Productivity – Don’t Leave Home Without It!

pro·duc·tiv·i·ty       (prō’dŭk-tĭv’ĭ-tē, prŏd’ək-)  noun

The quality of being productive.  (sigh)

pro·duc·tive      [pruh–duhk-tiv]  adjective

having the power of producing, generative, creative:  a productive effort

 HAVING THE POWER . . .

That is absolutely the truth – YOU have the power to be productive.  It’s your business – what do you want from it?

 The Personal Side

After having observed the corporate world for over 20 years, I’ve made a few common-sense observations.  For one, it seems to me that people in management positions sometimes forget how they got there and that they were once the people under them.  Not the really good ones, of course, but unfortunately a fair amount.  I believe productivity suffers when management forgets to utilize the talents they have sitting there in front of them.  They get so hung up on the word “managing” that they mentally pass by the team aspect of their job.  They start to dictate to their team and fail to recognize that their team has great ideas, too!  A good Virtual Assistant is just that for their clients – a team member with great ideas!  I recently met with a client at a Panera’s Bread – a halfway point for us.  (Yes, I will meet with a client if it’s convenient for the both of us.  If not, we can IM to chat.)  He took the time to sit down with me and explain not only what he wanted from me, but why and what he was trying to accomplish in the end.  What a difference that makes!  Expected Research + Extra Research Ideas Because I Understood the End Result = Happy Client.   THAT’s making my clients’ businesses more productive!!

The Business Side 

In your own business, you have goals, aspirations – and tons of things you need to get done!  Do you have the time to do everything yourself?  A smart business entrepreneur knows that he or she needs an assistant to help them get their business off the ground and continue to climb.  It is simply impossible to do everything it takes to start and grow a profitable business by yourself.  If you take the time to develop a working relationship with a VA (just as you would with a non-virtual assistant), you are immediately giving your business the boost it needs with all the cost-effectiveness we’ve talked about before.  Take the time to explain not only your expectations of the work to be done, but also the end result you’re looking for.  You will then have a valuable relationship with a VA that understands your needs.

For example, you say:  I want you to find me NY bankruptcy attorneys.  I would get you a list of NY bankruptcy attorneys with their contact information.  However, if you say:  I want you to find me NY bankruptcy attorneys in the southern counties because they generally charge less who would be willing to work with me on a matter where my client has a case (summary of the case), etc., the information provided would be very different.  We would discuss the matter between us and realize the best way to handle this would be for me to call the attorneys I’ve found and ask them if they would be willing to speak with you about being co-counsel in a matter, etc., etc. – and provide you a list of attorneys waiting to hear from you.  What a difference THAT would make in your time management and productivity!  I could go on with examples like this one that occurred between me and one of my clients, but you have work to do – and so do I!

Next Up:  Email Management

Nickey Hollenbach

Personal Touch Concierge Service, LLC

http://www.ptconciergeservice.com

Save Your Money!

Welcome back!

The Personal Side:

During my time served in law offices, I used to look around and marvel at the waste – the wasted time, the money thrown out the window.  Don’t get me wrong – I believe that most law offices are run tightly and efficiently.  I just wasn’t familiar with them first hand.  Without getting into great detail, I’ll give you an example.  When your staff is completely bogged down and work is coming out of their ears, they’re coming in weekends and staying late nights, wouldn’t you look for ways to manage the workload more efficiently?  Your staff will eventually get burned out and make more mistakes – it’s human nature.  Maybe hire a part-time staff person, perhaps on a temporary basis, to catch up on filing, closing files, rearranging files –  small but necessary tasks that your staff was having trouble keeping up. If I were managing an office, I certainly would not have paralegals filing, photocopying large jobs or closing files.  Would you rather have your $25 per hour staff filing or getting work out the door that you can bill – some of it that they can bill – and hire part-time staff at $10 per hour?  That’s one small example of people just not thinking about the big picture.  Like hiring Virtual Assistants.   In staying with the law office scenario, you hire a VA to do overflow work at $35 / hour.  You turn around and bill your clients the usual $75 / hour paralegal fee and your staff is now happier because they are not insanely swamped,  and we all know a happier employee is a more productive employee.  Your initial thought may be – $35 / hour!  I only pay my staff $25 / hour!!  Really – do you?  How much a month do you pay for their medical benefits?  How does it impact you when they are out sick or on vacation?  Are they working for you every second they are sitting in your office taking up space and working on equipment that you maintain?  Hmmm – I wonder how much you are actually paying them per hour.

The Business Side:

What business owner doesn’t want to save money (and time – usually one and the same)?  I just can’t think of any reason why an entrepreneur or small business owner wouldn’t want to use the services of a virtual assistant.  Actually – any size business that has overflow or a project to get done that doesn’t want to bog down their staff.  Let’s look at the facts (bulleted just like a tie would want to see):

• no payroll taxes
• no extra equipment / space
• no equipment maintenance
• no sick days
• no snow days
• no vacation days 
• no benefit packages

That’s right, folks.  Virtual assistants are never too sick to work, being snowed in doesn’t affect us in the least, we have our own benefits packages and we are never on vacation when you need us!  We obviously own and maintain our own equipment and you pay us directly and 1099 us at the end of the year.   What a deal!

Don’t waste another day without your very own VA!  Give me a call any time and we can discuss whatever your needs may be, whenever they may be.  Because again – that’s the beauty of having your own VA.  We’re there when you need us for as long as you need us – and that’s how you pay us!

 Next:  What this Virtual Assistant can do to help your business get going, stay going and improve productivity.

Hello world!

I am so excited to start blogging.  What took me so long?  Wish I knew.  Can’t go back . . .

I’ll be sharing what I do, how I do it, why you should connect with me and all sorts of great tips and ideas.  So visit me often and see what I’m up to!

The Personal Side:

I am also very excited about the whole virtual assistant thing.  How could I have gone into an office every day – a very poorly run office – and just put up with it for all those years??!!  Oh yea – the paycheck and benefits.  Now I remember!  But here’s the thing:  one day you will wake up and realize that life is so very short on this earth, if you have the chance to change it, you must grab that opportunity!  I am one of the lucky ones – that opportunity arrived and I have definitely grabbed it.  And if you are reading this and wondering how you, too, can be your own boss – make a plan.  Decide what it is that you love to do and what you are good at doing.  I was in a place where I was wondering why I went into this line of work (which is a different story for another time).  I started wondering what it is that I truly wanted to do.  Then I realized I really love what I do – it was just the environment in which I was doing it!  It’s funny how you can get caught up in the environment you spend so much time in – look the other way when you see how wrong things are, actually trying to justify the means to an end.  And some people will never realize what they do is so wrong – or they just don’t care.  You definitely can’t change other people – but you can change yourself and feel good about yourself and what you do!  So if you are unable to make such a drastic change but really want to – make a plan!  Get set up, do your research and save money.  You will truly love yourself for it and the world will look even more like the beautiful place it is.

The Business Side:

My future blogs will detail exactly why it is so beneficial for someone to have a virtual assistant and why virtual assistants are NOT just a typing service.  The client base is vast, and even if you do have a specialty (mine is law), you can assist virtually anyone with virtually anything.

So stay tuned!!

Nickey Hollenbach

Personal Touch Concierge Service, LLC

484-919-0637

www.ptconciergeservice.com