๐—–๐—จ๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—ข๐— ๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ฉ๐—œ๐—–๐—˜ ๐—ฆ๐—จ๐—ฃ๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—›๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ข #๐Ÿฎ โ€“ ๐—ง๐—›๐—˜ ๐—”๐—ฃ๐—ฃ ๐—•๐—ข๐—ข๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ

The App Booster has a super-charged collection of software and tools to power up your customer service.

๐™๐™๐™€๐™‡๐™‡๐™Š/๐˜พ๐™‡๐™„๐˜พ๐™†๐™๐™‹
For: task management
Use it to: prioritise tasks, keep on top of support tickets and action help requests all from one hub. Equally useful for solo business owners and teams who need to stay in sync.

๐™‚๐™ˆ๐˜ผ๐™„๐™‡/๐™Š๐™๐™๐™‡๐™Š๐™Š๐™†
For: email automation
Use it to: email canned replies, send payment reminders, fire off FAQs and โ€“ joy of joy โ€“ filter out garbage.

๐™ƒ๐™๐˜ฝ๐™Ž๐™‹๐™Š๐™
For: managing customer relationships
Use it to: view your pipeline, nurture your leads, keep track of sales โ€“ and pretty much everything else to manage customer interaction.

๐˜พ๐˜ผ๐™‡๐™€๐™‰๐˜ฟ๐™‡๐™”
For: appointment scheduling
Use it to: hook up with Zoom to automatically create a call and add the link to your calendar invite; plus synch it with a platform like Stripe to take automatic payments.

๐™•๐˜ผ๐™‹๐™„๐™€๐™
For: automating recurrent tasks
Use it to: add customer feedback to spreadsheets, send emails, log messages on your database and do a whole lot of other time-consuming, repetitive stuff.

๐™‹๐™๐˜ฝ๐™‡๐™€๐™
For: social media scheduling
Use it to: schedule posts on all your social media platforms from one dashboard. Itโ€™ll also help you organise photos, give you hashtag suggestions and collect and measure data.

๐™‡๐™Š๐™Š๐™ˆ
For: video creation
Use it to: record helpful videos for your customers โ€“ like user guides, step-by-step solutions to a problem, tutorials and FAQ.

๐™†๐˜ผ๐™‹๐™’๐™„๐™‰๐™‚
For: subtitling videos
Use it to: subtitle your videos for free. Captioned videos get high higher engagement on social media โ€“ and it makes them more accessible for hearing impaired viewers.

๐˜พ๐˜ผ๐™‰๐™‘๐˜ผ
For: creating visuals
Use it to: make engaging images that give customers the info they need without them having to wade through a sea of text.

* Need help choosing and using an app? Make way โ€“ this app-loving superhero is at your service. Get in touch at info@virtuellesolutions.com

copy-writing: @helen gent copywriter (Trumpet media)
visuals: @cรฉline naricadou (Agency VA)

๐—–๐—จ๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—ข๐— ๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ฉ๐—œ๐—–๐—˜ ๐—ฆ๐—จ๐—ฃ๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—›๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ข #๐Ÿญ โ€“ ๐—ง๐—›๐—˜ ๐—•๐—ฅ๐—”๐—ก๐—— ๐—š๐—จ๐—”๐—ฅ๐——๐—œ๐—”๐—ก

Good customer service needs many superhero skills โ€“ but one superpower thatโ€™s often overlooked is the ability to protect your brand.

Imagine a customer goes onto your website, loves the friendly and upbeat vibe, feels a connection with your brand and buys your product or service. So far so good. Then they have an issue they need help with. Well thatโ€™s OK because thatโ€™s what your customer service support is there for. But what if that support is formal and stuffy โ€“ the complete opposite of why the customer liked you and bought from you in the first place?

The customer is going to feel confused. Perhaps a bit annoyed. Maybe a little cheated. Youโ€™re not what they thought you were and your brand doesnโ€™t feel like such a good fit for them anymore.

Jekyll and Hyde branding means they might not rave about you to friends and family. Or bother leaving you a review. Or buy from you again.

So brand consistency is super-important. Emails. Phone calls. Chatbots. Your brand image, mission, values, language and tone of voice need to show up at every touch point in the customer journey. And if you canโ€™t be there to guard your brand yourself you can outsource someone to do it for you.

MEET YOUR SUPERHERO BRAND GUARDIAN

Your brand guardian knows everything โ€“ and I mean everything โ€“ about your business. Not just about your products or services but what you stand for and how you do things

They know because they ask you lots of questionsโ€ฆ
* Are you a โ€˜Dear sirโ€™, โ€˜Hi Johnโ€™ or โ€˜Howdie partnerโ€™ kind of company?
* Do you use emojis or emoticons in your communication?
* Do you want me to present myself as part of the team?
* Shall I use โ€˜Iโ€™ or โ€˜weโ€™?
* Should I sign off as me or you?

Your brand guardian communicates with your customers just like you would, using the same vocabulary, turns of phrase and tone of voice. They literally speak the same language. (By the way Iโ€™m a multilingual customer service superhero who communicates in ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท , ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง and ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช).

Itโ€™s useful to have a communications style guide to give to your brand guardian. Donโ€™t worry if you havenโ€™t got one, though, as many customer superheroes like me will create one for you. A guide is also super-handy if youโ€™re handling customer service yourself. You can use it to write canned responses brimming with brand personality or engage customers with on-brand chatbots (no more โ€˜Can we be of assistance?โ€™ when your vibe is more โ€˜Hey there โ€“ how can I help?)

Your brand guardian is a superhero you shouldnโ€™t be without. Let them unleash their superpower and theyโ€™ll protect your customers and your business.

* Iโ€™m here to protect your brand and keep it safe. Get in touch at info@virtuellesolutions.com

copy-writing: @helen gent copywriter (Trumpet media)
visuals: @cรฉline naricadou (Agency VA)

Why do I need an FAQ?

FAQ carousel (1)

Saves repeating the same answers to the same questions

If you find yourself answering the same old questions from your customers about your business, you might want to think about building an FAQ on your website.

When your customer calls in with yet again the same question, you can direct them to your website where you’ve smartly posted the answer.

Brings traffic to your website

Not only will this help answer your customer’s query, it will have another side effect: it will bring traffic to your website. Think about it: every time someone checks out your FAQ page, it’s one more hit on your website! One quick and easy way to help your clients while helping yourself. I see it as the lazy entrepreneur’s way to bump up the traffic!

Go on, give it a go!

info@virtuellesolutions.com


Iโ€™m Elisabeth Morice and I provide multilingual customer service support to small online businesses. I keep your customers happy while you happily run your business.

Contact me now for more information.

Be done with your To Do list – Introducing Trello ~~~ Adieu la liste de tรขches – Bonjour Trello

Last updated / Derniรจre mise ร  jour : 08/12/2021

Trello board - Project Management

Lire la version franรงaise ici

Be done with your To Do list – Introducing Trello

I’m not a fan of To Do lists. All they do is getting longer without giving me the satisfaction of crossing more things off. Plus itโ€™s just paper that clutters my desk. Even the electronic alternative doesn’t help.

So in order to be environmentally friendly and because I needed a proper system to keep on top of my work, I looked into Kanban tools. Kanwhat? I hear you say? Kanban is Japanese for โ€œvisual signalโ€ or โ€œcardโ€ and relates to cards used by Toyota line-workers to signal steps in their manufacturing process.

Ok so now Iโ€™ve showed off my borrowed knowledge of Japanese, I will talk about the tools that I have tried and the one I use all the time. You can find a list of Project management software for small businesses in thisย useful article. Out of those, I have tested Trello, Asana, Clickup and Microsoft Project but my favourite is Trello for its ease of use and collaborative features.

A little overview

With Trello, you can

  • design your workflow
  • spot where you have bottlenecks (resources, time constraints, etc)
  • know exactly where you are with your work

Let’s see in a little more details.

Tutorial

Board

project management - board

ย 

The easy way to useย Trello is to create a board with 3 lists: To DO, In Progress and Done. You can create cards in each list and they can be moved from one list to the next. So you can easily add all your tasks in your To Do list and move them to the In Progress list once you have started acting on them. Finally, once you have completed the task, it can be parked in the Done list. You will then have the satisfaction to see your Done list getting bigger as you complete more and more tasks.

The beauty is that you don’t need to present your board that way if that doesn’t work for you. I have boards with posts by theme linked to a Calendar power-up to plan out mine and my client’s social media posts for the year. I also have a board per client so that I know exactly where I stand with all the tasks that they have mandated me to work on.

Card

Trello card - Project ManagementWhen you create a Card you can add a description, you can add files to it so that you always have the relevant documentation relating to that task to hand.

You can add a Due Date which will send you reminders when the date is getting closer.

You can use Labels to give you a visual reminder of where the task is at. Or use this to, say, label all your Client related tasks in Yellow, all your personal business related tasks in Blue, etcโ€ฆ One use I have of Labels is for me and my client to know what stage of the process the task is (to draft in yellow, to translate in orange, waiting for image in red, to be authorised in blue, etc…)

You can see if a comment has been added by one of your collaborators. They can tag in the comment you using @yourname to alert you that they need your answer to a question, for example.

Trello Checklist - Project ManagementYou can add Checklist if a task can be split into several sub-tasks. The items on the Checklist can be ticked off as they get completed. At a glance you can see how many sub-tasks have been completed. This is handy if you are using processes made off several tasks and avoids forgetting one on the way. You can also reuse Checklist, quite handy if you tend to have the same processes.

Trello Checklist - Project Management

Privacy

You can change the visibility of your Trello Board: you can choose whether you are the only person having access to it or if you want to make it public or just visible to your team. You can share it with your client so that they know exactly where you are in the work they send your way.

Trello Project Management

Project Management for small businesses

As a small business, there are many tools that can help you run your business easily. I suggest you try a couple of project management tools such as the ones in the article above. I have found what I needed with Trello and it has made my life simpler for running my own projects and my clients’ . I am on top of things and progress is visible.

You can easily set Trello up but, if time is an issue, contact me so that I set it up for you.

info@virtuellesolutions.com


My name is Elisabeth Morice and I am a multilingual virtual assistant helping entrepreneurs, consultants or freelancers.
I offer customer service and IT support in English, French and German.
I provide solutions to allow small businesses to grow without requiring the need of full staff hire.

Contact me now for more information.


Read the English version here

Adieu la liste de tรขches – Bonjour Trello

Comme dรฉcrit dans unย blog prรฉcรฉdent, je n’aime pas utiliser les listes de tรขches. Elles ne font que s’allonger sans me donner la satisfaction de barrer les tรขches accomplies. De plus, c’est encore un peu plus de papier sur mon bureau.

Alors, pour protรฉger l’environnement, et parce que j’avais besoin d’un vrai systรจme pour รชtre ร  jour dans mes projets et missions clients, je me suis intรฉressรฉe aux outils Kanban. Kequoi ? Vous รฉcriez-vous ? Kanban est un terme japonais qui veut en gros dire โ€œsignal visuelโ€ ou โ€œcarteโ€ et se rapporte au systรจme utilisรฉ par les ouvriers de Toyota pour visualiser les รฉtapes du processus de production.

Bon, maintenant que j’ai bien montrรฉ ma science (empruntรฉe sur internet, bien sรปr), je vais vous parler des outils en ligne que j’ai testรฉs et en particulier celui que j’utilise tout le temps. Vous trouverez une liste des logiciels de gestion de projet pour PME dans cet article trรจs utile. De ces outils, j’ai testรฉ Trello, Asana, Clickup et Microsoft Project, avec une prรฉfรฉrence pour Trello pour sa facilitรฉ dโ€™utilisation et ses fonctions collaboratives.

Un aperรงu

Avecย Trello, vous pouvez

  • concevoir votre workflow
  • visualiser les problรจmes de ressources, les contraintes de temps, etc
  • savoir exactement oรน vous en รชtes dans vos projets

Allons voir plus en dรฉtail.

Tutoriel

Tableau


Une des faรงons les plus simples d’utiliser Trello est de crรฉer un Tableau comprenant une liste de tรขches A Faire, une liste de tรขches En Progrรจs, et une liste pour les tรขches accomplies (Fait). Vous pouvez crรฉer des cartes dans chaque liste et elles peuvent รชtre glissรฉes d’une liste ร  l’autre par la suite. Donc vous pouvez ajouter facilement vos tรขches ร  accomplir dans votre liste A Faire et les glisser dans votre liste En Progrรจs une fois que vous avez commencรฉ ร  travailler dessus. Enfin, une fois qu’une tรขche est accomplie, elle peut รชtre rangรฉe dans la liste Fait. Cela vous donnera la satisfaction de voir votre liste Fait s’allonger au fur et ร  mesure que vous complรฉtez vos tรขches.

Ce qui est encore mieux, c’est que vous pouvez choisir de prรฉsenter votre Tableau complรฉtement diffรฉremment si cette organisation (A Faire, En Progrรจs, Fait) ne vous convient pas. Personnellement, j’ai crรฉรฉ des Tableaux avec des postes par thรจme liรฉ au Power-Up Calendrier pour planifier mes postes sur les rรฉseaux sociaux pour toute l’annรฉe. J’ai aussi crรฉรฉ un Tableau par client, de faรงon ร  savoir exactement oรน je suis par rapport aux tรขches qu’ils.elles m’ont demandรฉes d’accomplir.

Carte

Trello Gestion de Projet

Lorsque vous crรฉez une Carte, vous pouvez ajouter une description, vous pouvez ajouter des piรจces jointes, de faรงon ร  ce que vous ayiez toujours sous la main les documents liรฉs ร  la tรขche en cours.

Vous pouvez ajouter une Date Limite, ce qui vous enverra des relances par email quand la date approchera.

Vous pouvez utiliser des Etiquettes pour ajouter une touche visuelle ร  vos tรขches. Par exemple, vous pouvez utiliser l’Etiquette Jaune pour toutes les tรขches liรฉes ร  vos Clients, le Bleu pour toutes les tรขches liรฉes ร  votre entreprise, etc… Dans certains cas, j’utilise les Etiquettes pour dรฉterminer le stade d’avancement dans le processus (ร  รฉcrire en jaune, ร  traduire en orange, en attente d’un visuel en rouge, ร  valider en bleu, etc…)

Vous pouvez visualiser si un commentaire a รฉtรฉ ajoutรฉ par l’un de vos collaborateurs. Ils.elles peuvent vous รฉtiqueter sur un commentaire en utilisant @votrenom pour vous alerter s’ils.elles on besoin de votre rรฉponse ร  une question, par exemple.

Vous pouvez ajouter une liste de contrรดle pour une tรขche qui doit รชtre dรฉtaillรฉe en plusieurs sous-tรขches. Les รฉlรฉments de la liste de contrรดle peuvent รชtre cochรฉs au fur et ร  mesure qu’ils sont complรฉtรฉs, comme sur une liste papier. C’est pratique si vos processus (j’ai vรฉrifiรฉ, c’est bien le pluriel de processus!) sont composรฉs de plusieurs sous-tรขches et cela permet de ne pas en oublier une en route. Vous pouvez aussi rรฉutiliser des listes de contrรดle, pratique si vous avez des processus rรฉcurrents.ย 

Trello - Gestion de Projet

D’un coup d’oeil, vous pouvez voir combien de sous-tรขches ont รฉtรฉ accomplies.

Trello - Gestion de Projet

Visibilitรฉ

Vous pouvez modifier la visibilitรฉ de vos Tableaux Trello : vous pouvez choisir d’รชtre la seule personne ayant accรจs au Tableau, ou le rendre Public, ou juste visible par votre Equipe. Vous pouvez dรฉcider de partager votre Tableau avec votre client.e afin que vous sachiez tou.te.s les deux exactement oรน vous en รชtes dans les diffรฉrents projets sur lesquels vous travaillez pour leur compte.

Trello - Gestion de Projet

Gestion de Projet pour petites entreprises

Mรชme si vous รชtes une PME ou un.e solo entrepreneur.e, il existe des outils qui peuvent vous aider ร  gรฉrer votre entreprise plus aisรฉment. Je vous encourage ร  essayer deux ou trois outils de gestion de projet, tels que dรฉcrits dans l’article mentionnรฉ plus haut. Personnellement, j’ai trouvรฉ ce dont j’avais besoin en Trello et cela m’aide ร  gรฉrer mes propres projets ainsi que ceux de mes clients facilement. Je sais oรน j’en suis ร  tout moment et les progrรจs sont visibles.

Trello est facile ร  mettre en place mais si vous รชtes pris par le temps, contactez-moi afin que je le configure aux besoins de votre entreprise.

info@virtuellesolutions.com


Je m’appelle Elisabeth Morice et je suis assistante virtuelle. J’aide les entrepreneur.e.s, consultant.e.s et freelances.
Je propose une assistance support de clientรจle et technique en anglais, franรงais et allemand.
J’apporte des solutions pour aider les petites entreprises ร  grandir sans avoir besoin de recruter.

Contactez-moiย pour plus d’infos

Your health and your business ~~~ Votre santรฉ et votre entreprise

Lire la version franรงaise ici

Look after your health and your business will thank you

Today I wanted to talk about health, and in particular about the sole traderโ€™s, the freelancerโ€™s or the consultantโ€™s. This status is generating stress, due to several factors, such as financial uncertainty, work overload, relationship with the public, loneliness, etcโ€ฆ

Here is my advice on how to keep your head and help your business live long and prosper.

Financial uncertainty

It is difficult to keep stress at bay when you donโ€™t know how much you are going to earn this month and if it is going to cover your bills. Surround yourself with efficient and proactive collaborators (accountant, assistant, web designerโ€ฆ) who will be able to take some of this stress away from you.

Stay connected with your network of entrepreneurs so that you can share your common issues. It is important to have other entrepreneurs around you who understand the problems that come with running your own business.

Furthermore, pick and choose your clients. What I mean by that is that you donโ€™t have to answer everybodyโ€™s prayers. It is completely ok to tell a prospect that you wonโ€™t be able to help them with their project but that X might be able to help them. If the first contacts with a potential client are a bit weird or iffy, listen to your guts. A client who haggles about every little thing right from the start will not get any better the longer your work with them.

Work overloadwork overload

Learn to say no. N.O. Simples! Earlier in this blog I was inviting you to say no to potential clients if they were not a good fit. Similarly, I would argue that if you are already working all hours, do not take on new projects, thinking that the client will not come back if you turn them down. If you lay down your availability, the client will wait. If they donโ€™t, another one will turn up when you are more available to take on their project.

In parallel, take stock of your strengths and weaknesses. There is no need to take on a job that is not in your genius zone. It is important to know what you can do with your hands tied down and what you canโ€™t.

I would add to this that you should get organised to overcome difficulties. Again, this means surrounding yourself with efficient collaborators, project your business in the future, use tools and work methodologies that make your life easier.

Dealing with the public

When you run your own business, customer relationships can be hard to deal with and can bring on stress. A solution to lower the stress levels is to delegate this side of your activity if it is too much of a burden. However if that isnโ€™t possible, be clear with your customers about your availability. Donโ€™t take everything to heart, listen to your public, accept your mistakes and fix them. I remember a plumber who told me that he didnโ€™t have an answering machine because he got fed up with insulting messages from irate clients who needed his help over the weekend. I couldnโ€™t help thinking that a simple message stating the opening hours and a number to call in case of emergency would have gone a long way to appease the most irritable of his clients. In any rate, it wouldnโ€™t have alienated the rest of his clientele.

Fighting loneliness

It is common for a sole trader to feel alone when facing decisions in the running of their business. Donโ€™t hesitate to surround yourself with sympathetic people and to invest time in building your professional relationships network. Even if I find approaching new people very daunting, I force myself to attend a least one networking event a month. I donโ€™t go to those events with the notion of finding new clients, but I am seeking people who I feel connected with somehow, with whom I would like to start projects, people who would be happy to share advice on running a business.

Another way to lessen this feeling of loneliness is to let yourself be helped (by a coach, join a business incubator, etcโ€ฆ). I am very lucky to belong to a community of like minded female entrepreneurs, to have access to mentoring, to attend workshops on themes linked to running your own business, and many more. My suggestion is to try several groups or coaches until you find what fits your needs.

Take care of yourself

When you run your own business, the well seated assumption is that you have to work long and hard to gain results. As the saying goes โ€œfair and softly goes far in a dayโ€. My advice therefore is to review your working conditions:

  • is your working space comfortable? Your chair, your desk, your kitchen table?
  • is your environment fit for purpose?
  • do you take regular breaks? away from the screen if you work on computers all day, standing up if you are mostly sitting downโ€ฆ

In addition to this you should make sure you are getting enough sleep, eat healthy and balanced meals, and practice some regular physical activity. Obviously this doesnโ€™t just apply to sole traders, but I feel it is all the more important to listen to our own bodies for our own benefit as well as for our businessโ€™.

Finally, I would add that you have to allow yourself to disconnect in the evening, at the weekend or for a few days/weeks holiday. I recently heard the testimony of a freelance who hadnโ€™t had a day off in over 8.5 years of running his own business. In his own words, he was going nuts! You have every right to limit your availability to your clients. They themselves have a life outside of work, so why shouldnโ€™t you? Switch off your business phone, separate your personal from your business emails, remove notifications. If your activity needs to be 24/7 then delegate what you can.

 

To ensure the good health of your business, look after your own. Listen to your body and your instinct. Granted, it is hard to do when you are caught in the daily grind. Start small, make small changes where you think you can and often a snowball effect will happen. There are so many advantages to being a sole trader that it would be a shame to not enjoy them.

So, what changes will you make to your daily routine of entrepreneur?

info@virtuellesolutions.com


Read the English version here

Entrepreneur en bonne santรฉ = entreprise en bonne santรฉ

Aujourd’hui je voulais parler un peu de la santรฉ, et en particulier de celle de l’auto entrepreneur, du freelance ou du consultant. Beaucoup de facteurs font que ce statut est porteur de stress, tels que l’incertitude financiรจre, la surcharge de travail, les relations avec le public, la solitude, etc.

Voici quelques conseils pour rester serein.e et faire en sorte que notre entreprise soit pรฉrenne.

Incertitude financiรจre

Cโ€™est difficile de ne pas รชtre stressรฉ.e quand on ne sait pas combien on va rentrer de CA ce mois-ci et si on va pouvoir payer les factures. Entourez-vous de collaborateurs efficaces et proactifs (comptable, assistant, web designer) qui vous dรฉchargeront d’une part de stress.

Restez connectรฉs ร  votre rรฉseau de pairs pour pouvoir discuter de vos soucis communs. C’est important d’avoir d’autres entrepreneurs dans votre entourage qui comprennent les problรฉmatiques du statut de chef d’entreprise.networkingDโ€™autre part, choisissez bien votre clientรจle. C’est-ร -dire que vous n’รชtes pas tenu.e de rรฉpondre ร  toutes les demandes. Il est tout ร  fait convenable de dire ร  un prospect que leur projet n’est pas tout ร  fait dans vos cordes et que concurrent X serait plus ร  mรชme de les aider. Si les premiers contacts avec un client potentiel sont รฉpineux ou douteux, รฉcoutez votre instinct. Un client qui titille dรจs le dรฉbut pour des broutilles ne va pas s’affiner avec le temps, ce n’est pas comme le camembert!

Surcharge de travail

 

 

Il faut savoir dire non. De mรชme qu’au point plus haut je vous incitais ร  dire non ร  certains clients potentiels, si vous รชtes dรฉjร  au maximum en charge de travail, n’acceptez pas de projet en plus, sous prรฉtexte que si vous dites non le client ne reviendra pas. Si vous expliquez clairement vos disponibilitรฉs, le/la client.e attendra. S’il/elle n’attend pas, un.e autre viendra avec un autre projet quand vous serez plus disponible pour l’entreprendre sereinement.

Il faut aussi savoir bien cibler ses domaines d’intervention. Connaissez bien vos forces et vos faiblesses. Ce n’est pas la peine de se lancer dans un projet qui n’est pas dans votre zone de gรฉnie. Il est important de savoir ce qu’on peut faire les yeux fermรฉs et ce qu’on ne peut pas faire.

Il faut aussi savoir s’organiser pour surmonter les difficultรฉs. Cela revient ร  s’entourer de collaborateurs efficaces, ร  se projeter dans l’avenir, ร  mettre en place des outils et des mรฉthodes de travail qui vous simplifient la vie.

Relations avec le public

 

En tant qu’entrepreneur, les relations avec la clientรจle peuvent รชtre dures ร  gรฉrer et aussi porteuses de stress. La solution pour attรฉnuer ce stress est de dรฉlรฉguer cette partie de l’activitรฉ si c’est un gros problรจme. Si cette solution n’est pas possible, soyez clair.e avec vos clients par rapport ร  votre disponibilitรฉ. Ne prenez pas tout ร  cล“ur et รฉcoutez votre public, et surtout sachez vous remettre en question. J’ai en mรฉmoire un plombier qui n’avait pas de rรฉpondeur tรฉlรฉphonique car il en avait assez des messages d’insultes laissรฉs par les clients parce qu’il n’รฉtait pas disponible le weekend. La mise en place d’un simple message expliquant les horaires et peut-รชtre une recommandation d’un autre numรฉro pour les urgences auraient รฉtรฉ des mesures suffisantes pour apaiser les clients les plus irritables. En tout cas, cela n’aurait pas exaspรฉrรฉ tous les autres clients raisonnables.

Solitude

solitudeIl est courant pour un.e entrepreneur.e de se sentir seul.e dans la prise de dรฉcision et dans l’exercice de son travail. Il ne faut surtout pas hรฉsiter ร  s’entourer de gens bienveillants et ร  investir du temps dans la crรฉation d’un rรฉseau de relations professionnelles. Mรชme si je trouve cela trรจs difficile d’approcher les gens, je me force ร  aller ร  un รฉvรฉnement de rรฉseautage une fois par mois au minimum. Je nโ€™y vais pas pour trouver des clients mais pour rencontrer des gens avec qui je pourrais avoir des affinitรฉs, avec qui je pourrais monter des projets, des gens qui accepteraient de me conseiller dans lโ€™exercice de mon activitรฉ.

Une autre parade ร  la solitude est de se former et de se faire accompagner (par un coach, par une pรฉpiniรจre d’entreprise ou autre). J’ai la chance de faire partie d’une communautรฉ d’entrepreneures, d’avoir accรจs ร  du mentoring, des ateliers sur divers sujets autour de l’entreprenariat, et bien d’autres choses. Il faut essayer plusieurs groupes afin de trouver celui qui vous convient et qui rรฉpondra ร  vos attentes.

Prendre soin de soi

La tentation de l’autoentrepreneur est de travailler dur et de longues heures pour obtenir des rรฉsultats. Il est pourtant bien connu que qui veut aller loin mรฉnage sa monture. Je conseille de passer en revue vos conditions de travail:

  • รชtes-vous bien installรฉe.eย ?
  • votre environnement de travail est-il confortable et ergonomique?
  • prenez-vous des pauses rรฉguliรจres, loin de l’รฉcran si vous travaillez toute la journรฉe sur l’ordinateur, debout si vous travaillez assis.e ร  un bureau…

Il s’agit aussi de prendre soin de dormir suffisamment, de manger des repas variรฉs et รฉquilibrรฉs et de faire de l’activitรฉ physique rรฉguliรจrement. Ces conseils ne s’appliquent pas qu’aux autoentrepreneurs, bien entendu, mais il est d’autant plus important pour nous d’รฉcouter notre corps pour notre bien mais aussi pour celui de notre entreprise.

Pour finir, j’ajouterais qu’il faut se donner le droit de dรฉconnecter le soir, le weekend ou pour quelques jours/semaines de congรฉ. J’ai entendu rรฉcemment le tรฉmoignage d’un freelance qui n’avait pris aucun jour de congรฉ en 8,5 ans d’activitรฉ. Lui-mรชme admettait quโ€™il en devenait fou ! Pour autant, il est tout ร  fait correct de limiter sa disponibilitรฉ ร  la clientรจle. Vos clients ont une vie en dehors du travail, pourquoi pas vous? Dรฉbranchez votre tรฉlรฉphone pro, sรฉparez votre messagerie professionnelle de votre messagerie personnelle, dรฉsactivez les notifications. Si votre activitรฉ doit รชtre 24h/24 alors dรฉlรฉguez ce qui peut l’รชtre.

 

Pour la bonne santรฉ de votre entreprise, prenez soin de la vรดtre. Il s’agit d’รฉcouter son corps et son instinct. La difficultรฉ est que quand on est la tรชte dans le guidon, il est difficile de faire de l’introspection. Commencez petit, faites de petits changements lร  oรน vous pensez pouvoir en faire et il y a souvent un effet boule de neige qui se produit. Il y a tellement d’avantages ร  l’entreprenariat que ce serait dommage de passer ร  cรดtรฉ.

Et vous, quels changements allez-vous apporter dans votre quotidien d’entrepreneur?

info@virtuellesolutions.com


My name is Elisabeth Morice and I am a virtual assistant helping entrepreneurs, consultants or freelancers.
I offer administrative, business and IT support, in multiple languages if required.
I bring solutions to allow small businesses to grow without requiring the need of full staff hire.

Contact me now for more information.

Parkinson’s Law ~~~ La loi de Parkinson

time management

Parkinson’s Law: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”

Cyril Northcote Parkinson, British historian (1909-1993)

Although Parkinson applied his theory to civil service, I think it also applies to us (mere mortals) auto entrepreneurs. If I don’t set myself time limits, whatever time I have available before my next appointment, online lesson or school pickup will just disappear without me noticing it and nothing tangible to show for it.

As an auto entrepreneur I can’t afford to let time slip away like that so I looked at tools that would help me manage my time efficiently. There is the obvious timer on your phone or even online such as e.ggtimer. You can decide the amount of time you want to spend on a given task and when the timer goes, you can either take a break, decide to reset the timer to finish the task or move on to the next item on you to do list. This method has the benefit to keep you focused on the task at hand. Just make sure that you don’t allow emails or Facebook updates to derail you until the timer beeps!

This method only worked for me up to a point. I found out that I didn’t need timing but I needed to record what I was working on and for how long. On a Friday evening I would look back at my busy week and wonder what I had really been doing for the past five days. I started using a timing tool such as toggl. This has had two big effects on my work:

– I can log and time tasks that I perform for my customers, which I can then report on and base my invoices on.

– The second benefit is that I can also log in the tasks I have to do for my business, such as admin work or writing this blog.

This might not seem like much but using toggl allowed me to visualise how much time I was spending on building my business (prospection, learning, communication…). It also keeps me focused and helps me stick to my daily/weekly/monthly plan.

info@virtuellesolutions.com

 

Loi de Parkinson : ยซ Le travail sโ€™รฉtale de faรงon ร  occuper le temps disponible pour son achรจvement ยป.

Cyril Northcote Parkinson, historien britannique (1909-1993)

Bien que la Loi de Parkinson sโ€™applique ร  l’origine ร  l’administration et aux fonctionnaires, je pense qu’elle s’applique tout aussi bien au commun des mortels et, en particulier, aux autoentrepreneur.e.s. Si je n’y fait pas attention, le temps que j’ai de disponible (entre mes rendez-vous, leรงons en ligne ou la sortie de l’รฉcole) s’รฉvapore sans que je m’en rende compte et sans rien de tangible ร  la fin de la journรฉe.

En tant qu’auto entrepreneure, je ne peux pas me permettre de laisser le temps me couler entre les doigts alors je m’appuis sur des outils qui peuvent m’aider ร  gรฉrer mon temps efficacement. Il y a bien sรปr le minuteur sur votre tรฉlรฉphone ou mรชme en ligne (tel que http://e.ggtimer.com/). On dรฉcide du temps qu’on veut passer sur une tรขche donnรฉe et quand ce temps est รฉcoulรฉ et que le minuteur sonne, on fait une pause, on redรฉmarre le minuteur pour finir la tรขche ou on passe ร  la suivante sur la liste. Cette mรฉthode a l’avantage de maintenir la concentration sur la tรขche en cours. Mais attention ร  ne pas vous laisser tenter par les courriels et autres notifications Facebook avant la fin de la minuterie !

Cette mรฉthode ne fonctionnait pour moi que jusqu’ร  un certain point. En effet, je me suis rendue compte que j’avais aussi besoin de noter ce sur quoi je travaillais et pendant combien de temps. Arrivait la fin de la semaine et je me demandais souvent pourquoi je n’avais pas eu une minute ร  moi mais sans savoir exactement ce que j’avais fait. J’ai donc commencรฉ ร  utiliser un outil en ligne tel que toggl.com. Cela a eu deux effets positifs sur mon organisation de travail :

– Je peux enregistrer et minuter des tรขches dans le cadre des missions que j’effectue pour mes clients. Je peux ensuite extraire un rapport sur lequel je peux baser mes factures en fin de mois.

– Le second plus est que je peux aussi enregistrer les tรขches que j’effectue pour faire progresser mon entreprise, telles que les tรขches administratives ou รฉcrire ce blog.

Cela semble peut-รชtre anodin mais utiliser toggl m’a permis de visualiser et de comprendre combien de temps je passais ร  faire progresser mon entreprise (prospection, apprentissage, communication…). Cela me permet aussi de rester concentrรฉe et m’aide ร  me tenir ร  mon plan quotidien/hebdomadaire/mensuel.

info@virtuellesolutions.com


My name is Elisabeth Morice and I am a virtual assistant helping entrepreneurs, consultants or young startups.
I offer administrative, business and IT support, in multiple languages if required.
I bring solutions to allow small businesses to grow without requiring the need of full staff hire.

Contact me now for more information.

Merging PDF files ~~~ Fusionner des fichiers PDF

PDF process

Merging PDF files

My printer scanner used to allow me to scan documents to an existing PDF document, thus effectively adding paging to the original document. Unfortunately my new printer scanner doesn’t provide me with this functionality that I had taken for granted.

Don’t fret, I can use online tools that allow me to merge PDF documents. This article on Codeur mag lists online tools at our disposal to merge PDF files: https://www.codeur.com/blog/fusionner-pdf/. The article is in French but you should get the gist of what apps are available.

I can recommend SMALLPDF that allows you to merge 2 or more PDF files in 2 clicks. SMALLPDF also offers other tools that allow you to compress your PDF files or edit them (delete pages or rotate them for example).

I can also recommend SODAPDF that allows you to merge, compress, divide or edit PDF files. You also get the added bonus to be able to send the final document via email, what more could a girl need? ๐Ÿ˜‰

info@virtuellesolutions.com

 

Fusionner des fichiers PDF

Mon imprimante scanner me permettait dans le passรฉ de scanner des documents et les rajouter ร  un PDF dรฉjร  existant. Malheureusement, depuis que j’ai changรฉ d’imprimante, le logiciel fournit avec ne me permet pas cette fonctionnalitรฉ.

Qu’ร  cela ne tienne, je peux utiliser des outils en ligne pour faire cette manipulation. Cet article paru sur Codeur mag nous dresse une liste des applications ร  notre disposition : https://www.codeur.com/blog/fusionner-pdf/

Pour ma part je peux recommander SMALLPDF qui permet de fusionner deux ou plusieurs pdf documents en 2 clicks 3 mouvements. SMALLPDF propose aussi d’autres applis qui vous permettent entre autres de compresser vos fichiers PDF, de les รฉditer (supprimer des pages ou les changer d’orientation), etc.

Je peux aussi recommander SODAPDF qui permet รฉgalement de fusionner des fichiers DPF , les compresser, les diviser, les รฉditer. Vous avez aussi l’option de pouvoir envoyer le fichier final par courriel. Que demande le peuple ? ๐Ÿ˜‰

info@virtuellesolutions.com


My name is Elisabeth Morice and I am a virtual assistant helping entrepreneurs, consultants or young startups.
I offer administrative, business and IT support, in multiple languages if required.
I bring solutions to allow small businesses to grow without requiring the need of full staff hire.

Contact me now for more information.

Eat a live frog in the morning!

Stop procrastinating

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
Mark Twain

time management prioritise procrastination

The main reason why people struggle with their tasks list is because it is full of items that shouldn’t even have made it there in the first place. We spend too much time on tasks that do not matter as an avoidance tactic to not do the ones that matter.

Refer to your prioritisation matrix every morning and only write on your task list the items that are urgent and important. These are the “frogs” that you need to eat first.

Prioritisation is one of the most useful and productive time management skills.

So, from today onwards, stop procrastinating and eat that frog in the morning!

info@virtuellesolutions.com

Arrรชtez de procrastiner

ยซ Manger une grenouille vivante est la premiรจre chose ร  faire le matin, rien de pire ne vous arrivera le reste de la journรฉe ! ยป
Mark Twain

La raison principale pour laquelle on a du mal ร  venir ร  bout de nos listes de tรขches ร  accomplir, c’est parce qu’elles sont remplies de tรขches qui ne devraient pas y figurer. On passe trop de temps sur des tรขches qui n’ont pas d’importance afin d’รฉviter d’effectuer celles qui le sont.

Chaque matin, rรฉfรฉrez-vous ร  votre matrice de prioritรฉ et ne marquez sur votre liste de tรขches que les tรขches urgentes et importantes. Ce sont les “grenouilles vivantes” que vous devez manger en prioritรฉ.

Cette technique de gestion du temps est une des plus utiles et productives.

Donc, dรจs aujourd’hui, arrรชtez de procrastiner et mangez cette grenouille !

info@virtuellesolutions.com


My name is Elisabeth Morice and I am a virtual assistant helping entrepreneurs, consultants or young startups.
I offer administrative, business and IT support, in multiple languages if required.
I bring solutions to allow small businesses to grow without requiring the need of full staff hire.

Contact me now for more information.

Hiring a virtual assistant

Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Client Testimonial

“A task which would have taken me numerous hours to understand and action took minutes”

When you are a solo entrepreneur, you end up doing everything in your business: the accounts, prospecting, client relations, stock and logistics, taxes, … (the list goes on). When you are starting up it is a necessity and you have to learn fast. However if you want to grow your business, there comes a point when you have to concentrate on what you do best, which could be creating your own products, coaching people, selling…

Why not delegate the tasks that take you hours to sort out or the ones that you can do but really bore you? Make a list of how long it takes you to do things for a week or two and patterns will emerge. This is a good starting point when speaking to a virtual assistant about what tasks you want them to take on.

 

 


My name is Elisabeth Morice and I am a virtual assistant helping entrepreneurs, consultants or young startups.
I offer administrative, business and IT support, in multiple languages.
I bring solutions to allow small businesses to grow without requiring the need of full staff hire.

Contact me now for more information.

Priority matrix

Tip of the day

When you start your work day, review the tasks on your TO DO list, matching them with the following priority matrix. Then attack your working day with the urgent and important tasks first. Then go through the important but not urgent ones or plan them for later. The rest will fall into place.

 

virtual assistant priority matrix
Priority matrix

 


My name is Elisabeth Morice and I am a virtual assistant helping entrepreneurs, consultants or young startups.
I offer administrative, business and IT support, in multiple languages if required.
I bring solutions to allow small businesses to grow without requiring the need of full staff hire.

Contact me now for more information.