From the desk.... ~ Diligent Assistant

April 15, 2019 by Jackie Appleby Leave a Comment

What is an OBM and why do you need one?

The VA industry has exploded of late and now everyone and their dog wants to be a VA – why? Because it’s a great role for office assistants who want to work from home or coffee shops or any where in the world. It opens up a ton of flexibility for working Mums and Dad’s and provides business owners with relaible, knowledgeable administrative staff for great rates.

What is a VA?

For those of you who don’t know what a VA is – The Virtual Assistant (VA) was born from the remote office worker role. Those companies who took the leap ( did I mention that I used to be the Team Leader for one of the first call centres in Calgary to offer a remote team?) with work-life balance and allowed their administration and call center teams to work from home to help cut down on sick leave, commuting issues, child care dilemmas and various other “getting to the office” headaches that cost employers thousands of dollar a year in lost hours –

With the ability to now house most files and paperwork digitally (even CRA accepts digital copies of receipts) the need for a worker to be physically available in the office has become non-existent if they are support staff that don’t need to be present for customers. This means that book-keeping, accounts receivable, accounts payable, HR, marketing, sales and many other operational functions can now be done out of the office – and if you hire subcontractors to do the work, your costs are significantly lowered – no CPP and EI to worry about, no benefit packages, in some cases even offices are no longer required, leaving you rent free too.

VA’s are the office ninja’s your business is praying for and the workhorse you need! So what, pray tell, is an OBM?

What is an OBM?

An OBM is an Online Business Manager – but don’t get confused by the online part this means virtual like a VA rather than just applicable to Online Businesses. If a VA is your office assistant, then an OBM would be the equivalent of the Office Manager, but subcontracted so now you only use an OBM when you need one!

The goal of the OBM is to take over the daily operations of a business to free up the business owner so they can lead the company and concentrate on those important money making activities. Typically an OBM works across 5 areas –

Project Management – managing a launch, setting up a new online program or membership portal, establishing a website from start to finish and any other one-off projects that you may need to move your business forward.
Operations Management – making sure there are systems in place for billing, client relationships, workflow, communications, and ensuring that those systems all talk to each other effectively to cut down on duplicate tasks and save you time and money! Process and Policy implementation also come under operations management.
Metrics Management – tracking stats so that you know exactly what’s working in your business and what isn’t, managing the numbers and making sure things are effective – after all, what gets measured gets done!
People Management – outsourcing, managing, and tracking the completion of the day-to-day tasks of your team, hiring, employee management and Payroll.
Resources Management – The resources you use within your business are valuable and essential for its success. Sometimes these need to be procured or researched – OBM’s can help with this.

Wearing many hats!

Covering the roles of project managers, office managers, human resources managers, accounts managers, operations managers and online experts. You get exactly what you need when you need it!

This is not about handing over your business, but rather hiring an experienced and skilled professional to manage the areas of your business that take up more time and bandwidth than you have available. Sometimes as a business owner, you are great at the core money making activities but either doesn’t know how or doesn’t have the time to run the office environment.

Online business management is different from the general administration provided by a VA. An OBM is more invested in your business operations and it’s the ability to run smoothly. An OBM understands your business model and takes steps to ensure they fully understand your business needs. It’s like having an Operations Manager working alongside you.

We understand your struggles, being a business ourselves. We manage the same things that you manage within your business, We understand the frustrations and challenges that come along with running a business.

Once a business has gotten to a stage where managing the day to day takes more time than growing the business it’s time hire an OBM. At Diligent Assistant we specialize in helping you connect your people, processes and systems for a streamlined operations environment, that allows you to work smarter not harder, creating efficiencies and saving you money whilst maximizing your growth. Get in touch today to start a conversation on how we can help you or sign up here for our “Smarten Up” biz check list and see where the gaps in your business are.

April 1, 2019 by Jackie Appleby Leave a Comment

Word of the year 2019

It’s no surprise to me that exactly 3 months into the start of 2019 is when I finally decide on my word of the year. Those of you that know me well, know that I am a planner, almost an obsessive planner that comes from having lived so unplanned for so many years and suffering the consequences’ of that. It probably is a surprise to you then that my word of the year exercise was not a planned activity!

Don’t get me wrong, I tried to do word of the year exercises, even as far back as October last year, but they just weren’t resonating with me. I was busy still trying to get through 2018 and big Christmas plans with family so my time was spent elsewhere and I just couldn’t muster the mental clarity I felt I needed to pinpoint what 2019 was going to hold for me and how I was going to achieve my goals.

I was also only looking at my word of the year from a business perspective and what I have learned in my business over the years is that it is a huge part of my life on so many levels and needs to be incorporated as a whole and not left as a separate entity. That’s what sets me apart from other business owners, I feel, is that my business is not a means to an end but rather a part of me. How I conduct my business, the values that I believe in can be seen across all areas of my life.

This is the second year in a row that I have executed a word of the year and also the second time the word has manifested itself rather than been the result of an exercise or planned activity. I’m taking that as some kind of sign from a higher power that some things just are. I have become aware of certain words that seem to be repeating in my conversations, in my visions for the future, in that drive action and behaviour. Last year it was DEPTH, this year my word is CHOICES.

It started manifesting in January when I had a routine doctors appointment for a repeat prescription. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia 17 years ago and have pretty much lived with a significant amount of pain every day since then. I manage the pain with anti-depressants, not that they kill the pain but rather keep my mood elevated enough that I can deal with the pain. There is no cure for fibromyalgia as yet and there is still a lot of speculation as to whether it actually exists. One doctor in England told me that there was no real reason why some people suffered from depression, Chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel, muscle and joint pain, SAD and various other symptoms, so they lumped it all together and called it Fibromyalgia. My Doctor here in Canada told me it’s all in my head – but he didn’t mean I was making it up, he means that my body should not feel the level of pain it does, that my brain is telling me it hurts when it shouldn’t.

Anyways, what does this have to do with choices I hear you ask. Well at my routine doctors’ appointment we talked about how my pain levels seemed to be higher than usual – not surprising, 2018 was a heck of a year all in all. I’ve tried so many drugs and alternative therapies to combat the Fibro over the years but nothing seems to touch it and my doctor explained that there is no drug available to “fix it”. My doctor heralds from South Africa and he then explained how Fibromyalgia is a “Western disease”. It’s non-existent in poorer countries because their lives are much more physically demanding than those of us in the western world. Over in Africa they go to the doctor (if they have them available) because they got bit by a snake or some other life-threatening issue, but for the most part their bodies are physically strong because they have to be, their lives depend on them being able to grow crops and walk miles to get to schools and amenities in some cases. They don’t have a CHOICE.

Needless to say, I am now active at my local gym 4-5 days a week and making healthier food choices. We’ll see if it works but to me the message was clear – you can choose to be in constant pain or you can choose to do something about it. Will it change overnight – no but doing nothing wasn’t going to change anything either. I could choose to feel sorry for myself and use my Fibromyalgia as a reason not to do things or I could not let it control my life. Making difficult choices are usually the more worthwhile ones.

That was my first epiphany around choices. The second was something I read and I can’t remember where but the message resonated and has stuck with me. It was about managing time, which is something I struggle with. Not in the day to day as my planning helps with that, but in terms of bigger, life-changing things. The phrase is “It’s not that you don’t have time, it’s that you choose to spend your time on other things” I started to hear myself saying “I don’ have time for that” I don’t have time to go to the gym, I don’t have time to learn a new skill, I don’t have time to read a book, I don’t have time to spend with my family….the list went on. I did, however, seem to have time for Facebook, or binge-watching shows on Netflix or napping because I was up late doing nothing in particular. Now I’m not saying these are bad choices or time wasters, that’s an entirely personal opinion, but when I re-phrased my “I don’t have time to go to the gym which will help manage my pain” to “I chose to spend my time binge-watching Netflix instead of going to the gym to help manage my pain” it kinda put a new perspective on things. FYI my gym is the kind that has Netflix on the Cardio machines so I can still binge watch if I really want to!

More recently I read/listen to “Unfu*k yourself” by Gary John Bishop which further emphasized the ability to take a hold of your life by making conscious choices and accepting responsibility for those choices. He talks about choices in terms of willingness – what are you willing to do and what are you not willing to do.

You have the life you’re willing to put up with.

Conversations I’ve had with family and friends of late have been about choices, my choices, their choices, those with no choices and the fact that choices are not always easy, but you still have them! It’s been a reoccurring theme for a while and I’ve consciously noticed it’s appearance in all facets of my life over and over so that is why I am making it the word of the year 2019. That was the easy part, putting it into practice will be the hard part! Here is how I intend to make my word of the year work for me:

The list can go on but I think you get the picture. I’d love to hear about your word of the year if you have one but I’ also love to hear about the choices you are making!

August 12, 2018 by Jackie Appleby Leave a Comment

How much is your time worth?

Just pause for a second and really think about that. I’m asking how much money is your time worth to you? I’m not asking how much you get paid, or what your hourly rates are. I’m asking for a monetary value, how much is your time worth, per hour.

It’s likely that you don’t know, so let’s figure it out. I want you to dream a little. Perhaps you’ve just started your business, or perhaps you’ve been doing it a while but it’s not performing as well as you would like, you feel like you are working all the hours and not getting anywhere. I want you to visualize what your business looks like in 5 years, or 10 or 20, the timeline doesn’t really matter, it’s what you visualize that counts.

Dream a little

In this visualization, what does your life look like? What car are you driving, where do you live? Are you married? Have kids? What hobbies do you have? Do you go on vacations? Get a sense of what your dream life looks like. How much annual income do you need to support that lifestyle? Take a stab, $100K, $250K $1M? Don’t worry about how high this number is at the moment, we need a number to work with, but for this exercise to work you need to understand not where you are now but where you want to be.

let’s look at your dream business – what does that look like? Do you have staff working for you? Do you work from home or from an office? Do you have Mac’s or PCs? Use my Know Your Number Worksheet and start filling in the expenses per month section, of what your desired business looks like, not where you are now.

Cost of goods sold is a little harder to figure out since it’s linked to actual sales. This can be harder if you are selling a product over a service and you’ll tweak all of these numbers as you start to see the results. This exercise also helps to set your service rates and product offerings.

Now, here is the big one, how much time do you want to spend working? This includes time on money making activities (Working IN your business) and time on planning and growth (working ON your business). Enter this information into the worksheet too.

Make it uncomfortable

You should start to get a picture of what your time is worth PER HOUR. It probably looks a little high to you right now – that’s ok, this exercise was about looking at where you want to be not where you are now. It will help you to set your current prices with growth in mind and enable you to make good decisions around expenses and how many sales you need to build towards. If it looks totally unachievable, then you have to make compromises, maybe it’s not a Mercedes that you drive, or maybe you don’t vacation in Hawaii, maybe you don’t have a swanky office or a team of 5 staff, or maybe you want all those things and can find some additional hours to make it happen.

Keep playing with the numbers, understanding how many hours you have to work in order to provide the business and lifestyle you want. Note, the hourly rate you settle on should feel uncomfortable, you want to stretch yourself, otherwise, you will settle for mediocre and that’s not why you started this business. Also, note that there may be some offerings that you can charge higher rates for and some that need to be less. There is also residual income that can be earned all of which will contribute to your overall desired hourly rate.

Subcontract tasks

As far as expenses are concerned, now you can begin to see what you can farm out to others and what you can “afford” to do yourself. If you are a consultant, aiming for $150 an hour, it makes no sense for you to spend time that could be used on billable hours on the administration that you can hire a VA to do at $30-$40 an hour.

Know your rates

If you have an hourly rate in mind that you don’t feel you can get any lower based on business costs and lifestyle wants and it feels too uncomfortable to charge per hour, then get in touch and we’ll brainstorm some strategies and offerings to get you where you need to be!

April 29, 2018 by Jackie Appleby Leave a Comment

Software Review – Less Paper Co

Software solutions for small business owners is what we do best here at Diligent Assistant, however, we always run across the same issue. Where can we find a core system that does everything the client wants but doesn’t have the custom design price tag and works in the cloud for easy access?

A custom designed system is always the best way to go for long-term solutions to your business needs, yet it comes riddled with issues at the outset. With such a huge price tag (we are talking tens of thousands in many cases) it is often way out of a small business owners budget. Couple that with the fact that many business owners don’t know what they need their system to do early on as their business model is still in development. These systems are also usually installed on a company’s own internal servers and can only be accessed from set places. Cloud Software provides much more flexibility in when and how you access your business information.

The alternative is a mish-mash of systems that do various different things to give you everything you need, such as a CRM, Accounting System, Email Marketing, Project Management, appointments and e-mail and so on. These systems can add up in cost and if not seamlessly connected can result in errors, lost time through duplication and lost revenue.

I am currently working on a custom system build with a small software company called Less Paper Co, who I believe has created the perfect product for small business owners in the Field Service Segment. A completely customizable core system that doesn’t come with the huge price tag!

The system looks similar from client to client, with some standards such as dashboard and invoicing showing in the menus however the language is completely customizable as is the functionality of each module. The interface is clean and easy to use and it’s cloud-based software so you can access the system from anywhere that has an internet connection.

The process to get started was relatively easy, the only downside is that because the software is customizable there is no demo to try before you buy. Less Paper were able to send us some screenshots of what the system might look like and an important part of the process on our end was to create a wish list of our clients’ requirements and understand how they all linked together. This wish list was then sent to Less Paper who were able to advise what they could do (we got everything on our list) and provide us with the costs for the build and the monthly subscription cost.

Upon client approval of the costs, documents were signed in January and a deposit paid, then the project was scheduled for build in mid to late March. The first round of testing was completed late April, so it took about 4 weeks to build out the system to the required specifications.

Communication has been fantastic with Less Paper Co, we started off speaking to their sales team who were able to give us all the information we needed as far as system requirements were concerned and then handled all of the contract paperwork. In March we were handed over to their development team and communication has been via email, mostly with clarify questions as the development team are great at what they do but don’t fully understand every business need of their clients so they require additional clarification. Every step of the way, when one piece has been completed, we’ve been able to test and play around to get a feel for the system before going live. Sometimes playing in the system has lead to additional requests for small items such as re-naming areas to coincide with our clients’ internal language or adding email templates and automation which the Less Paper Team has been able to easily accommodate within the current scope of the project. There are a few items such as our request for an App that fell outside of the original scope and these will be revisited once the original system is up and running effectively.

As for the price – well it is also customized, dependant on your individual needs and wants but we can tell you that the build we just completed came in under $5kUS (way under) and costs $149 US per month for 5 users (field staff that do not access the system do not count towards the users but are still able to be scheduled). The system is going to probably half the time needed for invoicing, it will better enable orders to be kept track of both from a scheduling process and invoicing, it will assist with a very complicated payroll process and cut time down there and keep everything housed neatly in one place to save even more time looking for emailed orders and further correspondence. Overall the time saved on existing processes outweighs not only the monthly cost but also some of the custom build cost too.

We’ve been extremely impressed with the entire process and the end results of what Less Paper Company has been able to produce, and our clients are super happy too. We definitely recommend a look at Less Paper Co if you run and Field Service Based business.

April 6, 2018 by Jackie Appleby Leave a Comment

5 Ways to use LinkedIn for maximum Brand and Company exposure

You’ve heard of Linkedin, right? Then why aren’t you using it to network and grow your business?

Linkedin has around 500 million users with 250 million being active (stats updated Jan 1, 2018). If you are marketing to other businesses (B2B) or Corporate Professionals are your target Market, then Linkedin is where you should be spending your time. On top of that, Linkedin is totally under-utilized for small business owners so this marketplace is wide open! You just need to get in there and use it!

As with most Social Media, great things don’t happen overnight and you need to be committed and work it, work it, work it, to see results. If you are going to be successful on Linkedin, you need a solid Social Media Plan, that includes goals and tracking results. Here are 5 ways that you can use Linkedin to gain maximum exposure for your brand and your company!

Your Personal Profile

Many people still consider Linkedin as a digital resume site, but actually, Linkedin is a Search Engine first and Social Media Platform second. This means that keywords are super important if you want someone to find you that isn’t in your network.

Your profile is a great place to talk about your business and what you bring to the table, incorporating those all important keywords and making an impression with images and graphics. Your headline shows up in searches so make sure it’s enticing enough to encourage clicks! Once in your profile, make sure you have a good headshot as your profile pic and make use of the header image space with your business branding. Use the summary area to talk about your strengths and really make a connection with your audience – what are the pain points you solve for them?

Ask for recommendations. If you have worked with other LinkedIn Professionals and they are happy with your business services or products, ask them to write a recommendation for your profile, this can be done right within Linkedin. In today’s world where many consumers make buying decisions based on other peoples recommendations, this is a key area to grow on your profile!

Groups

Linkedin Groups still have more changes to come and honestly, they are not as user-friendly as Facebook Groups – yet! Some recent changes to Linkedin Groups now allow you to post videos, @ mention members and see Groups from your home page and in the feed. Joining groups where your potential clients are hanging out is a great way to connect with new people, but you have to work it! Make sure you are commenting and joining in with conversations, demonstrating your knowledge around your core skills and superhero abilities. Do not just post when there is a Marketing Opportunity, those types of business owners are over on Facebook…Linkedin is classier than that!

You can create your own group for extra exposure, but be prepared for a long journey there. You will need to post often (at least daily), draw attention to your group in other marketing activities and be prepared to talk to yourself for a while until the conversation gets going! There is the ability to customize welcome messages going out to new members which is a great feature, you can discuss the group rules and point them to your website for signup and extra info! Hopefully, with Linkedin doing some more “revamping” with Groups, this area will improve even more.

Articles (Formerly Linkedin Pulse)

Writing Linkedin Articles is another great way to gain exposure for your brand, and this is the area that really sets Linkedin apart from all the other Social Media platforms, being able to essentially write a blog and immediately publish it in front of 500 Million members – now thats worth doing! Again keywords are huge here as your articles can appear in searches outside of Linkedin too, however, if you are going to appear in a google search, you really want your Website visited before your Linkedin Profile so make sure your blog posts are optimized too (that’s another blog post!)

Articles written on Linkedin should be focused on building your reputation as a subject matter expert and encouraging people to follow you and your company page. As with other Social Media platforms, the more followers you have, liking and commenting on your posts, the more other people will see your content. One thing to ensure with articles though is that is not a replica of a blog post you already published. It can be repurposed content but it shouldn’t be the same – after all you want to direct people to “read more” at your website.

Company Page

Having a company page is important for a couple of reasons, the first and most important is that it allows you to pull through your branding onto your personal profile when you indicate that this is where you currently work. If you have employees, it also allows them to do the same, helping with brand exposure.

Secondly, the company page allows you to showcase your products and services, giving you a little more space to spread your branding message. The downside to company pages is that you have to have people follow your page in order for them to see any posts. As far as working Linkedin is concerned most of your posts should go under your personal profile until you have built up a significant Company Page Following.

Posts

Your posts will show up in feeds that belong to your network and those that follow you. As with all Social Media Platforms, the key here is to get people liking and commenting on your posts in order for others in their networks to see your content. It is therefore crucial that your posts are made of high quality, thought-provoking, shareable content – remember who your audience is here on Linkedin, many a CEO hangs out here and whilst they too have a sense of humour, that’s not why they are hanging out on Linkedin!

When developing your Linkedin Social Media plan, make sure you include all of these areas as part of it for maximum Linkedin exposure. If all this seems daunting, of course, we can help you with a plan, get in touch here to discuss your needs. Also check out the Linkedin Marketing Checklist here.