I currently answer phones for 4 separate companies; two of them being a virtual storefront where I answer phones, take orders, make changes, one of them being a small independent contractor who wishes to have a human being answers his phones to give his company a good “face” and the other a doctor whom I do scheduling and message taking for.

When working for the doctor I feel like I am back at my last job which was working at a doctor’s office.  I get to regularly communicate with patients getting to know them by name and them getting to know me and not many of them wiser to the fact that I am over 150 miles away.  I make great connections with customers on the phone for the storefronts I work for taking orders, helping them make selections and answering questions.  I recently had a customer say that the customer service was so great at that store that they would come back again and again.  Wow!  I’m not missing a thing; in fact I get to be so diverse in my range of customer service skills that I get to train my skills out every day in many different ways and my clients benefit also with knowing that they can trust someone else to handle the calls while they handle the more important facts of their business.

If you have been thinking about going virtual with you business and getting an off-site receptionist here are some tips to find the right person and what may be expected of you:

ü  If you have a small businesses think about getting one independent person instead of hiring a company.  Your customer or clients will get the same person when they call.

ü  Make sure you speak with the person directly to see if you like their voice and attitude.  Would you want your customers or clients to speak with someone who you wouldn’t want to?

ü  Make sure they charge per call and that their minimum is low (if they have one).

ü  What may be expected of you?

ü  You will probably be asked to provide the calling service which usually offers a low monthly minimum.  Check out Ring Central www.ringcentral.com which is a popular program.

ü  Provide a script for the receptionist so that they know exactly how you want the calls to be answered.

Follow these few simple rules and you and your business will start being more efficient than ever and your customers and clients will enjoy it too.

1) Just like the previous business you worked for there were hours.

Whether you stuck to them as an employee while you were there or no there are always clearly defined hours of operation.

2) Have a clear definition of what you will and won’t do.

Just like an employee manual has clearly defined rules, have them for yourself and what you expect for your new business. You call the shots now so make sure you get what you want form this experience and expect nothing less.

3) If you have employees, treat them how you wanted to be treated.

If you’ve already broken free from your old job, did it feel like a ton of bricks were released from your back?  Would you say it was mostly due to your boss?  Take a cue from all those bad days that are behind you and treat your employees how you would have liked to be treated.  Making work a fun place to be and not just another dreaded place to go in the morning will make your employees happy and you too.

Most of all remember this is your “9-5” so make every minute count.

Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give yourself one.

I found these great questions from HubPages.com article “Great Employee Appraisal Questions”.  The questions seemed straight forward enough and really good ones to ask when you are trying to figure out what your employees think and how they feel about your company.  But what I thought most about was how bosses should perform the evaluation on themselves every year as well.  I wonder how many bosses step back and take a look at themselves and their performance?  Ask these hard questions that you wouldn’t hesitate to ask an employee:

• What specifically have you done to increase the value you contribute to the business than 12 months ago?
• When you do a great job, how do you like to be recognized and rewarded?
• Thinking of the future, if you could create your dream role what would that look like?
• What specifically have you done to increase the value you contribute to the business than 12 months ago?
• What new skills and experiences have you acquired in the past 12 months?
• What specifically makes you stay with our business? What would tempt you to leave the business?
• Thinking about the best managers you have had over the years, how do you like to be managed? What did they do or not do that made them a great manager?  (This is probably the most important since the key to great relationships with your employees is treating them the way you would like to be treated.  Use the answer to this question in effectively managing the way you would want to be managed.)

Now maybe it’s hard now that you’re the boss to ask yourself these questions.  I’m sure you’re saying “Hey, I run things around here so this is a waste of time.”  But it’s not.  Knowing what you have in common with you employees and making sure you all have a common goal for your business in mind is an extremely effective tool for growing your business.

What do you feel your time is worth?

I’m sure everyone thinks it’s a million dollars an hour but be realistic.  Generally you could probably take the salary you would like to make per year and divide by the number of hours you work and then you would come up with your hourly rate.  But is that your “real” hourly rate? 

How much work are you willing to put in?

Consider the time that you don’t bill for like bookkeeping and all administrative hours you spend and any time you spent getting that client as well as marketing, pounding pavement, making and taking calls at all hours, etc. etc.

Consider your clients and your competition.

It is a dog-eat-dog world out there and finding clients and beating out the competition is tough.  A person can charge up to as much as $45 an hour but if 90% of he or she’s potential clients are considering price as a factor then a $10 an hour virtual assistant will usually win out regardless.

In my situation I just feel blessed to be surrounded by amazing people who teach me something new every day.  On top of that I get to work on my back deck when it’s nice out and have a home cooked meal waiting for my family every night. I should be paying them for this! (Just kidding)  Plus I live in a small town in Michigan so my cost of living is fairly low. As long as my bills are paid and I have extra left over for fun then why not pass those savings on to the hard working individuals that are trying to grow their business without paying a lot of money?  I see it as a real win-win for everyone.

In the beginning my days were spent running up and down the stairs so that I could answer the phones in a quite setting because of course no one sounds professional with a 1 year old in the back singing The Backyarding’s and we only had a desktop up stairs.  Over the year I progressed to getting a hands free, noise cancelling headset and a laptop.  The headset of course was not noise cancelling and the laptop burned out a little before I did. 

I worked late nights, early mornings and was soon falling behind on my work which was not good if I was going to support my family and be the global sensation that I wanted to be.  Then a break, my mother-in-law retired.  She started taking the little one 2 days a week and it was heaven.  I was going to work on the days he was gone so I could focus my attention on him when he was home and it lasted about a month.  Soon we were back to him in front of the TV and mommy running up and down the stairs like a mad woman.  Not good, something has to change for good.

I love to write things down and then figure them out so I turned to my trusty journal and pointed out the 3 things that were wrong and how I was going to fix them:

1)      The little one is my top priority yet he is getting hardly any attention during the day.

This is one of the worst parts of being a WAHM (work at home mom) there just isn’t enough time in the day to work & give all your attention to your little one.  I put him in daycare 2-3 days a week when he is not at his grandma’s.  I have found that this was something I should have done 2 years ago he has a blast with other kids and I get the amount of hours in I need so when my family is home we are spending quality time together.

2)      I did not have a clear work schedule.

I was working late at night and on weekends. I was clearing my stuff off the table to eat or I was begging my husband to pick up take out because I was still working.  Now I make sure that the computer is not on before 9:00am and shut off by 6:00pm, no excuses.  I have bended a little to work on weekend for my business, only!

3)      I wasn’t happy.

Period, I was not happy.  The whole point of having a wonderful family and being able to have your own business is to be happy and I wasn’t.  I was always stressed because I had no clear boundaries set for “home” or “office”.  They can’t be one in the same.  For years I have been using the kitchen table as my office but we are currently setting up a home office so that I can make sure that I am not checking email while eating dinner. 

Reevaluation of life is a great thing, maybe list out your top 2 things that you may not like about your business and how you can change it.  But also it’s a good idea to list 3 things that you like about it: 1) I adore the people I work for and have made incredible relationships 2) I like helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow their businesses ~ it feels great to be a part of something greater and not just another employee and 3) the sky’s the limit ~ I just have to check back in with myself and set my own navigation.

After looking more into it I found this GREAT set of videos from Lisa at 2CreateAWebsite.com that does videos about everything from creating a website to using video and YouTube to generate money.  I am hooked.  I love it when people give great, free content. 

I am about to venture in the next couple weeks after much more research and I will report back about my findings and maybe even launch my first video!

Blogs

Blogs are a great place to learn, share ideas, thoughts and comments.  I try to read a couple blogs a day and comment ONLY when I feel I have something necessary to say.  You wouldn’t want to be the person in line at the bathroom who feels they have to say something, anything to get noticed. 

Webinars

I can tend to get obsessed at attending Webinars but the information is always so good and most of the content is free.  It is great when at the end they say “Questions” I am usually right there.  It’s like playing pool at the back of the bar with really great players that are willing to show you how they score.

 The Ultimate Cheers…Twitter

Too many people get hooked into the number of followers they have rather than getting a true community together.  Only follow people that have your same philosophies and ideas and please delete the suggestive followers who are trying to sell, sell, and sell because they can be the perpetual “drunk guy” in the room.

The day that my husband proposed I had learned some particularly hard news.  I came home that day in tears and spilled my drama filled rant on him.  He stroked my hair and listened patiently.  He asked “IS there anything that I can do that will make your day better?”  Of course I was upset and said “NO! “ Shortly thereafter he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.

Now why did I tell that story?  It is a perfect example of having the right partner at the right time.  Even though I felt like I had the weight of the world in my shoulders I had someone that I could turn to.  When he had an opportunity to not go forward with a partnership that may potentially full of such days he still went through with his proposal.  Now that is what I call a perfect partnership. 

There are lots of things to consider when you consider if a partnership is good for you & your business.

1)      Connectivity. Do you connect on more than one level?  Because partnerships are full of peaks and valleys so make sure that you can stick together no matter what the terrain.

2)      Do you have fun together? My husband and I have lots of fun together.  He makes me laugh and we can talk about anything.  Would you want to spend the next 25 years in business or in life with someone that you can’t share a great laugh with?

3)      When the tough gets going the going gets tough.  Make sure that you can handle the pressure when things start to go south and that together you can get back on course.

4)      Passion.  Well in marriage it’s important but for business I am not referring to what you think.  Are you both passionate about the goals that you wish to achieve?

5)      Opposites attract.  My husband and I have the same passion and goals in life but we aren’t cut from the same cloth.  We like different things and feel that it is important to have our own life and are fairly independent thinkers so that is probably what makes it work the best because we both bring different traits to the table.

6)      Figure money out and make it a bottom priority.  I read an article that said the #2 reason why marriages fail was because of “Financial concerns and difficulties”. Then I read another article that said that “Conflicts over money are very high on the list of reasons that 70% of business partnerships fail” My husband and I saw this is a similar problem with other couples that we knew that got married and we didn’t want any part of it, we have separate accounts, split our bills and don’t make money and issue.  When setting up a partnership hammer out the finances BEFORE jumping into business together, get it written down and then put it on the back burner. 

No I’m not a psychologist or counselor and I don’t claim to have all the answers, and in the scheme of  things I am fairly new at this, but I do know one thing and that is life is a short and mystical journey that should be full of memorable experiences and enjoying life so make sure that you choose the best person to share it with.

Over the years I have had my fair share of jobs, most of them I’ve liked and most of the I’ve despised.  It seemed like the ones that I hated most was the ones with the dreaded “bad boss”.  The whole reason why I started my business was after an incident with a “bad boss”.  If you look at the employees in a business that has a notorious “bad boss” you can see it on their faces, sad and shallow and just broken. They get up in the morning and don’t want to go to work and when they interact with customer or clients it usually is with lack luster appeal and conviction is what they do.  This cannot be good for business.

The thing that makes a great customer/client experience is your employees.  They are generally the first contact with someone who is interested in your services or goods.  Here are a couple ways to show your employees that you care and how valuable they are.  If they believe in your company and love their job they are going to give it their best. 

• Let your employees know that if the company does well, they do well. 
• Give praise often and not in the form of “Employee of the Month” which is old hat think gift certificates, longer lunches or even a day off.
• Involve employees in every step of your process.  Don’t think that just because Judy is a receptionist she can’t be a more integral part of another team.  Cross training is a great way to get people involved in different areas of your company as well as keep them from getting too bored or comfortable in their defined position.
• Don’t worry, eat happy.  Share lunch with your team as often as possible.  I think that if you have a small business and it’s possible why not each lunch in the break room with your employees or share a coffee break with them, they will look at you as more of an equal which can make an “open floor” discussion for some great ideas.

The best saying I’ve ever heard was from a former boss of mine, he said “We want our employees happy so that you like your job and keep our customers happy.”  Pretty simple philosophy I think.

This is about the time that things start slowing down for me as a virtual assistant.  With Christmas not far off and heating bills getting larger this is a time when a lot of business owners tighten their belts and due some of the administrative on their own or hold off on big projects that I would normally complete for them.  So after the first year I came up with a couple different ways to get me and my business through the slow times.

Be “Hamburger Helper”

Every other month at my local grocery store you can buy a box of hamburger helper 10 boxes for $10.  Then they have a great sale on hamburger as well and then you can feed your family a different meal every night for roughly $3 a night. 

Now why am I talking about this you may ask?  It’s because Hamburger Helper they see a way to give the consumer a value when it’s needed.  Even though I have talked before about having the right rate for your business there are times when it’s just necessary to give your customers and clients a little break.  Mine was to run a reduction in my transcription fee, it’s not much but enough that new clients are going to see the value and perhaps choose me instead of another transcription that is not running a special.

Think Peanut Butter & Jelly in the Same Jar

Making connections is such an important part of business that you have you cannot ignore it, but have you been ignoring your peers and not thinking that they could be a partner in the tough times?  Like I said think PB & in the same jar.  One is smooth and savory the other is fruity and sweet but together they are delicious why not make that same magic with another person in your industry?  Maybe you know more about one part of your business than another person or vice versa but together you both could be the perfect combination that customers and clients are looking for.

Offer the Ultimate “Impulse Item”

Right when you are checking out there are those “impulse items” like candy bars, gum, magazines and even batteries.  Making this a part of your business could be a good way to earn extra income for when times get tough.  Think about offering a an EBook with a free white paper or article having it more likely to be brought, propose that client purchase one service and get a discount on another that they may not have thought they needed just little things that can add up over the course of a year.  But unlike gum that sits at the bottom of your purse or the C Batteries that you didn’t need because they were the wrong size make sure that what you offer to your clients or customers has value and will be a great investment for them.