The Top 10 Reasons to Consider Hiring a Virtual PA

The Top 10 Reasons to Consider Hiring a Virtual PA

Virtual PA

We all hate having to do our business ‘housekeeping’ chores; whether it’s organising your filing, sorting out your business cards, typing up letters or just simply getting your tax return done… the list is endless. So how can a virtual PA help you become more effective, more efficiently? 

 

Top Ten Reasons to use a Designated Virtual PA 

 

  1. Got a big presentation to do? Let the professionals take charge!

With minimal supervision, we can turn around a document in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or even Canva and turn it from a jumble of numbers and words into a coherent work of art, fit for any boardroom. As businesses move from kitchen table to a more corporate environment, it’s more important than ever before to keep teams engaged. No death by PowerPoint over here thank you!

2. Flummoxed by figures, or simply no time to file that tax return?

Why not get us to take a look at the books and help you get back on track, whilst you concentrate on making the big bucks.

3. Give us an inch and we’ll go the extra mile 

We are never happier than when we have a new project to get our teeth into; whether it’s investigating new business opportunities, or following up existing leads, we like to help you make a difference. We know that some of the most important business research can fall to the bottom of the list. Let us cover this area for you and stay on top of what your competitors are doing whilst you focus on the day to day running of your business.

 

4. Lost for words?

As a team of experienced professionals, we are well-versed in the art of creating compelling copy and putting together savvy sales pitches.

Writing copy is time-consuming, we need to be more aware and sensitive than ever to our customers, clients and colleagues work/personal situations.

5. We do it, so you don’t have to! 

Don’t have time to enter all those potentially lucrative prospects into your system? All we need is a list and we can upload, annotate and amend to your heart’s content.

6. All dressed up and nowhere to go?

Networking can be a time-consuming activity, but just one well-connected contact can pay dividends. We can help advise on which groups are suitable and research any hidden costs or lucrative opportunities that you hadn’t considered.

7. Let us organise your life, leaving you free to concentrate on what makes your business tick.

We can coordinate meetings, arrange travel, type up minutes, compile documents, respond to email on your behalf and even contact previous clients for their feedback on your product or service.

Our PA’s are in touch with highly experienced travel professionals who can ensure both business and pleasure trips are fully managed.

8. Raise your game and we’ll up your ante! 

We can search for, and post, relevant, interesting, compelling content onto your social network profile pages, with the click of a mouse and the tap of the keyboard. We can also help you optimise your pages, reach out to your contacts and keep your pages fresh and relevant – leaving you free to go and do the networking you were born to do!

9. Take the chaos out of conferences

Use us to project manage your corporate events. We get to grips with the gritty details, ensuring no glass is left unfilled. Whether you need client hospitality, private banquets, or large scale exhibitions organised, we are there to calmly communicate and coordinate with your clients and suppliers.

10. Ever get that sinking feeling?

The superpowers of a good PA are often overlooked; whether it be the ability to efficiently manage calls, whilst juggling emails and monitoring a jam-packed diary, or tracking down lost and forgotten receipts. Being able to depend upon a reliable set of hands, eyes and ears can be the difference between staying on top, or getting mired in an administrative nightmare. Never is that more apparent when you are in desperate need and don’t know where to turn. Enter, Designated! We are often able to put you in touch with fellow super-powered assistants, potentially looking for a step up, down or change in direction. We can also vet CVs, write up job adverts or simply field responses until you have time to start interviewing.

 

So, if you are looking for your next PA or just know you need help but can’t justify the cost of hiring someone on a full-time basis, perhaps going ‘virtual’ is the best way forward – after all, you’ve only got time to lose. Get in touch and chat to us about how we can help.

 

To chat though how we can help, contact our Head Of Client Services Sophie Brown on sophie@designatedpa.com or call us on 020 7952 1460.

 

Guide to Working Smarter not Harder

Guide to Working Smarter not Harder

Guide to WORKING SMARTER NOT HARDER….

Ever found yourself with a million things to do and no idea where to start?  Or perhaps you just keep putting off that big black deadline that’s hovering over you? Either way, getting your work space and you task list organised is a sure fire way to help get your head space back on track.  Our guide to helping you towards working smarter not harder will help.

Read on for our free, stress-busting survival guide…

1. Make Lists

Yes, you’ve heard it before, but it works!  It’s simple, the smartest way to unload your over-worked brain is to get it all out on paper (or for those that prefer something a little more high tech, a Smartphone, tablet, or whatever you’re most comfortable with).  Put down everything – every, little, thing.

There are a loads of apps that can help too!

  • Paperless
  • Wunderlist
  • Todoist
  • Trello
  • Toodledo

2. Now prioritise

Put a number, an asterisk, re-sort or highlight.  Get that list working for you.  Concentrate on the big stuff – the things you know are going to take the longest time.  Put them near the top, somewhere you can’t ignore them.  The sense of achievement when you manage to cross those bad boys off will be immense.  And then you can reward yourself with a few ‘little’ tasks to help break up the intensity.

3. Watch the clock

Your list is ready, your priorities are set, and it’s time to get down to business!  Set yourself a realistic deadline for each item.  Start by breaking things down by hours, half hours, quarter hours or even ten minute slots.  Make an appointment to meet friends, go out for lunch or get a haircut, and then organise your tasks around it, accordingly – it’s amazing what you can achieve when you have a ‘reward’ in sight.

4. BITE size, not supersize.

If you have a seemingly insurmountable task ahead of you, break it down into smaller chunks.  As you start to simplify the job into separate elements, you will be able to concentrate on getting it done, piece by piece.

5. DON’T procrastinate – delegate! 

Use reminders to flag up deadlines, set up rules on your email so that you can see when important emails need to be responded to.  Set your phone to vibrate and let voicemail take a message.  This way you can turn your full attention to the job in hand, without any distractions.

6. CALL in the professionals?

If you are still struggling to stay on top, and feel like you are slowly sinking under a pile of admin, then perhaps what you need is a bit of professional help – of the administrative kind!

Do you need someone to cast an objective eye over your accounts, or a willing soul to get help you get through your filing?  Maybe all you need is for someone to manage your travel and diary arrangements, whilst you concentrate on writing that report.

Whatever it may be, help is at hand.  Designated is a one-stop-shop created with you specifically in mind.  We are here to enable you to hand off tasks and concentrate on your core business.

With us by your side, you will find you are able to focus on productivity, deliver greater results and generally be free to be the high-flying executive you are meant to be.  Alternatively, you might find that you have a few less grey hairs and a lot less to worry about.

7. Get working smarter not harder

Speak to us about how we can help bring time saving and cost effective professional support into your business.  With Designated – where you’re in safe hands.  Call 0207 952 1460 or email us info@designatedgroup.com.

September edition of Designated Digest

September edition of Designated Digest

Stay Connected July

Welcome to September’s edition of Designated Digest. With Summer coming to an end it has been great to enjoy some amazing weather before the final quarter of the year begins.

This month we are looking at the importance of understanding your customer journey and how it is essential for ensuring your business thrives.

We have also delved into the world of strategic business reviews, looking at how to build on your strengths, get all your team onboard and pinpoint weaknesses so you can adjust all aspects of your company to reach your business goals.

Finally, we have looked to distinguish the difference between accounting and bookkeeping to make it easier for you to decide what elements your business needs.

Best wishes,

The Designated Team

How can a strategic business review help your practice excel?

How can a strategic business review help your practice excel?

360 BUSINESS REVIEW

When you are running your own business, how do you take a step back? To stop, evaluate, listen and learn from your customers and team?

Are the values and vision you hold dear, understood, and communicated to all your stakeholders and customers?

This is hard to do within your own business. Taking time away from the demands and stresses of “business as usual”, to pause and evaluate whether you are offering the best experience to your customers and your team, is important but also challenging. So how do you achieve this?

This is where a strategic business review comes into its own. Undertaking such a review will immediately help you to identify the strengths of your business, and pinpoint the weaknesses, creating an opportunity to highlight and rectify any problems before they become ingrained.

Most businesses conduct annual employee performance 360 reviews and find them extremely helpful with staff development and management, however, much greater value is to be had from running a whole business review, covering both your client’s and employees’ experience of working with your company. The process of looking at every aspect of your company, by reviewing each part of the structure from the top down, will reveal exactly how your business is perceived and identify any gap with your own view of how you want to be perceived.

What is a business review?

A business review evaluates key aspects within your business that are pillars of its success, through an in-depth audit and interviews with key stakeholders. The process is usually managed by an external partner, covering areas such as:

  • Business objectives
  • Vision, Mission and Values
  • Service offering
  • Key sectors
  • New business strategy
  • Marketplace perception
  • Your people – staff engagement
  • Client experience

The output of the review is a comprehensive report, providing evaluations and recommendations that engage your team, identify your ideal clients and ensures your brand messaging and values are woven throughout all of your company communications.

One of the benefits gained by a business review is the feeling of inclusion amongst your employees, while contributing to creating a more positive workplace.

The report

From the answers obtained in the interviews, the review of supporting documentation, clarifications and from research, an extensive report is produced, which addresses all the areas above and summarises your successes and challenges in each area and provides recommendations to improve, including, but not limited to:

  • Competitor analysis
  • A review of your brand messaging and story and suggestions on your messaging going forward
  • A full website audit
  • A review of all your communications, social media, marketing collateral, pitch/presentation documents
  • Development of user persona’s for your target audience
  • A ‘secret shop’ to experience your customer journey
  • Results from a staff engagement survey to inform Values and identify any areas for improvement

The report concludes with recommendations for all the key areas: – Business strategy, customer experience, your people, brand messaging and marketing strategy and activity. It will also provide a 3-month marketing plan that incorporates your Brand Strategy, which can be implemented at your own pace.

Tough read

Any review you undertake can be a difficult read, as it will enable you to uncover issues you were completely unaware of. The process and findings can feel quite personal as your business is your passion. The key is to thoroughly evaluate the results and make changes where necessary.

A review can broaden your view of your company, clients, workplace and employees and steer you away from assumptions. It allows you to identify the improvement opportunities within the business and create a strategy to implement them.

The idea of any review can seem daunting and the results can be brutal and difficult to accept, but it can be a very useful way of identifying issues and weaknesses before they become a real problem affecting business performance. When managed properly, the results can lead to changes that ingrain best practices within every layer of the business and ensure that your employees and clients feel listened to and valued. The most important part of any business is the employees and ensuring they are all on board with the values and ethos of the business allows the company to develop and flourish in its given field.

 

If you would like to find out more about our Designated Business Review, please do get in touch:

Michelle Wheeler, Marketing Director, michelle@designatedgroup.com 020 7952 1460

Why is it important to understand your customer journey?

Why is it important to understand your customer journey?

Customer Journey
In today’s world, consumers are more informed than ever before. They have a range of tools to help them with decision-making when it comes to buying a product or service, which is why it’s important to understand how your company (brand) is perceived and the reasons why.

Company perception is driven by a range of different things for consumers and they will see and experience different things depending on where they are in their purchase or research journey.

For example;

  • How easy is it to find you on the internet or social media?
  • Do you look credible and trustworthy?
  • Can they find your contact details?
  • Do you answer the phone or emails?
  • How do you correspond with clients
  • What do others think about you?
  • If you’ve used them before have they remembered you?

So, customer experience is key to business success, because if you give the customer a positive experience then they will remember you and become an advocate for your business. A loyal customer is a more profitable one because they will promote your business free of charge and return to you in the future! If they have a poor experience, then they will tell everyone and anyone who will listen which can be very damaging, especially when it’s broadcast across social media.

That is why understanding the customer journey is so important. Knowing that all the customer touchpoints for your business are on brand and up to date and that your internal processes are set up to truly deliver a positive customer experience.

A typical customer will research and evaluate your company and your competitors before deciding whether to purchase a product or service. By understanding this journey, and the influencing factors that help with their decision-making, you can better position your product or service to meet their needs as well as deliver a positive experience throughout the process.

 

Typically, consumers go through 3 different stages before making a decision.

1. Awareness stage – a consumer is looking to solve a problem
During this stage, a consumer will be researching and looking for educational information about the problem they want to solve or the need that they have.
At this stage, consumers will be looking at these channels; Google searches so SEO is important at this stage, website, Google My Business, social media and any advertising.

2. Consideration stage – a consumer is considering options to solve the problem
During this stage, consumers will be reading what you offer on your website and competitor websites to see who offers what. They may also be reading articles and case studies. Most importantly consumers will be looking to understand what other people think of you so they will be influenced by testimonials either on your website or on trusted customer satisfaction websites e.g. Trustpilot etc.

3. Decision stage – the consumer evaluates and decides on the business that will help them solve the problem
At this stage, they will make contact with the company, either by email, telephone or through the contact form on your website. This is the stage where internal processes are key to ensure the consumer experiences a good customer experience and finds out any specific information they require. They are kept up to date and informed about the service or product they are interested in and feel valued.

Just as important as the 3 stages above, is the post-purchase/service experience, which is when you can really make a customer feel valued and turn them into a loyal customer. This is the time to ensure you have all the relevant contact details and GDPR compliance to make sure you can keep in touch with the customer in the future either through newsletters or emails.

Capturing customer satisfaction through surveys or testimonials is also important for your business. If they’ve had a positive experience then they will become an advocate and give you a good customer satisfaction rating or testimonial which money can’t buy!

What to do now?
So now is the time to review all the customer touchpoints for your business, and make sure that all your customer-facing marketing channels are up to date and relevant. Review your internal processes so that you understand what happens when someone gets in contact with you and how is it managed internally to ensure they receive a positive customer experience.

This is the customer journey and by understanding all of the elements that contribute to this, you will be able to successfully grow your business and ensure it is better than your competitors and deliver a positively memorable customer experience.

If you would like to find out more about how Designated can help with understanding your customer journey, please do get in touch:

Michelle Wheeler, Marketing Director, michelle@designatedgroup.com 020 7952 1460

July edition of Designated Digest

July edition of Designated Digest

Stay Connected July

Hello! and welcome to our July edition!

In this months edition of Designated Digest, the sun is shining and everyone’s getting ready for the first Summer of restriction free travel, more importantly business seems to be booming for many of you, which is great to see!

This month we are looking at Neurodiverstiy and what that means in terms of the workplace. Embracing neurodiversity and understanding the needs of your employees can ensure all your staff can excel and work more effectively.

We also hear from one of our senior marketing managers on the skills to look for when hiring a marketing manager and they are more varied than you would usually think.

Finally we would like to introduce you to our management team here at Designated.

Best Wishes, 

Designated Team