Time Management
​The allocation of your time is probably one of the most important factors in business success.

If you plan to grow your business, the way in which you choose to manage your responsibilities will have a greater impact on your success rather than hard work alone. 

Think about what your core role is, the value that only you can provide to your clients.

Remind yourself, why did you choose to go into business in the first place, and are you on track with your business plan and initial vision?

Delegation – To do, or not to do?
Delegation can be a great route forward for many small business owners, it reduces the risk and costs associated with taking on employees and allows you to focus on your core business tasks and responsibilities.

Once you have decided that you need some additional support, you'll need to identify which tasks and projects could and should be delegated.

Prioritise your tasks. Focus on high-impact activities - deciding what NOT to do is as important as what to do.

Set clear goals and define what success looks like for each task.

If you’re bringing onboard external support for the first time, this can be quite daunting. Your business is your ‘baby’ and letting go of some of the responsibilities can be hard.

It’s also very common to know that you need help, but you just don’t know where to start, or how to identify which tasks to delegate. If this sounds familiar, drop me an email and I’ll send you a document sharing 3 practical techniques to help you get started.

Effective Delegation
Take time to find the most suitable person to support your business requirements, it’s not just about skill set and availability.

If this person is going to be an extension of your business and team you need to make sure they’re a good fit both personally and professionally.

Do they portrait the same work ethics and values as you? Most importantly, if you plan on this being a long-term investment and close working relationship, do you get on well? 
 
To achieve ‘effective delegation’ and fully benefit from any assistance, make sure that the person you have chosen to support you has:

• The capacity to accommodate your tasks.
• The appropriate skills and resources in which to carry out these items successfully.
• A good bank of reviews and testimonials showcasing their expertise.
• The ability to work independently and pro-actively, without the need for micro-managing, or failure.
• Fully understood your expectations.
• The scope to document the tasks being performed as they complete them (if you don’t already have these processes in place) as this will form a basic Ops/Training manual which will make any future delegation, training or the need for unplanned cover much easier for someone else to step in and run with and with less disruption to the business.

​Evaluate the Delegation Progress, Reflect and Adjust
Once you have your support in place, you’ll want to diarise regular catchups especially during the first few months so both of you have the opportunity to discuss how things are going.

Evaluating the delegation process is important, don’t be afraid to make changes if something isn’t working and keep an open mind to suggestions of new ways of working or improvements.

I personally know the pressures when trying to grow a business, so finding a way to help remove, or reduce some of the load really does help. Building a ‘team’ around you and documenting core business tasks will add a layer of protection to your business which will help with future growth.

​“In order to grow, you must be able to let go”. -Richard Branson.
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I hope the information in this blog has been useful, I’m happy to have a chat with anyone feeling overwhelmed, or in need of some advice as to the best way to move forward. A good Virtual Assistant will always both support and positively challenge you, fostering a great and productive relationship.

As the owner of a busy Virtual Assistant business, I am always looking for ways to save time, improve systems, processes and increase productivity both within my own business and those of our clients.
 
In previous blogs we've shared some of our 'bread and butter' apps and systems for small business owners, such as Dropbox and Trello. This blog however, focuses on a couple of (possibly) lesser known ‘must have' productivity apps which you can utilise as and when you need something organising, or referencing quickly, easily and efficiently.

Doodle
This is a free, easy scheduling app which simplifies the process of arranging F2F meetings, Zoom calls, workshops and events. Within minutes you can simply set-up an online meeting poll, populating event information, adding proposed dates and times before inviting delegates to mark their availability onto the poll.

Doodle removes the need for countless email chains and the arduous manual process of trying to keep on top of delegate responses, it clearly highlights the date and time chosen by the majority, allowing you to confirm the meeting date with ease.

Doodle does not require registration by either the initiator or those being invited to view and mark their availability onto a poll. You can connect Doodle to your calendar, Zoom, Google Meet or Webex and add video conference links to every event automatically.

As a PA I’ve used Doodle a lot over the years and recently a client of ours was using it, which just reminded me how good this organisational, time-saving tool is. I would highly recommend that you check it out and have a go at setting up a poll… Summer works party, sounds fab, let’s see who is free to come and when!

Pocket
Previously known as Read It Later, Pocket is a social bookmarking service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks. It’s a quick and easy way to save interesting online content to read or reference later, including blogs, articles and videos so you’ll no longer have to keep emailing yourself links or adding countless web pages to your favourites list in your browser!

With Pocket, all your content gets saved in one place, so you can view it anytime, on any device, with or without an internet connection.

When you add a web page or article to Pocket, you can create and add tags to categorise your ‘Saves’ for example, I have; Blog Ideas, Health, Books to Read, Useful VA Content, you can add as many tags as you like.

Pocket is more than just a brilliant time-saving app, it’s transformed the way we save, access and later share online material. 

It’s a great resource to compliment your Social Media Marketing activity.

You can use their ‘Collections’ or ‘Discover’ sections to search for specific content or you can read their top saved stories and trending articles. I particularly like the way in which you can reference a particular subject, and/or share an article of interest that you’ve previously saved, rather than hunting for relevant content as and when you need it.
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Go and give Pocket a try, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Whether you run your own business and work for yourself, or manage an in-house team for a larger company, you’re probably very aware it’s easy to get bogged down in mundane admin tasks. Tasks that often require far more time than you or your team have available.

However, in most cases these admin tasks are critical in keeping the business running efficiently. This makes them hugely valuable in maintaining the success of the company on a day-to-day basis and therefore they must be undertaken in order to remain productive.

Virtual PA's provide a wide range of remote, business services including; Administration, Project Management and Support, Marketing and Website Maintenance allowing for effective delegation of these important tasks, making virtual support one of the best assets you and your business can invest in.

Value
Our virtual team are very experienced and pro-active in their approach. We don’t need to be micro-managed in order to complete tasks successfully and on time. Additionally, working with the team offers freedom and most importantly time, to those who want and need to unburden themselves just to be able to get on with their day.

We pride ourselves on creating trustworthy, long-lasting relationships with all of our clients, no matter the size of their business, or the amount of support they require. 

Here at Indigo Eleven we deliver value through:

Reliability
First of all our experienced VA’s provide reliable, pro-active support. You therefore don’t need to micro-manage, chase up work or worry about meeting deadlines. We provide quality assistance and expertise across all of our services so you’ll soon see an increase in the productivity and effectiveness of your work.
 
Skills
We’re also able to offer multi-skilled working across numerous business ‘departments’. These include administration, marketing and branding, event organising and client correspondence. Our professional team are adept in working across many sectors and are sympathetic to the pressures and responsibilities involved in setting-up and growing a business.
 
Support
Not only do we provide additional time, skills and resources to a business as and when required, we also have a very supportive ear and will happily discuss and share business ideas or improved ways of working with any business owner. This is especially valuable to owner-managed businesses. More importantly, a VA can be a strategic addition to your business growth plans.
 
Reduced Stress
By sharing the workload, you can focus on your role and key business goals with a clear mind, reduced stress and reduced working hours. Similarly, using a VA is versatile way of growing your business or systemising processes. Through improved business functions you can start to withdraw from everyday tasks which will lead to scalability and more freedom within your business.
 
Return On Investment
Another big advantage is that our start-up process is very quick, easy and cost-effective. When we start working together you’ll soon see a return on your business bottom line. With our support, we’ll enable you the freedom to focus your time on income generating tasks and strategies instead of getting distracted by important, but time-consuming daily operations.
 
We offer clients forward-thinking and intuitive assistants who pride themselves on being pro-active. We happily go the extra mile and offer suggestions and help implement processes to benefit your business.

Our virtual team offer flexibility, consideration and positive assistance which can make a big difference to you, your team and business that you might otherwise be missing out on at present.
 
Finally, if you’d like to find out more about how we could add value to your business, please send us an enquiry about using our virtual services.