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:

• Make a list of your daily activities.
• Note if any are linked with others – This will help if you do choose to outsource some.
• Evaluate your role in these activities – Could some be performed by someone else?
• Tot up how much time you spend carrying out these tasks – This may be time better spent on more productive things.
• Prioritise your daily activities – This will help you to decide what should be outsourced.

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 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:

• YOPA assistants work in their own office space. You don’t have to find a place to put them. You can put a face to the voice and call in at any time as well.
• As with virtual assistants, YOPA PAs can work as many or as few hours as you need them to in a month. You don’t have to keep them busy for the sake of it.
• Only paying for the hours worked doesn’t just save you money though, it also saves you the headache of PAYE and National Insurance.
• Tedious tasks that are important but a poor use of your time can be done by someone else. Take bookkeeping, for example, you probably need a bit of training to do that well. But if you pass that over to a YOPA PA, you’re then free to spend your time doing what matters – which is earning the income.
• At YOPA we love doing the groundwork for an SME’s marketing plan. What seems like a grind to you is a piece of cake to us.
• If you are already considering taking on an assistant, but don’t know if you have enough for them to do on an ongoing basis, a YOPA PA can help you test the water.
• And last but not least, ALWAYS REMEMBER… Your success is our success. We want your business to flourish. So whether you’re just needing a virtual assistant, or someone who is there face to face sometimes too, we’re there for you.

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!

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;

• At interview your candidate was keen, enthusiastic and full of potential then 12 months down the line she/he has become complacent, moody, difficult and lazy and guess what, you have to sort it out.
• What is the cost to the business through staff illness disruption? Do you have anyone to cover or do you, ‘the business owner’ have to step in – answer the phone, send out invoices and what effect does your role fragmentation have on the business - do your sales or contracts suffer?

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.

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.

• Problem - Most business owners don’t enjoy answering the phone as it stops them doing what they do best and eats too much of the day’s productivity.

• Imagine then, how much business you could lose over the course of 12 months if you were doing it wrong! We know when you’re busy and the phone rings it’s an inconvenience but a friendly response or an impatient one, could be the difference between receiving orders or not and because answering the telephone is a seemingly simple task, few small business owners or staff put as much thought into their telephone answering strategies as they should. 

• Solution - so why not delegate that task to a team who do - us?
  Here at YOPA we greet callers in a polite, professional and friendly manner and take the time to listen making callers feel important. Our team will answer the phone in a way that will get those seven seconds off to a great start.

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