October 29, 2008 – 11:20 am
It’s that time of year again I’m afraid…yep, Christmas is just around the corner and as if you didn’t have enough to do already you really should think about some way to send seasonal greetings to your clients. This is where I can smugly say that here at One Hour PA we already have ours sorted! We’re doing our bit for charity and the environment by signing up to Everyclick’s Considerate Christmas scheme.
If you’re worried about the environmental impact of Christmas cards that end up in the bin after a week, or you simply can’t face the post office queues…Everyclick have the answer. They are offering the chance to donate to charity and send out e-greeting cards to your clients. It’s a brilliant system, it takes the headache out of the whole Christmas card business, it saves you sticking on stamps and traipsing up to the post office AND you get to spread a bit of goodwill by donating to the charity of your choice.
The e-cards can be personalised and you can upload your contacts in order to send the card out to them all. They really couldn’t have made it easier.
Here’s the link for more information:
http://www.everyclick.com/
October 9, 2008 – 9:03 pm
Next week is Small Business Week with 5 days of events around the small business environment. The event launches on Monday 13th with an event at the BT Tower, which will also be available to watch as a live web seminar on the day. I don’t think I’ll be putting that date in my diary, but Wednesday’s event caught my eye as it is devoted to flexible and home working. They will be launching the 2008 Enterprise Nation Home Business Report and there’s a web seminar on flexible working as well as guides that will be available on the subject. Other topics to be covered during the week include doing business in the current climate and business ethics. For more information go to:
www.sbw08.co.uk
October 8, 2008 – 8:03 am
Working virtually we spend a great deal of time on the internet and are always coming across sites we like. Here’s a few of our favourite travel sites this month:
www.timeanddate.com – If you’re doing business with different countries around the world and always find yourself trying to work out the best time to call, save yourself the hassle and drop by here. You’ll find timezones for all the world’s cities, a brilliant international meeting planner where you can enter up to five different cities and it will instantly highlight for you the most convenient times for each to speak given the time differences. There’s also other handy tools like a list of all the international dialling codes and a distance calculator. Definitely one to add to your favourites if you’re dealing with contacts overseas.
www.skyscanner.net and www.sidestep.com – In some ways the internet has made booking flights and travel more complicated than it used to be. There’s simply so many options. We frequently use these sites to search for cheap deals on flights, hotels and holidays. They search the web for the best prices available and bring up the results in one easy to read table. It’s a good starting point to get an idea of what you will be paying.
www.airlinequality.com – If you’re travelling long haul and debating between a couple of different airlines, it might be worth checking out some reviews on them. This site covers absolutely everything you can think of from airport reviews, lounge reviews, seat pitch guides, etc, etc. If you really want to dig into the details there’s also a chat room, although quite how people find the time to post on topics such as revamped amenity kits on airlines, I’m not sure.
September 18, 2008 – 11:15 pm
If you’re looking to cut a few costs in your small business, why not take a look at some of the great free tools available online:
Google calendar: If you’re after a great, free online calendar Google really is pretty impressive. Things we like about it are that we can colour code different events and entries and we can send out invites to attendees even if they are not other Google mail users. The event description boxes they give you space to put in all event details including any notes or comments. There are countless other features such as being able to set up your calendar to send SMS reminders to your mobile, free of charge. We use Google calendars for several of our clients and they work really well for this sort of virtual team. Like all things, they can take a little getting used to but once you start to investigate a little bit you’ll be surprised at how much they can do.
Skype: Yep, we’ve said it before but we’ll say it again. Skype is great for free and cheap calls. People do complain about call quality but on average around 90% of our calls are absolutely fine. Recently we’ve even signed up the Skype Worldwide subscription which gives you unlimited free calls to landlines in 34 different countries worldwide for just £6 a month. When you’re working virtually and a lot of your business is done on the phone, it’s well worth signing up. Ah, the satisfaction of finishing a 40 minute call to the US and knowing it’s cost you nothing! Then of course, there’s also the instant messaging aspect of Skype which we frequently use amongst our virtual team.
Remember The Milk: Some people just love to do lists. If this is the way you like to work then www.rememberthemilk.com is a great place to get started. No more post it notes stuck all over your desk, or lists scribbled on the back of envelopes. You can organise all your tasks in your RTM account, categorised according to work, personal, etc. It also syncs with various online calendars (including Google). Definitely worth a visit.
August 20, 2008 – 9:03 am
If only I could find a really good commission only salesperson…
If I had £1 for every small business owner I’ve heard say this…ah I’d be a rich woman.
Having seen a number of clients trying out the commission only person route, it seems that there really are very few decent salespeople out there who are prepared to work on this basis. Many of the small business owners I encounter seem to find this surprising and bemoan the lack of spirit in people…but look at it from the salesperson’s point of view. Why on earth would they want to work in such a high risk way? If they’re good at their job they can walk into somewhere that will pay them a basic and commission plus a load of other perks, if they’re not so good then they might take your commission only offer but then they probably won’t sell. The third possibility is that they are excellent at sales but are only just starting out and will take any opportunity – if this is the case then they’ll soon be off when a better offer pops up.
For most businesses sales is key, no sales, no money. So it’s worth investing a little bit of money in getting it right, finding the right person and paying them fairly. If you simply can’t afford a good full time salesperson, look at alternatives – perhaps a freelancer or a part time person. Or make sales your own responsibility and find people to cover other areas of your business to free up your time.
Commission only may look tempting because it’s cheap but it can be hugely costly in terms of your time and ultimately business. The chances are that an endless succession of demotivated, poor quality salespeople churning through your business is going to do more harm than good. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for.
August 11, 2008 – 10:29 am
People often mention to me, with a wistful look, how marvellous it would be to have a paperless office. When it comes to being organised, paper really can be the enemy yet most of us find it hard to ditch the paper - start with small steps.
Ditch the post it notes, stop scribbling to do lists on bits of paper and put contact details straight into an online address book. For those of you who use Outlook all these features are built in. It’s simply a case of getting into the habit of using them. Once you do, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it makes working life. One of the keys to being organized is knowing where things are. Once you start keeping things online, there are far less places you have to look.
If you don’t have Outlook, use a free online resource, our favourite is Gmail.
Think before you print. Most of us print out copies of documents only for them to have a couple of remarks scribbled on them and then be left lying around. Even e-mails are often printed out to keep on file as a record of correspondence. But is it really necessary? If you print out all the key e-mails from your clients, your files will soon be bulging and the chances are that you still won’t be able to find that one vital e-mail you are looking for. Instead, organise your e-mail folders, with a folder for each client where you can keep all related messages. Not only will this keep the paper off your desk but when you want to find something you can simply do an online search rather than rifling through the paper on your desk.
Try to look at other aspects of your administration that generate a lot of paper. For example, do all your clients need to be sent paper invoices? Why not e-mail them digital versions? Inevitably there will be some people who like to deal with paper, but many of them will probably be quite happy to receive an online copy and cut down on the paper crossing their desk. Do you keep paper records that you don’t really need? I used to keep paper copies of all sales invoices, but after buying QuickBooks I realised I was never referring to my paper file, it was simply quicker and easier to look for overdue invoices or check off payments online. Now I keep all my invoices online, my book keeping is much quicker and I have some extra storage space on my shelf.
Like anything, a lot of the success of trying to get more organized depends on your motivation. Admin often isn’t the most exciting part of the working day, but that’s precisely why you should make the effort to change your habits. With less paper, you’ll have more time to spend on the aspects of your business that really interest you.
August 11, 2008 – 8:24 am
According to a recent survey carried out among small businesses 42% of small business owners rank technology failure as their biggest worry.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/06/03/230907/small-businesses-stressed-on-technology.htm
This is hardly surprising, most of us can “have a go” at resolving minor problems with our laptops for example, but few small businesses have dedicated support for their IT systems. Type “IT support for small business” into Google and you’ll be inundated with responses, from big players like BT (I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’s had a good experience with their IT support package) to one man bands who cover local outfits. With so much choice it can be tricky to choose the right person – how do you make an informed decision when you may know very little about the subject matter yourself? We asked the brilliant Ben Taylor of Responsive Computing, who deals with all our IT support. He gave us the following tips:
- Does the provider have experience and proven references from companies of a similar sector and size? A good provider will be happy to provide reference sites and case studies, and put you in touch with existing clients.
- Is the provider specifically trained (and ideally certified) in IT for small businesses? Look out for Microsoft Small Business Specialist certification.
- Try to find out how the provider will proactively monitor your systems for problems. A lot of IT companies just react to problems, a good provider will have systems in place so they often notify you of issues before you become aware of them yourself.
- How many people are likely to be involved in supporting your system? Individuals or very small teams who have in depth knowledge of your infrastructure are invariably more effective than large call-centre helpdesks where you never get to speak to the same person twice.
- Does the provider make efforts to find out about your business and the way you work? If not, there is a danger of being specified a system that tries to force square pegs into round holes.
At One Hour PA we work almost entirely virtually so we rarely have to deal with the dreaded commute but the other day I happened to be on a packed tube in rush hour with hundreds of people in stupidly high temperatures. It made me think yet again about the benefits of virtual working. Having to spend a couple of hours every working day to commute to an office where you carry out a job that you could just as easily do at home is really nothing short of ridiculous. Amongst most of my friends the opportunity to work virtually is sadly rare, some occasionally work from home, but for the most part the companies that employ them simply don’t see virtual working as a serious option for their employees. It seems that many employers still think there’s no benefit to them of allowing virtual working. They worry that people won’t do any work and they think it all sounds like a bit of a logistical nightmare – how will people access their emails, what about files they need, etc, etc.
Yes, virtual working does take a little bit of planning for businesses. But it also has plenty of advantages.
- Savings on office space: Say you need 60sq ft of space per person in an office and that space costs £40 per sq ft per annum – so it costs you £2400 a year just to provide space for one person. Allowing virtual working could dramatically cut your need for office space and thus your costs.
- Savings on meeting space and travel time: Web meetings instead of face to face meetings could save you both the cost of a physical meeting space and the travel expenses involved in getting everyone to the same place.
- A happier, more motivated workforce: Nobody enjoys the daily commute, taking it out of the working day really will make your staff happier. Plus they will enjoy a greater degree of work – life balance.
- Reduced absenteeism: BT, who are keen advocates of flexible working, estimate that because of their working from home policy they have absenteeism levels of 20% less than the national average.
- Increased productivity: Figures show that companies deploying virtual working amongst their employees experience, on average, a 20% increase in productivity. Away from the distractions of the office employees can actually get far more done.
I hope that in years to come those who don’t offer virtual working options to their employees will become the dinosaurs of the business world. It takes a little bit of thought to implement but it really does offer great advantages to both parties.
For more information on implementing virtual working for your business visit:
www.workwiseuk.org
Credit crunch or not, most small business owners don’t have money to throw around. Keeping a careful eye on your cashflow and what you are spending is absolutely imperative, but I do wonder if sometimes people cut corners at the expense of their business success. I started thinking about this recently when I was looking at a website where freelancers tout for work. One person was advertising their services as a web designer particularly for small business owners on a small budget. Cheap websites are something people often ask me about and the reality is I have never found a really good person to refer such enquiries to. So I thought I’d check out this freelancer’s site and see if they might be the kind of person I could refer people to. Sadly not, their site was atrocious and the links they had given to other sites they had designed were atrocious as well, but just in different colours.
Now there’s plenty of people out there on the web offering services they’re not really qualified to provide – but that’s a topic for another day. The question is - if you are a business owner, and you’re really serious about making a success of your business, should you be looking for a website for £200? I think the answer is no. If your site looks like it’s been knocked up in a day by someone who once did a web design course – what does that say about your business? Without a doubt it will make visitors question your professionalism.
When you work virtually and rarely meet your clients, then your website is absolutely key – it can be the difference between someone deciding to try your service, or simply heading back to Google and on to your competitor’s site. A fact that a lot of small business owners would do well to remember when they’re thinking about their website budget.
Continuing my experiments with Skype, I’ve gone from buying the odd bit of credit now and again to actually signing up for a £6.95 per month subscription package. So far it seems pretty good. It covers all my calls to landlines in 34 countries – including the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand which are the countries we call most often from our offices. We also get 3 Skype in numbers, which we were able to pick by country and area. I noticed there was no option for central London 0207 numbers but there were plenty of 0208 and 0203 numbers. On each of those numbers we get a voicemail facility. Not a bad deal.
If you make a lot of national and international calls then it’s really worth taking a look at Skype. I’ve been delighted with our savings so far, but not only that, I actually now prefer it to the landline. Why? Well because I have headphones and a mic which leave my hands free when I’m on a call. I can also see when other team members and contacts are online so that I don’t waste so much time getting through to people only to discover they’re not there. I’ve even been using it to send text messages recently as well. And you can quickly and easily send files with it. It’s these little additional things that really make it a worthwhile tool when it comes to virtual collaboration. We’ll see how it goes with our new subscription over the next few weeks. I’ve got high hopes for it.
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