This month we are focusing on four significant trends in business that are worth investigating. You may not feel the need to change your business model and processes, but we encourage you to examine areas that need tweaking. This month is an excellent time for reflection and improvement.

Leadership requires us to be intentional about personal growth. There are many effective ways to grow personally and professionally, and one of our favorites is reading relevant books and other material. Once again, we’ve put together a list of four of our favorites for the holiday season.

‘Tis the season to be busy in both life and work. But you don’t need to get overwhelmed. If you are like us, you’re setting goals and budgets for next year while trying to balance home and family so that you can enjoy the upcoming holiday season. These ten tips will help you juggle it all and remain stress-free.

So why is company culture important? When you intentionally develop your company culture, you create a powerful tool for motivating your people. This “tool” can influence how your team feels about their work and the approach and actions they employ to help determine the direction of your company. While there are many traits a company should exhibit, four are essential to help your company stand out in the marketplace.

You’ve heard the term soft skills, right? These are typically the skills you desire in your team members but are very difficult to teach. We expect that anyone can learn, grow, and develop sharper skills, but training for soft skills is not often part of a typical staff meeting or staff development day. Not everyone will be an expert at everything on your list, but everyone can be great at some of them. Your entire team can expertly cover them all if you can master hiring strategically for soft skills.

Becoming an entrepreneur is a leap of faith for anyone who decides to start a business. It begins with a dream that becomes a vision - which leads to developing a plan, taking action steps, and suddenly, you are officially off and running.

Whatever you do, give it your very best. That’s tried and true advice, and we hear it from multiple sources. Parents, teachers, and coaches seemed to preach it often, and it’s even found in the Bible. So, if you want to be successful and continue to thrive, you should daily strive to work with enthusiasm. So, what are some of the ways you can do that? Here are some of the top skills and traits that the most successful Virtual Assistants possess.

Summer is here, and it’s essential to keep your team focused on work, healthy both physically and mentally, and possibly offer some fun and flexibility. Sounds like a tall order, especially in the summer amidst vacations, kids out of school, and beautiful weather. But there are simple solutions that may even help improve your company culture as you celebrate your team this summer.

We’ve all heard the famous phrase, “Get the right people in the right seat on the bus,” and it’s true. However, your vision means nothing if the people on your bus are ego-focused, satisfied with the status quo, or lacking people skills. Instead, you want to make sure all of your team members are humble, hungry, and smart. So here are some tips to guide you as you fill your bus with quality people who will help you successfully reach your destination.

Well before COVID-19, we talked about the importance of virtual meetings and utilizing Zoom. After two years of working during a pandemic, many teams are experiencing Zoom fatigue. It’s essential to ensure that you aren’t having meetings just to have meetings. They still need to be effective and efficient, and if they are unnecessary - don’t have them.

We often get this question from our clients. Should they bring their new team member on as a 1099 contractor or as a W2 employee? At times, the choice is easy as the laws are very clear as to which one it should be. If someone is actively involved in the day-to-day of running your business, there should be no question. They should be a W2 employee. Other times, if they are working on marketing and social media, working as an assistant taking care of various tasks both personal and business in nature, or working on a specific project, it’s not as easy to make the choice.

We set an important goal for the past year. We both wanted to complete a business course that would improve our abilities to advise and guide our clients. We are proud to announce that we are now DISC and Enneagram Coach Certified! We knew that in order to better help our clients and their teams we needed to continue to learn. Adding these certifications to our tool belts allows us to serve you in a new and improved way.

How to effectively prioritize and delegate tasks is the most asked question we get from our clients. Learning how to let go and hand off low-value tasks doesn’t need to be difficult. And if your team is remote, prioritization and delegation are essential to building a cohesive and efficient team. We understand growing your business is a top priority. And when you properly delegate the right tasks, you will have more time to develop your business, spend more time with your family and friends, or take needed time off. Here are some of our tried and true tips for effectively delegating.

Back to the office. Hybrid. 100% remote. The last two years have brought a great deal of turbulence and given steam to the remote working world. They have also added to mental health issues, stress especially around personal finances due to soaring inflation, and anxiety as a result of the state of the world. Trends do tend to come and go, but some stick around. Then a few become the new normal. So what’s going to be the new normal for 2022? We are not about to take a guess at that one. But we will offer some thoughts to ponder as we enter this new year.

Looking for a good gift for your team this holiday season? What better way to inspire and motivate than through books. Haven’t had time to dive into some of the releases from the past few years? Check out a few of our favorites we enjoy returning to time and time again. Each of them would make a great gift for your team - or maybe for yourself!

Frustration sets in when you continually hear that there are jobs out there to be filled and everyone is hiring. And as an employer, it’s discouraging to know that there are millions of candidates looking for work. However, neither of you is able to find the right fit. What’s causing this great divide?

As we are closing in on the end of the year, it’s a great time to start thinking about your goals for the future. So no matter the type of goals you are establishing, here are some tips to help you get started and keep focused on success.

Calendar management can be scary. The best advice we can offer is to hire a virtual assistant to manage it for you. Let her be the master planner and keep you on track so you can focus on the bigger picture. If you aren’t ready to take the plunge with a virtual assistant, then read on for tips and tricks to help you manage your calendar.

Managing email can overwhelm anyone, especially if you receive an excess of 100 emails daily. Often the thought of taking a day off and returning to a full inbox causes frustration and stress. Here are some suggestions for managing your email so frustration doesn’t set in and cause undue tension.

Most of us have the opportunity to work hard so we can play hard. Humans were created to work and be productive, but that doesn’t mean we don’t like to hear words of gratitude and encouragement. Everyone has a specific way that makes them feel most appreciated, and in today’s blog, we are focusing on words of affirmation.