Category Archives: Articles

The importance of outsourcing diary management

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To be successful in business you need an organised diary. Making sure that your day to day meetings are running effectively and smoothly is crucial to every successful individual and business. However, the busier and more successful you become, diary management can become more complicated and more and more time consuming.

Outsourcing diary management can have huge benefits, by improving management skills and freeing up working hours. By using the services of a Virtual PA, who will ensure that all your meetings and appointments are effectively managed. This can take a lot of time, especially if meetings are frequently rescheduled and have a lot of attendees involved. If scheduling a conference call, these can often involve different time zones and meeting room venues may need to be sourced.

Your Virtual PA can also take your calls, when you are in meetings, can monitor your inbox, to make sure important meeting requests are dealt with promptly.

This will ensure that your working life is running smoothly, nothing is missed, as meetings can change quickly and frequently. Your PA will also act as a gate keeper to your diary and is often able to liaise with other PA’s and get important meetings in the diary in the first place.

All this will make you more productive and successful by freeing up your valuable time and making you super organised.

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Finding your niche

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Have you found your niche? A lot of people, including myself, try to spread themselves too thin, darting here and there, offering this and that service. I think the secret to success is to have a niche, and building on this. We all have something that we are good at and enjoy doing. It is best to build on this and offering this as a specialist service. My niche is looking after busy individuals, running and organising their diaries and inboxes. This is something that can be very time consuming as it can involve a lot of organising and rescheduling meetings, logistics of getting there, booking meeting rooms, venues and restaurants. Being a PA, you also have good relationships with other PA’s who act as gatekeepers to their professional’s diaries. As a PA, we can usually find a way of organising a crucial meeting and getting that foot in the door. What is your niche?

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Top Tips Of Highly Effective PA’s

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When starting a new role, from the outset it is imperative to ensure you gain a good knowledge of the business your boss is in and that you are in.

The best PA’s are often very different from the people they manage. They know that the relationship is a partnership and understand there’s a kind of Yin/Yan philosophy behind it. For example an extrovert, flamboyant executive might be better suited to a PA who is quieter and task focused whereas a quiet number crunching executive would be better suited to an extrovert PA who can deal with all the bits they would rather not.

Once you are in role, it’s just as important to keep asking questions. As one PA recently put it:

“My role is to know as much as I can about what is happening in the business and to make sure I know everything that is going on around me within the divisions so I can make my boss aware of the key issues and develop action plans.”

Polish up your communication; how do you sound, slow down, keep communication simple and get to the point. Once you have polished up your language, the next tip is to practice your assertiveness on a daily basis. Assertiveness is a way of confronting the unpleasant or difficult without getting squashed or squashing others in the process. When you use assertiveness you can negotiate reasonable changes by stating directly what you think, feel and want.

Your role is to manage someone. To do that you need to communicate with them about what you are doing and what they are doing. Often executives get caught up in their day and forget about the PA who’s holding it together back at the fort. So, top PA’s know that from the outset they need to schedule two important meetings into the busy executive’s diary. One is first thing in the morning and one last thing in the evening.

Your boss should feel that you can be trusted to be truthful and use discretion, not repeating what you hear to anyone. You are going to hear a lot of confidential information so be prepared to keep it to yourself. Breaking that confidence will seriously damage your career.

Most importantly, successful PA’s know that it is important to make time for themselves. Don’t forget to have some ‘me’ time, do a gym class, yoga or meet a friend for coffee.

 

Become more efficient – structure your workday

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clock-92130_640 copyTry to set your alarm half an hour/an hour earlier and please resist hitting the snooze button!

Before you leave for work, spend half an hour sending out emails that don’t require a response straight away.  Most people check their emails first thing and will then have these fresh in their mind.

Apparently the peak time for having coffee is 9.30am-11.30am, a caffeine boost has been proven to be most effective at this time. Get your toughest work done 9.00am-12.00 as after lunch, your energy levels will dip.

Take a real lunch break, leave your desk, have a walk and clear your mind.  If you can’t leave your desk, try to do something not work related, to re-focus your mind.

Make 2pm another email interlude, it has been proven that 2pm is a time for people opening their emails.

As your energy levels dip again late afternoon, try to do some exercise after work, which will re-energise and re-balance.

Try to get a good nights sleep and avoid alcohol during the week, it is very tempting to have a drink after work, but all this will do is deplete your energy levels.

 

5 benefits of remote working

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Tea and laptop1. Control your costs

Allowing staff to be more flexible with where they work, you will benefit from cutting employees travel costs. Another cost-saving could be your office supplies and space, both of which would be improved.

2. Dealing with Early Birds or Night-Owls

Working from home can give employees control over the hours they work which can be ideal if they are more productive outside standard office hours.

3. Get away from interruptions

Sometimes allowing staff to work from the office from time to time can increase productivity.  This is great if you or a member of your team is working on a particular project that could benefit from peace and quiet away from phones and meetings!

4. Hiring the ideal candidates

Another benefit is that businesses are able to hire the best staff without their location causing any hindrance on the situation.  It may be hard to find someone with a specific set of skills in a certain location so this makes the search a lot easier for businesses.

5. Embrace cloud technology

The great thing about cloud-based application is it allows you to work wherever you are; at home, at a client or in the coffee shop.  Half of small businesses in the UK are choosing to move to cloud-based systems and these numbers are on the rise.

Remember, remote working doesn’t have to be a full-time thing – even allowing your team to work a few hours out of the office if required could reap rewards for your business.

(source Breathe HR)

The rise of the home business

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You don’t have to look too hard to find stories of great British businesses that started life from home.

Shaun Pulfrey started Tangle Teezer from his two-bedroom flat, packing the first of his globally successful hairbrushes in the kitchen with his mum.

Andrew Ritchie created prototypes of his folding bicycle in the bedroom of his flat overlooking London’s Brompton Oratory – hence the name of the company, Brompton Bicycle.

Julie Deane started her Cambridge Satchel Company from home in 2008 with just £600; now it’s a global brand.

Songkick was founded in 2007 by Pete Smith, Ian Hogarth and Michelle You in Hogarth’s parents’ attic; the three friends who thought it was too hard to find out when their favorite bands were coming to town have now created the definitive online live music resource.

When Graham Hobson started a business developing orders for prints from digital photos, it began in the family garage; Photobox went on to become the UK’s leading provider of personalised products.

When Will King first began his toiletries business King of Shaves, he filled hundreds of small plastic bottles every day with shaving oil at his kitchen sink with a hand pump.

Tiffany London started her company at her kitchen table with £1,000 of startup capital. Her luxury maternity wear business Tiffany Rose won a Queen’s Award for International Trade in 2013.

Britain’s homes are alive with the sound of business.

There were 2.9m home businesses in 2013 – that’s 59 per cent of all businesses. Put another way, says Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, “70 per cent of new businesses in the UK start from home.”

Collectively, she adds, home businesses “contribute £243bn in turnover to the economy,” accounting for £1 in every £11 of turnover.

While there has always been a considerable number of home businesses – around 1.1m have been trading for over 20 years – their growth in the numbers rising fast.

It’s estimated that there are approximately 500,000 more home businesses than existed in 2010. And increasingly, says Jones, “business owners want to grow from home too.”

From kitchen table to supermarket: home food business

“There are many fantastic food businesses that have started from home and gone for gradual growth,” says Tessa Stuart who conducts in-store product research for many successful food brands.

The Northern Dough Company started out making pizzas at their kitchen table three years ago. Now their “make your own pizza” products can be found on the shelves of Waitrose.

Chris and Amy Cheadle, founders of The Northern Dough Company

The Lancashire-based company is the brainchild of husband and wife team Chris and Amy Cheadle. The idea for the business came after they hosted “make your own” pizza dinner parties for friends.

Jayne Hynes, a former chartered surveyor and mum-of two, is about to launch her own range of healthy frozen baby and infant food into Sainsbury’s stores across the UK. Kiddyumwas started and continues to be run from the kitchen table at her Manchester home.

Lucy Woodhouse and Merial Durand came up with a recipe for frozen Greek yoghurt lollies and took their concept to Sainsbury’s.  Claudi & Fin was stocked in 300 stores for the first time this summer.

Elisabeth Mahoney’s kitchen is the centre of  One Mile Bakery which delivers handmade artisan bread, seasonal soups and preserves within a one-mile radius her Cardiff townhouse home.

Popa Singh started Mr Singh’s Sauce in the garden shed. It has now outgrown the family shed – it is now a multi-million pound operation selling to Tesco, over 300 independent stores, and retailers across the globe – but remains family run.

The beauty of the home business: literally

Mother-of-two Fiona Wood set up Naturally Cool Kids in 2011 from her home near Leeds and in just three years has built a British-made natural skin care range that sells in John Lewis,Tesco Nutri Centre, Amazon and dozens of independent stores. With advice and support from UKTI, she now exports her products to Sweden, Malta, Gibraltar, Poland and Australia.

Oliver Bridge, a London-based Oxford University graduate, who launched his first business aged 15 (from his parents’ home), has just raised £160k to launch Cornerstone which delivers razors and shaving cream on subscription – the venture is based in a flat shared with his girlfriend.

Children: the inspiration for many home businesses

Designed by 28-year-old former investment banker Jennifer Duthie, Blackpool-based Skribbies are children’s shoes that can be customised every day. Kids can draw all over their shoes, wipe it off and draw something totally new on them.

Mum-of-three Jo Hockley, spotted a type of children’s bike on a trip to visit Belgian relatives, but could not find anything like it in the UK on her return. The ingenious German-designed product allows active toddlers aged 1-3 years old to develop cycling skills indoors and out.

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Jo reckoned the product would have wide appeal in the UK, not just for her own children. Today, Toddlebikes are stocked in independent stores as well as in John Lewis.

Ann-Maree Morrison’s three children were the motivating factor for the business and the source of the business idea. As her boys regularly lost their belongings, she decided a company producing labels for everything – rather than just clothing – would do well.  Labels 4 Kids has outgrown the home and now has an office and storage facilities.

When Sam Farmer went shopping for cosmetics for his teenage children, he hated the “pink, pouty and submissive packaging aimed at my daughter and the steel grey, macho stuff intended for my son.” He left determined to do something about it, going back to school, studying cosmetic science and formulating a unisex range, specifically for adolescent skin and hair.” His products – all made in Britain – are now stocked in SpaceNK.

Home decor flourishes as a home business sector

Victoria Cramsie got the idea for Paperboy Interiors from her two boys, makes stylish wallpaper and is building a new challenger brand to the established names such as Sanderson and Laura Ashley.

Linda Harking creates exclusive and individual bespoke text and photography wallpaper and personalised printed gifts made from her Basingstoke home.

With help from the Princes Trust, Staffordshire-based Lorna Horton  started up her own brand of printed fashion accessories featuring her own prints from original art work.

Lisa and Tida Finch, style-conscious identical twins, started making laser-cut jewellery from a living room studio shared with two friends. The young fashionistas are now selling in Urban Outfitters with pieces appearing in major Hollywood films.

Turning existing skills into a home business

Pudsey-based mum and former call centre adviser Tracey Marshall turned her embroidery hobby into Thread Squirrel in 2013, after first taking six months out to learn new skills and work out how she was going to monetise her skills. Today, the 52-year-old Yorkshirewoman’s map-inspired embroidered cushions and gifts are selling like hotcakes around the world on online craft platform ETSY and Not on the High Street.

A conscious decision to leave the rat race

Lara Young gave up her corporate life as an over-worked commercial lawyer to pursue her two passions – design and fitness. She launched GymLuxe last year and has already seen her British-made products perform at top level – on former Olympic gymnast and Dancing on Ice contestant Beth Tweedle.

Former city gilt trader Julia Hunter gave up the rat race to bring up her three children in the country.  She became frustrated with carrying her cushions in and out of the garden in the unpredictable English summer weather.  So she made some from waterproof oil skin.

All her friends wanted them as well, so she patented her secret waterproof system and set up Oily Rag.  She now supplies John Lewis and a number of independent stores.

The internet is the engine 

Stewart Rose runs his wine-related gifts online store with independent outlets across Britain and the world from a home office in Cheltenham

Diminutive optometrist Jess Jeetly is has built up an online retail store providing flattering clothes from smaller women.

Children’s author and illustrator Shoo Rayner has embraced the web from his shed, from where he attracts millions of people to his YouTube videos, drawings and ebooks.

All ages and types – the home business rainbow

Home businesses are being run by men and women of all ages. Corby Kuffour, a student at Queen Mary University, launched UK fashion sales website with two friends, running the business from respective student digs.

Melissa Mailer-Yates, the 55-year-old former portrait painter to the Queen’s corgis, is now running a company that turns Shakespeare’s characters into animated cartoons for young children. She has just received the 20,000th Start-Up Loan.

Former Exeter University graduate Ed Vickers started social enterprise Jollies Socks  – when you buy a pair of socks, another pair goes to a homeless person. Running the business from the family home, Jollies Socks are now being sold nationwide through John Lewis.

A converted garage in Dorset, former pharmacist Niamh Barker runs The Travelwrap Company around a husband and six children. The luxury Scottish cashmere travel wraps are being sold online to eight countries outside the UK and wholesale to 15 countries.

The home business that thinks big

Most home business don’t have employees but around 300,000 do have one or more employees. Many will remain modest enterprises. But others will expand – and  eventually leave home for an office.

Yet bedrooms, sheds and kitchens will always be the cradles of tomorrow’s mightiest enterprises.

After all, Jeff Bezos began a business called Amazon in an uninsulated, converted garage of his house and he built his first desks out of old doors.

Read more about how to start a home business.

(Source – HM Government)

How to have more productive meetings

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MeetingKeep it small – No more than seven people should be present at a meeting to enable all attendees to participate. Smaller groups make it easier for workers to pick up on their colleague’s body language.

Ban devices – Mobile phones, tablets and laptops should be put away or turned off during the meeting unless they are being used to retrieve reference material. Devices are not only distracting to the user, but also colleagues.

Keep it as short as possible – Meetings should be no longer than one hour, to allow workers to stay focused. Problems are also solved much quicker when there are time constraints, with decision-making performed at a faster rate under higher pressure.

Stand up – Stand-up meetings are said to be 34 per cent shorter than sit-down meetings but produce the same solutions.

Make sure everyone participates -Make sure everyone speaks up and offers their point, instead of hanging back. Some people may want to speak up but don’t feel like they can unless they’re asked. Those who hold back often have the best perspective but it needs to be drawn out.

Never hold a meeting just to update people – Meetings held to update employees on a matter can be a waste of time. Why take up valuable time saying something you can just email?

Set an agenda – Setting an agenda ahead of the meeting is critical. Lacking a clear plan of action often causes meetings to de-rail and sees less decisions made. Planning gives everyone the opportunity to clarify intentions and allows participants to attend prepared.

Source – Daily Mail

Become more efficient

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Small-business owners often struggle to fulfil all their duties but are wary of taking on a partner or hiring a management team because they want to maintain the integrity of their vision or stay in complete control. If that sounds like you, you can bring your business to the next level without too much compromise or cost by hiring a virtual assistant.

Be more organised this year.

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The start of 2015 can leave us filled with New Year’s resolutions and some clear objectives of the upcoming 12 months.  As we are now nearly into March, have you fulfilled your resolution about becoming more productive?  The first step is to get organised, both in your work and private life.  Now is the time to get your own VA to help you achieve this goal.