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A New Year, A New You - how can we help? Talent rich, time poor? You need Your Own PA (YOPA) support… Outsourcing to YOPA or employing staff - what are the costs? Are you ruining your Business by answering your phone? < >

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A New Year, A New You - how can we help?

January 23rd, 2017

A New Year, A New You - how can we help?

It’s not that we’re suggesting you can’t do it… And it’s not that we’re suggesting you mustn’t do it. But when it comes to carrying out tasks in your business that someone else could do, we are suggesting you question whether you should do it…

Your time is precious. You have a business to run and there are only so many hours in the day. With the New Year now kicking its heels to get going, it’s time to make some adjustments. So ask yourself: Should I be spending my valuable time doing what someone else could do for me?

Let’s face it, if certain regular tasks don’t fit your skill set they’re going to take longer than they should and you’re very possibly going to make mistakes. And that’s if you get around to doing them at all… Because if cleansing a database isn’t your ‘thing’, it’s not going to have that magnetic pull, is it?

So what can you do? If you’re time poor, how do you find ways to outsource?

At YOPA, we’d recommend you take these first steps:

If you’re struggling, here are a few ideas to help you.

Outsourcing Sales Support

Example Scenario 1: You want to run a direct targeting campaign. You have a list of companies, but it’s a bit old and you’re not even sure how some of the contacts got onto the list.

YOPA Solution: We review the list and ‘cleanse’ it by researching and updating the information. We then telephone each contact with the aim of arranging appointments for you.

Example Scenario 2: You don’t have time (or know-how, in truth) to create the literature for an email campaign.

YOPA Solution: We produce an eye-catching pdf, the purpose of which is to build confidence in your company and your products/services.

If you’d like to find out more about how YOPA can help you with your sales activities, click here.

Outsourcing Marketing Support

Example Scenario 1: You need a new website to support the marketing campaigns you have planned.

YOPA Solution: We design and build a new website (or microsite, depending on what is required) incorporating up to date imagery and branding.

Example Scenario 2: You need to improve your website’s search engine positioning via a regular blogging campaign.

YOPA Solution: We research and agree a series of article topics with you. We then write keyword rich articles and publish them on your website at the agreed frequency (be that weekly, fortnightly, or monthly).

If you reckon you could do with some help with your marketing activities, to find out more about how YOPA can support you, click here.

Outsourcing PA support:

Example Scenario 1: You need support in implementing the sales and marketing campaign you have devised.

YOPA Solution: The YOPA PA emails out the appropriate information eg. a designed pdf for you, and then confirms appointments made.

Example Scenario 2: You need support to implement all five example scenarios referred to above.

YOPA Solution: No problem. YOPA does it all.

If a YOPA PA sounds just what you’re looking for, for more information click here.

Talent rich, time poor? You need Your Own PA (YOPA) support…

October 28th, 2016

Talent rich, time poor? You need YOPA support…

You’re busy. The work is piling in and that’s just great. But something is starting to niggle. This ‘running your own business’ lark is supposed to be enjoyable, isn’t it? Spending all day doing what you love is what you’d dreamed about before you’d started. But things aren’t adding up. You’re not actually spending all day doing what you love at the moment. Because running a small business requires you to spend time doing other ‘stuff’ too; like bookkeeping, marketing, and boring old admin. And you’re probably squeezing that in on the weekends, because it’s the only way to keep on top of it all. Is it going to be like this forever more?

It doesn’t have to be…

Have you considered a personal assistant?

Cue horror-struck look. What… employ someone?! Cue kindly chuckle. No… Not necessarily.

There are alternatives. If you’re not wanting to employ someone directly, then PA support that’s just a bit more than a virtual assistant may be the answer.

Here’s some food for thought regarding working with a YOPA-style personal assistant:

We’re hoping by now the phrase ‘increased productivity’ has popped into your mind. Delegating the important but more mundane tasks within your business to a YOPA PA, will increase the return on your time spent significantly. And not only that, but you’ll be able to get back to doing what you love doing too.

If that sounds like the answer you’re looking for, then please do give us a ring!

Outsourcing to YOPA or employing staff - what are the costs?

April 4th, 2016

When it comes to hard money facts, let’s see;

Checking out an average salary for a Bookkeeper via www.totaljobs.com is one example, as this site provides average salaries based on recent job postings. So we typed in ‘Bookkeeper’ and the results were an average UK salary of £25,000 based on a range of £21,000 to £28,000. The salary for Personal Assistant is similar.

So on paper, given 52 weeks a year, 5 days a week, 7.5 hours a day an average Bookkeeper costs £12.80 an hour. Oh, hold on, we forgot to add Employer’s National Insurance. That’s 13.8% on anything over £8,112 a year. So you’re now paying a Bookkeeper £27,330.55 in costs of employment.

Also, there are some days that an employee has to be paid for doing nothing at all. Assuming 28 days paid holiday a year, our 260 days at work become 232.

According to the Department of Work and Pensions, the average number of days sickness a year is 5.5, so the days at work for our average person is now 226.5.

Something else to take in to account is productivity. Typically this is given as 60% and we can vouch for the fact that if we sit at our computers for 7.5 hours, billable time is often around the 5 hour mark because we only charge for the time accrued working on clients work – not for the trips back and forth to the biscuit tin, the loo and dealing with co-workers. So let’s take 5 hours. What’s the hourly productive rate of our average Bookkeeper now?

£27,330.55 in 226.5 days at 5 hours a day = £24.13

and that’s before thinking about paying for liability insurance, cost of furniture, office rent and service costs, beverages, computers and software. Additionally you will need to train, monitor and manage staff, what are those costs and don’t forget implementing current HR legislation – maternity/paternity pay etc the list of costs and responsibilities keep mounting up.

What about other considerations – Personality and Work Ethics;

So if you want someone who’s better than average, who will go that extra mile to get the job done right, be professional and efficient with a smile, make the right choice and call our team 01926 355777. What are you waiting for, you will never look back when you experience a more efficient, staff hassle free way of running your business.

Are you ruining your Business by answering your phone?

February 11th, 2016

What do your callers think about you and your business?

Did you know that every time you pick up the phone, you have about seven seconds to make a good impression? Researchers at the New York University found that there are 11 major decisions made about you on this first point of contact.

In this fleeting instant, you can either win someone over or lose their faith forever. Not to put a ton of pressure on you or anything, but… this small but critical time window all begins with your greeting.

Start benefitting today and let YOPA (Your Own Personal Assistant) take the strain and answer your calls beautifully, call now 01926 355777 or click here to Contact Us

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