Be Your own assistant...

I’m a stickler for organization and systemizing, and this has helped me to be successful throughout my entire career (and as a busy single-mom of 3). 

• Ensure that everything has a place: I don’t want to waste time trying to find things, so I have a clear filing process for emails, documents, and to-dos. I use consistent naming across all platforms (e.g., there is a marketing folder in gmail, a marketing folder in gDrive, and a Marketing project in Asana.) 
• If you’re going to do it more than once, create a checklist or template: I get asked a lot of the same questions, so I have email templates that are clearly labeled that I can just copy and paste. I highlight the fields that are customizable such as names or dates, so I can easily change it each time. For my interviewing process, I have 6 major steps that need to be completed. Within each step there are checklists or templates I can use each time (position posting template, interview template, reference check template, scoring checklist, folder template, etc., etc.)
• If you’re not good at it, create a process: I had no sales experience when I started. So I created a document I could use during my sales calls that outlined the key points I wanted to make, listed questions I could ask them, and laid out the answers to the commonly asked questions of me. I even included the basics so I wouldn’t get tongue tied with simple things like my name, small talk ideas, or my elevator pitch. 

Sometimes you have to be your own assistant and do the nitty-gritty work of details and processes, but it will make things easier for you in the long-run. Start these habits now, before your business gets bigger and busier. Building your business on a strong foundation of organization will make everything easier to keep up with as your business grows.

I’d love to hear the processes you’ve created to make things easier and more efficient in your business. If you would like to connect, you can reach me in any of the ways below:

Karissa Hanson
President, Virtual Works
m:614-636-2701
www.virtualworksllc.com  e: karissa@virtualworksllc.com
Executive Assistant: admin@virtualworksllc.com
Grow your business with the support of a Virtual Executive Assistant

"Evolve was a lifesaver for me when it came to networking. I was new to networking and the thought of it was agonizing! I'm so grateful that my first experience was with Evolve. I was quite surprised and relieved by the warm and welcoming environment I walked into. I was surrounded by smart, interesting, and successful women who were also supportive, down to earth, and just all around good people. I realized there was nothing to be afraid of. I have not only enjoyed meeting many wonderful women, but have also greatly benefited in multiple ways: from gaining confidence by practicing my pitch at each meeting, to learning from the member speakers, and lastly growing my network times 10. My business is in an incredible stage of growth right now, and I credit a lot of that to the networking I have been able to do all because Evolve made it easy for me."