VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Entrepreneurs are a different breed. They dream and they do. They dig deep into the needs and demands of their customers. They explore it, respond to it, and then exploit it as an opportunity to deliver products and services to meet that need, in the process, creating business and profit.

The small business now begins to pick-up and gain traction, and the market starts to expand. And as transactions increase, the workload suddenly escalates and explodes. Most entrepreneurs of a growing business get overwhelmed with having too much business activity to handle. Trying to do everything on their own, with minimal or no help from others, they are often left exhausted, fighting fires and running around working on a multitude of tasks.

Business owners, especially of a small business, face a variety of challenges at every stage of its operation. The list may be long, but below are the most common.

THE CHALLENGES OF A SMALL BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR

Money Matters

Managing finances is a major responsibility of every business owner, especially for a small business. Beyond cash flow management, this includes the tedious process of keeping money records in place to ensure that the company’s finances are in order, and can sustain business operations in the long haul.

Every entrepreneur is required to have adequate working capital for material purchases, salaries, utilities and other operating expenses to keep the business running. This must convert to desired revenues in the immediate future, to cover the cost of operations, and produce the desired profits to keep the business going. If revenues fall short, the business owner would have to secure additional funding to continue the business. And often, this is usually through bank loans.

An effective cash flow management is key in reducing the risk of running out of funds to continue the business. This means astute record keeping, closely monitoring the money coming in and going out of the business. Professional bookkeeping does not only ensure funds management. It is also a requisite to bank loans approval, and a necessity when complying with government regulations and taxes.

Most entrepreneurs may know a thing or two about doing their own bookkeeping. But it can be tedious and time consuming, and frustrating for a few. Some business owners may even lack the capability to handle their books. And as the number of customers and transactions increase, so does the complexity of keeping track of these transactions. Business owners can get caught up in the process that they lose valuable time, and sight, of the more strategic core activities of the business.

Business Owner Workload

Most entrepreneurs are very passionate about their business, especially when they’re starting out. They put in long hours, working on every necessary detail, driven by the fear of seeing their business failing or stalling. Some become too hands-on, to the point of becoming a do-it-alone one-man-army operator. While working on strategic activities like business planning and execution, and growing customers, they can sometimes get stuck in repetitive tasks like checking emails, answering calls, doing paperwork and bookkeeping.

Running the business is a difficult balance between strategic responsibilities and operational tasks, especially for small business owners. Add to this the demands of personal commitments and time with family, and you will have a highly stressed and exhausted business owner.

In the long run, entrepreneur fatigue can lead to poor and careless decisions that can impact the overall business performance, sometimes causing the business to plunge down, or the tired owner to give up the business entirely.

Managing the Workforce

Managing the workforce is another critical responsibility of an entrepreneur. From establishing the needed workforce, to hiring, to compensating and monitoring, complexities and challenges arise. And so does cost.

Beyond salaries, the cost of hiring often include workspace, equipment and utilities, taxes, healthcare and other benefits. The cost of training and on-boarding also have to be considered.

In most cases, small businesses may have difficulties compensating an employee with fulltime pay for specific tasks. And sometimes, a full-time employee may not be needed, as the work can be done part time. However, in order to comply with government regulations, business owners may decide to let their employees do multitasking to cover the full-time pay. This can be detrimental to the quality of output, especially in cases where the employee is lacking the necessary skills and fit to perform the other tasks.

There is also the challenge of finding the right people, not just for the job, but more so for the business. It is basic to look for a quality employee with the right skills set and attitude. But it also matters more when the hired employee understands the business, and is excited about it. Finding the perfect match can be difficult.

And when a business owner has found the right employee match, keeping them engaged is vital, because employee turn-over can be very expensive. This means potential opportunity losses if there is no immediate replacement, plus the cost of hiring and onboarding once a replacement is found.

Building the Brand

Once the business begins its operations, the entrepreneur now needs to win customers. How will the people know that the business exists, and it is there to solve their problem or need? This can be a daunting task that can make the entrepreneur unsure on how to go about capturing the target market’s attention, and looking for the best strategy to do it.

Sometimes, in a desire to earn revenues fast, business owners dive into costly marketing and advertising activities without properly defining and understanding the target market. And with limited budget, the results are often discouraging. Incorrect messaging happens: right message to the wrong people, wrong message to the right people, or worst, wrong message to the wrong people. Quite a waste of limited resources.

Most entrepreneurs are aware of the value of the internet as the best place to finding customers and attracting them. However, building an online presence is a skill or capability that is not familiar to all entrepreneurs. Some do, but for most, it can be a struggle. How can a business owner effectively deliver its message across the internet of over 3 billion users, to reach its target market?

Managing Customers

Once the right marketing message captures the right audience, the business now begins to attract customers. Any business, big or small, needs to bring in new fresh customers every day. But for a small business with a limited budget, it is very crucial to know where to best find customers, what channels to prioritize, and how much resources to allocate.

There are also instances when the income of the business is dependent on the business volume of a very few customers. This renders the business vulnerable to losses should any of these important customers decide to take their business elsewhere. It is important for the business to be able to retain its key customers, as well as to increase and diversify its customer base.

Maintaining its credibility and good reputation as a business is essential to business owners. And it can also be a struggle, thanks to technology. Customers these days are becoming demanding when it comes to product and service satisfaction. An unsatisfied customer can take its displeasure to the internet, and harm the business with its negative feedback shared to a sea of potential customers. Thus, there is a need for a business to monitor and maintain its online reputation. This means being on the look out to immediately attend to customer needs any time, and minimize any damage to its reputation.

Customer retention is another critical factor to the success of a business. Customers stay when they feel cared for. A positive customer experience builds trust and credibility with customers, and drive loyalty and retention. But what could be the best way to do this?

Managing Growth

When things are going well for a business, growth becomes inevitable. When the business is just starting up, it is but normal for the owner to personally win customers and manage customer relationships. And as entrepreneurs, they are directly engaged in the development and quality of their products and services. These are critical factors the often lead to the initial success of the business.

But as the small business begins to grow, the owner will now have to focus on navigating the business towards scaling and expansion. This may mean having to let go of the personally managed tasks, so the entrepreneur can shift focus. If not done properly, the move may have a negative impact on customer relations and the quality of products and services. What must a business owner do to properly navigate the business during this transition? How can a business achieve growth without losing the gains of its initial success?

There are other areas where entrepreneurs struggle in running the business. But the clusters above are the most common.

ALTERNATIVE VIRTUAL SOLUTIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Employ Virtual Assistance

If entrepreneurs will personally take on the challenges of doing business on their own, without external help, the business will most likely not be able to move forward and flourish. Getting external help in the form of a virtual assistant will take off a significant workload from the entrepreneur, and allow them to focus on building and growing the business.

A virtual assistant from a remote location can take on routine tasks that an entrepreneur can delegate with less supervision. These include tasks like database entry, answering emails, website administration, managing calendars, setting of appointments, simple online errands, social media management, simple digital marketing tasks, and other related tasks.

One important task of a virtual assistant is helping the business owner keep track of funds that come in and go out of the business. This task is very crucial to managing cash flow, and ensure that the business stays afloat. Professional bookkeeping provides information critical to making money decisions for the business.

Since most virtual assistants are paid by the hour, the entrepreneur has the flexibility to hire only based on the needed hours of work. Also, since freelance virtual assistants have their own set-up, the owner saves up on the cost of equipment and space. And since most of VAs are trained, there is less training and onboarding cost. These considerations make hiring VAs a very cost effective option for entrepreneurs.

Use Social Media Marketing

To build a strong brand, using social media as a strategy, is a must these days. There is an estimated 3.5 billion people online, with 2.4 billion using Facebook alone, and Youtube. over a billion users. The goal of every business is to reach as many of the right customers as possible, and having social media presence makes this feasible.

With the help of a virtual digital marketing specialist, an entrepreneur has a partner in developing the branding of his product or service, mapping out the marketing strategy, setting up the social media plan, and doing the actual execution of the strategies and plans.

While any entrepreneur can learn the skill or do the task on their own, hiring a social media specialist increases the efficiency of the business and minimizes unnecessary marketing expenses. This will also allow the business owner to focus more on the core responsibilities of managing and growing the business,

Outsource Customer Service

Getting new customers, and keeping them loyal in using the product or service is a sweet spot for any business, and the goal of every business owner. But as the customer base increases, managing customer relationships becomes more challenging, hence getting assistance is necessary.

A customer service virtual assistant can help the entrepreneur manage customer communication that may include pre-purchase queries and discussions, tracking of purchases, customer feedback, deal with potential returns and refunds, and many more.

They also often deal with the harsh customers, providing the business owner some space and relief to channel their energies to more productive tasks. Another advantage of this option is that the business has the potential to reach customers outside its own time zone by hiring someone from the target location.

Set-up Systems and Processes

Putting order to the operation of the business is a primary concern for any business owner. This is done by setting up systems and processes. So the business can operate smoothly and efficiently. The entrepreneur can do this personally, but having external expert assist in setting up can make the work easier. This includes coming up with standard operating procedures for the core functions of the business.

When a documented system is in place and followed, and is working, this serves as a strong base for expansion in the future. As the business grows, and the owner decides to scale its operations, there is a template of documented systems and process ready to execute in the next location or product or service.

ENABLE YOUR BUSINESS TO GROW

Business owners need enablers to help them build their business. And one best way to do this is gather external support. General Virtual Assistants can handle the repetitive non-core but very necessary tasks and provide order to the business. A Social Media Marketing Specialist can aid in the creation and management of the brand’s online presence, to create brand awareness and bring in more customers. An effective Customer Service support develop and nurture customer relationships. And employing an expert on systems and processes builds a business structure that is prepared for sustainability and growth.

ENABLE PLUS is a freelancing service that provides every entrepreneur of micro and small businesses with the essential enablers to grow and flourish. From general virtual assistance, to social media marketing, to developing business systems and processes, we are ready to help.

Talk to us about your business, your challenges, your hurdles, as well as your plans and goals. Let us see what we can work on together. Our clients are our partners. It is our goal to ensure that the service and support we provide empower our partners to meet their own goals and objectives.

Because your success is our success.