Is Hiring a Temporary Remote Worker a Viable Option for My Business?

A very straightforward question, with a number of very simple answers. How about these for three of the best?

In one word: “Yes”

In two words: “Bolton Staffing”

In three words: “The Remote Revolution”

Three rather varied solutions, but all resulting in the same outcome:

Bolton Staffing’s remote offshore staff will provide you with the specific skill-sets and competencies your project requires while improving your productivity for less than half the cost.          

And that is the Remote Revolution in a nutshell.

Here are 5 Reasons Bolton Staffing Makes Hiring Remote Temporary Workers a Viable Option:

• Bolton Saffing sources our remote workers from a global talent pool. This means we can fill the specific role you need, whether it be clerical, administrative, technical or managerial.
• It doesn’t matter how many virtual staff you need. With Bolton Staffing you can build your project seat by seat, or start with a substantial team for a major project.
• Bolton’s remote staff are dedicated to your project and work solely for you. Because they are employed full time and supervised by us, you avoid risky work-from-home scenarios.
• Bolton Staffing only charges you for the hours you need your dedicated virtual employee(s) to work, and nothing more. A full-time contract usually comprises 160 work hours per month, but Bolton Staffing offers the flexibility to create long or short term contracts tailored to your specific requirements.
• Bolton Staffing provides a turnkey solution that includes facilities, human resources, recruitment, payroll, and inclusive services for all your offshore team members.

The end result is cost savings for your company combined with improved productivity. Bolton Staffing takes the work out of recruiting for you, allowing you to focus on the daily operations of your business.

The Advantages of using E-Check Payment Services for your payments

Electronic Check Payment services or “e-check” is a kind of payment system that provides merchants the option to offer their customers the choice of paying for goods by check but enables the check to act as a debit or credit payment function. The amount and needed information such as bank account numbers from the check is captured and routed through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) which transfers the money to the merchant’s account via e-check services data conversion in just a few hours.

The clear advantages of using this kind of payment method for both merchants and consumers include:

• Convenience and Efficiency

E-check payments reduce the amount of paperwork and the number of people needed to process the payment. In place of people, computers are the ones used to run the process from end to end thereby boosting convenience.

•   Accuracy 

Since less people are involved in the payment process, the risk of human error is reduced in the transactions. This method also enables the merchant and consumer get accurate purchase and bill payment records.

The transfer of information between banks is improved significantly which reduces the amount of Non Sufficient Funds (NSFs). Merchants are informed right away when there is lack of funds without incurring additional fees which gives them the time to deal with consumers quickly using an alternative payment option.

Consumers on the other hand also get to avoid NSF fees as they are given the option to approve or reject an e-check more quickly.

•  Payment Flexibility

E-checks give merchants the option to provide more payment options to their customers. It also enables customers to pay by check 24/7 with any merchant who can receive e-checks.

With e-checks merchants can use the internet, the telephone (Telephone automated payment option) giving their customers flexible payment options and convenience for their purchase and bill payments.

Truly, the advantages of using e-check payment services prove to be very rewarding for both merchants and customers. Choose to integrate this payment option in your transactions and reap the rewards.

 

A Day In The Life Of A Virtual Assistant

Reblogged from: Tim Reading

My friend Todd White shares what his typical day is like while working as a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines who makes sales calls for a client based in Australia.

The life of a virtual assistant can be a sort of drag for some for the working shift takes a lot of time to get used to. Usually  here in the Philippines, a virtual assistant is asleep during the day and is awake working at night and so on the next days until rest day has come. Usually the shift never changes unless of course you get transferred to another work schedule by your manager or client.

There are quite a few companies that offer the usual 9-5 working routine which is largely preferred by most agents as they get to enjoy the normal schedule without stressing their body clocks and most importantly, they get their usual rest days on the weekends.

Although a bit strenuous, living the life of a virtual assistant has its own rewards for the job opportunity is open to anyone who’s fluent in English and has reached a certain level of education such as college. Virtual assistant companies compose the large bulk of employers in the Philippines because Filipinos are highly skilled when it comes to communicating in the English language, using a PC and can easily adapt to the technologies employed by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies.

A virtual assistant begins his shift by logging into his computer and wait for clients to call and assist them with their needs. This however depends on the type of account that he is handling as other call centre agents are assigned to call customers to introduce a new service, sell new products, ask for customer feedback or solve problems. Each of these processes is handled by agents who have undergone special training that’s tailor- made to the need of the customers. This is the daily task of an agent and the same goes for other companies engaged in the BPO industry whose services also includes Bookkeeping and SEO services. It’s all about quickly and effectively responding to the needs of customers and get their satisfaction.

Another routine of a virtual assistant would be meetings with superiors for the monitoring of daily performance and coming up with effective ways to better serve clients. In my company, we usually have meetings with our managers for our daily performance reports and on Fridays for the round up of our weekly performance stats.

Virtual assistants enjoy their break time periods in their quiet rooms or recreational areas (for some companies) so they can take a moment’s rest and while their time away from work or spend some quality time with friends and office mates.

An agent’s day usually ends with the managers informing subordinates (usually posted on the bulletin boards) about incoming activities and of course, team and company updates. In my case, I just take a short glance for anything worth checking on the bulletin board and wrap up my day with a mug of brewed coffee before shutting down my PC.

Virtual Assistant: The Busy Realtor’s New Best Friend

Virtual Assistant: The Busy Realtor’s New Best Friend.

Realtors are one of the groups of professionals that are starting to really take advantage of the virtual assistant market. As a Realtor you have a lot of things to do all day long, every day. You are obviously already good at time management, but imagine if you could just take a couple of tasks off your plate, all the time that you would free up to work on other things, or maybe even relax a little bit. There are monotonous tasks that you have to get done to keep your business running smoothly, like database maintenance, telemarketing, mailing thank you cards, gathering information via internet research and much more. These things all sound easy, but when think about how much time you actually spend doing these things it adds up.

Related Articles: What To Look for in a Virtual Assistant

 Let your VA take over things like social media, blogging, and posting listings on various sites. Those are simple tasks that can take up a lot of your valuable time. When you look for your VA find a company or person who has people who specialize in real estate VA work. Then you can use them to be your listing coordinator, open house coordinator, or direct marketer. Imagine if you never had to make an uncomfortable cold call again. Wouldn’t that be nice? If you do speaking events, conferences or other hosted events your VA can help you with speech writing and even planning the event. There are just so many things that you could get help with without having to have an office.

Related Articles: Hire a Virtual Assistant today

 How do you find your virtual assistant?  Ask around your community of realtor contacts. There is a boom right now of Realtors using virtual assistants, so ask someone you know if they have used one, if they haven’t chances are they know someone who has. Don’t jump right in either. Once you find a VA you think you would like to use, give them a small task. See how well you like the results, how fast the turn around time is, and whether you had good communication. If it works out then you can use that person to do other things for you. If it doesn’t work out, you just find another one and try again. That is the beauty of a VA if you don’t like the result you don’t have to fire anyone you just don’t use them again. Check out your VA’s website, read their blog, and check out their social media accounts, it will be helpful in finding a legitimate VA with a record of good work.

Outsourcing Your Inbound Call Centre to PA Everyday

Outsourcing Your Inbound Call Centre to PA Everyday.

How Many Times Should You Try?

reposted from:Vlad Shyshov

Source: Funders and Founders Blog

• 3 times Steven Spielberg was rejected by University of Southern California,  after which he dropped out to become a director.
• 26 times Tim Ferris’s book The 4 Hour WorkWeek was rejected  by  publishers
• 104 times an average couple has sex before conceiving
• 162 times the author of this infographic made searches for this data
• 300 times founder of Pandora.com approached investors before he got funding
• 400 times a National  Geographic photographer shoots before getting the final image
• 1009  times Colonel  Sanders  who  just started KFC was turned down when  he  tried  selling  his fried  chicken  recepie
• 5126 times James Dyson created failed prototypes of  his  vacuum cleaner before succeeding

5 Tips and Tools to Create a Company Culture When You Run a Virtual Business

by:Nadia Goodman

At Facebook headquarters, their company values are written right on the wall. Slogans like ‘Move fast and break things’ or ‘What would you do if you weren’t afraid?’ encourage employees to be aggressive, fearless, and innovative — the hallmarks of Facebook culture.

But, for those who run a virtual business, company culture is much more difficult to establish. Technology, rather than a physical space, becomes the most effective tool.

Laura Roeder, the CEO of LKR Social Media Marketer, a social media training service for small businesses, has been managing four full-time employees and a host of contractors since she started the company in 2007. All of them work remotely.

LKR’s collaborative, hardworking culture shows that conscientious leaders at virtual businesses can still create a vibrant culture, even without a shared space. Here’s how:

1. Welcome new employees with a virtual orientation. A comprehensive introduction to the company is important on an employee’s first day, especially when they work remotely. “We do a full-day virtual orientation where we walk them through the different parts of the business,” Roeder says. Not only does that help new hires learn the ropes, it gives them a more tangible feel for the team and company.

Related: How to Maintain Security When Employees Work Remotely

2. Encourage casual conversation. “One of the most important things to do is establish casual, friendly connections among your team,” Roeder says. She recommends Yammer, a private social network for companies. “Yammer is our virtual water cooler where we post updates on work, but also chat and make jokes,” she says. That sense of connection helps keep employees motivated.

3. Hold video conferences and calls. To improve communication, Roeder utilizes video whenever possible. For team calls, she uses Google Hangouts, a group video conference tool, while Skype is her go-to for individual calls. “Video is always preferable over phone,” she says. “We can connect face-to-face even when we’re far away.”

4. Keep everyone in the loop. To create a cohesive team where work is recognized and valued, you need an effective way to communicate each person’s work status. Roeder uses a website called IDoneThis.com  “Everyone gets a quick, easy snapshot of what’s going on at the company,” Roeder says. The updates reinforce that they’re working toward a shared goal. “And yes, I fill out IDoneThis too,” she adds.

Related: 5 Business Conversations to Have Today

5. Reinforce your vision and mission. When employees are scattered, it’s easy to lose sight of the end goal. Roeder hosts an in-person retreat each year, which she sees as an opportunity for the team to vision, work, and bond as a group. “Our values are also inherently folded into a lot of the conversations we have,” she says. If a retreat is not in your budget, you might try sending out a book you love that speaks directly to your mission or highlighting those employees that are living the company’s values.

 

image credit: Shutterstock

Read more stories about: Virtual Assistant, Bookkeeping,Blog Writer

 

Need a Vacation? 4 Steps to a Business That Thrives Without You

BY Brad Sugars

It’s that time of year again when you and a lot of other entrepreneurs may be looking at former 9-to-5 colleagues with some envy, as they plan their annual two-week vacation with family or friends.

One of the questions I always like to ask business owners is: “Can you afford to take two weeks away from your business and have it run as smoothly as it does when you’re in it?”

If you can, that’s great. You’ve successfully found a way to systemize your operations and put people you can trust in charge of running things and getting the job done.

If you can’t, or if you’re in a growth stage where you don’t see how it’s possible, you need to step back and assess how you’re working your business — or how your business is working you.

My definition of a successful business is a “commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you.” Note the last part of that sentence because until you can systemize and scale your operations to work without you, all you’ve done by starting a business is given yourself a high-paying (hopefully!) job.

And unless you really like to work at your job, instead of finding ways to create a stream of income from your operation, you’ll find it very difficult to leave your company for any length of time. And that can be the quickest way to burn out.

Related: Why Your Company’s Founding Principles Matter

A great resource for learning about systemization is Michael Gerber’s E-Myth book series (The E-Myth Manager and others). If you haven’t read any of his material, add it to your summer reading list. If you have, read it again with the goal of systemizing repeatable ways of generating cash flow and profits.

Systemization truly is the key to being able to step away from your operations. But it’s even more important than that. You won’t have a sustainable business until you can systematically generate cash flow and then work on doing the same for profits.

What’s the best way to go about creating a systemized company? Here are four suggestions:

1. Establish your default position. Benchmark where you are right now in your company in terms of your numbers and the different jobs in the company, including whom those positions report to. Yes, it’s OK if you’re in all the positions — at least for now. This benchmarking will give you an idea of how you can hire people to take repetitive or administrative tasks away from you. Do you really need to be doing your bookkeeping when you should be selling?

Related: Finding the Right Mentor to Help Grow Your Business

2. Begin with the end in mind. You may have a clear idea of your company’s vision, mission and culture, but if not, you should try to clarify them. You can think in terms of a sports team that you own and coach, and ask yourself these questions below. Once you know where you’re going, it’s a lot easier to get there.

• What’s your “big picture” objective: Win a lot of games or win multiple world championships?
• How will you make your vision a reality?
• What makes you different from other teams?
• What kind of team do you want to recruit and create?
• What type of acceptable behavior and work ethic are you looking for?
• How does all of this deliver value to your customer?

3. Focus first on a system for “buying customers.” Nothing in business happens until a sale is made, and to become a going and profitable concern, you need to establish a system to consistently generate cash flow and profits. This means establishing cost-effective ways to “buy customers” and sell them something over and over again. It can be as simple as tweaking your advertising or establishing better, more consistent communication with current customers to ensure repeat business. Target your top-spending and fastest-paying customers — typically the top 20 percent or 30 percent of your base — and you’ll do more to establish long-term cash flow in a few months than some companies do in years.

4. Keep your eye out for a good “jockey.” Start to look for a person qualified to run your business based on the systems you’re implementing. Remember, the goal is to have systems run the business and people run the systems. Unless you want to forever be tied to your company and always own a job, you need to shift your mindset from one of ownership to delegation. And once you do, you’ll be amazed to see how many people with a talent for running companies show up on your radar.

Summer is a great time for business owners to reassess and reflect on where the company is — and where it’s going. At the same time, think about ways to systemize your business so that when you take your next vacation, you will really enjoy yourself and return to a company doing even better than when you left it.

Related Topics: Virtual Assistant, Bookkeeping, Blog Writer

10 job titles to avoid in 2013

by Patricio Robles

It’s the New Year, that means that career goals are top of mind. Many employees are looking to move up or move out.

Freelancers and consultants are looking to ensure that 2013 is more prosperous than 2012.

When it comes to moving one’s career forward, job titles often matter.

Even if we’d like to believe that they matter less and less each passing year, your ability to succeed may be based, in some part, on what goes under your name on your business card.

With that in mind, here are 10 job titles seen in digital roles that you may want to avoid in 2013.

Guru

Unless you have been practicing yoga for the past decade, guru is probably a job title best avoided, particularly in the realm of social media, where it is generally perceived negatively by seasoned clientele.

Maven

Another popular social media title, a maven is defined as “one who is experienced or knowledgeable.” Your employer or clients are probably expecting you to be one or both of those things anyway, so calling yourself a maven is of questionable value.

Rockstar

A term with some traction in Silicon Valley, don’t be fooled by its sexiness: unless your name is Mick Jagger, equating your impressive coding skills with this title is probably not going to impress once you leave your bubble.

Growth hacker

Even if you believe that this is genuinely a new role, the term growth hacker is somewhat controversial and not yet widely known. That makes it a title worth keeping an eye on, but perhaps not embracing.

Evangelist

One of the more established questionable job titles on this list, what an evangelist does is widely understood but the word is still a conversation starter, a subtle hint at the fact many people don’t believe it’s a great title.

Expert

Unless you’re a new entrant to a market, there’s a good chance that when a company hires you, either as an employee or consultant, it’s hiring you in part for your expertise. That makes a title with the word ‘expert’ in it superfluous.

Ninja

Another Silicon Valley innovation, if your new employer wants to refer to you as a ninja, you should make like a ninja and disappear — as quickly as silently.

Genius

If you get a job at the Apple Store, you have little choice but to accept the title of Genius. Otherwise, using your job title to imply that you qualify for Mensa is probably a bad idea.

Wizard

Your ability to optimize an campaign or boost search engine rankings may seem magical to coworkers or clients, but don’t try to turn your career into a J.K. Rowling novel by billing yourself as your industry’s Harry Potter.

Chief [insert wacky noun] officer

Being a business card-carrying member of the C-suite is a worthy accomplishment, but be careful about accepting a C-suite role that comes with a wacky title.

It may not be taken as seriously and some might be skeptical about your C-suite worthiness as a result, particularly if you work at a startup or smaller company.

How to make an infographic online: five essential free tools

Given the popularity of infographics, you’d be wise to consider using them to help achieve your content marketing goals. They can be great for social sharing, blog fodder and inbound links.

The last time I created an infographic I used – wait for it – Microsoft Excel. Thankfully there are now some far better options, and they’re surprisingly easy to use.

I have compiled five of online tools that will help you to create infographics. They’re all free, though some require registration (or to connect your Twitter or Facebook account) and most have the upgrade options.

Hold on a moment!

Before you begin, consider that many infographics are often – to quote Econsultancy Research Director Linus Gregoriadis – “high on graphics and low on information”.

As such it is important to map out your story / message / goals before starting to work on the design itself.

There’s a great post on the LEWIS PR blog that explains how to optimise an infographic, based around three key questions, which are:

1. What type of infographic do we want, and what type of data will we be collecting?

2. What parts of the infographic do we know already, and which parts will the designer determine?

3. What basic graphic elements would we like to use and how?

Sound advice, and it’s worth remembering that old proverb about “he who fails to plan, plans to fail”.

Ok, let’s now take a look at these lovely tools.

Easelly

Easelly allows you to create your own infographics using its ‘Vhemes’, which are infographic templates that you can customise. It does a good line in icons and graphics too.

Piktochart

We’ve used Piktochart to create some of our own infographics. It provides you with a choice of six free templates (more are available if you upgrade). Colour themes are easy to change, and you can create charts manually or by uploading CSV files.

Infogram

Infogram is very easy to use, with six templates, and – infographics aside – it is also great for creating standalone charts.

Creately

Creately is a ‘diagramming’ tool, which can help you to wireframe an infographic before putting it into production. It includes a new real-time collaboration feature, allowing you to work on a design with a colleague or client simultaneously.

Visually

Visually has templates that allow you to create infographics based around Twitter or Facebook data. Alternatively, and if you don’t have the time to produce your own infographic, then check out the Visually marketplace. They start from $1,495 and typically take at least 18 days to produce.

I’m sure there are some others out there but these tools are all useful in helping you to quickly make infographics online. What others have you seen?

Reposted from:Chris Lake is Director of Product Development at Econsultancy, an entrepreneur and a long-term internet fiend. Follow him on Twitter, Google+ or connect via Linkedin.