Category: Admin

Self-care isn’t selfish – 4 self-care tips for business owners

While we all know that self-care isn’t selfish, it can be very difficult to put the maxim into practice. While we know we should take care of ourselves, we don’t prioritise ourselves as often as we should, even when our lives and work start to suffer. Whether we’re busy with other responsibilities or just feel guilty about it, many of us feel we don’t have time for self-care.

Fortunately, help is at hand! For this blog, we caught up with Virtual Assistant Rachel who has some great ideas for freeing up time and being good to ourselves.

Over to Rachel…

Why is self-care for business owners important?

Rachel: When you work on your own, as many business owners do, it’s very easy to slip into bad habits of eating badly and not taking breaks, stopping you from being your best self. In turn, this can reduce your productivity and adversely impact your business. However, when we look after ourselves, we look after our businesses too. When we see how much our businesses benefit after we’ve had break, and how much better we feel for making healthy choices, we always wonder why we aren’t kinder to ourselves!

In my experience as a VA, one of the biggest ways that I’ve helped business owners is to allow them to take time out for themselves. When you manage your time well, and outsource the tasks that make you feel stressed, you’ll work more effectively. In turn, this can help you to reach your business goals and reap the rewards of your hard work.

What are your top self-care tips for business owners?
  1. Make time

Rachel: The first one is to make more time for yourself. Only when you’ve got time to think can you evaluate how you’re using what time you have.  Time is one of the few things you can never get back…but you can maximise the way you use it.

There are a number of ways to create time in your day! Recognise when you’re no longer being productive. Be honest – if you’re closing a spreadsheet to check your social media, you’re no longer working effectively. Instead of scrolling TikTok, why not use your break to do a YouTube yoga session or walk round the block?

Even if you’re a workaholic, you still need to take breaks. Outsourcing is your friend – check out the Get Ahead quiz to see what jobs are robbing you of your time and getting in the way of self-care. These are the jobs you could delegate to someone else, giving you some free time for yourself. It’s a worthwhile investment, believe me – everyone is more productive after a break.

  1. Fit in regular self-care

Rachel: Once you know you can find more hours in your week, decide how you will use them and stick to it. Choose a time from your new, calmer diary and enrol on an adult learning course or make a regular date with a friend to exercise together. If your colleagues and family get to know your new timetable, they’re less likely to interrupt it. You might find it easier to stick to a new self-care regime if you have a class or a friend relying on you; going it alone is pure self-discipline.

  1. Don’t stress about setbacks

Rachel: Don’t stop caring for yourself just because illness or a tight deadline got in the way of your regular timetable. If you’re having an exceptional week, there are still quick exercises you can do to restore yourself. You could take a moment of mindfulness at your desk, focusing on each of the five senses in turn to ground you in the present moment instead of worrying about the next step. Take a moment of fresh air or try a relaxing breathing exercise – find what works for you and add it to your toolkit.

  1. See the wider benefits

Rachel: When you’re feeling more in control of your time, you’ll start to feel like you can control other areas of your life too. I’m sure you know that when we’re stressed, we often eat badly and have difficulty sleeping. We snap at our families and don’t always make the right decisions. But when we reduce that stress through better time management, we can change all of those negatives into positives. The result is a healthy, happy, productive time both at work and in our personal lives.

Virtual PA services – self-care isn’t selfish

If Rachel’s wise words have got you thinking about how you could improve your self-care, Get Ahead would love to hear from you. In addition to virtual PA services to free up your time, our experienced team can also provide support with marketing, HR, recruitment, finance and more. Follow us on LinkedIn to learn more about us or contact your local regional director to get started.

Whether Christmas is your busiest or your quietest time of year, it’s always a break from the norm. Our virtual expert Pauline has put together a checklist to help you prepare your business for Christmas – we hope it helps with your forward planning.

Prepare to succeed

Pauline: In my experience of office administration, planning ahead before a break really takes the pressure off. You might dream of some half-days in December so you can do some Christmas shopping or bake some mince pies. But instead you find yourself staying late, trying to get all your office jobs done before you close for the Christmas fortnight. Christmas should be fun, not stressful, so remember to plan ahead so you don’t have to do everything at the last minute.

  1. Plan for your office closure

There are lots of office jobs you can automate or outsource while your office is closed. Set up your email automatic reply. You might also consider using a phone answering service to field your work calls while the office is closed, or while you’re face-to-face with your hospitality or retail customers.

If you have a physical office and no one will be in it during Christmas and New Year, remember to secure it before you lock it up for two weeks. Set the heating to a low temperature so you don’t waste energy but the pipes don’t freeze either! Set your security systems and agree who in your team will be “on call” in case of emergency.

  • Schedule your social media

Social media scheduling enables you to create content before you need it. Simply write your posts, add photos and set them to appear on your social channels at regular intervals over Christmas. This helps you maintain a consistent presence and continue to build brand awareness. Find out more about social media scheduling here.

  • Carry out your Christmas marketing

If you work in hospitality or retail, Christmas is probably your busiest time of year. Preparing your marketing and PR ahead of Christmas is a long game and you might have started as early as May. Even if you’re launching your campaign in the autumn, there is still time to make it effective. Find out more about our marketing support here.

  • Write your Christmas client email

The Christmas email to clients, thanking them for their support during the year, is not something to write in a hurry. These emails often take the form of a “review of the year” and you might need to gather data, ask your colleagues for photos or get permission to mention a certain client. But if you leave yourself enough time to write a really meaningful Christmas message, you might find it’s one of the most popular emails you send all year.

  • Organise your Christmas celebration

If you’re planning a big celebration or meal to thank your staff for their hard work during the year, book it as early as possible. Most party venues, hotels and restaurants start taking corporate bookings as early as July.

If you’ve left it too late (!) or don’t have the budget for something big, consider something low-key like a quiz night, winter walk or simply drinks and canapes in the office.

  • Order your Christmas cards

The view of Christmas cards has changed over the years I’ve been an administrator. Sending physical cards used to be standard practice, but with increased climate awareness and cost of postage, their role in business communication has changed.

If you like to send Christmas cards, get them designed as early as possible (and Get Ahead’s graphic designers would love to help!).

E-cards are increasing in popularity too – you can order them through dedicated websites or have one designed specifically for your business.

Remember, there is a middle road with Christmas cards. You don’t have to send them to everyone! Instead, you could think about which business relationships you want to cultivate and focus on sending cards to those specific contacts.

Virtual PA services from Get Ahead

Whatever support you need to prepare your business for Christmas, Get Ahead can help. Our experienced team provide virtual PA services, social media scheduling, phone answering and more. Contact your local regional director to find the best option for you.

 

Outsource recruitment planning and you’ll find you not only save time but see better results for your business too.

Recruitment planning is an essential part of growing your business. With a strategic plan and knowledge of how you’ll implement it, you can recruit the right people for your business who’ll help you deliver on your goals.

In this blog, we take a closer look at recruitment planning, how to do it and why it matters.

What is recruitment planning and how do I do it?

Recruitment planning is the spadework you put in before you advertise a vacancy.

  1. What roles does my business need?

The first step is to work out what role or roles you need to recruit for. If you’re scaling up from working alone and taking on employees for the first time, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of recruiting a whole team at once. However, when you take time to plan the recruitment, you’ll see it all fall into place.

It’s probably easier to start with what you need your employees to do, rather than choosing job titles you think you need to fill. For example, you might want someone to do the accounts and keep on top of invoicing. If this is an area of business where you’re already comfortable, you might not need someone else to do this at management level, but you might need an admin assistant to deliver the day-to-day finance tasks.

It’s also a good idea to look at your business goals – these will help you decide what tasks you should prioritise. You might have spotted that you need to increase your sales by a certain percentage. If that’s the case, prioritising the recruitment of a strong sales team is the best way to deliver that goal.

  • What kind of person would be best for the job?

Once you’ve worked out what roles you need to fill, the next step is to think about what kind of person you’d like to have in that role. Remember that skills can be learned but personalities don’t change – think about the kind of person you want in your team and what kind of attitude is most likely to deliver the work you want.

Make sure your person specification and job description don’t have contradictions! Be realistic and remember, for example, that a motivated self-starter is unlikely to be a good team player, and vice versa. Some tasks don’t go well together, e.g. reactive jobs like PR can clash with regular responsibilities like finance and admin.

  • How do I attract the best candidates?

Another aspect of recruitment to consider is how to attract the highest calibre of applicant. Of course, salary is important, but savvy business owners also consider what values and benefits their business has that appeals to potential employees. For example, if you’re expecting to recruit someone to their first job, it might be helpful to say that there are prospects for promotion. If you want to attract someone who will stay in the role and really embed into your business, offering a long-term or permanent contract will help you appeal to candidates who are looking for job security. Depending on the role, values, ethics and your company’s B Corp status might also be worth mentioning.

  • Where should I advertise?

With the person spec and job description written, it’s now time to advertise. Think about where you might find the best candidates for the job. You might choose to headhunt on LinkedIn, or advertise on an industry-specific job board. Take time to think about how you’re going to spend your recruitment budget to be sure of having your advert seen by the most suitable candidates. For example, school-leavers might not be on LinkedIn yet, and efficient admin assistants don’t necessarily need to know your industry to work effectively. In other words, think carefully before you put your entry level jobs on LinkedIn or look for admin assistants by industry. On the other hand, leadership recruitment might involve actively reaching out to likely candidates instead of advertising in the usual way.

Why does recruitment planning matter?

The reason that all of these processes are important is that they help you attract and retain a higher calibre of applicant. This gives you a great talent pool to choose from and ultimately makes your business more successful. Best of all, if you recruit the right people for your business culture, they’ll want to stay. And the longer they stay, the better the value they give you.

Outsource recruitment planning

Outsource recruitment planning and you’ll benefit from the human resources expertise your business deserves. A well-planned recruitment process is the most likely to give you great new employees, ready, willing and able to take your business to the next level. Explore our HR outsourcing section to find out more.