Businesses are quite rightly querying every pound and penny when receiving invoices from other providers for work done. Will this create a difficult time for service providers being required to document and record every minute, half hour spent on services/work provided, keeping rigid and strict records?
Taken from Bytestart.co.uk – The Small Business Portel - research released by Bibby Financial Services, shows that 2.38 million (53%) of UK business owners or managers are stalling payments to other parties in a bid to bridge the late payment gap. With 12 per cent of these businesses spending three days or more per month to recover payments, the potential cost to the economy is huge. Late payments could be causing a ripple effect on over half the businesses in the UK, according to new figures. The total cost of delayed settlement could be costing them up to £2bn per year. Research reveals 52% of UK business owners are spending more time this year chasing late payments than last year, costing vital time and money at a crucial stage for the UK economy.
Recent experience with a client taught us an extremely valuable lesson never to take people/businesses for granted. Always, always keep a good record of work produced with a breakdown of time spent, description of task and cost allocated ready to be invoiced.
If you can show a detailed accurate account of your time taken to complete a piece of work, does the client still have a right to refuse to pay? This is a question which needs to be addressed as this creates a continuous backwards and forwards never ending late payment chasing process which leads to unnecessary stress and time wasting.
Do not under any circumstance become complacent about receiving payments from clients/customers if they go over the agreed payment terms. Why should the money be allowed to sit in their bank making interest when it should be sat in yours? Even a long term client can hit money problems whereby they’re unable to pay their next invoice, even though previous to this time period issues around finance has never risen.
Gut instinct is there for a reason so use it! Should you have any suspicion or reason to think that a client might be facing financial problems then send them a brief run down on the number of hour’s work you’ve done so far. This will give them ample opportunity to speak up and say whether they require any more work to continue as normal or the option to pull back and say no.
A good working practice to adopt when taking on a new client is to provide only 2 hours support at the very beginning. This allows the client to see your work and what can be achieved in that time scale, plus, gives you confirmation that the client can pay when invoiced after those first 2 hours of work within your agreed payment terms.
Building good working relationships with clients is always an important part of running a business, getting paid is massively essential as to whether your continue to trade.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Why women and agency staff will be hit the hardest in Yorkshire and should consider an alternative option
Taken from the Yorkshire Post Newspaper on Saturday May 15, Jack Blanchard reported on a study showing that nearly three quarters of all public sector workers are women.
High numbers of these workers come from teaching, healthcare and most crucially administration. It is strongly believed that these back office staff along with agency workers will take the severest of cuts.
Although a lot of these jobs are part time, the fact is that an amount of 15 hours can be vital to a family relying on this important income.
It stated that more than 80% of all new jobs created for women between 1998 and 2007 were in state or public sector reliant areas.
Our mammoth task is to push the private and public sector into embracing the fast growing Virtual Assistance Industry which needs to be strongly addressed and promoted UK wide. The benefits vastly outweigh any negatives and help businesses and local councils save money, while providing self employment to those people who wish to work from home using their existing professional administration skills.
High numbers of these workers come from teaching, healthcare and most crucially administration. It is strongly believed that these back office staff along with agency workers will take the severest of cuts.
Although a lot of these jobs are part time, the fact is that an amount of 15 hours can be vital to a family relying on this important income.
It stated that more than 80% of all new jobs created for women between 1998 and 2007 were in state or public sector reliant areas.
Our mammoth task is to push the private and public sector into embracing the fast growing Virtual Assistance Industry which needs to be strongly addressed and promoted UK wide. The benefits vastly outweigh any negatives and help businesses and local councils save money, while providing self employment to those people who wish to work from home using their existing professional administration skills.
Volcanic Ash Creates Problems for Businesses
People caught out by the volcanic eruption bringing airports UK wide to a standstill caused immense problems for businesses in April 2010.
Unable to get back home from holidays and business journeys brings home the necessary need to rethink how you operate your business communication, allowing your business to continue automatically without any hiccups or mishaps.
Not everyone has a Blackberry or iPhone or access to a laptop at the drop of a hat, so unexpected weather conditions like the heavy snow fall of January this year ground a large part of the country to a standstill, causing a significant financial impact on businesses and those people who could not travel into work.
You need to ‘think on your feet’ and be able to react in any situation, having a Virtual Assistant on tap who generally works from their own home office where weather conditions don’t affect their work or communication is an absolute must.
Having the option to pass any urgent messages, jobs to be done, responsibility to a Virtual Assistant is a huge weight off any business owner/manager’s mind.
So consider the positive impact of working with a Virtual Assistant and let us take the brunt of your worries and make your life a lot less hassled and a lot more organised.
Unable to get back home from holidays and business journeys brings home the necessary need to rethink how you operate your business communication, allowing your business to continue automatically without any hiccups or mishaps.
Not everyone has a Blackberry or iPhone or access to a laptop at the drop of a hat, so unexpected weather conditions like the heavy snow fall of January this year ground a large part of the country to a standstill, causing a significant financial impact on businesses and those people who could not travel into work.
You need to ‘think on your feet’ and be able to react in any situation, having a Virtual Assistant on tap who generally works from their own home office where weather conditions don’t affect their work or communication is an absolute must.
Having the option to pass any urgent messages, jobs to be done, responsibility to a Virtual Assistant is a huge weight off any business owner/manager’s mind.
So consider the positive impact of working with a Virtual Assistant and let us take the brunt of your worries and make your life a lot less hassled and a lot more organised.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Secured 5 week research project trip to the US looking at the Virtual Assistance Industry through the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship
We’ve had confirmation this weekend that we’ve secured the opportunity to do a massive research project on the Virtual Assistance Industry with a chance to visit America for 5 weeks sponsored/funded through the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship - http://www.wcmt.org.uk/
As I'm already working with Sierra College in California assisting with virtually teaching the students as part of the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course - so absolutely overwhelmed that I'll get the chance to go over to the US and meet all these people I've been speaking with on Skype and email.
What a way to kick start 2010....
As I'm already working with Sierra College in California assisting with virtually teaching the students as part of the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course - so absolutely overwhelmed that I'll get the chance to go over to the US and meet all these people I've been speaking with on Skype and email.
What a way to kick start 2010....
Saturday, January 16, 2010
February / March 2010
Virtual Teaching with the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course at Sierra College in Sacramento, California, US.
Tracey will be virtually assisting online over 5 weeks of the student degree course covering subjects on office management, invoicing, contracts and remote access tools.
Sheffield City College
Tracey will be delivering presentations on 'Running a Virtual Assistance Business' to students studying NVQ Business Administration at the college during February and March 2010.
Tracey will be virtually assisting online over 5 weeks of the student degree course covering subjects on office management, invoicing, contracts and remote access tools.
Sheffield City College
Tracey will be delivering presentations on 'Running a Virtual Assistance Business' to students studying NVQ Business Administration at the college during February and March 2010.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
How to be ‘Super Efficient’ in business!
We all know how important it is to put the customer or client first and continuously go that extra mile to provide the highest quality of standards in our services and products.
Price will always be a major deciding factor on choosing something – especially now.
Quality and Customer Service will definitely be number one.
Making sure the customer or client is being exceptionally well looked after is vital.
This ‘well looked after’ feeling is what people need and want.
To be ‘Super Efficient’ you need to be ‘Well Organised’.
Being ‘well organised’ is not always an automatic or natural concept that everyone adapts to easily.
A lot of it needs to be learned and practiced.
You’re not automatically born with it.
If you want help to show off your ‘super efficiency’ in business - work with a Virtual Assistant.
A Virtual Assistant can be your ‘super efficiency’ leaving you to concentrate on what you do best in business.
Here are 7 points to consider
1. An email as below sent out without checking thoroughly before hitting ‘Send’
I will contact you immediately with a suitable date and time. Sorry for the incontinence in this instance.
Easily done when using the spell checking facility when you’re in a mad rush…
An embarrassing and possibly costly mistake to make…
2. Not returning emails and telephone calls within a satisfactory period of time
It takes seconds to send an email or make a phone call saying thank you for the enquiry and that you will be in touch very soon.
It is human nature to be annoyed when someone doesn’t return a call or email within your desired time frame.
It is even more human nature for someone to look and go elsewhere if you don’t return their call or email them quickly.
3. Sending an email to lots of people.
But putting all their email addresses in the 'CC' part instead of the 'BCC'part
It can be quite costly allowing everyone else to view everyone else’s email addresses.
4. Understanding when a ‘Form or Template’ is required for a specific job or process you do on a regular basis.
How often do you write out or type out something on a regular basis that would save you time if available on a form saved in Word or a regular email reply saved in Word that you could cut and paste?
5. Don’t have the full details of a client’s/customer’s enquiry or job to hand?
When a customer makes a call to your office, inefficiency becomes strongly highlighted if you can’t find their details or what the enquiry was about or what the job entailed.
6. Is all your information saved on different spreadsheets, databases, email contacts and word documents, instead of sitting in one central location on your computer?
Decide on what software system you prefer to use and update easily.
If you prefer to use spreadsheets for holding all your contact information with sales and notes included - get everything else exported into that one location.
This will save you endless amounts of time searching through different locations on your computer.
7. Lists of ‘Things To Do’
Make a decision as to where you’re most regularly and likely to look for your list of ‘Things To Do’.
If you prefer a written list on your office wall or a white board set out in ‘Monday to Friday’ style or Job Sheet saved on your computer desktop to view – which ever version works best for you, get into a habit of checking that ‘same place’ every day and updating with new ‘jobs to complete’.
REMEMBER– if you want help to show off your ‘super efficiency’ in business work with a Virtual Assistant.
A Virtual Assistant can be your ‘super efficiency’ leaving you to concentrate on what you do best in business.
Make your Customer Service Shine!
Price will always be a major deciding factor on choosing something – especially now.
Quality and Customer Service will definitely be number one.
Making sure the customer or client is being exceptionally well looked after is vital.
This ‘well looked after’ feeling is what people need and want.
To be ‘Super Efficient’ you need to be ‘Well Organised’.
Being ‘well organised’ is not always an automatic or natural concept that everyone adapts to easily.
A lot of it needs to be learned and practiced.
You’re not automatically born with it.
If you want help to show off your ‘super efficiency’ in business - work with a Virtual Assistant.
A Virtual Assistant can be your ‘super efficiency’ leaving you to concentrate on what you do best in business.
Here are 7 points to consider
1. An email as below sent out without checking thoroughly before hitting ‘Send’
I will contact you immediately with a suitable date and time. Sorry for the incontinence in this instance.
Easily done when using the spell checking facility when you’re in a mad rush…
An embarrassing and possibly costly mistake to make…
2. Not returning emails and telephone calls within a satisfactory period of time
It takes seconds to send an email or make a phone call saying thank you for the enquiry and that you will be in touch very soon.
It is human nature to be annoyed when someone doesn’t return a call or email within your desired time frame.
It is even more human nature for someone to look and go elsewhere if you don’t return their call or email them quickly.
3. Sending an email to lots of people.
But putting all their email addresses in the 'CC' part instead of the 'BCC'part
It can be quite costly allowing everyone else to view everyone else’s email addresses.
4. Understanding when a ‘Form or Template’ is required for a specific job or process you do on a regular basis.
How often do you write out or type out something on a regular basis that would save you time if available on a form saved in Word or a regular email reply saved in Word that you could cut and paste?
5. Don’t have the full details of a client’s/customer’s enquiry or job to hand?
When a customer makes a call to your office, inefficiency becomes strongly highlighted if you can’t find their details or what the enquiry was about or what the job entailed.
6. Is all your information saved on different spreadsheets, databases, email contacts and word documents, instead of sitting in one central location on your computer?
Decide on what software system you prefer to use and update easily.
If you prefer to use spreadsheets for holding all your contact information with sales and notes included - get everything else exported into that one location.
This will save you endless amounts of time searching through different locations on your computer.
7. Lists of ‘Things To Do’
Make a decision as to where you’re most regularly and likely to look for your list of ‘Things To Do’.
If you prefer a written list on your office wall or a white board set out in ‘Monday to Friday’ style or Job Sheet saved on your computer desktop to view – which ever version works best for you, get into a habit of checking that ‘same place’ every day and updating with new ‘jobs to complete’.
REMEMBER– if you want help to show off your ‘super efficiency’ in business work with a Virtual Assistant.
A Virtual Assistant can be your ‘super efficiency’ leaving you to concentrate on what you do best in business.
Make your Customer Service Shine!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Research into doing business in United Arab Emirates
This week we're meeting up with a team of students at Nottingham Trent University.
They've been conducting a research project on Dubai and Abu Dhabi to look at their culture of doing business and how Virtual Assistance can be offered as a service to businesses based in the UAE.
They've been conducting a research project on Dubai and Abu Dhabi to look at their culture of doing business and how Virtual Assistance can be offered as a service to businesses based in the UAE.
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