decluttering. By cleaning up your office space and truly decluttering, you can not only decrease stress, you can also increase productivity especially while working from home. If you want to live your workdays stress-free, you need to GET ORGANIZED! 

Here are a few steps to help you get started with the process:

1. Purge Paper 

If you struggle with desk organization, odds are you have too many papers and documents taking up space both in and on your desk. First things first, as time-consuming as it may be, take the time to go through every single piece of paper on your desk and throw out, shred, or file each one. A lot of times, many of us are more visual when it comes to work and documents, however, for the sake of the environment and your mental peace, you might want to consider making everything digital. There are so many great tools you can use on your desktop and smartphone that will allow you to keep all your important documents and files organized and easily accessible. If it is not absolutely essential for you to print out certain documents, don’t do it! 

2. Color Coding 

Color coding is an easy way to organize all your files and notes. To organize, separate the filing system into five color-coded categories, and label each hanging folder according to your needs. 

GREEN: Financial 

RED: Client Work 

ORANGE: Personal 

YELLOW: Insurance 

BLUE: Meetings 

3. Keep Only What You Need 

Many people like to keep special items on their desk space such as family photos, decor, and other accessories. Maybe you’re like Angela from The Office who fills her deskspace with cat figures and photos of cats. While it is a nice touch to add something personal to your desk space, you don’t need the extra clutter and it would be helpful to try and remove anything you 

don’t absolutely need. This does not mean you need to remove all your personal touches, but your desk space should be oriented around your work, this is #1 priority, and it can’t be a priority if your work gets lost in your decor.

If you spend the majority of your workday at your desk, having it look nice and tidy can really make your workdays more enjoyable. If your desk is a mess, your mind will be a mess as well. This year, prioritize setting aside at least 1-2 hours per week dedicated to organizing your space. You will slowly start to see the effects on your productivity and mental health. If you still find yourself feeling overwhelmed by online documents and work, that’s what our virtual assistants are for! Reach out today and ask about our packages. http://www.lifebydesignvs.com

business management, businessbuildingstrategies, healthandwellness, Implementation, Marketing, organizational behavior, process management, sop creation

Achieve Your New Year Goals With a Virtual Assistant

Genean

We’re here! It’s officially 2022! Many people have spent a lot of time these last 2 years indoors, in pajamas, binge-watching all the shows to ever exist on every TV platform, but not busy business owners! The ones of us who have a strong vision and clear goals have been preparing for this new year! Are you ready to thrive in 2022?

 For a business to prosper, it needs to be running smoothly and efficiently. Take time during the first month of the year to make a plan for how you will be more productive and efficient in the new year. Some popular resolutions for business owners include: ‘become more organized’, ‘improve my social media marketing’, and even ‘work less so I can spend more time with my family’. How are you going to make this happen? 

Working on tedious and repetitive tasks can start to really take a toll on a business owner. What you really want to be doing is focusing on paying customers and clients; but how can you do so when all your time is spent answering emails or creating graphics for your social media pages? 

Don’t start the new year feeling overwhelmed by small, tedious tasks. Start fresh and set new goals. This is a new beginning, and you’d be amazed by how much time you could get back by hiring a virtual assistant. If your goal is to work towards your passion, by outsourcing to a virtual assistant, you are opening up hours to refocus on the things that make you passionate about your business. 

Social media is critical for all businesses. How will your consumers build a deeper connection with you and become more loyal customers if you don’t utilize social media? Through proper social media marketing, your business can reach larger audiences and grow your brand awareness. However, this can’t be done in a day. 

Having a strong social media presence requires many hours to be put in working towards building that audience and engaging with it. Luckily, there are thousands of virtual assistants who specialize in social media management. They can take care of creating graphics, engaging with audiences, video editing, post scheduling, and so much more. If one of your resolutions is to grow your audience and social media presence, don’t spend countless hours a month doing it, hand it off to your virtual assistant! 

Toward the middle and end of the year, we can start to feel so overwhelmed by our workloads that we begin to lose touch with more important things outside of our work life; such as family and friends. Make it your New Year’s resolution to take time for yourself. Enjoy your time away from work, take an extra day off, spend time with your loved ones, without the hassle of having to worry if work is getting done. Your virtual assistant is there to make sure that you are living stress-free while your business continues to grow and prosper. 

A virtual assistant has your business’ best interest at heart. It is our job to watch you succeed and aid in the process. You will have somebody to bounce your ideas off and provide you with support, which is indispensable when you want to achieve goals. Your virtual assistant can give you opinions and suggestions for things you may not even notice about your business. They work to make your life easier. If you haven’t hired a virtual assistant yet, what are you waiting for? Now is a perfect time. It’s a new year. Start fresh! Hire a VA! http://www.lifebydesignvs.com

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business management, businessbuildingstrategies, Implementation, organizational behavior, sop creation

Preparing Your Business for 2022

Genean

Time flies when your business is booming. It’s that time of year again, the new year comes around and we have new goals to set for ourselves. As things slowly transition back to normal after the past two years, we need to prepare ourselves for whatever 2022 may throw at us.  How are you looking to change things in the coming year? Will you have a new vision for yourself and your business? Having a plan in place for the new year will help you review past performance and make adjustments to your business as needed. How do you plan on following through with your goals for this next year? We have gathered some tips on how you can prepare your business for the new year. 

  1. Reflect on the past year.

It’s no secret that the pandemic has probably affected all kinds of businesses in one way or another. Many have continued to work from home, others have returned to their offices, and some businesses have grown or shrunk as a result of the pandemic. Whatever the case, it is important to review the business activity in the last year to know where you can make improvements for the new year. Think about what your business has accomplished and how you can build on these in 2022. If your business is performing well in a particular area, the new year is a great time to increase that growth. What goals were you unable to reach in the last year for your business? Were they realistic? Why did they fall through?

  1. Write a Business Plan

Writing a business plan is essential when you first start a business. However, it is also very useful to have a yearly business plan to nurture your success in the new year. What direction will you be going in? Will it be the same as last year? In your business plan, you should also include budget and revenue goals for the coming year. Your goals should be business-specific, easy to measure, realistic, and relevant to your overall strategy. It is a good idea to think of 2 or 3 main business goals for the year, these could be related to financial outcomes, your customer base, or anything relevant to your overall business strategy.

  1. Consider Expansion

Plan for growth! If your business has been doing increasingly well, you may want to get ahead of the game and consider expanding your team. It is easy for a business owner to become overwhelmed once their business starts to take off. Remember, when expanding your team, the ultimate goal is to strengthen your existing team. Hire carefully and make sure you are hiring employees that fit the vision and mission of your business.

Starting a new year is an exciting time. I have been so grateful to see my business grow in the last year and I can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store for us. Our team is so excited to continue to help small business owners grow their businesses. For the solopreneur, we can help you get your time back. Are there too many tasks including employee training and development, and you simply cannot get everything done, at least not without working yourself to death? We can help! Visit us at http://www.lifebydesignvs.com

thank you signage
business management, businessbuildingstrategies, Implementation, organizational behavior

The Power of Gratitude for Your Business

Genean

It’s officially the holiday season, a time for cozying up next to the fireplace, enjoying winter festivities, and most importantly, a time for giving thanks. According to Harvard Health, “Research suggests that one aspect of the Thanksgiving season can actually lift the spirits, and it’s built right into the holiday — being grateful.” Showing gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. This is true not only in our everyday life but also in our work life or in our business. Gratitude in the workplace can affect the overall work climate and promote a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves–to feel a sense of meaning at work. With gratitude, the more you give the more you get in return. So how does showing gratitude affect your business?

Showing gratitude towards employees or coworkers can be extremely beneficial to a business owner. When hard work is not only recognized, but appreciated, this can directly influence performance, productivity, and retention. When a person feels acknowledged and appreciated for their work, they are more likely to continue to perform well and are more inspired to improve business outcomes. The best part of all, a simple thank you can go a long way, at no cost for you.

By showing gratitude in the workplace, you are creating an environment where all employees are happy to go above and beyond because they feel valued and appreciated. The direct results of this will include overall happiness amongst your team, trust from your team, boosts in self-esteem, and better performance. Let’s face it, no one enjoys an ungrateful employer. Many times, acts of gratitude are not received well because they are achievement-based as opposed to employee-focused. Authenticity is key in creating a positive environment in the workplace. Consider writing handwritten thank you notes to your employees to show your appreciation. It is also important to acknowledge the small things that sometimes go unnoticed. This will encourage your team to pay close attention to detail. 

Gratitude is a form of self-love. Pass it forward and improve organizational behavior. As you begin to acknowledge and appreciate the small things, you’ll be surprised at how your company culture begins to change. Gratitude leads to kindness, generosity, and empathy and it even promotes better sleep & improves your mental & financial well-being. Take every opportunity you can to make your business more personal, and never forget about the ones who have helped you reach the point you are at right now.

business management, businessbuildingstrategies

Vision and Belief for Business Owners

Genean

In all goals or tasks we complete, we are guided by a purpose. Having a clear sense of vision for your business allows you to define and achieve short-term or long-term goals. This is the first and most crucial step in starting or running a business. If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you plan on getting there? More than just a goal, a vision is the embodiment of our hopes and dreams for your business. With the tools at your disposal, you make those dreams a reality. You don’t need a degree in business or years of experience to build a vision for your business. Trusting in your capabilities is the key to making a change and seeing results. We’ve gathered our tips and tricks for building and growing your vision as a business owner. 

  1. Believe in yourself: 

Believing in yourself is step 1. If you don’t believe you are capable of achieving your goals, odds are you won’t. One reason many business entrepreneurs fail is that they give up after failing. Don’t get stuck in the situation or dwell on your failures. Instead, overlook the failure and find ways to the road to success. There are millions of business owners who have walked in your shoes and know what it feels like to fail or make mistakes, but they wouldn’t be where they are if they hadn’t picked themselves up and tried harder the second time around. Every successful business goes through phases, but don’t let it be your downfall. 

  1. Write it down:

Once you’ve developed confidence in your entrepreneurial abilities, you are ready to get your vision on paper. I recommend starting with 3 essential pillars of finding a vision: mission statement, vision, and values. Your mission statement will define what you’re there to do. It is the general heading of what your business is. Remember, your mission should be timeless and rarely, if ever, change. 

Your vision is where you aspire to be once you’ve achieved your mission. A strong visions statement defines where the company is now, and where you would like to be in the future. Focus on your business goals and future aspirations. Your vision should be uplifting and inspiring. 

Building upon your mission and vision, you need business values. What do you stand for? What core values make up the DNA of your business? By defining your values, you can better guide business decisions and customers can know what to expect from your service or product. Make sure to use strong concrete language to make it clear what your values mean and how they represent your business.

  1. Patiently, confidently, work at it

You have the power to make an impact through your business endeavors. You have something useful to offer the world. Build that confidence, create a concrete message and vision, and work towards building it. When your audience interacts with you or your business, they should find value in it. As entrepreneurs, we need to have a little faith that if we keep at it, everything will turn out fine in the end. If you set achievable goals for yourself, believe in your abilities, speak into existence what you want for your business, and work towards those goals every day, you will see results.

If you are already in business but have felt overwhelmed with the workloads and stress of growing your business, you may want to think about outsourcing to a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants are easy and affordable and can help you achieve all your business goals. It’s no secret that investing in your business is incredibly useful in achieving success. 

business management, businessbuildingstrategies

Launch Your Business With the 6 Figure Virtual Assistant Course

Genean

Setting up a business can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. In any career, when you utilize the tools and information available to you, you can learn as you go and still achieve great success as a business owner. That is what being a Virtual Assistant is all about. That’s why we have created a course for any existing or new Virtual Assistants who are looking to increase their earnings and achieve success in their business. We have gathered our tips and tricks to becoming a 6 Figure VA to help you boost or kickstart your Virtual Assistant business. Are you ready to work on your own terms and by your own design? Then this course is exactly what you’re looking for. 

VAs who know their stuff get paid better. It’s true. The more skilled you are, the more you can charge! This course will show you step by step how I grew my business from nothing to 6 figures in only 10 months and now have a team of 7 helping over 20 clients every month! I won’t teach you anything that I myself haven’t done. And I will give you all my secrets! Here’s what you can expect from this course:

  1. Full Access to the 10 Module Course
  2. Bonus 11th Module!
  3. Tons of Free Downloads
  4. Access to a Members Only FB group
  5. Live weekly training in FB group 

In this course, you’ll learn about the different types of VAs, what you need to set up your office, how to find the perfect niche for you, where to find clients, how to get the clients to say yes to you, contracts, and paperwork, payments and much more! So what are you waiting for? You’ve got everything it takes to become a 6 Figure VA and I’m excited to be your helping hand on this journey. Our course is now available for preorder. Don’t miss out on this amazing deal. 

PRE-LAUNCH PRICE ONLY $247! 

This deal won’t last! On launch day the price goes back up! 

Get it at http://www.geneanroberts.com

business management

Being a Virtual Assistant May Change Your Life!

Genean

Let’s set the scene, you wake up on a Wednesday at 8 am. Feeling sleepier than usual? No meetings till noon? You decide to sleep in and have your morning coffee at 11 am. You’ve had time to sleep in, relax, and catch up on your work on your own time. This can only be the fabulous lifestyle of a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is a self-employed worker who specializes in offering administrative services to clients from a remote location, usually a home office, working their own scheduled hours. This is just part of the many perks of being a virtual assistant. 

Not only do you get to work from the comfort of your own home, but you are able to have so much more flexibility as a virtual assistant. According to studies, 29% of remote employees said they struggle with work-life balance, and 31% said they have needed to take a day off for their mental health. As a virtual assistant, you have the ability to work whenever and from wherever you want. When you need to stop and take a break to take a mental check, you can do so at any time of the day. Thanks to the developments in technology, working from home has never been easier. 

Another reason why working as a virtual assistant is great is because you only provide the services you choose to provide. If graphic design and website management aren’t your favorites, you don’t have to do it. As a virtual assistant, you decide what your specialties are, what services you provide, and what you will charge for those skills and services. Additionally, there is a wide variety of services to choose from. Virtual assistant services range anywhere from general administrative tasks to social media management. It’s your business, so you design it your way. 

A study by Stanford of 16,000 workers over 9 months found that working from home increases productivity by 13%. It’s interesting that once you change a work environment to something calmer and more comfortable, how productive people can actually be. Working from home removes the pressure you receive from employers and other coworkers. When you work for yourself, you make the rules and you control all aspects of your job. While hard work comes with any business and job, there is nothing more rewarding than being able to work on your own terms. 

Have we hooked you yet? What could be more perfect than being your own boss? Well, as we said, running your own small business comes with hard work. Becoming a virtual assistant can yield great success. 

Virtual Assistants can even make up to 6 figures working right from their home. Wondering how to run a successful virtual assistant business? Don’t know where to start? Is your virtual assistant business growing at a stagnant pace? 

I started out working as a VA in 2010 as a side gig to my regular job. I would continue to work as a VA for a few years on and off for a few different companies. Now, this was still a side hustle and continued as a side hustle alongside my job. Just taking a client here and there as a part-time virtual assistant. It never became more than that. Until it did. 

Before I knew it, I realized the potential in my VA business and eventually expanded into a full VA Team in just a few short months. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve and I’m excited to share that with other existing or aspiring virtual assistants. I’m proof that you can run a successful business right from the comfort of your own home or Hawaii, or anywhere there’s an internet connection really.

That’s why I’ve created “The 6 Figure VA Course” in order to help other virtual assistants reach their full potential. Find out more info at www.geneanroberts.com

Finding Clients in Your Niche
process management

Finding Clients in Your Niche

Genean

Finding and marketing towards your niche audience can set you up for success in your business. Niching down may worry some small business owners due to fear of limiting services and exposure. However, as a small business, you cannot provide every solution to every problem, as larger corporations might be able to. By niching down, you can limit competition, become an industry leader, target your consumers better, and build a strong and loyal customer base. Once you become confident in your expertise, this will shine through in your product or service, which will attract new clients within your niche. The first step is analyzing your business as a whole and what you can offer to your customers. 

To find your niche, analyze your interests and passions. What kind of problems are you able to solve in your business? Once you’ve established what your niche is and what you specialize in, how can you find more clients within your niche? 

  1. Identify Your Target Audience: In order to find new clients within your niche, it is important to consider your current customer base. What does this customer base consist of primarily? 
  2. Problem-Solution: What unmet need are you able to provide a solution to given this customer base specifically? Find gaps within the marketplace. The more you can hit on the pain points of your niche market, the more success you will have. 
  3. Research: As you narrow down your target audience, the process of understanding their needs and wants becomes much easier. As your niche may be narrowed down to a specific age group or category, you can conduct research in order to find out their needs, goals, motivations, frustrations and expectations. Evaluate the data on the demographics of your niche market and work towards solving the issues that these specific groups face and how you can be the solution to these problems. 
  4. Market: Once you’ve identified, researched, and created a plan for targeting your niche market, you can begin to market your business specifically to match the needs of these customers. Targeted ads, blog posts, social media branding and podcasts are great tools to use to find new clients within your niche. 

Whatever it is that you do, perfect it. If you can do it better than others, market to those who value your product or service because it provides a solution to a given problem. With your confidence in your expertise, you will attract customers within the same niche. Finding your ideal client begins with you. Do you have a business plan? Do you know who you’re marketing to? What do they need that they cannot find in your competitors? Once you have answered these questions, you will be able to properly market your niche audience. 

Content Marketing Agency
business management

Why It’s Important to Take Good Care of Your Employees

Genean

Having a great team for your business is essential for thriving as a business. As a business owner, you are not only in an authoritative position but also a leadership position. It is important to provide your employees with the essential tools needed in order to properly perform well. Without a solid foundation for procedures, you will be left with an unorganized and ill-equipped team. As a result, you will often receive low-quality work, confused employees, and risk of error. How can you show your employees you care? The easy answer, have some written procedures in place for your business!

In order for work to get done, you should be working towards maximizing accountability for results and creating a comfortable work environment for employees to thrive in. In order to do so, you need to set clear expectations. With clear expectations, there is less room for confusion and you become more transparent with your employees. Once you have set these expectations, you will quickly be able to track progress from your team. 

By setting expectations, you are setting your team up for success. Your employee should be treated with care and respect as they are people and not just a number. Place focus on the importance of caring for your team by ensuring they have the tools that set them up for success. 

Simply setting expectations, however, can be counter-productive if you don’t have a set of procedures in place for employees to refer to when working on tasks. What are the benefits of having these procedures?

  1. Clear instructions

Different tasks require different steps. In order to properly train new employees and keep the whole team on track, everyone should be given the same set of guidelines to ensure everything is done correctly the first time. 

  1. Quick problem solving

By readily having procedures at their disposal, employees will be able to utilize these tools to quickly resolve any uncertainty that may arise from completing a specific task, which in turn, reducing downtime and getting tasks finished more quickly

  1. Improve and collaborate

Procedures allow us to evaluate how well a task is being done. When tasks are shared and completed by a team, the team can then offer suggestions for better methods of completing the task. This allows you to make adjustments in your procedures in order to work efficiently. 

Caring for your employees and making sure they have all the necessary tools in order to do well will be reflected in the output of the work they do.  Making sure your new and existing employees know what is expected of them will help eliminate errors and increase productivity. In order for these procedures to run smoothly, it is also important to take into account the importance of trial and error. Listen to your employees and take into consideration their feedback and make note of what works well and what does not. If you have not yet created a set of procedures for your business, we highly recommend getting started. Feel free to reach out and ask about our new SOP services. 

businessbuildingstrategies

5 Goals You Can Set For Your Small Business

Genean

It is never too late to set some new goals for your small business! Here are five things you can do once or continuously to better improve your small business.

  1. SWOT analysis: S- Strengths, W- Weaknesses, O- Opportunities, and T- Threats. This is a great way to figure out/analyze the current state of your company. Also, this helps target those areas you may need to improve on before setting goals.
  1. Take Advantage of Social Media
    1. Social media is one of the absolute best tools to use when it comes to not only growing your small business but also establishing a key identity that is attached to your business’ name. Try creating a profile on Instagram or Facebook and just putting your logo and company message, and then add consistent content focused on your products and/or services.
  1. Revise Your Customer Service Process
    1. Having a fantastic customer service process is especially important. People like to feel like they are cared about personally when it comes to assisting their needs. If you sell products, maybe start offering an easier method of contact. For example, if you only offer a customer service email, think about opening a business phone line or live chat for people to get a faster response.
  1. Hire Someone to Help
    1. If you find that your business is starting to grow, adding an additional person may be your best bet to maximize productivity. Virtual Assistants are the perfect option to start off with. They have a lower cost vs regular employee and need little to no benefits. It would be great to talk with you and see if our VA’s are the right fit for your business.
  1. Reduce Business Expenses
    1. This is dependent on the type of small business you are running, but there is always some way to cut a few costs here and there. For example: unneeded materials or subscriptions.

Here at Life by Design Virtual Assistant Services, we wish your small business nothing but the best. Feel free to check out the FREE 15-minute consultation we offer on our contact page to see if our services would be of benefit to you.