You don't have to weather the storm alone!
As a small business owner myself, I have experienced a few of the ‘low points’ of entrepreneurship; from quiet months, to late customer payments, to unpaid and unsupported sick leave – life as a self-employed worker or as the owner of a small business can be tough, but you don’t have to weather the storm alone.
 
I couldn't deal with EVERYTHING myself!
When I set up my business, I was adamant that I was going to deal with everything myself.  This started off well, but soon meant that my life was taken over by every single aspect of running a small business! It seemed like every waking moment was given over to scheduling Facebook content or sending out invoices, or catching up on my own administrative paperwork.  As a VA providing quality business support to other local small businesses, the day-to-day running of my own ‘back office’ was right at the bottom of my list of priorities!!  I managed to deal with everything myself for about a year, before it dawned on me that I would have to outsource something before my workload crushed me.  It was right at that moment that I met the first of my Associates, and a little weight was lifted from my shoulders (and I liked it!)
 
‘A problem shared is a problem halved’
That's how the old familiar adage goes and from experience, I can confirm that it is indeed correct!  In the case of CC Professional Business Services, once I had sought help with some of my own administrative work (i.e., writing copy for my website, helping to schedule in my social media posts, providing assistance with my own newsletters, bookkeeping and invoicing etc.,), I suddenly found myself with time to read up on advances in the VA field; to network more frequently and more effectively than ever before; and to follow up potential leads.  Previously, I had been working into the early hours in order to keep on top of these tasks and my hubby was beginning to drop subtle hints about the hours I was keeping!  As a result, my business grew and still continues to grow today, thanks to the help of several VA’s who provide CC Professional with outsourced administrative support.
 
Do you have time for networking and training?
Do you have the time to make sure you are THE GO-TO SOURCE for knowledge and information about the field that you work in by keeping up-to-date with the latest news and legislation?  If not, why don’t you consider working with a team who specialise in providing top quality business support to small businesses just like yours, and who have a proven track record? 

We can give you the time you crave ...
CC Professional offer a wide variety of business support services, from filing and data entry to project management and copywriting – we can help give you the time you crave to grow your business, by carrying out your behind-the-scenes administrative tasks for you. 

​Get in touch with us today for more information by calling +44 (0)1296 910191 or email [email protected].  You can also visit our website: http://www.ccprofessional.net to find out how we can make your life easier!

When most people look at Social Media, they see tiny ‘snippets’ of marketing – 140 characters on Twitter, a few lines on Facebook, a single image and a few hashtags on Instagram… surely it can’t take long to knock a few Social Media posts out, can it?  Many people don’t realise the time that it takes to create and implement an effective Social Media Strategy for just one business, let alone multiple businesses, so here is a little insight into the day-to-day life of our wonderful Social Media Manager – hopefully, it will convince you that she doesn't just spend all her time reading amusing Facebook articles!

Job 1 – Responding to messages! If you are in control of multiple active Social Media accounts, it is likely that your customers will be receiving direct messages from potential customers on various social media platforms, possibly on a daily basis.  It is often the job of the Social Media Manager to respond to messages, where appropriate or pass the messages on to the Business Owner.  Platforms like Facebook now rate businesses according to how quickly they respond to messages, so the quicker you can respond to direct messages, the better!

Job 2 – Devising original and engaging content: This takes most of my time! For many of my customers, I post once per day to LinkedIn, twice per day to Facebook, and up to 7 times per day on Twitter.  Each of these posts needs to be unique, engaging, and interesting to a specific Business’ target audience.  I try and use a mixture of relevant news articles, ‘behind-the-scenes’ posts designed to give an idea of the real face of the company, and ‘sales-y’ type posts to keep the audience engaged.  

Job 3 – Working out what is working, and what isn’t working! Obviously, if I am creating 50 unique tweets a week for a business, not all of them are going to be quite as popular as others are! It is my job to look at the statistics (either using the platforms own ‘insight’ statistics, or my own software), and work out what kind of content is doing well, and what kind of content is causing customers to ‘switch off’.  Sometimes, popular content is just about being in the right place at the right time! If for example, you are able to use a hashtag that is trending during a live event (i.e. a sports event, a popular television programme), your engagement may go off the scale! My most popular tweet ever was related to BBC’s #Springwatch and received over 500 retweets. 

However, if you want a ‘trending’ tweet to generate new and relevant followers, you need to ensure that the topic is related to the business you are working for – thankfully, my Springwatch tweet was about pollution and the business I was working for had a major focus on sustainability, so the tweet also generated new (and relevant) ‘likes’ and followers for the Business.  It may not have been so successful had the company I was working for been a hairdressers, or café, etc.  

Job 4 – Scheduling in content:  Like many other people, I have a life outside of Social Media (you know – eating, sleeping, etc.!), so it’s just not feasible for me to ‘live’ post throughout the day for every business that I work for.  As a result, I schedule the content for the majority of my clients up to a week in advance via a scheduling tool (like Hootsuite, etc.).  As well as making life easier for me, this also enables my customers to review content prior to it being sent out, so that they can ensure they are happy with the tone, etc.

Job 5 – Images and videos: When it comes to Social Media content, the most popular and engaging content is often visual (in the form of an image or video), and as a result, much of my time is spent developing business specific and ‘branded’ images for my customers, as well as the odd video.  As you would expect, these can take quite a bit of time to perfect! Ideally, Businesses want striking and relevant images that can be immediately associated with their company, so a specific colour filter may need to be applied, or text added in a specific font in order to give the image ‘brand consistency’.  All I can say is thank goodness for iPhone Apps!

The five jobs listed above are all major parts of my daily work schedule, though are by no means everything! Hopefully, you will be able to see that a Social Media Manager does actually do a little more than just type ‘funny meme’s’ into Google and then post the most hilarious results… though I do like to do that occasionally for a little light relief!

If you're looking for some Social Media support for your Business, please contact CC Professional Secretarial Services today on +44 (0)7931 783395 or via email at: [email protected] for more information. 

​We look forward to hearing from you!