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Savvy Sessions #5 Forget Using a Virtual Assistant, Do This Instead

This is Savvy Sessions #5: Forget using a virtual assistant, do this instead! Joy and Jo talk about how to maximize your time and your VA's time by following their tips in delegating and how to create a whole system for automation of tasks.  Want more information?Download the Strictly Savvy Pricing Guide Download the '101 Tasks To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant' guide Want to hear more from us?Connect on LinkedIn ► Joy Hewitt Connect on LinkedIn ► Jo ...

How to Master Using A Virtual Assistant in 5 Simple Steps

For the purposes of this exercise (let’s call this exercise your ‘Quick Start Guide to VA Success’) we are going to assume you’ve hired a Virtual Assistant for the first time and you're ready to get things moving. Oh and, we’re also going to need to assume that the VA you’ve chosen is relativity new at providing business support to clients because if you were to select a Strictly Savvy VA, you wouldn’t need to do much at all! Your Savvy VA would take you through the entire setup pr...

6 Little Tweaks That'll Transform How You Use A Virtual Assistant

I don’t know about you, but my ears instantly prick up when I hear about small changes leading to big rewards.  No, not because I am sceptical, but because I’m interested. Most of us are time poor and looking for ways to maximise the time we do have, so if you can make efficiency improvements with little to no financial investment, it would be silly not to!  After spending some time thinking about the small tweaks we have implemented at Strictly Savvy to deliver quality VA support ...

Savvy Sessions #4 - What Do We Love About Being Virtual Assistants?

Joy, Jo and the Savvy Squad talk about what they love about being a Virtual Assistant! (Watch until the end) Want more information? Download the Strictly Savvy Pricing Guide Download the '101 Tasks To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant' guideWant to hear more from us? Connect on LinkedIn ► Joy Hewitt Connect on LinkedIn ► Jo Jensen Follow us on Facebook Transcription:  - Welcome to Savvy Sessions #4, with Joy and Jo. - Where you will hear from each o...

Why It's Easier to Succeed With Using A Virtual Assistant Than You Might Think

Did you know there are intensive training courses to help Managers work with their Personal Assistants effectively? In addition to supporting both manager and PA to understand each others working style, they are designed to help managers learn to delegate and operate more efficiently, while at the same time, teaching PAs how to anticipate requests, manage time, and work proactively.  Often managers that have built their businesses from the ground up or worked alone for a long time have trou...

How To Install Facebook Messenger Live Chat On Your Website For Free In Under 5 Minutes

This video shows you in a few simple steps how to get Messenger live chat onto your website in under 5 minutes.  After seeing a number of tutorials on this that have you copying a pasting code into Notepad and then finding the Page ID and replacing that in the code etc etc and all sorts of other long-winded ways - clearly created by IT techs - we wanted to give you a simple video showing you how to install it even if you aren't tech savvy. See the chat tool installed on our websites: https:...

Savvy Sessions #3 - How To Get The Best From Your Virtual Assistant

Joy and Jo talk about how to get the best from your virtual assistant. Hint: Communicate, communicate, communicate! Want more information? Download the Strictly Savvy Pricing Guide Download the '101 Tasks To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant' guide Want to hear more from us? Connect on LinkedIn ► Joy Hewitt Connect on LinkedIn ► Jo Jensen Follow us on FacebookTranscription: - Welcome to Savvy Sessions Number Three with Joy and Jo. Today, the topic is how to use a virtual assistant well. -...

Savvy Sessions #2 - How To Hire a Virtual Assistant

Joy and Jo take you through the process of hiring a virtual assistant at Strictly Savvy and what you can expect. Want more information? Download the Strictly Savvy Pricing GuideDownload the '101 Tasks To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant' Want to hear more from us? Connect on LinkedIn ► Joy HewittConnect on LinkedIn ► Jo Jensen Follow us on Facebook Transcription:- Welcome to Savvy Sessions number two with Joy and Jo. Today's session is on how it works, how does this virtual assistant, hi...

Savvy Sessions #1 - The Benefits of Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant

Joy and Jo talk about the reason why it actually costs you less when you hire a local virtual assistant vs an employee. Want more information? Download the Strictly Savvy Pricing GuideDownload the '101 Tasks To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant' guide  Want to hear more from us? Connect on LinkedIn ► Joy HewittConnect on LinkedIn ► Jo Jensen Follow us on FacebookTranscription: - Welcome everyone, to our very first video. We have Joy and me, Jo, and this is going to be number one in S...

Forget Using A Virtual Assistant: Do This Instead

When people are considering outsourcing tasks to a Virtual Assistant, we often advise them to make a list of the jobs they do each day, week, month and so on. By writing everything down and seeing all their tasks laid out, they can start to build up a good picture of where they are spending the most time, and which things make the most sense to hand over to a VA. If you undertake this important exercise, you’ll find you come up with a long list of things that make you think: 'Yep, those c...

5 Great Reasons To Love Using A Virtual Assistant

Do you have a Virtual Assistant? No? Well, grab a drink and get comfy, as I’m about to hit you with a thought-provoking statement I heard recently that might make you question the way you’re managing your business:  "If you don't have an assistant, you ARE one". Let’s leave that to sink in for a hot minute… How does reading that line feel? I can bet that unless you got into business to be an assistant, the answer is ‘err… not great!’  I would love to hear your r...

8 Tragic Mistakes You're Making When Using A Virtual Assistant

If you’ve taken the plunge and hired a Virtual Assistant, great, outsourcing happens to be one of the best investments you can make to grow your business! But before you get too comfortable, you need to understand that merely hiring a virtual assistant isn't a silver bullet that will magically make all your problems go away…   After years of experience serving clients, we can definitively say that there is a right way to use a VA in your business, as well as a number of faux p...

Email inbox nightmare solved - Are you making this mistake?

I have read a lot about inbox management and keeping on top of emails. Inbox management is probably the number one frustration we see when we meet with new clients. It is crazy the number of emails we all get each day and it can be hugely stressful just trying to keep on top of them. Do you know the number one mistake people make when attempting to manage their inbox? Setting up a complex folder structure!!! And by complex, I mean more than five folders and very complex is subfolders upo...

The Benefits Of Outsourcing - Case Study #1

If you've ever considered outsourcing to a VA, you might have tried to reconcile why you would pay a higher p/hour rate than that of an employee (either part-time or full-time). Well, here’s a little case study that can help put the benefits into perspective. It's about one of our clients who has been with us for coming up 5 years and here's why...They are a business coaching company (2 coaches who own the business)They previously had a full-time admin/office person paying around $40k per annu...

Tech Tip - Canned Responses in Gmail

If you find yourself typing the same email on a regular basis, you should be using canned responses. Canned responses are essentially an email template you set up in Gmail, so you can send the same email without spending all that time writing them! Follow the steps below to turn on canned responses, and be whizzing through your emails in no time! 1. Click on the Settings icon in the top right hand corner of Gmail.  2. Click on 'Settings'. 3. Click on 'Labs'. 4. Under 'Se...

Savvy Workshop Series

Want to upskill? Enhance your talents and bring yourself, your business, or your workplace to the forefront of technology, branding, talent, and expertise?With so many requests for more, we're excited to be offering another series of workshops!Our workshops are jam-packed with content that will give you the tools to improve and inspire yourself and your business. Our incredible presenters come equipped with the industry skills to show you how to flourish in your des...

[VIDEO] We won! Best Professional Services Business

We won! Best Professional Services Business at the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce & Industry - 2017 Wellington Region Business Excellence Awards.We won because of my exceptional and hard working team - this is absolutely because of them. My team is why I love coming to work each day. It is because of them that we're the leading virtual assistant company in New Zealand and going from strength to strength. The talent that we have on the team is remarkable. 2017 has been an incredible year for us!...

Savvy Workshop Series

We are holding 12 Savvy Workshops in January 2018 at our very own Savvy Spaces.Get up-to-date with business tools while you learn how to use them efficiently and effectively for business. All 12 Courses Are On Sale NOW On GrabOne For $49 (full price $179)Courses included are:Tools & Productivity – How to Work Smarter on Your ComputerHow To Use Canva For Designing Social Media GraphicsHow To Use Facebook & Instagram Effectively To Promote Your B...

How to avoid the pitfalls of hiring a virtual assistant

Virtual Assistants. If you haven’t already noticed, they’re becoming a ‘thing’. Still don’t know what they do, or how they might be able to help your business? I can guarantee that the benefits far outweigh the pitfalls as long as you are savvy about how you go about hiring one.  So - Would a Virtual Assistant work for you? (Short answer. Yes!) Longer answer: This depends solely on you. If you have trouble delegating or letting go, it might take some getting used to, because deleg...

15 Entrepreneurs Share What They Think New Zealand Businesses Need To Do Better

New Zealand is a little country making a huge difference in business around the world. According to the 2016 World Bank Doing Business survey, we're the second easiest country in the world (behind Singapore) to do business in AND the easiest place in the world to start a business.But are we getting it right? I asked 15 of New Zealand's entrepreneurs this question:What do you think New Zealand businesses need to do better?  They need to recognise the value of engaging with professi...

15 Entrepreneurs Share What They Do Differently

When I thought about launching Strictly Savvy back in 2012, I had heard a thousand reasons not to start my own business - it's too risky, it'll be too much hard work, it's more secure to be employed, and business partners are a bad idea.Strictly Savvy was born anyway because I truly believed that I would be successful and that it was what I did differently as a business owner that would lead to this success. Being successful is not that far-fetched if you can learn from what other successful bus...

15 Entrepreneurs Share How They Decide What To Say Yes To

I was thinking recently about the launch of our Savvy Business Administration Course and the number of 'yes' and 'no' calls I had to make to get the course to its opening day 10 weeks ago. Had I not said 'yes' when this opportunity presented itself, I would have missed out on the valuable connections I have made with external organisations and the course participants, I wouldn't have developed the diverse skills I have learned through delivering an engaging and successful course, and I wouldn't ...

15 Entrepreneurs Share 3 Key Things They Attribute to Their Success

Whilst I am very proud of Strictly Savvy and the immeasurable labour put into creating and maintaining a successful business, it is still a fledgling in the eyes of the business world. I approached some key business owners across the country and asked them what they believe played a hand in their success, in the hopes that we can all continue to learn and become even more successful in our chosen industries.What 3 key things can you attribute to your success? Having a talented team that you can ...

15 Entrepreneurs Share Their Biggest Lessons in Business So Far

Five years ago, I started out in my own business. I knew what I wanted to achieve but struggled with the how. Many lessons are learned, and much wisdom is gained through the actual experience of running and growing a small business. I asked entrepreneurs and business owners from around New Zealand what their biggest lesson in business was so far. Some of their answers are pretty insightful... What has been your biggest lesson in business so far? Attitude and the right mindset is e...

I never understood why people did it, until now

A few years ago, I went to a RISE conference and listened to Anna Stretton speak about ‘RAW’, a programme she created where she took women recently released from prison under her wing.The programme comprised taking the women to a house, away from their hometowns. Once there, the RAW team set about rehabilitating them; getting them reintroduced to society, helping them feel worthy, and building up their self-esteem and confidence. Anna even gave them jobs in a second-hand store that the organ...