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Managing a virtual team can be a daunting task for some entrepreneurs and business owners. However, the benefits a team of Virtual Assistants (VAs) bring to your business can be enormous, so it is worth taking the time to work out how best to hire and how best to manage your VAs.
For tips on how to hire your VA, see our previous article here. And for our top 3 tips on managing VAs, read on: “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers” – Stephen R Covey Tip 1: Know their values Knowing your teams values, whether virtual or physical, is a must in order to manage your team effectively. If your VAs highest value is their family, and that is why they became a VA to work from home and spend more time with their family, then you know bonuses of additional time off or financial bonuses to help support their family will motivate them. If your VAs highest value is money, then you know they will appreciate financial bonuses, if it is learning & development then they will appreciate the opportunity to grow in their role and attend courses. Take the time as soon as you hire your VA or team member to find out their top 3 values so you can motivate and reward them to become the best & most loyal team member for your business. Tip 2: Trust Trusting your new VA can be hard. A lot of business owners fear that due to the distance and not being able to see them work physically in an office, they may not work the hours required for their role. This can easily be managed using software such as Harvest or Timeproof alongside a task management software such as Asana. Trust in any relationship is earned, and trust in a working relationship is no different. Give your VA more basic tasks first in order to test them before gradually moving to sensitive or tasks with more responsibility (such as online banking). Tip 3: Feedback Feedback works both ways in managing your team. You should be feeding back to your VAs exactly how they are performing in their role. To do this effectively you need to have relevant KPIs set-up from the start that can be tracked and monitored. Asking your VAs how they feel they are doing in their job and for their own feedback on their role and tasks are important regular questions to ask (at least quarterly). This can lead to improved performance, improved business processes and highlight any blockages that are stopping progress and any training and development needs they have. In summary, treat your virtual team just as you would like to be treated. Get to know the, trust in their ability to get the job done, check in with their progress and results and get their feedback to see how you can improve as a manager to improve them as a vital member of your team. To find out more on how to hire your perfect virtual team, see theviva.club We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.ukand follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams
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Most of our Tuesday Tips have focussed on entrepreneurs who are already running a business, but what if you are just starting out?
For those looking to start a business from scratch, here are our top 3 tips to get you on your way. And for those who have already started, keep these in mind to stay on track: “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream” – C. S. Lewis Tip 1: Learn to monetise something you feel passionate about Creating a business around something you are passionate about will keep you driven and motivated to keep going when times are tough. It will give you the energy and passion to sell the services or products you plan to sell, knowing they are of high value to people as they are of high value to you. Building a business around your passion will mean you will not settle for mediocre or second best and your customers and clients will love you for it and keep returning and referring! Tip 2: Understand your values & enjoy the journey By knowing what your values are and living to them, you are more likely to enjoy what you do and why you are doing it. Your values and their order of priority are unique to you, so invest time in working out what these are for you and ensure you keep working in line with them. Also, don’t just reward yourself at the end… because there is no real end when you own a business - you’ll find there is always a new goal. So treat yourself along the way and enjoy the journey. Tip 3: Take opportunities... a leap of faith To get something different, you have to do something different. Most of us our stuck in a comfort zone and it’s only when something becomes a bit painful that we start to look for something different - a way out. Start to reach outside your comfort zone now and take the opportunities in front of you. For example, one of the first for us was saying yes to investing in our business education (something we had never done before). At the time it was a leap of faith, now we know it was one of the best investments we ever made. When it comes to formulating , planning & running your business, there will be a lot more things to consider. However, staying true to the above three tips will allow you to keep pushing for what you want to achieve and what you know is out there waiting for you. We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams Entrepreneurs and business owners share a common trait, time, and on the road to success we could all do with more of it. With too much to do and not enough time to do it in, tasks get dropped and the time sensitive tasks get done before the important or strategic tasks, giving you the feeling that you are working hard but not progressing fast enough.
The solution to this is for you to work on your high value, important tasks and work ‘on your business’ and to delegate all of the lower value tasks, i.e. working ‘in your business’. The most cost effective way of delegating your low value tasks, the administrative internet-based tasks, is to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA). By doing this you can get your administrative tasks up to date and achieve more internet research and traffic to your website. Hiring a Virtual Assistant is something a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners are doing in order to get the help they need to scale, at an affordable price. The following are our top three tips when it comes to hiring your VA. “Do what you do best, and outsource the rest” – Peter Drucker Tip 1: Improve your Business To-Do List First things first, you need to know what you are currently doing, should be doing and want to be doing so you can prioritise and categorise. Monitor your weekly tasks and to-do list (to capture all you are doing and what you should be doing), write them down and categorise between:
Tip 2: Create a detailed Job Description Create a detailed job description, based on the Leverage and Manage tasks, that allows your new VA to get straight to work, increasing business productivity and freeing up your time. Remember to include KPIs to measure your VAs performance against and link to as many business process documents and training videos as possible. You can also summarise job description to create an inviting job advert to attract the best applicants. Tip 3: Systemise Applications In order to save you time in the hiring process, aim to systemise as much of the application process as possible. Use tools such as Google Suite to create automatic email replies and Google forms for applicants to complete. Then export applicants answers into a Google sheet for easy review and shortlisting. Set up times for interviews via Skype, let your VAs book the times and then conduct your interviews on your pre-prepared question set. The key to hiring successful Virtual Assistants all comes in the prep work. You need to invest time in creating detailed process documents, job descriptions and procedures in order for the right people to apply for the role and for them to get straight in to the job. For a more detailed process of hiring Virtual Assistants including all the template documents you need, check out The VIVA Club at bit.ly/thevivaclub We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams When starting a new business or growing your business, most entrepreneurs need to attract investment. Whether this is from banks, crowd funding, an investor or Joint Venture (JV) partner, you need to present your business or opportunity in the best possible light in order to secure the finance you require. The following are a few tips to help you attract investment for your business or opportunity.
“There are no secrets to success, it is the result of hard work, preparation and learning from failure” – Colin Powel Tip 1: Business Plan A detailed business plan will be required from your potential investor that details exactly what the investment will be spent on. This may be your business plan for your entire business or for a specific project depending on the investment you are looking for, business growth or project specific. These plans should be studied with an analytical perspective of a potential investor so you can pre-empt and address any questions you feel they may have. Tip 2: Know Your Value If you are looking for investment for your business you need to know the value of your business and the projected value of your business, not forgetting to include the value of intellectual property – for example brands, inventions and knowledge. If you are looking for investment for a specific project and therefore the investor is investing in you, you should still value yourself and the skills and knowledge you bring to the opportunity, along with the projected value of the project, the return they will be getting and the exit strategy (preferably more than one to prove the security of their investment). Tip 3: Know Your Offer Now you have your plan and have valued yourself and your business you need to define exactly what you are offering to investors and what you would not accept. Decide beforehand whether you want to pay a straight interest return on the investment or whether you want to form a partnership. Interest returns need to be affordable for your business (ensuring your business/opportunity remains profitable) and attractive to the investor. Where possible, do not offer a stake in your business in return for investment as this could stop you running your business how you want to due to shareholders rights and interests. But in the case of JV partnerships, if the investor will bring benefit to the opportunity then a share of the business/opportunity should be considered. Attracting investment can be an important part of your business’ growth, so stringent planning of must be done before presenting the opportunity to potential investors. Additionally early networking to build relationships with potential investors before you have your investment opportunity will help you succeed. We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams Whether you are investing with a partner to build your property portfolio, investing with a company to get a good return on your money or looking to acquire or invest in a company, conducting good due diligence is key to reducing risk. Due diligence is used to investigate and evaluate a business opportunity. The aim is to confirm that the opportunity is what it appears to be, identify potential defects to avoid a bad business transaction and gain further information to value the opportunity before proceeding. The following are a few tips to ensure your due diligence is thorough and proper.
“Winning can be defined as the science of being totally prepared” – George Allen Tip 1: Define Purpose First things first, you need to be clear about why you are looking into the opportunity and where the value of the opportunity lies. If you are looking for hands-free investment and the opportunity required you to be an active member then you are looking at the wrong opportunity. Be sure you have this defined and that you are not looking at an opportunity purely because it arose. You should also define your level of risk and what would make you walk away from the opportunity. Tip 2: Structured Approach When looking to invest in a business there are three areas to focus on; the trend in the business’ financial results; the outlook for demand and competition; and what has and will make the business competitive in the long term. These three areas can be broadly used when assessing other investments and not just when acquiring businesses; trend, demand and success features. Tip 3: Quality Over Quantity Now you know the answers you need to make a decision, you must ask the right questions. The key to due diligence is not to shy away from asking questions in order to get a true picture of the opportunity. When information and answers are received your focus should be on the quality of the information provided, not the quantity. The quality of the financial information is vital so ensure you receive well evidenced forecasts with no missing data. This just touches on the subject of due diligence covering the approach you should have for gathering the correct information. Meeting with the business/opportunity owners and knowing the values they hold will also be of importance. You should not stop your due diligence until you have a firm answer on whether you wish to invest or not. For larger acquisitions of companies you can hire specific companies to conduct the due diligence for your or the broker selling the company may have already prepared this for your review. But again ensure your mind is clear and that you are happy with the level of remaining risk before you proceed. We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams As any business owner knows, there are never enough hours in the day to complete everything and decisions need to be made when you are out of office as much as you are in office. Therefore to make your business digitally efficient, you will be able to keep up to date, work and collaborate with your team on the move. The following are a few tips on making your business digitally efficient.
“What new technology does is create new opportunities to do a job that customers want done” – Tim O’Reilly Tip 1: Cloud Moving to cloud based computing can give you and your team access to documents from anywhere. Files can be saved, stored and shared from Google Drive or Drop Box, with notes shared via apps such as Evernote and data entered and shared on cloud based software. This allows you to keep up to date at all times and outsource your business away from the office. This can be to working from home/on the road staff or to overseas staff where you can hire full time Virtual Assistants or pay people for specific jobs/tasks, taking advantage of the world market. Tip 2: Apps There are many apps available to help you manage your business and these are constantly changing and updating. Get recommendations from other people in your field and see what they are using so you can minimise research time. The various types of app that could help your business are:
Tip 3: Database Management Now you have the software and apps in place for your business you need to ensure your business operating procedures include effective use of these so that documents are easy to find and up-to-date, all are saving in the correct way and using the same tools, your CRM is up-to-date for anyone to use and email etc. is efficiently managed. As you can see, leveraging technology effectively can increase the efficiency of how your business is run. It is therefore time well invested in ensuring you have the best tools and have the processes in place for ongoing efficiency which will help when your business grows. We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams Generally speaking, the more data a business collects about itself, the more likely they are to succeed, if the data is used correctly. And as a starting out entrepreneur, the data capture often gets missed. However, if a business wants to succeed and grow quickly, they are more likely to achieve this if they have all of the data on sales, finances, KPIs, meetings, expenses, staff, contacts, leads etc. The following are a few tips to help you best use this data.
“If you torture the data long enough, it will confess” – Ronald Coase Tip 1: Know Your Data Firstly, you must know the broad range of data your business could be capturing and put processes into place to capture this. Data can range from sales values per customer, average payment times, social media interest, website analytics and the cost and sales made from events, promotions and advertising. As you can see, not all data captured needs to be financial, but when analysed and acted upon can lead to increases in profits. Tip 2: Frequent Real-Time Analysis Now you have the processes in place to capture the data, you should run real-time analysis. Ideally, you should get a member of your team to collate the information and provide you with a weekly/fortnightly/monthly report for you to scan and analyse. The information should be presented in an easy to read format, where possible pictorially, so you can quickly analyse and make decisions. Data linked to staff, team or business KPIs should be highlighted to ensure that they and you are on track. Tip 3: Act Knowing and analysing the data is not effective without acting upon it. Once you have analysed the data and reports, action plans need to be put into place to address or improve any areas. Examples include:
As you can see, a lot can be achieved from effective use of data and data capture and analysis should be prioritised within your business. Companies can invest heavily in the tools to capture data, only to waste it by not making full use of it. Businesses just starting up should consider capturing data in accounting software and a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and in quick time delegate this task out in order to focus on the reports and graphs the data produces. We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams Public speaking is one of the most common fears and for entrepreneurs and business owners, the opportunity to excel your business often comes with some form of public speaking (for example Catherine Turner, Director of Turner Invest, has spoken and inspired thousands of people on stage at the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp among many other stages).
Whether you are selling to a new customer, pitching to investors or selling yourself and your business at an event in front of thousands, your ability to enthusiastically and clearly communicate your message will directly influence your closing success rate. The following are a few tips to help you succeed at your next speaking opportunity. “All speaking is public speaking whether it’s to one person or a thousand” – Roger Love Tip 1: Mind-Set Going in to a speech with the right mind-set will greatly increase your chance of success as you will be confident and be able to sell yourself in the best possible way. You should:
Tip 2: Plan You should plan your speech but not try to memorise it all word for word. Your speech needs to have interaction and feeling and a totally memorised speech will lose this. You can however memorise the very first part, this is so you know exactly what you are going to say straight away without any hesitation and then this will get you into the flow for the rest of the speech. Tip 3: Practice Practice makes perfect. The more you practice your speech the more you will be comfortable presenting it. Practice the content, the message and the speed of your speech. Make sure you breathe throughout your speech, keep at a moderate pace and pause to emphasise important parts. Overcoming the fear of public speaking and practicing will help you sell yourself and your business to realise your full potential. These have been just a few tips to help you get started. Great learning resources are also available including the audiobook ‘Speak to Win’ by Brain Tracy and a great course that we have attended and fully recommend (to be put in touch with this course, email pa@turnerinvest.co.ukwith the subject Speaking Course Recommendation). We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams Whether to report on progress, set new goals, come up with new ideas, pitch for finance or motivate staff, every business requires meetings. However, a lot of business time and resource can be wasted through poorly managed meetings (as can be evidenced by the number of negative quotes for meetings compared to positive!). The following tips will help you run effective meetings to get the outcomes required.
“The amount of meetings I’ve been in - people would be shocked. But that’s how you gain experience, how you gain knowledge, being in meetings and participating. You learn and grow” – Tiger Woods Tip 1: Specify Objectives The first step for any meeting is to specify the purpose and to know exactly what outcomes you want from it. The topics for discussion should be prioritised to address the purpose and get the required output first. If possible, you should tell the meeting participants in advance of the exact goal required from the meeting so they can prepare themselves to address the area/issue quickly and effectively. Tip 2: Set a Strict Time Plan Tell participants that the meeting will be no longer than half an hour (or whichever the minimum time is). This will drive them to address areas quickly knowing that the meeting end is in sight. When setting an end time, stick to it. Failing to do so consistently will make attendants dread the meeting due to it always overrunning and therefore come to the meeting with less energy and enthusiasm. Tip 3: Minimise Meeting Admin The administration of a meeting can often last longer than the meeting itself. Do not fall into this same trap. Do not write minutes for the meeting, only record decisions made if they require it. Depending on the type of meeting do not spend time on arranging comfortable conditions, coffee or lunch. The idea is to get areas addressed quickly and for everyone to get out of the meeting and back to work, some organisations conduct stand-up meetings for even quicker results. Obviously customer and investor meetings would require extra niceties so do not always apply the same strict rules you would for internal staff meetings. These are just a few areas of maximising the output and efficiency of meetings that you could implement in your business. Remember do not hold a meeting just to have a meeting, ensure there is a set goal. We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter from our home page and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams Project work requires close management in order for them to finish on time, to the specification and on budget. Whether you deal with projects as part of your job, for personal projects or seem to be doing projects continually as an entrepreneur building their business, project management requires extra skills than normal management. Following these tips will get you closer to running successful projects.
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things” – Mother Teresa Tip 1: Assemble a Power Team A project usually requires many skills and if you or your team do not have these it is best to outsource to trusted suppliers/contractors. Therefore building relations with suppliers and contractors prior to you needing them for a project will help you when it comes to choosing and hiring them. Having a strong power team will help you run your project smoothly as they will be able to deal with the issues you are unable to, such as legal or building etc. (unless that is your business). Tip 2: Plan & Review Progress With a strong team around you, you will be able to delegate parts of the project for their management. Ensure you have scoped the project elements in detail, breaking them down in to bite-sized deliverables so you can easily track progress. Forming exact specifications or schedules of work will assist in achieving the desired result and assist with planning the budget and timeline. Identify any critical paths in your project, those tasks that if delayed will delay the whole project, and ensure enough resource and time is allocated to them in both planning and managing the tasks. Tip 3: Communicate Not only do you need a good plan and a great team to achieve it, you need to be able to communicate with the team in order for them to stay motivated and on target. Remember this is your project and not theirs so if they have no stake in finishing on time, it is unlikely they will. Therefore tie in rewards or final payments based on accurate work that finishes on time. You will need to form a balance between ‘hard’ project management such as risk and schedule control and ‘soft’ project management such as leading and motivating your team. There are many tools and techniques to project management that can be used and in some instances you can hire a specific project manager which, again, you should link rewards into finishing on time, to the quality expected and on or below budget. To enhance your general project management skills, PRINCE2 may be beneficial, or if you are running large scale property development projects then we can recommend a great course we have completed (to be put in touch with this course, email pa@turnerinvest.co.uk with the subject Property Development Course Recommendation). We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media. Thanks, Turner Invest Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams |
AuthorsTurner Invest Directors Catherine & Stephen Turner Archives
August 2018
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