http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/ The latest Blog feeds from www.strictlysavvy.co.nz en-us Tue, 27 Oct 2026 22:32:47 +1300 Rocketspark http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/171995/youre-still-doing-the-books-at-nine-at-night-heres-what-handing-them-over-actually-looks-like/ It’s a weeknight, the 9-5 workday is done, and you’re at the kitchen table with your accounting software open, trying to match a supplier payment to a bill you’re fairly sure you’ve already paid.You started the business to do the work you’re good at. Somewhere along the way you also became the person who sends the invoices, chases the ones that haven’t been paid, works out the GST and makes sure payday lands on the right day. Eight staff later it’s still you, and you’ve been tell... Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:14:15 +1300 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post171995 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/171773/youre-losing-your-admin-person-you-dont-have-time-to-train-the-next-one-too/ Your admin person has just handed in their notice. After working with you for years, they're the one who knows the ins and outs of how your business runs. You’ve got two weeks until their final day. And you're left with a sinking feeling: even when you find a replacement, you don’t have the time to train them.Finding a replacement almost always takes longer than you anticipate. Write and list the ad, sort through the applications, run a few rounds of interviews, make an offer, and then when ... Tue, 20 Oct 2026 14:48:43 +1300 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post171773 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/171319/what-a-properly-run-ea-role-actually-protects-your-billable-hours/ It's nine in the morning on a Tuesday, and you've got a client call at two. Between now and then there's an invoice to chase, three emails that need answers before lunch, and a scheduling back-and-forth with someone who wants to move Thursday's meeting. None of that is billable. All of it needs to happen before you can get back to the work you actually charge for.You've built a busy, succesful business. What's costing you is that every hour spent on admin is an hour that never touches a client, ... Tue, 06 Oct 2026 19:12:16 +1300 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post171319 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/171049/you-can-afford-help-so-why-are-you-still-booking-your-own-meetings/ Your business is doing fine. Genuinely fine, not just fine-on-paper. You've got a team who know what they're doing, clients who keep coming back, and enough coming in that bringing on some support isn't really a money question anymore. And yet you're still the one opening the calendar to find a slot, still the one chasing an invoice that's three weeks overdue, still the one scrolling through an inbox at eight at night looking for the one email that actually needs you.You can afford help, you pro... Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:39:46 +1300 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post171049 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/170768/is-the-work-actually-going-to-be-as-good-as-youve-been-doing-yourself/ Let's say you've been doing your own invoicing, your own follow-ups, your own inbox, for months (or even years) now. Nobody trained you to do it, you just worked out on your own what mattered, what could wait, and what needed answering as soon as it landed. You know which client needs a phone call and which is happy with an email. You know which invoice can wait another day and which one can't. That's the standard you've built, without really noticing you were building it, and that's the thing y... Tue, 22 Sep 2026 18:19:45 +1200 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post170768 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/170109/what-a-properly-run-admin-role-actually-looks-like-in-a-trades-business/ You've probably heard "we'll take care of your admin" from more than one virtual assistant service by now, but that doesn't mean much to you yet. You run a trades business with a dozen or more people in it, and the admin that keeps it moving doesn't look like a neat list of tasks on a to-do list. It looks like quotes that need to go out before a customer rings someone else, invoices that need to land before a job's even finished, and suppliers who want an answer today, not next week.So when some... Tue, 15 Sep 2026 19:56:49 +1200 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post170109 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/169876/what-week-one-and-week-two-actually-look-like-when-you-hand-a-role-over/ You've finally made the big call. Your admin and accounts work, that you've been doing yourself for months, is being delegated to someone else - and part of you is relieved. But there's another part that's wondering how anyone new is going to pick everything up properly, and how long you'll be stuck double-checking everything before you can fully let go.It's a fair worry. Some hires will take months to find their feet, and you've got a business running in your head that nobody else has ever lear... Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:54:27 +1200 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post169876 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/169540/if-your-last-va-experience-didnt-work-heres-what-was-probably-missing/ You might have tried a virtual assistant before. Maybe through an offshore platform, or a freelancer that came to you through a referral. You probably handed over a list of tasks and hoped for the best, but within a few months you were back to doing it yourself. Now you're booking your own meetings, chasing your own invoices, and managing your own inbox, because trying again with outsourced support feels like more trouble than it's worth.Does this ring any bells? If your last attempt cost you ti... Tue, 01 Sep 2026 16:10:04 +1200 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post169540 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/169136/is-958-a-week-really-enough-to-cover-a-full-time-role-heres-the-maths/ You've been meaning to hire for months. Every time you sit down to actually write the job ad, you get as far as the salary line and stall. The number looks fine at first. Then you start thinking about everything else that comes with it, and the number stops looking so simple.Somewhere in the middle of all that, you might have come across the idea of a fully managed role for $958 a week and thought: that can't be right. A whole role, covered, for less than you'd pay just to fill the vacancy prope... Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:42:26 +1200 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post169136 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/post/168853/if-theres-a-whole-team-behind-the-scenes-who-am-i-actually-dealing-with/ You've read the pitch. One weekly rate, a role fully covered, no recruitment process to run. And somewhere around the part where we mention a Role Manager backed by a wider team and some smart automation, a question forms that we hear a lot: if there's a whole team behind this, who am I actually dealing with?This question usually comes loaded with a specific memory. Perhaps an offshore VA arrangement where every message seemed to land with a different person, and nobody quite owned the outcome. ... Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:21:30 +1200 http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/blog/#post168853