How to Work from Home with Kids as an Entrepreneur

How to Work from Home with Kids as an Entrepreneur

by | Aug 17, 2020 | Blog

Are you an entrepreneur who’s wondering how to work from home with kids? If so,
you’re already well aware of the many stressors that can occur when mixing kids and a
home-based business. Add to that the year of the Pandemic with disrupted school
schedules, and few other questions become as relevant as this one.

Although there are many benefits of working from home, the lifestyle has plenty of
challenges too. And until you try working from home with kids as an entrepreneur, it’s
hard to imagine how significant this adjustment can be.

In her “Small Business Trends” article entitled 10 Tips for Working from Home with
Kids, Annie Pilon sums up the struggle well:

“Parents see an advantage to spending more time at home. But they also find
it challenging to stay focused on their tasks. It leads to chaos during dedicated
working hours. And it can also be tough for some to “turn off” the office mindset when
it’s time to hang out with family.”

Can you relate to this tug-of-war obstacle? If your answer is ‘yes,’ here are some working
from home tips with children in the house to consider.

Avoid Doing Parenting and Remote Work at the Same Time

Why is this a bad idea? Because at least one of the two is bound to suffer. Either it’ll be
the health of your child or your business at stake. Since these two interests are
interdependent, and both need to thrive, you need a better option.

In reality, it’s impossible to regularly engage with work and family simultaneously. This
is especially true if you’re trying to figure out how to work from home with a baby. When
working from home with a newborn or young child, you’ll have to either do one or the
other.

Working and parenting at the same time only leads to perpetual discouragement and
frustration. And as pressing as your business demands may seem, your kids need you
even more than your business does.

Instead, you’ll do better by staying up later than your child or rising earlier. Your child’s
naptime can also be a good opportunity to sneak in a little work. Finding someone to
occasionally watch your children can be quite helpful too.

How to Work from Home with Kids: Set Up an Office

Setting up a home office will help you make the line between work and family more
distinct. Having your own space for work will allow you to focus on your daily tasks
better too. Then, when you step away from your work area, you won’t feel so much
pressure to put on your entrepreneur hat when it’s time to parent.

This also helps your child to understand the work boundaries you need to be successful.
It’s natural that your kids will want to talk with you, ask for a snack or settle sibling
disputes. Having a home office helps everyone in the family better understand the
delicate balance of work and home life.

Get Out of the House with Your Family

You already know it can be challenging to turn off work mode when it should be family
time. There will always be more work, after all.

But what’s sometimes hard to see is you only have so many child-rearing years. You
want to make those years happy and healthy for you and your child while there’s still
time.

One way to focus more on your child is to intentionally get out of the house for a while.
Maybe you go for a hike or swim together. Or perhaps you go for a drive and get ice
cream. It’s most important to be intentional about getting out when your stress levels
are unusually high as an entrepreneur.

Regardless of what you do outside the home, just getting away for a few hours is a great
way to put work aside for a while. It makes working from home with children more fun
and manageable too.

Choose to Delegate for a Better Work-Family Balance

You can’t do it all. And if you try, you, your family and business will all lose. You only
have so much energy and time each day to give to work and your family.

If you’ve been consistently working hard but can’t seem to make nearly the progress you
need, it’s likely been time to start delegating tasks for a while now.

The importance of delegation is crucial since it can give you more time to take care of
your family and your health. It can also increase the value you bring to clients and
customers while growing your profits.

How to Delegate Effectively: Could You Use Some Help?

Effective delegation is a skill you can continually improve at regardless of how long
you’ve been an entrepreneur. And the more your business develops, the more useful
delegation in business becomes.

If you’d like to discover the benefits of delegation on a deeper level, feel free to get in
touch with Smart to Finish. Perhaps you’re just learning to delegate, or you’ve been at it
for a while now but need to learn how to delegate tasks better. Either way, we can assist
you.

By scheduling a 30-minute free consultation with us, we can develop a customized plan
for your business. Your journey of how to delegate better may involve hiring an online
business manager, virtual assistant or virtual team. Best of all, you’ll grow your business
stronger and faster while maintaining a healthy work-family balance.

Are You an Online Business Manager? Why You Should Use White Label Services

Are You an Online Business Manager? Why You Should Use White Label Services

by | Jul 21, 2020 | Blog

As an online business manager, could you use some new ways to succeed? If so, adding white-label services to your business’s growth strategy could be part of the answer. Although plenty of businesses do benefit from the help of a white-label virtual assistant, many more overlook this valuable possibility. They focus more on ‘traditional’ growth strategies instead and miss out as a result.

In his Medium article entitled How to Grow Your Agency’s Bottom Line with White Label Services, Hans Holen shares the following:

“White-label services are often an efficient way for agencies to increase profitability by improving margin and growing top-line revenue at the same time.”

One constant in today’s tech-driven business atmosphere is change. For companies to be successful requires perpetual adaptation. With a white-label partnership, an online manager can ‘borrow’ a VA from a virtual assistant company while presenting the professional as their on-staff, home-grown expert. Their hiring interests could include white label marketing services, web development and much more.

How might this practice strengthen and advance your goals as an online business manager? Here are a few of the many ways.

Growth Without So Much Risk

If you’ve thought of adding an additional service to your business but have put it off for a while, that’s normal. Adding a new service can require a lot of planning, effort and expertise. And as an in-person business manager or manager online, you face regular pressure to grow your company while minimizing the chance for any ‘big’ setbacks.

The last thing you want is a less-than-satisfactory delivery of that new service when your existing ones have a reputation for excellence. There’s often significant risk involved with creating new services which can lead to the feeling of apprehension, cold feet and procrastination before finally taking the leap.

Yes, it’s possible that you need more time to think about adding an additional service. You obviously don’t want to make flippant or overly hasty business decisions. At the same time, if you’ve noticed the reoccurring theme of wanting to add new services to the business you oversee, now could be a great time to go for it.

By adding a white-label virtual assistant, you can experiment with offering new services before taking the ‘big leap’. For instance, you may have one client who needs help with web design and that’s a service you’ve wanted to add. You can hire a white-label virtual assistant skilled in that service to help with your project before going more mainstream with that offering.

Since you’ll be dealing with an expert right away, you won’t have to worry about a disappointing experience for your client. Then, you’ll be able to establish an ever-increasing framework for successfully delivering that service in the future.

You Can Hire on an As-Needed Basis (More Cost-Effective)

When you begin offering a new service, it’s possible the volume of demand for it may not be as strong as with your existing services. With a white-label virtual assistant, that’s no problem.

Simply hire your white-label VA for the services you need when you need them. It’s like having a full-time niche-specific expert available and only needing to pay for their services when your clients or customers could benefit from them.

Impressive Company Presentation

For better or worse, appearances matter in the business world. Offering a wide range of services shows potential clients and customers that you’re established and successful.

In the end, offering quality solutions while building strong relationships is what running a successful business is all about. The money earned is just a bi-product of that greater achievement. Having said that, without an initial impressive appearance, you may not get the chance to impress your client or customer as you hoped.

With a white-label VA, you’ll be able to bolster that impressive company appearance until you get the chance to show the high value of your services.

More Services Can Mean More Sales

Of course, you don’t want to offer so many services that you can’t provide high-quality outcomes. At the same time, the more ‘hooks’ you keep in the water, the more ‘fish’ you’ll catch.

Having a white-label virtual assistant enables you to scale your business’s growth more quickly. It also allows you to not only save money but to earn more. Those increased sales will allow you to continually improve your current services while developing new ones to offer.

Are You an Online Business Manager Who’s Considering White-Label Services?

At Smart to Finish, we love empowering your business and getting aspects of it moving that have been stuck in the mud. You may not have to put off offering that new service. It could be as simple as getting in touch with us.

Whether you need a VA, virtual team, virtual manager, or white label VA, Smart to Finish can help you to delegate like a pro. Would you like to discuss how we can strengthen and grow your business? If so, feel free to reach out to us for a free 30-minute consultation. We are looking forward to meeting you!

Tough Times: Why Using White Label Services Right Now is Smart

Tough Times: Why Using White Label Services Right Now is Smart

by | Jul 7, 2020 | Blog

Could white label services help your business weather the tough times we currently face? Just about every company is obsessed with how to get through the economic and health struggles we’ve seen this year.

“Thriving business in recession” are the four words at the top of everyone’s mind right now. And just when it seemed like things were getting better, COVID-19 cases have spiked again.

What’s to be done? For starters, you need a ‘tough times’ strategy for your company. Businesses that do well in a recession learn to overcome their fears of changing with the times. Because operating like it’s pre-March 2020 likely won’t get you the results you want and need. Life is different now and, in some ways, it may never be the same.

One pandemic solution our Smart to Finish team has seen a demand for lately is white- label virtual assistant services. How does a white-label partnership work? In Ilfusion Creative’s “Medium” article entitled Things You Need to Know About White Label Marketing, the process is described as follows:

“White labeling is the business practice of hiring and rebranding another company’s product or service and then offering it to your customers as your own.” In this case, you’re rebranding a qualified staff member and their services from a virtual assistant company. This can include using white label marketing services but may also be broader than that depending on your business needs.

Why would there be an increase in interest in these services during an epic recession and potential depression? Here are some of the reasons we believe these services are more desirable than ever at the moment.

Fewer Health Risks with Your White-Label Virtual Assistant

With a white-label virtual assistant, you gain an invaluable addition to your team without the risks associated with the coronavirus. As a result, you can replace the concerns of keeping your staff safe and healthy with all the other pressing distractions a worldwide pandemic can create.

Previous Remote Work Experience Matters Right Now

If you’re like many businesses, you had to handle the frustrations of your business quickly shifting to remote work. Whether you’re a business owner, in-person supervisor or online manager, it’s likely been trying at times. One of the unique challenges was that your staff didn’t have the proper time to prepare for these changes.

While there are many benefits for employers and staff when it comes to remote work, anyone who says it’s easy isn’t telling all the truth. It takes a special self-discipline level to successfully work from home.

With a white-label virtual assistant, you’ll immediately have someone considered part of your team who’s used to doing virtual work. And that’s a huge advantage at the moment because developing that type of focus can take months and even years to achieve.

Cost-Effective Business Strategies Are Essential at the Moment

Yes, you could argue that ‘every penny’ counted before the pandemic. That’s how successful businesses operate, after all. But the reality is that many were lulled into a false sense of security because of the previously stable economy. Now they’re wondering how to survive a recession.

Proper budgeting for businesses is perhaps more crucial than it has been since the Great Depression. Because of this, businesses are turning to white-label VAs because they don’t need to provide an office for their new hire, train them or come up with a complex strategy before beginning to sell a new service.

A virtual manager can simply bring a white-label VA on board and pay for their services on an as-needed basis. And while other companies are downsizing, you’ll be able to add to your staff at a fraction of the cost. This also allows your profits to increase because of your newly available services.

Effective and Quick Results are Required

Worldwide challenges like these require effective and quick solutions. But that’s typically a difficult combination to pull off. So, what can you do when the best-possible outcomes matter more than ever before?

Hiring a white-label virtual assistant can save you weeks and even months. Lost time that could otherwise be detrimental to your company’s wellbeing, With white-label services, you won’t be trying to ‘start your engine’ when you already should’ve been ‘cruising down the highway’.

Plus, experts don’t happen overnight. It takes years of effort and, yes, failure for the best to get that good at their niche of interest. But the good news with a white-label VA is you’ll have a highly qualified team member from day one.

Could Our White Label Services Be Part of Your ‘Tough Times’ Business Strategy?

Smart to Finish can provide a variety of services and solutions whether you need an online business manager, virtual team, VA or white label VA. And these services can be especially useful during difficult economic times.

If you’d like to learn more about our white label or other available services, we’d love to chat with you. Scheduling a 30-minute free consultation with us only takes a moment. Helping businesses thrive regardless of the economic climate is what we’re all about!

Why You Should Hire a Virtual Assistant for Customer Support

Why You Should Hire a Virtual Assistant for Customer Support

by | Jun 16, 2020 | Blog, Marketing, Virtual Assisting

If you were to revamp the customer support of your business, what kind of difference would that make? Over time, you could drastically improve your company’s reputation while growing your loyal customer base.

But the biggest question for plenty of business owners and managers is how to improve their customer support. When it comes to developing a customer service strategy or customer support game plan, that could involve hiring a customer service virtual assistant.

Yes, some virtual assistants provide good customer care to businesses similar to yours. This comes as a surprise to some companies that are prone to think of VAs only doing ‘generic’ administrative or office tasks.

True, these are valuable jobs to consider hiring a virtual assistant to help with, but there are plenty of other tasks to consider outsourcing too. Customer support is one of those tasks businesses tend to overlook when considering help from a virtual assistant.

Why should you consider hiring a virtual assistant to help with your customer support needs? Here are some reasons to consider.

Some Virtual Assistants Have a Passion and Gift for Customer Support

Virtual assistants gifted in and passionate about customer support can regularly look past its inherent challenges. They ultimately know their work is about offering satisfying solutions to you so your customers will be impressed. They find it fulfilling to bring powerful solutions to your customers. After all, helping customers is what it’s all about.

Some virtual assistants have a wealth of customer support experience they can draw from to help you to regularly ‘wow’ your customers. And their passion to consistently impress your customers will provide you with an expert right out of the gate.

You Can Hire a VA as Your Customer Support Strategy Develops

Your customer support strategy will constantly change to better serve those who need your product or services. But sometimes you may be unsure of where to start an effective strategy or how to bolster an already existing one.

That’s where hiring a virtual assistant can make a big difference. You get on-demand help so that your customers are thoroughly happy and keep coming back for your services or products. No more feeling paralyzed about your customer support or customer service plan. Your virtual assistant will be there to help you continually improve and adapt.

In the future, you may choose to bring on a virtual assistant as an ongoing part of your customer support strategy. You also may only need these services during a specific growth process. Either way, you’ll be ready to provide the kind of support your customers need and value.

A Customer Service Virtual Assistant Provides Versatility

Because virtual assistants are constantly immersed in the business world, the best virtual assistant will be able to provide a variety of customer support tasks.

That could involve responding to social media posts or online reviews. It also may include educating your customers about your products or services either online or over the phone. It could involve providing customer service when things don’t go as planned too.

And these days, more than ever, time is of the essence. With so many product and service options out there, a quick response can be the difference between gaining a new customer or losing one.

In her “Inc.” article entitled Virtual Assistants are the Best-Kept Secret of Modern Productivity, Diane Gottsman shares the following:

“It’s a 24/7 world, and in business, two of the most time-sensitive tasks are responding to customer communications and handling your social media presence. It’s critical to devote the resources necessary to stay on top of both.”

A Virtual Assistant Can Operate as Your Customer Support Manager

Maybe you have a larger business and on-staff customer service or support representatives. If so, what you may need most is someone to oversee your customer support team. In that case, a virtual customer support manager could make the most sense.

That way, you’ll have quick help to organize your team, ensuring everyone works towards their peak performance. This virtual manager or online business manager option is all the more necessary in these days of the pandemic.

Smart to Finish Can Improve Customer Support at Your Company

Would you like to learn more about how Smart to Finish can strengthen your customer service plan? If so, feel free to reach out to us for a free 30-minute consultation.

Whether you need a virtual assistant, a virtual team or online manager, our team can help your business reach its fullest potential.

The Pandemic of 2020: Need an Online Manager for Your Virtual Team?

by | May 14, 2020 | Blog

As the pandemic rolls on, do you wonder if hiring an online manager could help your virtual team reach its fullest potential? If you’re like many companies taking their first shot at managing virtual teams, it hasn’t exactly been a transcendent experience.

You may feel like your grandma trying to use her smartphone for the first time. Or a child taking their first wobbly baby steps. If so, that’s to be expected. Many day-job workers are now working as a remote team for the first time.

The famous saying that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ holds a similar truth. Necessity is also the mother of the implementation of that invention. People tend to be uncomfortable with change because even good change can take an enormous amount of energy to implement—at least initially.

That’s where many workplaces have been with the idea of integrating remote teams for the past decade or so. We’ve seen a gradual increase in remote workers but not to the extent you’d think given how technology continues to rapidly improve.

For years now, the idea of having virtual teams has been an attractive consideration. More life flexibility/increased productivity for employees while cutting down on the overhead costs of housing physical employees has been regularly discussed.

So, what are some challenges businesses are facing when trying to oversee virtual teams during the coronavirus pandemic? Here are some biggies.

Experienced Virtual Managers Are in Short Supply

They’re scarcer than meat, hand sanitizer, toilet paper and computer devices used for remote work. We’ve delved into a world that seems more like something out of a sci-fi novel instead of real life. And we had little to no warning beforehand.

You may have been immediately forced to go online with your project management. It’s been a bit like learning to fly a plane once you’re already in the air. And that’s a lot of added stress on everyone involved.

On top of that, finding an experienced virtual manager to help you walk through the challenges of getting started hasn’t been an easy task. There are way more businesses still trying to figure everything out compared to those who are used to leading virtual teams.

Overseeing Employee Success Without Being Intrusive

Another major challenge is overseeing projects without being intrusive, obnoxious or downright creepy. At its worst, stories have emerged where supervisors want to see their now virtual employees on video all day. On the other side, the newly dubbed online business manager isn’t getting the results that are needed.

It’s been a painfully delicate balance, to say the least. Because when you compare an in-person work experience with a virtual one, you’re nowhere close to comparing apples with apples.

How do you oversee projects and achieve the needed productivity without becoming a micromanaging nightmare to your employees? The best answer is that delicate balance comes with a lot of learning, experience, and trial and error.

But the manager online who just days earlier was overseeing physical employees will naturally struggle with this balance. It’s not their fault. There just wasn’t the available time to acquire those skills before all of this happened.

Knowing How Much to Expect of Your Virtual Team

Those who expected to simply go remote and experience productivity similar to before the pandemic began have been sorely disappointed in nearly all cases. The trouble is, there are so many variables at play that it’s hard to know what to expect.

Demand too much and your employees will burn out and become resentful. Expect too little and your profit margins could jeopardize your bottom line or even the existence of your company.

Yes, there’s the major challenge of everyone learning to work remotely with kids, dogs, and a thousand other interruptions (not to mention sickness-related concerns). But on top of that, everyone’s feeling general stress simply because of the weightiness of the pandemic.

These have been uncertain and scary times for most and that’s made it all the harder to focus and accomplish the normal amount of work.

Could Your Business Benefit from Hiring an Experienced Online Manager?

In her “Forbes” article entitled The Sensitive Leader’s Guide to Managing a Remote Team During the Coronavirus Pandemic, Melody Wilding shares the following:

“Now more than ever, your team needs you to step up and provide much-needed structure, direction, and support. You can be the manager they need, all without sacrificing your well-being or stressing yourself out in the process.”

If you’re able to manage the stressors of leading a remote team during the coronavirus pandemic, good for you! However, if you increasingly find this task too overwhelming, Smart to Finish can assist you. Having a seasoned manager online (especially now) can make all the difference for your company.

At Smart to Finish, we can provide on-demand experts for your business when you need them most. Whether you have an immediate need for an online business manager, virtual assistant or virtual team, we’re here to make a positive difference.

Would you like to learn more about how Smart to Finish can propel your business forward during the coronavirus pandemic? If so, feel free to get in touch with us for a free 30-minute consultation.

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant as a Creative? Here’s Why

by | Mar 25, 2020 | Blog

business concept – businesswoman talking on the phone in office

Why hire a virtual assistant when art is your business? Mainly because you’ll protect against burnout while seriously increasing your productivity. Your VA can help you regardless of where you live and can relieve the expense of hiring a full-time employee too.

In her Inc.com article entitled Why Hiring a Virtual Assistant is the Best Move Entrepreneurs Can Make, Amy Vetter shares the following advice:

“When we are stressed or not at optimum energy, our executive and critical thinking skills suffer. It is more important to work smarter and devote your workday to the areas of your business that require your full attention and energy.”

Creating is your superpower but administrative tasks may be crowding out or even killing your passion, productivity and output. Maybe you’re a novelist, a videographer, musician or work in another creative medium.

Even though it’s hard to believe, your ‘kryptonite’ is someone else’s superpower. You don’t have to let those necessary but draining tasks steal your creative energy or silence the muse. The world is waiting for you to create after all.

Imagine if you could find someone who’s passionate about all those things you aren’t? How could that change your life, business, work-life balance and art?

Creatives Are Pulled Between Two Worlds

You feel the constant tug-of-war between administrative tasks and creating. It’s exhausting because you’re using two very different parts of your brain.

The creative side can feel like a lush forest with sunshine breaking through. The administrative side feels like an inhospitable alien landscape. It’s like you’re being constantly pulled between two worlds.

How do you create meaningful art with all the chaos and when things are so off-balanced? You may curse the fact that you despise taking care of the details. But what if all those frustrations are simply telling you something bigger about yourself and a satisfying solution?

That it could be time to find someone who excels at handling the details that distract and bug you so much. We’re all different and have unique gifts to offer to others.

You’re most at home when you’re creating. Why not have someone help you with the details so you can create even more? That’s where a VA or remote administrative assistant can transform your business.

What Tasks Can a Virtual Assistant Help Creatives With?

Why hire a virtual assistant as a creative? Because the types of available virtual administrative services are diverse.

There are many tasks a virtual assistant for creatives can assist you with, freeing up the time you need. Nearly all tasks that ‘drain your batteries’ can be delegated. Here are some possibilities:

  • Email management
  • Social media management
  • Website maintenance and design
  • Content creation
  • Product launches
  • Scheduling
  • Invoicing
  • Marketing
  • Much more

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant?

The most effective way to find out is to get in touch with us so we can give you all the details and answer any questions you may have. We can provide you with a free 30-minute consultation.

What you may need most is a remote office assistant. It’s also possible you need a virtual team or online business manager (virtual manager). Either way, Smart to Finish can help as your creative purpose grows.