Mission vs. Vision: Have you created your vision?

by Michelle Hill-Smith
www.OnTaskAssistants.com

Good Morning, Great Morning! TODAY IS FAMOUS FRIDAY and I'm excited about new things for my business today in preparation for the upcoming week. New clients, new structures and programs, new equipment and new vision! It took me 3 years to learn that if we are unable to move forward with our visions for our businesses, we remain stuck. If we can't remain excited about our business, then it's possible that the mission has been deterred.

Phase two of this trauma is that we become afraid of change which makes it more difficult to earn more and grow. Many people are afraid of the unknown which literally drives them to failure.

I dare you to get excited again! Refresh your organization. Recharge your mind and heart, start building a success team and MOVE FORWARD TOWARDS SUCCESS!

So, here's the punchline: If you have a mission statement for your business without a vision statement, it shows that the direction and growth of your business has not yet been developed or completely thought out. They are created to clearly and concisely convey the direction of your business.

Your vision needs to include your business' embrace of the advancement of technology in the 21st century, the rise of social media and your adaptation to working virtually for the betterment of the earth and productivity of your business. 

For example, the vision at our company (in short) is to simply support clients on a national level and become the number one, highly preferred company (a household name) to provide operational support and consultation to entrepreneurs and businesses on every level. Phase two of our vision is to be able to provide a strong work-from-home platform as well as nationwide locations that will allow people to provide their skills and talents in assisting other businesses with their operations, growth and success.

Think of it this way: Your vision statement is for the future. Your mission statement is for the "now" and helps to define your company's purpose and primary objectives. Your vision statement also defines the purpose, but the purpose is now outlining the future of your company. Ask yourself where do you want to see it in 5, 10, 50 years down the line.

Here is a really cool article I found to help you in preparing both: HERE

It's really important to be able to go back and revisit these components for your business every now and then. They allow you to determine if you're following your master plan. It's your blueprint to guide you in following through and accomplishing what you set for the vision of your company.

Become a Smarter Business in 2012!

by Michelle Hill-Smith
www.OnTaskAssistants.com


As a small business owner in a failing economy, eliminating unnecessary expenses in overhead and operations is one of the sure ways to keep your business afloat. Making this decision is critical to your success. Revamping your business to fit the “Go Virtual” business model should be the first step taken in operating your “Smarter Business.”  Choosing this type of model doesn’t have to mean a major re-writing of your business plan or taking out a small business loan.

This is actually fairly easy and simply requires that you retire the ice-age methods for production and implement 21st Century communication technologies.

Times have definitely changed and all for more productivity, simplicity and a better ozone layer.  Today, many small business owners are able to run a full operation from the comfort of their own homes cutting overhead expenses by nearly 60%.  With major cutbacks in space, leasing fees, property taxes, signage, hardware and furniture, unproductive staff, and utilities, not only are you spending thousands of dollars on the machinery, software, office space and more, the cost of managing other bodies and their needs is quite costly as well.

For this very reason, working with what is known as a Virtual Assistant or Business Support Specialist is one of the smarter ways to do business. However, working with any ole' VA just won't do. Ensure that you check out their expertise, the credentials and most importantly, their compatibility and ability to work with you and provide ALL of your business needs. Find out how they're operating their own business. What systems are they using, if any at all. An additional observation needs to be on the professionalism, organization and reputation of their company. Not only is working with a proficient and passionate individual or team crucial for your own productivity, but it’s also a smart starting point to establishing  better systems for your business.

The benefits of working with a virtual team are endless. From helping you run your office, keeping track of customers, freeing you to gain more productivity to build revenue and much more, a strong team can be the difference between success and failure.  In many cases, your virtual assistant or team will be more proficient than you at certain tasks, and will be able to complete them with greater accuracy and in less time than if you did them yourself.  Because as business owners, we tend to where many hats, even those that are not our type or color, we become severely overwhelmed, confused and unproductive. This costs us tons of time, money and ultimately customers.

Solve this problem by learning to delegate some of your time-consuming projects and activities. If you’re worried about training your new Virtual Assistant or Team to do what you need, keep in mind that they specialize in office management, social media, creative design and many other areas in small business marketing, productivity and operations. Your colleagues are already making strides towards modernized productivity which is to Go-Virtual. Do some research and learn how you to can eliminate issues with time management, high cost of doing business and become a Smarter Business in 2012!

Spring Sprucing: Why it's critical to your success!

by Michelle Hill-Smith
www.OnTaskAssistants.com 

In the place where you live, there's most likely a dyer need to clean something somewhere. The window seals, cabinets, carpet, furniture...the need is always there and the cycle never stops. More commonly, in the spring time, people often have the realization that there are boxes whose contents need sorting and discarding. Furniture would benefit more from being shifted or completely moved in another area of the room. After all, your comfort and sanity depends on it. The weather is wonderful, your mind is clear and you realize that it's critical to perform your house sprucing now instead of later. That's what I like to call "Spring Nesting". It's simply spring cleaning. For some odd reason, at this time of the year, it's feels better to do. Just as an expecting mother begins "nesting" her home for the arrival of her new child. She begins cleaning and putting things in order, despite the pain and agony she may be experiencing. For her, it's an automatic, internally programmed activity that will be done. No one can tell her that those activities, in her state, shouldn't be done.

Every now and then, I like to do Spring Sprucing on my business. Just as my home, my business has a lot of rooms, areas and boxes that need to be taken care of and brought up to date. How many times have you been in total business ready and inspiration mode and received one of those emails from a Forum or online community that you forgot you were a member of? The email seems interesting so you click on it. One of two things happen when you get to that account. 1) You can't log in as you forgot the email address you used to create the account. 2) You log in to the account and view your profile to find that it looks like 3 years prior when your contact information or branding was totally different. Sounds familiar? I know that it does for me. I was the prime culprit of keeping a dirty business home year round. If you look up the word "Non-Spring Sprucer" in the dictionary, my picture would be right next to it.

In my organization, we've changed our logo and contact number over 5 times. Within that time, we've joined tons of online forums, business communities, created several online profiles and written several articles and blog posts to represent our business and expertise. Yes, it is a wonderful idea to extend your business across the globe, however there is one thing wrong with this type of scenario. That's right, you guessed it. Congruency and Consistency. Just as with cleaning your home, things just work better when the area allows room for ease of movement, reach and familiarity.

If your business' home isn't cleaned and spruced up frequently, it makes it difficult to function and represent a professional existence. Here are some things I recommend doing to begin your spring sprucing:

A) Create a Google Account to provide congruency. There are a host of business apps you can use that will all work under that same account. Starting with your email address, it should be of your business' name so that it's never forgotten. This doesn't mean that you can't use the email that's linked to your website. Just link the two together so that you won't miss the emails from that account.

B) Set up a local Google Voice number for your business. This will allow you to always have a number where you can be reached either by text, email or voice. You can set up your voicemail for your business to always answer when you're not available or when you're closed for the day. It's Free and will always be there when you lose your paid phone accounts for whatever reason. There's a misconception that a small business should have an 800 number. Within your first 3 years of business chances are you'll experience slow to no activity so, having additional (besides your cell or landline) paid phone accounts specifically for this will result in a major lost of money that can be better used elsewhere in your business.

C) Go into your Online Profiles and update your contact information, branding, and update your status. Even if you're not using them on a regular basis, it's always best to make sure their up to date and appear active. You never know where your new prospects are going to be. Make sure they can always see you as a business that's still active and still in business.

D) Update your Forms, Website and Marketing Accounts/Platforms. It's going to hurt you more when you're spending countless hours trying to update your business documents before sending anything out to your new prospect. This includes your signature on your emails, brochures, regularly used flyers, business cards and e-mail marketing platforms as well. Be sure to go through them all and provide them a set structure that includes your business name, logo, contact number, email, tagline and social media links.

E) Prepare a binder with all your updated information, services and programs. Call it your Service Guide and put the year of use on the front of it. This is my secret to success. Having this in place will honestly serve as the difference between success and failure for you. I can not stress enough how important it is. If you have information in place that allows you to properly, thoroughly and quickly service your prospects, you will show consistency and orginazation which is what 90% of new clients and customers are looking for.

In short, finding ways to keep your activities for your business at a minimum is ideal. This allows you to spend more time on servicing your customers and finding new prospects. Begin by thinking of all the rooms and areas your business is in (whether online or off). Start Sprucing and don't be afraid to make your small humble changes. If you've accumulated an email list of prospects, don't forget to update them as well on your company's changes. This way, you won't feel so afraid and nervous about your sprucing and the small changes. Think longevity. 

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.