Fostering and Effective Relationship with Your Virtual Assistant

Celine Rogue wrote an article that I totally agree with called The Art of Delegating Tasks to a Virtual Assistant. This article laid out good information on how to work with a virtual assistant for the most effective working relationship.

A few simple/basic tips that might come in handy are:

B.0Be specific about your expectations. This will save both you and your virtual assistant time. She/He will not have to try and decipher what you mean by your instructions and then go back and forth via email or other medium for clarification. Expectations should address the timeframe of completion or check in as well as any information necessary that you might have in order to complete the task in a timely manner.

Partner for Growth.You will see the best result of your relationship if you partner for growth – not just a task here or there, but trust assistant to actually work with you on the nuances of administrative issues that will help you become more effective

Give it time to work. With every new relationship there are often growing pains. Work with an assistant for at least a few months to work through some of the growing pains. Many of those issues may be due to a lack of effective communication, which can be tweaked over time. Make sure to check in every other week or so, to determine how the relationship can be improved over time.

Sign up with an administrative partner today. Watch your business soar.

Managing Multiple Clients and Projects

Managing multiple projects for multiple clients can be a little daunting for new or even experienced solo and small business professionals. Without a system for keeping track of deadlines, client feedback, and team activity, you might quickly find yourself on the other end of an angry phone call with an unhappy client.

Here are three tips to help you work more effectively with multiple client projects:

Communicate More Efficiently
Clients are like everybody else, they get stressed and uncomfortable when they don’t hear from you. But they don’t want to hear from you just because of your charming wit and soothing voice, they want to know the status of their important projects!

A weekly status call or email might be sufficient when you have just a couple of low-key clients. However, when your client and project load increases, you could quickly find yourself spending precious hours on the phone just to provide status updates.

One easy solution is to keep task information online so that clients can login at their convenience (even at 3am) to find out the latest status of their tasks, and even more detailed information (optionally) like time tracking information or how much retainer time they have remaining.

Keep Files and Comments in One Place
Another simple way to keep things organized is to gently move your clients towards accessing files and giving feedback in a central location. Online project management software can help your clients easily upload or download project documents that you’re collaborating on, as well as make comments on a specific project or file without sending dozens of emails back and forth.

The key advantages of this approach is that your responses won’t get lost or misplaced - you’ll have a clear, coherent record of your project conversations. You’ll also be able to reference the latest version of your files in a consistent way.

This winds up saving lots of time that might otherwise be spent with a client providing feedback about the wrong version of a file, or missing your response to a query.

Track Deadlines Proactively
Even with the above measures in place, you still need to keep an eye on the dates you’ve committed to clients. At a minimum, you can adopt a simple system to prompt you about upcoming deadlines, and also to update clients if you are unable to meet those due dates.

One way of doing this is to keep a project or task calendar for each client that shows each upcoming deadline. You can refer to this calendar once a week or more frequently as needed to make sure you’re clear on client commitments. If you have a team, you can also add their commitments for more timely followup.

If you are using an online project management service like ClientSpot, you can also have the system remind you and your team of upcoming deadlines by email a couple of days before the fact. You can also monitor the status of tasks across all projects, clients and team members, or check just the work assigned to a specific person.

By staying on top of deadlines, you can also pro-actively notify your clients if things start to slip. Most clients will not only be understanding of an occasional delay, but will appreciate the early notice so that they can adjust. Not that you want to make a habit of missed deadlines, but at least by monitoring them carefully, you can still provide excellent customer service by informing clients early and giving them options to reschedule work.

These tips were written by Client Spot. No doubt they want you to use their service, but I think the overall message is the same. In order to provide a better more efficient process of tracking projects and keeping clients in the loop, there has to to be some type of system in place and an online project management tool, such as Client Spot or Basecamp can do wonders for your productivity.

Strategic Partnerships Can Help Grow Your Business

One of my business goals this year is to form strategic partnerships with other small businesses. I believe that the overall experience has the potential to be a win-win in every case -- thats waht makes them strategic.

Lynne Meredith Schreiber recently wrote an interesting article about such partnerships on Startup Nation on this subject; particularly how to form a productive partnership. He admonished business owners to "do [their] research and identify a handful of good companies that might make great partners; have a clear understanding of goals, make sure the corporate culture matches yours, then meet to talk about it."

In working with a start up business owner recently on a potential partnership, I realized that we did not have the same goals. Although this did not stop the partnership and we continued negotiations to make it a win/win situation for both us, it is important that the goals of the individual business are at least understood and respected before forming a partnership. If this cannot be worked out, perhaps that is not the best partnership for either party.

Closing out 2008

It’s the last day of the year and my head is truly hurting recounting all the accounting, client tracking, project tracking and number crunching for 2008; combining that with all the goals and planning for 2009.

It all makes me remember that a business is much more than putting a sign on a door and charging for services; it’s about organization, planning, and growing in not only your customer base, but your offering and partnerships.

2009 is going to be a great year.

Happy Holidays!!

Remember to take time out to share with family and friends the Holiday season. Happy holidays and I look forward to working with all business owners looking to grow their businesses in the coming year.

Administrative Partners win Grant

Last night, my company was awarded a Grant through the Women's Business Owners of Prince George's County. I am so excited about this opportunity. The organization doesn't just give money, its a 6 month business development bootcamp. The board of directors is made up of a diverse set of professionals, each serving as my mentor in their area of expertise. At the end of 6 months I will be awarded a monetary award -- if I make it through this bootcamp .

They also sponsor training in any area that I would like - be it a workshop seminar or class.

I'm so excited and am really confident that with their help my business is going to soar to the next level.

Just thought I'd share :-)

Seven Year-End Tax Tips

The autumn leaves are falling, a chill is in the air, holidays are looming, and, for small business owners, it's a good time to think about ... taxes. While no one likes to ponder the intricacies and implications of the Internal Revenue Code, taking the time to do so toward the end of the year can save your business a considerable amount of money come tax time.

So what can you do now?

1. Lower Revenue. Since your tax bill will be calculated on the basis of how much income your company has made during the year, a good way of keeping that bill down is to defer the receipt of as many payments from customers as possible into January. If your business operates on the cash basis of accounting, this can be easily done by simply delaying the mailing of bills for end-of-year purchases until very late in December, or permitting other bills that are due to be paid in January. Not only does this allow you to lower the current year tax bill, but you get to keep the tax due on those funds in the bank, accruing interest, for a whole year. Additionally, your customers will appreciate the added time to pay their bills, especially around the holiday season.

Note, however, that this strategy only benefits you if you won't be entering a higher tax bracket in the coming year. If you estimate that your business will be operating in a higher tax bracket next year, deferring payments until next year may cost you more later. Also, if your business shows a loss for this year, it makes less sense to defer the payments, since doing so only increases the size of your loss for this year and will have no tax impact.

Also note that simply not depositing a check received before the end of the year does not mean that you can defer that revenue to next year. The IRS requires you to include any checks received before December 31 as part of this year's revenue. Failing to do so could result in penalties if you are audited.

2. Make that major purchase. If you are considering a major purchase of business equipment, it's a good idea to do it now, so that the cost can be deducted from this year's taxes. As part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, signed into law earlier this year, the limit on Section 179 deductions for business equipment purchases was raised from $125,000 to $250,000, and the total amount of equipment purchases that are deductible was raised from $500,000 to $800,000. Both used and new equipment qualify for the deduction and you are able to finance the purchase. But any new equipment acquired must be put into use by your business by December 31 to qualify for the deduction.

3. Increase Expenses. You can reduce your tax bill by increasing the amount and number of deductions you take for business expenses like office supplies and office furniture. You can increase the benefit by charging such expenses on your business credit card, which means that-if you make the purchase in December-you get to claim the deduction for this year's taxes, but won't have to pay the credit card bill until next year.

4. Pay Recurring Bills Now. The same applies to bills for business services, like rent, phone service, and equipment leases, which should be paid before the end of the year, even if not due until after December 31. Consider pre-paying for bills that you know you will need to pay anyway like rent. Such payments can be deducted against this year's taxes. Make sure that pre-payments made now won't complicate your cash flow in January.

5. Contribute to a Retirement Plan: If you don't have one, you really should, and this is the perfect time to set it up. Payments made to a retirement plan-401(k), IRA, KEOGH, or SEP plan-are deductible against this year's income. Most retirement plans have a contribution limit.

6. Consult a Tax Advisor. Tax law is complicated. Very few small business owners, outside of CPAs themselves, have the time or inclination to acquaint themselves with the IRS code and the yearly changes made by Congress. Instead of trying to work it all out yourself, you are better off consulting someone who has made business taxes his or her profession. A tax advisor can make certain that your business is not only in compliance with all the relevant tax codes, but is taking advantage of every allowable deduction.

7. Consider the home office deduction. Do you conduct business out of any part of your home? Many small business owners have at least one room devoted to some aspect of their business, whether it is keeping shipping materials in the garage, or a bedroom that has been converted into an office or filing storage space. With so many small businesses operating partially or completely out of people's homes, the IRS allows small business owners to deduct a portion of rent, mortgage payments, utilities, and maintenance for qualifying home offices. The IRS has fairly stringent tests for such deductions, however, and it is advisable to consult a CPA about your particular situation to make certain it qualifies.

 

By Christopher Freeburn – Small Business Online Community at Bank of America