small business

Is Your Team Ready for a Project Management System?

If your organizations team members routinely work on projects that involve multiple users, components, stakeholders and resources, chances are you would benefit a great deal by implementing a Project Management system. Project Management software can be used in a number of ways but primarily they support planning, tracking, scheduling, communications and documentation of projects from start to completion.

Businesses, consulting firms, non-profits and other organizations operate much more efficiently with the right Project Management system in place. They all need a way to manage all the moving parts of a project. In the past, many decision makers hesitated to use these systems believing them to be too big and expensive. In many cases they were right. Early PM systems were big and robust and were designed for big operations. But today there are many options with systems that are ideal for and actually built for smaller groups and projects. They are easy to use and inexpensive which are often key factors in deciding to use PM systems. There are even free systems that do a great job helping to manage projects from end to end.

Think of your Project Management system as a hub for:

Organization
- Store all project related information in one place where it can be accessed and viewed by all team members
- Have visual timelines so you know what’s been completed, by whom, and what tasks are outstanding
Communication
- Maintain clear lines of communication with managers, team members, clients, etc.
- Provide a means for clients and team members to discuss progress, report issues and make requests
Planning
- Delegate tasks to the appropriate employees
- Determine what time, resources and personnel are needed for specific tasks
- Make sure deadlines are being met and potential delays avoided

Monitoring and tracking your Project Management system is probably not the most effective use of your time. Your Virtual Assistant can do this for you making sure things are running smoothly. Your VA can make sure team members have the resources they need, input new project information, keep you updated on project status, monitor individual team members progress and step in and provide support wherever it’s needed. Your Virtual Assistant becomes the Project Manager allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business. Project Management systems are one of the great tools that VAs use to support their clients.

Becky Gregory is an Executive Virtual Assistant and the owner of Virtual Administrative Services (VAS) a full service VA firm. Contact Becky today at becky@virtualadminservices.com for a free 20 minute Discovery Session

By DeneenTy

How to Not Suck at Social Media

Social media is all about socializing. Business’ and consumers are connecting online and exchanging all types of important information that will ultimately create ongoing relationships. Introverts and extroverts alike are maximizing their online time to initiate conversations about what consumers want, and how business’ can better meet their specific needs.

Knowing how to “not suck at social media” will help you generate more leads, improve customer care and ultimately grow a loyal customer base. It’s important to note that like most relationships, it takes time to grow something solid. Strengthening your online presence and growing your following will take time (and I mean more than three months). The good news is that with consistency and the right content, you’ll see a growth in your following, sooner than later. Use social listening to help your business better connect with its community.

Tip 1: Know which social media networks to focus on.

Figure out where your audience finds their most relevant information. Just as its important to identify a target audience for honing your marketing strategy, its equally important to determine which social media sites your target audience frequents. Google analytics is, hands down, one of the most efficient ways to track and monitor related trends like conversions, the different sites linking to your content, network referrals and more. Google analytics is able to tell you key things like which of your articles are being shared and from which social network. Check out this blog post from Hootsuite for a more in depth “How To” related to Google Analytics. You also have the option of gathering this type of information “by hand” which involves surveying customer satisfaction through questionnaires; just be warned that this method is by far more tedious.

Tip 2: Publish content that your community values.

Whether you’re outsourcing your content creation needs to a freelance writer or you create your own content, it’s important to focus your writing on meeting the needs of your followers, as opposed to, bombarding them with pitchy, self-promoting content. There are several blogs out there that offer you different ratios for social media marketing. For example, the golden rule ratio- 30/60/10- suggests that you create 30% original content, 60% curated content and 10% promotional content to ensure a balance between meeting your business promotion needs and meeting the needs of your followers. 10%!! That means if you post to social media 10 times per week, only one of those posts should directly promote your business; the remaining should focus on meeting the client’s needs.

Instead of always broadcasting the services you provide, let followers know how you can help assist them by creating content that solves the day-to-day problems they face. This’ll keep them coming back for more!

Tip 3: Listen more than you promote.

Don’t be “that guy who talked about himself the whole date”, get to know the person (or the people) around you, let them know you care. In the case of social media, get to know those in your community by figuring out what they’re struggling with day-to- day. My grad school professor always said: “people don’t care what you know, until they know that you care”. Since hearing that statement for the first time, no statement has been truer. Once your community of customers know that your business cares about what they need they’ll find a reason to be a loyal follower. Figure out how you can best serve them with social listening. Do this by using your social media presence to ask more questions and discover more about the type of ideal client you’d like to attract.

*Tips adapted from socialmediaexaminer.com

Favorite Top 3 Social Media Blogs/Websites

Effective social media management requires that we remain “in the know”. Stay up to date with cutting edge practices and tips relevant to the world of social media. Here’s my Top 3 List of blogs/websites every Social Media Manager should follow:

By Becky Gregory

Business Survival in Tough Economic Times

I really don’t want to use that worn out cliché ‘in these tough economic times’ but… in these tough economic times it’s not enough to say to a client or potential client “these are my prices – period!” I believe we should be willing to offer some flexibility.

Think about it- and I’m going to be perfectly honest here – I’m a Virtual Assistant and a lot of my clients are small business owners, independent professionals, entrepreneurs and consultants. Solo flyers if you will. Folks who may not have a big operating budget in the first place and now, like everyone else, they’re dealing with this economic crunch. They have to cut back wherever they can. They still need my services and I still need their business so I have had to be creative and imaginative when my clients have been forced to tighten their fiscal belts. What that client was able to afford a year or so ago he/she may not be able to afford today. So instead of possibly losing that client altogether by rigidly sticking to a price or fee they simply cannot manage right now, I’ve had to come up with some inventive ways to help keep us both happy and in business until things start to turn around.

Here are a few ways I’ve demonstrated flexibility with my clients:

Temporarily reduce rates
Run monthly specials
Offer new, more affordable packages
Implement meaningful referral bonuses

If I have a client who has been with me for a while and I want them to be around when things get better, I have to be flexible. I know it will come back to me – it always does. I’m not really concerned about that. When the client’s business picks up so will mine and we’ll return to our normal fee schedules. It will all balance out.

Sometimes, in life and in business you have to meet people where they are.

I’ve spoken with and read articles by others in my field who are adamant about maintaining their standard fee’s no matter what! It’s as though that fee scale is part of their identity and integrity as professionals. And that’s ok, if that’s how they choose to operate. Everyone should be and should want to be paid for what he or she is worth and I’m no different. What I’m saying is ‘in these tough economic times’ (there’s that phrase again) perhaps we should be willing to offer our clients some options that might make it easier for them to maintain our services and continue a professional relationship that both sides can benefit from.

Becky Gregory is an Executive Virtual Assistant and the owner of Virtual Administrative Services (VAS)