Amazing Grace...How Sweet the Sound!

In these trying times for business, we all need a savior! Everyday, we wake up, go into our offices and stare at the piles of tasks that overwhelm our desk. We start on one task which last for a good 30 minutes. We begin another task for another 20 minutes. We find reason to complete another task and that lasts for about 5 minutes. It becomes a cycle. Why? Why is this happening everyday, for 7 days a week?

For many, this cycle runs for as long as 24 months and sometimes longer. It always seems to happen when we are really pushing the pedal for a stronger and more productive business. For some, there’s just a heavy fear of trust. This type of business owner doesn’t necessarily lack the skill to do the task, however, he feels confident in himself to handle everything on his own. He feels proud to wear all of the hats. After all, he can brag to his colleagues about it. Unfortunately, every good day has its end.

Then, there is the other business owner who feels that the things he loves doing most like networking, negotiating and selling are most important and should be priority. After all, these activities are what earned him more clients in the past 6 months. He leaves small yet, important tasks behind in hopes of getting to them later. This individual is the socialite, loves to go out and network for more business. He’s quite successful at it as it is his comfort zone. His business is steady growing; however, the tasks to successfully maintain that growth are expanding along with it. Even though this business has the productivity, its customer base begins to slowly suffer and crumble as the back-office operations are at a stand still.

Are we noticing a pattern here? No matter which type of business owner you are, you will eventually require assistance in order to not become a statistic. Your competition has already made strides towards saving his business. He’s accepted the fact that he can not and must not do it alone. Not only has he gained more time to network and grow his business, he’s also enhanced his business’ presence both visually and virtually! It’s now the 21st century. Doing the same thing for years and expecting a different outcome doesn’t work. The times have changed and so has the way of doing business.

Your competition has taken back an average of 6 hours in his day and here’s how:
1. NO spending countless minutes on dead-end or irrelevant phone calls;
2. NO sifting through and responding to emails every 10 minutes;
3. NO sitting behind a desk bombarded with paperwork, data-entry & blog updates;
4. NO waiting around to answer calls from customers, clients or potentials;
5. NO hair pulling over managing his bookkeeping and paying bills on time;
6. NO more “Mom and Pop” mentality …he’s now social and virtual!

With running a business, we all know that the above list could have gone on for days. In today’s business model, there’s a new way of running an effective, stable and productive business. It’s quite simple actually. The business model of today includes partnership, relationship, duo, assistance…whatever you choose to call it. We could all use a little assistance to make it work. Finding the right individual or firm to represent you and provide the relief you need is not that easy. With this in mind, OnTask Assistants has developed a series of support services to better assist “today’s” entrepreneur, small business and busy professional.

Introducing, Assist Me™, Answer It™, Cover Me™ and Make Me Social™, a series of business support services that cover the business owner with the immediate necessities for his company.

Assist Me™ serves as an affordable office support plan that covers everything in back-office operation from data-entry to accounts payable. Assist Me™ also comes with a 5-35% discount off of creative design services. Cover Me™ provides the essence of your very own personal assistant to help you with things such as gift buying, reservations, travel arrangements and much more. Answer It™ is your live telephone answering service that answers your calls during your company’s business hours. Make Me Social™ is an all-in-one social media marketing assistance platform that makes it easy for you to build your company’s reputation online.

All of our support services are straightforward, flexible, affordable and dependable. For more information please visit: www.OnTaskAssistants.com/ for more information. Or call: 863-874-0333.

It's Show & Tell Day: What story does your business tell?

When it comes to the story of our lives, we often go off in a frenzy complaining the entire way about how much more we want. As business owners, our continuous complaint tends to surround the desire for more revenue. “What else could we do to increase our revenue? We have a website, filled with information. Our inventory is well-stocked with great items! I personally hand out business cards and flyers at least 5 times a week. What else is there? Hmmm, we could add more pages and products to our site…that should work, right?”

Wrong! Simply doing more of the same thing that’s not working isn’t effective for your success. I guess that's doing the same thing, yet expecting different results. As the times change, the way of doing business should follow suit. We have to upgrade our systems, enhance our presentation and modernize our way of thinking. As a business owner you must realize that things don’t necessarily decrease but increase. Technology is ever increasing. For instance, if you are using a Windows version below 98, you’re missing out on a lot as your business documents and systems created using this version may not be viewable or workable for others. It’s time for an upgrade.

So the question remains, what story does your business tell? When a potential consumer is your company’s presence, what story do they get? Is it convincing? Is it a full book with connecting chapters? How about a snippet? Is your company immediately visible or does the consumer have to dig further to get the gist? Well, whatever story you decide to deliver at show and tell, make sure its one that is designed to instantly captivate your listening or viewing audience. It should be filled with vibrate visuals, stellar scenes and believable characters.

A potential customer inquires about your company because they feel that you may have what they need. So if you’ve ever done a show and tell in elementary school this should be familiar.

YOUR ELEVATOR SPEECH

An elevator speech is appropriate in all stages of your business. Before your doors open, your speech should have reached at least 50 people. These same people are going to become a cornerstone in your business as they are the ones who made that first connection with your company. Once a connection is made with a live person about something, for some reason, it tends to hold more power. Consumers need to know you exist. They need to put a service with a face. It makes them more comfortable. It holds more significance and truth!With your elevator speech you will be allowed 15-60 seconds to give a believable, descriptive, jaw-dropping introduction on who you are, what your company offers, and how they can benefit from what you offer.

Remember, you don’t sell the product, you sell the benefits of the product. Keep in mind that an elevator speech is only an introduction. For you, that means that it shouldn’t consist of operating hours, why you’re in this business, etc. Time is truly of the essence during an elevator speech. If you get the customer that enthused about the benefits, they should at that point continue to ask you more questions. This is your chance to spill the beans. Remember, you literally have one chance to whew a customer. Make sound observations from the start and you can never go wrong.

OnTask Assistants have helped hundreds of small businesses, start-up entrepreneurs and busy professionals with their business' visibility and marketing strategies. With much trial and error in presenting their business' image to over 10,000 viewing eyes and listening ears, OnTask have mastered what it takes to solidify their company as a leader in their industry. To learn more on OnTask Assistants, visit: http://www.ontaskassistants.com/

Are you a "Player" or "Go-Getter?"

There are so many times when dealing with new clients I automatically place a title on them. It's either a "Player" or a "Go-Getter." The sad thing about it is that there are more players than go-getters. They start off so excited about starting there own business, everything's map out, then they procrastinate for the silliest reasons. Searching the internet on "how-to's" and "should i's", it becomes a regular practice.

Instead jumping around from site to site reading about everyone else's situation, find one, reliable source that you can submit your questions to. There's a site that I visit all the time where I get valuable info on building websites called http://www.2createawebsite.com/. I joined the forum and ask any question I need answered in this arena. Not only are they super fast on replying, they're very knowledgeable in their responses.

Aspiring entrepreneurs aren't willing to go for it anymore. They get caught up in this trap where, they spend 4-6 hours reading forums. There's not enough of those that are willing to get their knees dirty by going out there and making it work.

There will come a day and time where the Players will get tired of playing. However, at that point it may be too late. The perfect opportunity they had to start their own business may be given to someone else in their niche or market (a go-getter). This person will succeed a lot faster and more prosperously than normal as they want it more. Their confidence is stronger as they believed in themselves enough to just do it! I'm not saying that you shouldn't prepare yourself thoroughly. But if preparing for you is just surfing the net, reading forums for a year, looking at everyone's site, changing your mind on your original ideas...you get my point.

Entrepreneurial Spirits, it's time that you stop making excuses. If you are afraid you must own up to it. If you have the vision but don't know what you're doing, you must let it be known and seek assistance.

When you want something, set aside all childish ways, throw away your comfort zone and make it work. I can testify to the feeling of that opportunity passing you by. When you know it's not going to return and that that was your once in a lifetime moment...it's the worst feeling you may ever feel.

OnTask Assistants offers a FREE Small Biz Start-Up Guide that's filled with helpful worksheets, real-life examples and much more. Visit http://www.ontaskassistants.com/ for your free copy today...and get started!

Remain truthful and passionate to your initial feelings of successful business ownership. You'll feel the excitement once again that will increase your confidence...I promise! Earn the title of a Go-Getter. It sounds better!



Michelle Hill-Smith

OnTask Assistants

Your Business is Our Job!

Enhance Your Business Today!

Attention all business owners, in my recent research for presentable firms, I've noticed a continual pattern. Many of us aren't looking up to par. I don't want to offend anyone as we all have our niche and expertise, however, some firms are just very "amateur looking" ...not presentable. In our web presence it shows when we do things that are out of our expertise. The creative streak isn't shining. The worst part is that when you run across these same sites 6-months to a year later, THEY STILL LOOK THE SAME! We are afraid to ask for help.

It's Okay! There's help! When it comes to branding a business there's a time when one must take the back seat and ask someone else to stear. I did! It changed many things for me...most importantly gave me mounds of confidence when presenting my business to others. OnTask Assistants are pros in this area. We are constantly reaching out to fellow business professionals in this area.

Through our Creative Design services you have access to fresh and innovative logos, flyers, business forms and much more at extremely discounted prices. You may wonder why we do this. Well, we do a lot of referring of clients and if your firm isn't "presentable" we will "refuse to refer." We get a lot of clients...it's that simple. We scour the net for firms that are confident-looking, professional-looking, and knowledgeable-looking. Of course, you don't have to depend on our business to find you and refer you but it's a pretty cool thing! From one business owner to another. From a friend to a friend.

OnTask Assistants have an extreme passion for helping other businesses. Like we always say "Your Business is Our Job!"

For more information on Branding and Creative Design Services visit: www.OnTaskAssistants.com or call (321) 746-9932.