Q & A: What is a Virtual Credit Controller?

Oct 25, ’07 7:36 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories How to ..., Outsourcing, Question & Answer, Virtual Assistants, do credit control, outsource effectively, use online IT

A virtual credit controller is someone you have outsourced your credit control work to for execution. Needless to say that credit control is one of the most important functions in any small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, it affects your cash-flow and keeps your small business a float.

This could be a professional company which specializes in credit control all the way to court action, this service is usually used for bad debt or difficult customers. The service can be quite pricey and you may have problems getting them to deal with only a few invoices per month.

Another option is to use a virtual assistant (VA) in your area and give him/her the list of open invoices or just copies of them and have the virtual assistant follow up on your clients. You can also use online technology to keep your files up-to-date and make the work-flow more efficient for you and your VA, saving time and money.

Important, no matter how you choose to do your credit control, is to set guidelines, it’s no good getting paid and loosing the client at the same time. Keep your virtual credit controller up-to-date with payments received, clients get upset if chased for money they already paid, and it makes you look unprofessional.

Remember, the easiest way to get new business, is to offer more and new products and services to existing clients. ST.

Disclaimer: As with any of my readers questions, I do not have all the answers and here on my blog I can only give you some ideas, since I know very little about your small business. If any of you can add anything here do so for the benefit of my reader, who asked the question and everybody else, leave a comment below – I’d be most grateful.

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How to start a Virtual Assistant Business?

Oct 20, ’07 8:46 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Outsourcing, Virtual Assistants, outsource effectively

Ask Shama, she got a great post out to answer this question, here she sets out what you need:

“….What do you need? Characteristics wise, most clients ask for virtual assistants who are sharp, can take initiative, and who will help further the client’s business. If this sounds like you, you may find your business booming before you know it. You also need a good working computer, an internet, fax, and phone connection, and lots of folders to keep you organized. Remember to back up your files often. Careless errors in your first years in business can cost you.”

There is more, so have a look. I would add, to use online technology, with all it’s benefits for you, it also makes it much easier to become an integral part of the clients team.

She also talks about marketing, there are many places you can find contacts and network, like LinkedIn, LiveNet, and others. ST.

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Q & A: What are successful cost-cutting solutions in small business?

Oct 18, ’07 11:49 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Finance, Health Check, Home Business, Outsourcing, Sales, Virtual Assistants, Work/Life Balance, be successful, bootstrap, do a SWOT plan, do a reality check, do bookkeeping., do cost cutting, do credit control, find funding, grow your business, lower overheads, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business

How long is a string? Let me give you some pointers here, but please remember you can always do more on the cost-cutting front in any small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants.

Keep your staffing level low. As much as it may hurt, work longer hours yourself, until extra staff is economically viable.
Outsource all non-core business activities. This will reduce your fix-cost structure, make your small business more flexible and you can react faster to an economic down-turn.
Buy second hand. Do you really need the brand new van? Or computer, or……
Work from home, this will not only cut your cost, but may improve your work-life balance at the same time.
Let your staff work from home. No office cost, hire a room if you need to on an hourly basis.
Use online technology, so you don’t waste time and get distracted.
Focus on your core business and sales. Every distraction costs time and money, sales generates money.
Bootstrapping. Think before you spend a penny, could I borrow, hire or do it online, get creative.
Analyze your fixed cost every month. You will find things you don’t need – trust me you will.
Compare and get new quotes. Even if you need the service or product from your supplier, check others all the time, insurance, telephone, utilities, etc.
Get better payment terms. Ask to pay in 60 or 90 days, or get an early payment discount.
Check your bank charges – you’ll be surprised. Or have it done on a results basis, doesn’t cost you time and gets you money back.
Do credit control – get your money in lower your bank overdraft cost and charges.

This is only a short list of what you can do, but it’s a start. Remember even $100/£50 per month is $1200/£600 a year more in your pocket. ST.

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Small Business Checklist: Business Process Outsourcing

Oct 18, ’07 10:52 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Business Checklists, How to ..., Outsourcing, Start-Up, Virtual Assistants, Web Technology, Work/Life Balance, bootstrap, do a reality check, do cost cutting, lower overheads, not to do it!, outsource effectively, plan your business, start-up in business, use online IT

As many of you know by know I’m a sucker for bootstrapping for small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, and outsourcing is a big part of my bootstrapping philosophy, so here a re a few pointers:

To outsource, or not to outsource …. . I would always outsource non-critical and non-core business functions, in other words, whatever it is that makes your small business different and unique you do yourself, because that is what earns your money. Anything else could and probably should be outsourced (see: outsourcing options for small business).
Do It Online. This will allow you to stay in close touch with your supplier, and get real time up-dates and feed-back – there are other benefits too.
Don’t abdicate. Outsourcing does not mean to forget these tasks, you just delegate them to someone outside of your company, you are still responsible.
Know who you are dealing with. Not all partners are the same, one virtual assistant is not like the next, the same is true for accountants, bookkeepers and other service providers.
Don’t become a favor. If your future partner says things like: ” I’m not sure if I have time, let me see.” or you new service provider makes you feel, as if they are doing you a favor, don’t deal with them, you need partners and not people you feel guilty calling.
Nobody answers the phone – put the phone down and do not call back. Anybody in this kind of service business should understand what service is all about, not answering the phone shows they don’t – they will leave you high and dry sooner or later.
Get references, if you can. Anybody who has been in business for 12 month or more should be able to give you at least one or two references. Don’t shun new service providers, check their CV, remember you may get a good deal and it is good to be one of the first customers.
Get a back-up. Negotiate a back-up deal if you can, so if your primary provider falls ill, you have a back-up, or divide the work between two or more service providers to begin with.
Pay on time. You want good service, pay on time. You want professional work, pay a decent retainer or hourly rate. If you don’t, you’ll be last on the work and service agenda, that means you business suffers. If you can’t afford the service don’t hire them.
Get at least three quotes and compare them. Just to make sure you don’t get taken to the proverbial cleaners, and to compare service levels. Don’t be afraid to ask for an explanation, if you don’t understand something.

Outsourcing is good for your fix-cost structure, should make you more professional, and help you to concentrate on your core-business. If it becomes a distraction, deal with it immediately, if need be change supplier. ST.

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Q & A: Borrow Money To Grow Your Small Business Or Not?

Oct 15, ’07 7:15 PM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories How to ..., Outsourcing, Question & Answer, Virtual Assistants, bootstrap, grow your business, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business

The answer to this question is not always easy, since for a manufacturing business it may be necessary for you to borrow, if that is the case you need to see an accountant you can trust, to help you to get the best deal and talk about the implications, like personal guarantees, liabilities and so on.

If however, you are in the service sector you should try and stay away from borrowing money as long as you can and bootstrap. Here are some things you can do:

Work from Home, do not get an office.
Work part-time in your business, keep your job until the business starts earning money on a regular basis to support you.
Start with sales, it gets you money and you can find out if someone wants to buy your product. If someone put up the money to buy your product or at least sign an order, that is a good sign. Don’t trust praise, most people don’t want to hurt your feelings.
Do some business planning, and see when your business would break even, get the tools free, so no excuses.
Outsource all non-core business processes from day one, don’t hire someone just to answer your phone, find Virtual Assistants to do that and other admin stuff, they know how to do it and that makes you look good.

Have a look at some of my categories, like bootstrap, How to grow your business, and others to get some more ideas. ST.

Disclaimer: As with any of my readers questions, I do not have all the answers and this is not business advice, since I only know very little about your business. If any of you can add anything here do so for the benefit of my reader, who asked the question and everybody else, leave a comment below – I thank you for your effort.

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Q & A: How much do you get paid as a Virtual Assistant?

Oct 14, ’07 8:07 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories How to ..., Outsourcing, Question & Answer, Start-Up, Virtual Assistants, outsource effectively, start-up in business

I may not be the best person to answer this question, but I can give you some pointers.

It appears to me that it would depend on a few factors:

What type of work are you offering? If you do bookkeeping you may get more, if you just answer the telephone you may get less.
How much experience have you had in your field? You can ask for more money with more experience.
What arrangement do you have? If you work on a retainer basis, your hourly rate may be lower, if you work on a project basis higher.
What is your local competition like? Call around find out how much others charge for the same work, then make up your mind, maybe you are worth more?

I guess the best advice I can give you here is to get in touch with a Virtual Assistant organisation, maybe join them and benefit from their experience. You can also get in touch with my friend Kathie Thomas, she will have all the answers you need, especially if you live in Australia.

Don’t forget to register yourself on our free business networking community and market place LiveNet. ST.

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Bookkeeping for Small Business

Oct 12, ’07 6:33 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Accounting, Entrepreneur, Failure, Health Check, Marketing/PR, Outsourcing, Small Business / SOHO, Software as a Service, Work/Life Balance, avoid growing pain, be eco-friendly, be successful, bootstrap, do a SWOT plan, do a reality check, do bookkeeping., do cost cutting, do credit control, grow your business, handle problems, lower overheads, market and sell, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business, use online IT

I have discussed before that it is important for small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, to do a minimum of business planning, but does it stop there?

Not really, you need to keep up to date with your bookkeeping, to complete the business planning process. You may ask why, if you have done the planning, why not get your bookkeeping done once a year for your tax return?

The answer to this question is the business planning process never ends. Remember I have been talking about going back to your plan at least once a month. In order to fine-tune your small business planning you need to actual information how your business performed in the last month. The only way to do that is to do your bookkeeping or accounting.

By doing that you will be able to compare your predicted numbers in your cash-flow with the actual number your business has generated. This in turn will help you to update or modify your cash-flow plan for the future. More important than that, you will learn new things about your business:

You may have higher (good) or lower (bad) sales, than you expected?
Your cost in your business may be higher (bad) or lower (better) than you expected?
Your cash-flow may be better or worse do to the above two points?
You may need to outsource some business processes to lower your fixed cost structure, to make your business more recession proof or just more profitable?
You may need to ramp up your sales and marketing activities for your small business products or services?
You may also have to adjust your SWOT analysis and your business goals?

You will be surprised how creative you can be, once you know about and understand a problem in your business plan. It may not even be a problem at that time, you may just need to adjust the way you do things, and you may have avoided a small or big problem in the future.

In my opinion strict cost control and bootstrapping are not like nice to have features, they are essential for your small business survival. Often the difference between failure and success is just a little planning and checking the “plan” – doing a reality check. There is no excuse not to do it, all the tools are available for free, for anyone.

If you feel the initial process of business planning is too much for you, than get your accountant or bookkeeper to help you to set your cash-flow fore-casting, SWOT analysis with you, doing it online will give you strategic advantages, like you can work with your accountant or bookkeeper in real time in different places, this lowers your cost, no time wasted and is good for the environment.

I would like to make one more point here, the aim of all this planning is not to get it spot on – no, the aim is to understand what is happening in your business, that is why you should be doing it.

Among other things, it will give you a measure of certainty, security and confidence, if you understand what is happening in your business. So, how confident are you about the future of your business? Why not take the weekend and have a planning session, it is like playing monopoly, only this game will secure your future. ST.

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Cynicism rules, tell them what's in it for you.

Oct 11, ’07 6:30 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Office - IT, Outsourcing, Small Business / SOHO, Virtual Assistants, lower overheads, outsource effectively, use online IT

As my readers will know we launched our new OnlineOffice with LiveNet a few day ago. LiveNet is in beta and I would like to get as many virtual assistants to sign up to it as soon as possible. The reason being that my small business clients should outsource as much as possible to make their businesses more efficient or recession proof. So we have a massive need for VAs on our LiveNet.

Signing up and offering your services if free of charge forever – no strings attached.

So I posted a question on LinkedIn yesterday, to see if I could get in touch with people who use VA’s and can recommend their VA. Reason being, if people recommend someone it is kind of a reference and that can only be good for my clients.

Message number four read like this:

He’s not looking for help he’s trying to sell his software

At first I was quite angry, how could she say that? She had obviously not read my website and had made a snap decision to “flame” me.

But then I checked and realised we could have made the “free”-bit a little more obvious, and I had not explained myself in my question well enough, so there are a few lessons to be learned here:

Tell people what is in it for you, because if they don’t understand where you are coming from, otherwise cynicism rules.
Don’t expect people to read your web site as they may not – make your offers clear.

There is a great book about web-design by Steve Krug, about the common sense approach to web usability called “Don’t make me think“. It is a great read and I’ll have to look at it again, I guess. ST.

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Virtual Assistants Round Up At Katie's

Oct 10, ’07 8:24 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Outsourcing, Small Business / SOHO, Virtual Assistants, outsource effectively, use online IT

Most of my regular reader know I am all for outsourcing for small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, from day one.

You will also know I love the virtual assistants services, as they allow you to concentrate on the core issues of our business, while outsourcing admin, IT and other functions – timesharing professionals is what I call it. You know what I mean it makes your small business professional – I hate it if nobody answers a phone for instance, it’s a big turn-off for business.

Some of you will also remember Kathie Thomas – one of my guest bloggers, VA, speaker – and she is hosting “Blog Carnival of Virtual Assistants“, you should go and have a look. It may give you some ideas for your own small business.

If you are a VA, you should consider putting your details on LiveNet, so my clients will can have the benefit of your services too. ST.

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SMEs fail on the Globelization Hurdle

Oct 10, ’07 6:05 AM

Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Comments, Globalization 3.0, Outsourcing, Red-Tape, Small Business / SOHO, export, outsource effectively

Jeff Cornwell has an article about the failure of US small business to export. A Study by UPS reveals:

“…..that most of America’s small and mid-sized businesses have failed to explore the significant growth opportunities offered by an increasingly global economy. Specifically, 67 percent of the nation’s small-to-mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are still relying solely on the U.S. economy. This figure is surprisingly low given the increasing ease of importing and exporting in today’s economy.”

These numbers do not surprise me at all, in a survey we did in 2004 we found that the hurdles have been considerable:

36% finding local partners;
21% understanding local markets;
16% Financing export activities;
11% defining local customer profile;
11% language barriers;
5% other.

You can read more about our findings here. Having spent many hours in trade commissions around Europe, it is also clear to me that each country is interested in exporting activities of their own small businesses, but less helpful when it comes to importing. In fact the red-tape barriers are considerable.

My personal impression has always been, that many of the “advisors” still have a pre-internet mentality to export/import, which makes it even more difficult for small business to export. This coupled with a less than basic understanding of small business, makes for a poor export/import advisory infrastructure.

With the help of online technology we should see this changing, at least in the services industries. Even very small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, will find it less difficult to export their services, using services like LiveNet.

With LiveNet it is no longer important where on the planet you live, I call this Globelization 3.0. ST.

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