Anything You Can Do…

No, we can’t do anything better than you. But chances are, somebody can do the same tasks you do faster/better/cheaper…

I’ve seen a recurring theme with our clients and even our client’s clients since we started our business.  Given an impending deadline, the client says “Yes, I can do that by…” and often that date comes and goes. Well, perhaps I should clarify: the date comes and goes when the task is one that five other people could easily have done.

Pressed for time, many entrepreneurs and business owners will complete the tasks that make them money (understandably) before attempting or delegating the tasks that need to be completed to keep their business going.  These neglected tasks can include taxes, invoicing, correspondence (including responding to potential clients), and marketing.

Business owners, especially when just starting their business, often have the mentality that they can or must do all the tasks their business requires themselves. Either because they feel nobody else can complete the task as well as they can, or they don’t believe they can afford to delegate the task to somebody else, they allow the floodgates on their inbox to open,  soon becoming jammed with backlogged tasks that should have been completed days, weeks or even months in advance. Does this sound familiar? If so, consider these scenarios:

• Your business provides an hourly service and earns $50-$100/hour. You have a month’s worth of billing that needs to be assembled into invoice form and sent to clients. This work will take 2-3 hours to complete but your schedule is booked. Now you’re contemplating not attending tomorrow’s networking breakfast so you can get the invoices out, however doing so will lose you valuable face-time with potential clients.
• When you established your business you made a myname@mybusinessname.com email address which now serves as the catch-all for all business emails, including the spam from third-party vendors. A day away from your email easily results in 200-300 emails which you find overwhelming and impossible to sift through to find the important ones.
• You heard you should be participating in social media marketing so you set up  Facebook and Twitter pages for your business. You do your best to engage and build an audience with both accounts, however it seems every time you log-in to Facebook you get bombarded with messages from friends and family, distracting you from your work for an hour or two. To this date, your business’s Facebook page remains empty and your only Tweets are the result of trying to stay awake through a boring seminar.

If any of the above sound like you, you’re not alone. Rather than tackle any of these tasks yourself, you should be delegating the tasks out to somebody else. Consider the true value of paying a college intern or virtual assistant $10-$30/hour so you can get paid $50/hour + to do the important, client pleasing work. Already you would be making $40+ in an hour when you would have otherwise have been making $0, however what value would you  assign to a personal reduction of stress?  Think about it!

Sutton Creative Studios is happy to help business owners review their task-lists and develop delegating and success plans. Please contact us today to set up a FREE 15-minute consultation.

Sharing is Caring

A couple weeks ago I was sitting on the sidelines at my son’s little league baseball game, when I struck up a conversation with a set of parents sitting next to me. During the course of the conversation it came up that Dave and I had started our own business, and the woman mentioned that she had tried to start her own business but was scared of all the scams she found when looking for work at home opportunities. With no second thought, I took out my notebook, wrote down the names of the freelancing sites we had used to get Sutton Creative Studios off the ground and gave it to her. This is not the first time this scenario has played out in my life.

It struck me this morning that I used to be scared to give these names out, mostly because I was afraid we were going to miss out on work opportunities if any of these individuals got the work first. Now this is my last concern, as we have more than enough work to keep busy. Despite the fact that our rates have steadily increased, work inquiries keep coming in. Honestly, my current concern is turning down a job that we should keep while we look for reliable individuals to add to our team.

So today, I offer the gift of knowledge to all you budding entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to spread your wings and take off on your own. Sharing is caring, and I want to see others achieve as much success as we have.

Following is a list of reputable websites where you can look for work and try to expand your happy client roster:

• Elance.com – Subscriptions are available at a variety of different levels, ranging from “Basic” which is FREE and allows 40 proposals/month to “Large Company” which is $40/month and allows 100 proposals/month. Submitting to different categories, i.e. “Design & Multimedia” is one category and “Admin Support” is another, requires payment of an additional charge per month, however if you are well-versed in multiple disciplines it is worth the investment.
• oDesk.com – Very similar to Elance, subscriptions are free however proposals are limited. The free subscriptions seem to attract the attention of applicants from overseas outsourcing companies, which drives down the rates drastically. Don’t worry, however, as there are clients who overlook the $3/hour proposals in lieu of native employess in their own time zone.
• Freelancer.com – I will admit, I am not as well-versed with freelancer.com because I did not find as many opportunities (for me) there as I did on the previous two sites mentioned. For those in “Design, Media & Architecture”, however, there are a lot of opportunities posted. You just need to beat out everyone else who is submitting proposals.
• Mycroburst.com – Mycroburst is a great site for designers looking to grow their portfolio and build their reputation. Clients post the project criteria and designers submit their take on the solution. This can range from web design to logos, corporate identity packages and more. On the down side, designers can spend a lot of time working on a project they are never hired for. On the up side, if you win a project, you already know what financial value the project had and are paid in close to real-time (pending there are no revisions needed).
• Fiverr.com – If you’re willing to work for $5 a gig, Fiverr is the place for you. Contractors post a listing stating what they are willing to do for $5, and customers choose whether or not they want to buy from you.  **I strongly encourage you to read ‘Three Signs You’re Undercharging for Your Services’ before adding your services to Fiverr.

Please comment below or contact us if you have suggestions on other sites you would recommend!

The Little Engine That Could Takes a Vacation

Business owners, imagine this:

You’re sitting at your desk with an inbox overflowing with work, your outbox empty, and the phone rings. It’s a prospective client offering you a new project paying more than any of your current projects are paying.

Your heart starts beating rapidly. You want, more than anything else, to take the project and earn more money, but at the same time you’re already losing sleep due to the amount of work you’re not able to tackle in a day. What do you do?

This is a dilemma many business owners face as their businesses are growing and even more so after they are running successfully. Happy clients are spreading the business name around to their networks, and people in need of services jump at the chance to hire a competent, reputable business to fill their needs. Unfortunately, many business owners are unprepared for extra work for one primary reason…  Staffing.

Letting go of work to let new employees handle it scares the crap out of many business owners. They built their business from scratch, doing most, if not all the work themselves. From invoicing and appointment setting to inquiry responses and client visits, these owners are heavily invested in the mentality that “Anything you can do, I can do better.” Such mentality can hurt a business drastically.

Consider these scenarios:

• Client invoices have been stacking up for the past two months because you haven’t had time to send them out, therefore you have not gotten paid. 
• Your social media marketing it at a standstill, if your social media accounts ever got set up, so you are unable to prove your expertise to potential clients who don’t even know you’re out there.
• Your email inbox has reached max capacity and you don’t have time to respond to appointment requests, work follow-ups or simple inquiries. Worse yet, most of the emails are SPAM, which frustrates you because the important emails get lost in the crap.

Many business owners tell themselves that they will be able to address the above work on nights and weekends, despite much needed family and friend time. Simple personal tasks and activities like hygiene, grocery shopping and (imagine this) sleep take time, not to mention the slew of outside social engagements you’ve committed yourself to. In your effort to please everyone, your “I can” attitude has turned into an “Oh shit!” outcome.

It’s time to give The Little Engine That Could and his “I think I can” attitude a vacation.  You need help.

Virtual assistants are skilled professionals who can help you with all your behind-the-scene tasks so that you and your business can continue to shine. With a variety of skills including graphic design, website maintenance, research, bookkeeping, client relations, social media marketing, presentation preparation, document/spreadsheet preparation and maintenance and more, you have absolutely NO EXCUSE to be stressing over the grunt work your business needs completed.

Are you ready to take the first big step to true success and hire help? Sutton Creative Studios here to help!

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The Devil Won’t Always Wear Prada

This past weekend I took a break from the hustle and bustle of last week and found myself watching “The Devil Wears Prada” starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. It occurred to me how fortunate we are that none of our (current) clients fall into the “devil” category, and whether or not they wear Prada – who cares?! We don’t!

Sadly, Andy Sachs, the main character, faced a dilemma a lot of new business owners face as well – lack of optimal job opportunities. While they know what type of jobs/projects they would like, either the opportunities aren’t out there, or a lack of experience working such jobs keeps them from winning the project.  In the end, these conditions mean the contractor must accept less than desirable projects and/or clients to keep their bills paid.

At the start of our business, we had a few such devils. Unbeknownst to us when we accepted the projects, our clients expected us to be on call 24/7. Our business hours were changed without our knowledge or permission, and phone calls, Skype messages and emails were expected to be answered immediately into the wee hours of the morning.  (And by wee hours, I’m talking 1-3am).  A failure to respond would result in being reprimanded as though we were 5 year olds tracking mud across a white carpet.

To put it mildly, these clients created much stress for us physically AND mentally. Luckily, we had already invented and implemented our trial period. As long as we stuck it out, did a good job and maintained our tempers, these clients would have no reason to be unhappy when the projected ended. Somehow we managed to keep it together until we could let them go, while at the same time we building a roster of reasonable clients.

If you’ve found yourself in a “The Devil Wears Prada“-type situation, it is important to remember that this won’t last forever. Like Andy, use your time as a “learning experience” and to hone your skills and resume.  And…  If it helps you get through the time you have to work together any easier, imagine your devil wearing something completely hideous…

Important Points to Consider When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

When searching for a contractor in any industry, it’s important to know who your options are and what they charge for their services. The same goes for when you are marketing yourself and your business. While some may not think of virtual assistants as specialists, the services we offer and the prices we quote should be analyzed as much as any other contractor you hire.

With that said, I was more than a little bit surprised by the hourly rates and pricing structure I saw when I visited another Virtual Assistant’s website earlier this week. While I appreciated her candidness, I found it unfortunate that any company or individual would sign with her when other, more flexible options are out there.

Following are a few important points to consider when hiring a virtual assistant:

• Location – Big city doesn’t mean more skills. Unfortunately, a contractor located in a larger metropolitan area may only mean a larger hourly rate, retainer, and time commitment. As a company based in a small town, our cost-of-living is less than our competitors living in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. As such, we can charge less without feeling like we are undervaluing ourselves.

• Charge per Service – Virtual assistants who, like us, offer various services may charge a different rate per service. Our opinion on the matter is different: Regardless of whether we are performing administrative or graphic design services, an hour worked is an hour worked. There’s no reason to complicate the billing process by charging different rates for different services just because our competitors do.

• Blocks of Billable Time…  Or Not – Like lawyers and accounts, some virtual assistants charge for blocks of time rather than actual time worked. At Sutton Creative Studios, if we work for one minute, we charge for one minute. You may wonder how this is possible, and I’ll give you a point-blank answer: We use Freshbooks, and their Time Tracker. When we start working on a client’s project, we push ‘Play’. When we stop, we push ‘Pause’. The time is then recorded and the client is only charged for actual time worked. Period.

• Commitment – Nobody can predict the future. The benefit of hiring a virtual assistant is the flexibility our clients have in terms of hours needed. Some weeks they may have a lot of work, other weeks they may have none. Our policy is simply to ask for two-weeks notice if they foresee their work coming to an end. In return, we also offer the same notice should we see ourselves not being able to continue working for a client.

• Retainer/Deposit – Because we are not fortune tellers, we don’t ask for a one-month (or greater) retainer. Per our standard contract, our “retainer” is based off the client’s initial time estimate, and covers the first two weeks of work *in the event that they do not pay their invoice.* If the weekly invoices are paid, their retainer goes toward their last two weeks of work.  We’re sure you can understand, however, that work on a client’s project stops when the retainer runs out.

At Sutton Creative Studios, honesty is our policy. We’re happy to discuss any of our policies or practices with (potential) clients at any time. Please feel free to contact us with any comments or questions you may have.

Three Signs You’re Undercharging for Your Services

As a new business owner, it is very easy to undervalue yourself and the services you offer. Whether due to lack of market research or in effort to build a client base, you may bid extremely low on projects and find yourself working for close to nothing. The good news is, your fees are not set in stone, and you are able to adjust your pricing from one client to the next.

Following are three signs you’re undercharging for your services:

• Your (potential) client asks, “Why are you charging so little?” Yes, this is an obvious indicator, however it happened to us. Because we initially started our business to earn a little bit of extra income, we did not charge full asking value. We went in low with our proposals and captured a lot of attention.

• You’re treated as an employee rather than an expert. You started your business because you have knowledge in a field and clients are willing to pay for your expertise. This is no different than going to the doctor with an ailment and paying for his expertise. But what would happen if the doctor only charged you minimum wage for his services rather than hundreds of dollars a visit? Chances are you wouldn’t hold his diagnosis and treatment recommendations as highly as you do now. You might also find yourself treating him, and thus speaking to him, more as an employee and with less respect.

Again, this happened to us. The same client who asked why we were charging so little quickly began treating us as employees. Our office hours went out the window, and her attitude over the phone and email because increasingly condescending with each passing day. Our work performance and ethic had remained the same, however we had given up our expert status and treatment when we cut our fees.

• You get hired without an interview…  Repeatedly…  Imagine yourself requesting quotes for a house cleaner or lawn service and receiving a stack from prospective contractors. Among the proposals is a great looking proposal from a contractor with a clean background and a five-star client review. And to top it off, their price is half what the other companies want.

What would you do? Rather than miss out on a great opportunity, a lot of us would hire that contractor on the spot.

Ultimately, however, the interview process is as important to the client as it should be to you. Just because you submitted a proposal and a client is willing to hire you, doesn’t  mean you know all the details about the project or will want to work with the client once you know more. In today’s electronic age, much of the personal interaction that used to take place before a proposal was submitted has been eliminated.  In the midst of a busy day, you might find yourself sending out your standard price sheet in response to a quote request, rather than asking for more information about the project.

Take advantage of your lunch break for the next few weeks and investigate what your competitors are charging for the same services you are offering. How? Create an alias and call or write for a quote. Chances are, they are as busy as you and will toss their standard price sheet your way.

Time Saving Standards for Entrepreneurs

As a small business owner, it never ceases to amaze me how fast time flies. I remember just last year, working for my previous employer, how the work week seemed to drag on. And it wasn’t just the work week – even a morning or afternoon could stretch out for what felt like eternity. And when the weekend finally came it was over in a snap.

If you’re like me, the need (has) presented itself to develop a schedule as well as systems to keep you and your business organized. Following are a few of the practices I have set in place to keep my day running (at least a little bit) smoother.

*Please note – The following tips are geared more towards business-to-business (B2B) service providers than other business types.*

• Business Hours – For some new entrepreneurs, it is easy to fall into the mindset that they can start and end their business day whenever they want. Foregoing the alarm clock, they wake when they want and work into the wee hours of the night. Unfortunately, if their target clients are in their time zone, they could be missing out on potential work and/or client contact. Even if you work out of your home, it is critical to operate your business during standard business hours. So, set your alarm, get out of bed when it goes off, and start your day as if you had to report for work as an employee rather than as the boss.

• Social Media – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can eat enormous quantities of time if you are not careful. To battle the social media time monster, I tend to avoid Facebook during the work day. If I need to hop on, I immediately turn off chat. In addition, I use Hootsuite to monitor our company’s activity, but 1) schedule our posts in advance and 2) only check the streams twice a day for less than 1/2 hour per session.

• Email – I have assigned each of our clients their own folder in my Outlook inbox.  Each time an email arrive, I assign it a follow-up deadline, and send the email to the “Client Name” folder.  Once the task in the email has been completed, I mark the email “Complete” and send it to the “Client Name – Closed” sub-folder.

*Note – I NEVER delete client related emails, as I have found on many occasions that I have had to refer back to “Complete” emails for one reason or another.

• Client-Based Task Lists – When an email or call comes in regarding a task I must complete for a client, I add the task to that client’s task list. This allows me to quickly reference all items if/when the client asks, “What open items are you working on?”

 

• Client Specific Project Folders – While it may seem obvious to some, it surprises me to hear how many professionals save all their computer files, regardless of the client, in one folder.  Not me. Each client has their own folder, and if I am working on multiple projects for a single client, each project has its own sub-folder.

• Internet Windows/Tabs – Before holding a screen share meeting with a new client, I always provide the disclaimer that I will quite a few internet windows and software programs open. While it drives Dave crazy, it’s how I work.

Focusing purely on the internet windows, however, there is a reason behind my many open windows.  Once again, it’s one per client. If I am working on a project for Client “A” that has me referencing several websites, I will open a new tab for each site. Client “B” will have their own window with tabs, and I will have my own personal window. Once I am finished referencing a page, I close the tab.

Given my high frequency of phone calls/Skype sessions with screen shares, this allows each client’s projects to remain confidential. It also allows an ease of navigation while focusing on the work of just one client.

Are you in need of further assistance getting systems in place to maximize your work day? Our coaching programs can help you do just that! Contact us today to set up a FREE 15-minute coaching program information session.