Efficient, PA Services Blog

5 ways small business owners can make more time in their working day

12 August 2019 by Vicky

Imagine all the things you could achieve if you had just an extra couple of hours in your working day.

If you’re feeling time-starved and worry that your business may be beginning to suffer as a result, then it’s time to review where you are wasting time and what you can do to gain more hours in your working day.

Your time is best spent developing new ideas, progressing your business, and focussing on revenue-generating tasks, but if you’re bogged down with the day-to-day running of your business then business growth could be slow.

A shortage of time can be caused by many different factors including inefficient processes, unorganised information, distractions, and a work overload.

Here are five ways you can counteract some of these common problems and start gaining more time in your working day.

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8 signs your small business could benefit from hiring a virtual assistant

19 July 2019 by Vicky

Knowing when it’s the right time to get help with running your business can drive its growth and prevent you from burning out.

Entrepreneurs are often guilty of living and breathing their business.

Burning the candle at both ends and wearing many hats all comes part and parcel with running your own business. As your business grows though, you will find it harder and harder to keep all those balls in the air, all by yourself, all of the time.

Here are 8 signs that it’s time for you to think about hiring a virtual assistant.

You’re spending all day doing admin – If you’re spending all your time on day-to-day admin and there’s no time left for revenue-generating activities, then it’s time to outsource the time-draining tasks so that you can focus on growing your business.

Big ideas and projects keep getting pushed back – If you’ve got lots of exciting projects sitting on the side lines but find that they keep getting pushed further down your to-do list then you’ve probably got too much on your plate. A virtual assistant can reduce your workload, giving you back some of the time you need to work on new projects.

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The top 3 causes of entrepreneur burnout and how to avoid it

4 February 2019 by Vicky

Life as an entrepreneur can be intense, but if you’re constantly feeling exhausted, emotional, and overwhelmed, then you could be heading for burnout.

Choosing to become an entrepreneur can be an exciting, rewarding and lucrative path to take, but the journey can be rocky and it’s important to look after yourself along the way to avoid burning out.

Entrepreneur burnout is usually the result of a prolonged period of feeling very stressed and overwhelmed at work.

Warning signs that you’re heading for burnout can include often feeling anxious, exhausted, angry or emotional. Suffering with frequent headaches or insomnia, struggling to focus, losing the passion for your business, and becoming less productive or listless are also common symptoms of entrepreneur burnout.

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Mailchimp Automation opens up New Possibilities for Small Business

2 October 2017 by Vicky

Mailchimp, Email newsletters which we love for e-newsletter marketing, has just made automation available on its free plan, and this could transform the way small businesses communicate with their customers.

What do we mean by automation? It’s the process of sending out predetermined emails when certain events or triggers happen.

For example:

You could set up a standard email thanking a customer when they have made their first purchase, automatically send out a shipping confirmation, send a follow up email to subscribers who have (or haven’t) opened a particular communication, or even a “Happy Birthday” message or offer – you set the triggers to whatever is most effective for you, it could be an action or an inaction (i.e. those who click on a link, or those who don’t click on it). You can send a series of emails if that’s appropriate, at whatever intervals you require, or on specified days or dates.

The key to making your automated communications welcome to your customers is making sure the content is relevant, the frequency is appropriate, and that they don’t sound like they’ve been generated by a robot! Although everyone loves the efficiency automation can create, no one wants to feel that they are part of a conveyor belt of automatic emails, so make sure your content is personal, friendly and above all useful.

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Do You Love Your Business?

12 February 2016 by Vicky

We are fortunate enough to work with many fabulous business owners – entrepreneurs in the true sense of the word. We’re often asked, what makes them stand out, succeed, grow? The answer is simple, they all have a passion, a love for their business, a drive and determination to make it truly great. But is that enough?

Most people go into business because they love what they do – they may be fabulous at fitness, a wonderful wedding organiser or a caring counsellor, but then realise that running a business is not only about what they love – it is about what they don’t love at all. Bookkeeping, marketing and more, there are lots of tasks not to love when running a business.

The customers we work with carry on doing what they love, and are brilliant at, while handing us the tasks they are not so keen on. One customer recently emailed Catherine, our South Manchester franchisee and said, “This is awesome, should have got a PA ages ago, finally going to get some things done that I’ve been wanting to do for ages!”. People feel relief when they hand things over to us and feel a weight has been lifted once they’ve made the leap and outsourced for the first time.

What about Pink Spaghetti? We are dreadful at dance classes (two left feet), frightful at floristry (no green fingers here) and would make rubbish restaurateurs (although we’re good at eating!) but we do love a good spreadsheet.

From Christmas Fear to Christmas Cheer – Christmas Day Lunch Planning

1 December 2015 by Vicky

It’s your turn to have everyone for Christmas this year but there’s one slight problem – you’re working up until Christmas Eve, the kids will be running amok and you haven’t a clue where to start! Well don’t despair just yet as Pink Spaghetti has a few handy hints on how to make life a little bit easier so you won’t be reaching for the sherry before midday like last year!

The first thing is to get organised and plan ahead and there’s no time like the present.

1. 3 weeks before Christmas, start your festive food shop by ordering non-perishables like nuts, sauces and of course wine and beer! Part-baked bread is also a great standby and ensures nice fresh bread with starters or for nibbles. Also make sure you book your online grocery delivery shop for the Big Day as dates will no doubt be booking up quickly!
2. 2 weeks before the Big Day, you can even start cooking a few recipes to save you time on the day. Make your stuffing, mince pies and perhaps even the starter as things like pate and soup freeze perfectly – just remember to defrost them thoroughly on Christmas Eve!

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eBay – a Great Tool, with a Little Effort!

29 November 2014 by Vicky

eBay is the perfect tool for money-saving…but time-saving it isn’t! Here’s our guide to making the most of eBay.

It can be a real effort to get all of those items photographed and posted, then there’s all the parcelling up and trips to the Post Office. But if it could be simplified…wouldn’t you appreciate making a little money from your pre-loved stuff?

Do
o Think of how much time you have to commit and what you want to achieve. Do you want to recycle just a few more valuable items to raise a little bit of cash or are you running out of space and need to clear out the garage or spare room?
o List similar items in bundles or at the same time and offer to combine postage. Many people buy more than one item if they can save on postage.
o Your homework – to decide whether it is worth selling an item use the “advanced search” box to the right of the main search bar, click on this and you will have the option to see how much similar items have sold for.
o Download the app if you can: listing an item, including inserting the photograph from the same device, only takes minutes with a little practice.
o Put thought into the title and description, including brand, size, type, colour and condition. The more detailed your title the more likely it is to be found.

Don’t
o Worry too much if somebody doesn’t pay, it happens. If after sending a friendly reminder doesn’t work open the dispute process, get your fees reimbursed and re-list.
o Feel obliged to post an item if you have listed it as “Collection Only”.
o Be afraid to list items for parts, I have sold a number of items that no longer work. As long as you are totally honest in your listing somebody somewhere will be looking for the exact thing that you are selling.

If you’ve stuff to clear that you simply can’t bear to take to the charity shop, eBay is perfect – but if you really can’t find a moment to commit…give us a call. We’re experts at listing, selling and sending…saving you time and making you money!

www.pink-spaghetti.co.uk/for-your-home/ebay

It’s All In The Timing

1 August 2014 by Vicky

Here at Pink Spaghetti we love to Doodle, but we don’t mean the day-dreaming through meetings kind, where swans and stars and swirls start to appear all over your notepad. Oh no, this kind of Doodling is all about making our lives simpler…which really sums up the Pink Spaghetti ethos.

In short – Doodle radically simplifies scheduling.

Perhaps you have to get a group of business people in a room at the same time for a meeting. Emails are sent out, phone calls are made, the date is decided, and then the last person you speak to can’t make that date, and you have to start all over again. Or maybe it’s your turn to arrange for a group of friends to go out for a meal, or for the family to meet up.

Doodle is designed to take away the pain and do most of the work for you – and it’s dead simple to use. In fact, we have even used Doodle to show menu options for everyone; MUCH better than wading through a dozen email replies and creating a spreadsheet!
Give it a go yourself:

1. Go to www.Dood le.com. Although you can pay for Premium Doodle, we find the free option gives us everything we need for every day. Choose to schedule an event. Give your event a title and a description if you want, enter your email address and click Next.

2. On the next screen, click on all the days you want to give as choices. Click Next and enter the time slots – you may want to just put one time for each day, or a number of time slots on one day.

There are a number of advanced settings that can be chosen, but if you just click on Next, you can either enter the email addresses you want to send the invitation to, or ask for a link and email it yourself.

As people fill in their availability with a simple tick box facility, you will be notified, and you can click the admin link at any time to see who has filled it in.

At the end you can easily see the slots that suit everybody.

Let us know how you get on!

Life as an entrepreneur can be intense, but if you’re constantly feeling exhausted, emotional, and overwhelmed, then you could be heading for burnout.

For example:

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