FAQ – What is outsourcing and how can a Virtual Assistant help me?
March 31, 2007 by Kylie Short · 3 Comments
What is outsourcing?
Outsourcing is the process of selecting a subcontractor to complete tasks on your behalf. This could include, manufacture of products, administrative tasks, logo creation, website design or bookkeeping.
Why outsource?
When starting a new business, many business owners tend to take on a variety of important and vital roles within the business to save time or money or both. Receptionist, Bookkeeper, Sales Manager, Product Demonstrator, Product Manufacturer, Customer Relations, Marketing Manager and Chief Financial Officer just to name a few. But a question any business owner needs to ask themselves is how much is my time worth? Do I have the necessary skills to perform these roles consistently and to the high level required of my business? What could and should I be doing instead of these tasks?Once you have sat down and calculated your true worth in potential sales or services rendered, you may be surprised to learn just how much it is. This is money going untapped and waiting for you to do something about it now!
This article was originally published in the Business Mum’s Network Magazine February 2007
Bookkeeping
March 28, 2007 by Kylie Short · Leave a Comment
Bookkeeping is the sort of business activity you either love or hate. An alarming trend I have noticed is people ‘popping’ up all over the place claiming to be bookkeepers after doing a one day course or less in accounting software.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but bookkeeping is so much more than just entering data and knowing how to turn the computer on.
You need to be able to find transactions allocated to the wrong account, you need to be able to figure out why the bank reconciliation is not reconciling. You need to know your debits from your credits, how do to year end transactions and understand that if it were so easy, why then do accountants go to university to study in this field?
Too many times have I seen a datafile set up incorrectly and messy chart of accounts that don’t tell the business owner a great deal about anything.
If you are considering hiring a bookkeeper on an employee or contract basis, please do yourself a favour and find out exactly what that person knows. Stay updated, know exactly what is going on by reading your reports and listen to your accountant. Your next bookkeeper will thank you!
The Importance of Backup Strategies - Part 1
March 20, 2007 by Kylie Short · 2 Comments
Backup strategies are not something a lot of business owner’s think about but it is important to consider the what if’s. ‘What if I lost my computer?’ ‘What would I need to get it back up and running again?’ ‘What sort of data do I store on my computer?’ ‘How important is this data to my business?’
You may need to keep multiple copies of your data because your data and files are one of your most important assets that can’t easily be replaced.
So work out what you need to back up and how often you should do it? Should you back up daily, weekly, monthly or yearly? Think about a scenario in which you lose a day’s worth of work. How quickly can you reconstruct the data? Is a weekly backup going to be enough or should you backup at the end of every work day?
I have seen too many businesses falter and fail due to a faulty hard drive, simply because they did not backup regularly or at all onto another storage device. Backing up is as important as insurance or purchasing stock.
Some people would consider Tilda Virtual’s strategies to be a bit OCD. We back up daily from our various laptops and desktops to the server. The server then backs up to the external hard drive weekly. On a monthly basis, we back up all of our personal, business and client data onto CD. A copy of the client data is then sent to them for storage on their premises and an extra copy is kept in our office.
Lincoln Short has a Bachelor of Information of Technology (Computer Science) and 13 years experience in systems and infrastructure. Currently working in the education sector, Lincoln enjoys playing with technology and seeing how he can implement it in the Short family household, much to the exasperation of his wife Kylie.
Have you planned for contingencies?
March 20, 2007 by Kylie Short · Leave a Comment
We have all done it. Been so busy researching and being caught up in the planning and startup phase of our businesses that it doesn’t cross our mind to plan for unexpected issues and for when things go wrong. Let’s face it, life happens and usually happens to the best of us, but unexpected issues only become a problem in the smooth management of any business when it is not planned or allowed for.
So as a responsible business owner, what can we do?
To begin planning for contingencies, it is important to write your very own Policy and Procedure Manual. Without considering it further, some people would say that having a Policy and Procedure Manual in a small business is unnecessary but I beg to differ. Having a Policy and Procedure Manual for any business type and structure has a number of advantages. These include:
- Assists in creating clear standards for organising information both internally and externally
- Becomes a training tool for casual employees or subcontractors
- Takes into consideration and allows for future growth within your business
- Details exactly how you require particular tasks to be completed and why
- Assists you in meeting legislative requirements (if any for your business structure type)
- Aids in branding your business
- Aids in presenting a professional outlook to your customers and suppliers
- Helps to prepare you for when problems do occur, because you have already thought about them and allowed for procedures to be followed if and when they occur
We won’t be able to stop contingencies from occuring. We can only control how we deal with them and the lasting effects on our business. Take the first step today!
Vent warning….
March 13, 2007 by Kylie Short · 2 Comments
Yet again, a well know international telephone company has sent me a bill for telephone services for a telephone number I have not owned since 2004, two house moves ago. I have repeatedly rung the company and informed them that I no longer live at that address nor do I have that phone number with any telephone company but they persist in sending me a bill for $6.00 AUD a month.
The frustration of it all just cannot be described. But… the frustration has brought an important topic to mind. Servicing our customers or clients better.
For me customer service is about a number of things. It’s about smiling when dealing with a complaint and accepting someone’s thank you for a job well done. It’s about going the extra mile to ensure your customer or client has what they need and that they are happy with the product or services they have purchased from you. Customers are the lifeblood of any business. So why don’t businesses do a better job of customer service, particularly big business?
Some of the ways you can find out if your customer service is acceptable to your customers is to;
- Ask your customers in a survey what they think of your customer service skills and where you could do better,
- Look at the number of referrals you receive. If your customers are happy with your service or products, then they will refer you to their friends and family. Referal Marketing or Networking can be extremely powerful and profitable for any business.
- Look at your return rate. Are your customers returning to you for their next purchase?
Why not review your customer service policies and survey your customer base for their opinions on how you can make improvements? You might be surprised by what you find.