Pink-Spaghetti

PA Services

Efficient, Affordable, Approachable.

Email help@pink-spaghetti.co.uk to find your nearest team!

2021 – Planning Makes Perfect

by

So here we are at the end of another year, and what a year it has been! I don’t think any amount of business planning 12 months ago could have prepared businesses for the testing times that followed, and we should all use this year as a testament to our own strengths and resilience. Of course, this test isn’t fully over yet but as businesses, we are now older, wiser, and more aware of what kind of challenges lay before us for 2021. Which is why we’re proposing to make 2021 the year of the plan!   

Now we’re not saying that nothing will ever take us by surprise or professing to know what happens next as the country tries to regain control over normality but we are certain that by planning ahead we can mitigate some of the potential pitfalls and move towards clear goals and milestones.

Never made a business plan before? There is hundreds of resources available online for you to gain an insight in how to create your 2021 plan and below is our quick, fail safe guide on what questions you need to ask about your business when setting your end of year goals.

Why are you here?

Sustaining a business is hard, and in the midst of the day to day tasks and other external distractions it is all to easy to forget why you even started your business in the first place. Often, just answering the simple question; “Why did I start my business?” can remind us of our original intentions and refresh our drive and passion for the year to come.

What do I want?

Being able to visualise your end goal is one of the most powerful tools in business planning and we’re not just talking about the ultimate retirement goal, even just the goal for the end of the year or for 5 years time is suitable. You may have multiple little visual goals in mind or just one, there is no limit on how many you can have but by confirming your goals you will gain direction and a boost of inspiration on how to get there.

Who am I?

A mission statement for your business is an absolute must! What does your business do and what makes it different to others? Knowing this will allow you to form goals and measure your long term success.

What are your 2021 goals?

Time to list those things you ant to achieve in 2021, no matter how big or small it is – if you want it checked off the list by the end of the year then make sure it is in your plan. Also remember to make sure they are SMART goals; Specific, Measurable, Realistic and the Time-based goals so that you can track your progress throughout the year.

What does my business do?

Time to get 100% clear about what product/service your business is offering. Are you able to clearly describe your product or service, what is your USP, how does your product or service benefit the customer, how will you deliver it? By making sure that you know your product and exactly how you are going to deliver it you will be able to market it more effectively.

Who is my competition?

Competitor analysis is key, work out what they do well and where they fall down – can you offer something different?

What is the cost?

Know your prices and make sure that they are working for you. Remember that for you to make a profit your prices must be accurate and given all of the changes in 2020 it is likely that some of your internal costs may have changed. Perfect time for a cost evaluation.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Being truly honest about what you do well and what you don’t will mean that you are more aware of your limitations and able to avoid potential business risks.

Who is the audience?

Truly great businesses don’t spend vast amounts of time and money marketing to everyone, they put planning into place that allows them to truly define their business audience and target the relevant people only. Work out who your ideal customer is and plan your marketing to play to their interests.

What’s my budget?

The nitty gritty part, you must know your numbers! Make sure that your financial reporting is in good stead so that you can put together a personal budget for the year. Profit & loss, cash flow and balance sheets all need to be accurate so that you can correctly plan your spending for the year.

Plan those projects!

Any business projects you had for the year, write them down and ask yourself who is undertaking them, when they will be doing it and what they need in order to complete it. By doing this you will be able to accurate assess your resources and adjust ready for the project to run smoothly.

Break it down!

Now that you’ve done all of the above you should be able to create a month by month plan for how your business will be progressing towards it’s goals. Naturally, you can then break these down further into weeks if needed.

So there you have it, you’ve created a full year plan for 2021 and whilst it might not protect you from every unexpected change, it will certainly give you a definitive direction and motivation for the year ahead.

Perhaps it has highlighted some parts of your business that you might need extra help on and if so then do not worry. We know that not everyone has an extra hour a day to get everything done which is why our Pink Spaghetti teams are on hand across the UK to help out. We’ve previously discussed the effectiveness of hiring virtual assistants and outsourcing business tasks and thoroughly believe that every business can unlock hours of productive time when they share the burden of business admin.

Our teams can undertake your business tasks with ease and allow you to focus on planning for your year ahead or even allow you to finally reach that goal uninterrupted. We can complete the vast majority of business administration, planning, research, marketing and media tasks on a pick up/put down basis which allows you to get the assistance you need, as and when you need it, in a cost effective manner.

Pink Spaghetti are always available to talk through your business needs and available options, so if outsourcing in order for you to reach your business goals in 2021 sounds like the right path for you then get in touch.

It goes without saying that we wish you all a successful year ahead and remember, if your business is ready to start claiming back time, you can click here to find your local Pink Spaghetti office and give us a call to discuss your requirements.

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

by

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.

Read Full Article

Have you got what it takes to run a successful Pink Spaghetti franchise?

by

If you’re looking for an exciting new business venture, starting your own Pink Spaghetti franchise could be the perfect opportunity for you.

Whilst we offer all the support, tools and advice we can to help you hit the ground running and build a profitable business, not everyone can run a successful virtual PA franchise.

Find out if you have what it takes to be our next success story below, and if you tick all the boxes don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Have had a successful career

Whilst you don’t need to have worked as a personal assistant before to take on a Pink Spaghetti franchise, the challenge does require someone who already possesses the relevant core skills and has previously had a successful career.

Read Full Article

4 key time-saving tips for small business owners

by

After careful consideration, we’ve come up with what we believe to be the top four ways that small business owners can save themselves time and lighten their workload.

Being a small business owner is hard work. When you are the driving force behind your own success and have few or no employees, it’s easy to find your to-do list is as long as your arm every day.Personal Errand Services

Use these four super effective time-saving tips to work more efficiently and start feeling more focused and less frazzled.

Enlist the help of a PA

Sometimes accepting that you are taking on too much and could do with some help is the first step towards business growth. Figure out which tasks are eating up the most of your time, or an area where you could benefit from the help of a specialist and outsource the task to a virtual personal assistant.

Read Full Article

10 tips to wrap up Christmas

by

Piles of presents to wrap?  Looking for painless ways to make your Christmas gifWrapped presentts beautiful?

There are many blogs, videos and websites dedicated to methods of enrobing and adorning your precious gifts, so make a statement under your tree this year and try a few of these tips and techniques.

 

  1. Wrap on a hard surface. It may be tempting to lay things out on the carpet but you’ll get a smoother finish if you wrap on a table top.
  2. Use double sided tape. Ordinary sticky tape serves a purpose but doesn’t look attractive, so why not hide it by using double sided?
  3. No tape? There are methods for wrapping presents without tape which can look fantastic, have a look at this video for an amazing Japanese technique.
  4. Another alternative is wrapping presents in a scarf rather than paper – no tape or ribbons required, and the scarf is a reusable extra gift! See these instructions for the art of furoshiki, or Japanese scarf wrapping.

    Read Full Article

Tick and it’s Gone

by

There is nothing like a good to-do list to motivate you and help you manage time and priorities. It is so satisfying ticking off items however small, and once you’ve ticked, you can relax!

Take care though – lists can also be a way of giving yourself permission to procrastinate. If you put all the easy and quick tasks at the top of your list, you may feel you are getting through tasks, but are you being honest with yourself?

Using Covey’s Quadrants is a great way to prioritising your list. It may take a couple more minutes, but it is time well spent.

Follow this method:
covey

In quadrant 1 you put all the tasks that are important AND urgent. Things where deadlines are upon you, and simply have to be done. They may be small tasks such as cancelling or making an appointment or sending an email about an event happening soon, or something bigger, like preparing the slides for a new business pitch.

In quadrant 2 you put in things that are important but are not urgent. For example taking exercise, spending time with your family, designing a new system for work, briefing your PA on a list of tasks or writing a blog that is due. Often tasks in this quadrant will move to quadrant 1 if they are not completed in a reasonable timeframe and so become urgent.

In quadrant 3 you list the things that are urgent, but not important. Tasks that are here would often be done first, and are the jobs you like to do. For example, checking emails and then responding immediately, checking Facebook for updates, responding to text messages, etc. Turn your mail off, don’t look at Facebook and you will be amazed how many tasks in quadrant 1 and 2 you can fit in.

Quadrant 4 should contain the tasks that you should avoid doing. If a task is not important or not urgent then they are wasting your time. Surfing the net, Pinterest, you all know the tasks that fall into this category!

If you spend more time doing the tasks in quadrant 2, your work-life balance will improve, as will your blood pressure, as fewer items make their way into quadrant 1!

If you’ve ever watched Masterchef you’ll have seen this form of list-making in action, as a contestant under severe time-pressure works his or her way through a task list for creating a complex, winning meal making best use of the time allocated. Luckily most of us never have to operate under those constraints, but the idea holds good whatever you have to do!

Writing this article was a quadrant 2 task, so I am off to check Facebook now!

Do You Hear Voices?

by

Don’t worry, we’re not suggesting you’re losing the plot! But if you’re anything like us, little internal nagging voices are a regular occurrence in your life.

Picture the scene: It’s Sunday evening, you’ve had a fabulous weekend and are ready to snuggle down on the sofa to catch up on the latest from Strictly or Sky Sports (or whatever your guilty pleasure is!), but there’s a small voice niggling away at you and despite the relative calming influence of a glass of wine you just can’t get your mind to tune out and relax.

Chances are your mind is much more active than your body feels and it’s already subconsciously steaming ahead thinking about the tasks that await you in the week ahead.

Your choices are two-fold:

Option one:  ignore your instincts, fight back and hope that you can tune out the little voice urging you to start your week now.

Option two: find yourself 15 minutes before you take another sip of wine to concentrate on what your priorities are for the week ahead.

The sensible approach is, of course, Option Two.  Dedicate 15 minutes every Sunday evening (or any time over the weekend that’s convenient, of course) to silencing that little voice.  Here’s our advice on how to structure that time to maximise your effectiveness.

  • 1)     Review your diary: make sure you know what fixed appointments you have, and where, and work around these in the best way to make your time more efficient and rewarding.

 

  • 2)     Organise key tasks: identify those activities you must achieve this coming week to meet your personal or business needs.

 

  • 3)     Optional extras: line up a couple of tasks that, if completed, would make you feel like a superhero by next weekend.

 

  • 4)     Time out: if you possibly can, find a bit of space for some ‘me’ time.  This will really help recharge the batteries and energise you for the week ahead.   

My guess is that a quarter of an hour each Sunday will lead to you enjoying your evening more, enable you to sleep more soundly, and get you off to a cracking start first thing in the morning.

In fact, you might want to celebrate your organisational prowess with another glass of wine!

Written by Pink Spaghetti York, Harrogate and Surrounds

email help@pink-spaghetti.co.uk or click here to find your nearest team