Tag Archives: small business

What Are You Thankful For?

Another November is drawing to a close; and once again my thoughts returned to being thankful for my many blessings. Overall, I consider myself to be a grateful person, but November usually brings thankful thoughts more front and center to mind.

For the last decade or so, I’ve been participating in #30DaysofThanks challenge. I believe it is mostly on social media, hence the hashtag ?, but my reflections were mostly private during my devotion time. I really like the 30-day format because it helps me to really concentrate on the everyday blessings that could otherwise be taken for granted. Continue reading →

Do You Need a Social Media Manager?

If you are a small business owner,the answer is most likely …YES!!!

Let me present some reasons why …

People start their own business for a variety of reasons. They want to follow their dreams. They want to work in a field they are passionate about. They want to make a difference in the world. For many (me included), they want to be in charge of their own schedule … not be told what/when/where or how to do their work. They want to be charge of their own time, and since they will be the “Boss”, they would hopefully have more “free time”. Free time … what is that?

As a busy entrepreneur, you wear numerous “hats” on any given day. You are the head of the Marketing Department, the Accounting Department, HR, Sales … you get the drift, you are the one in charge of everything. Every business decision lands on your shoulders.

What they didn’t realize is how time consuming the “running” of the business would be. They want to spend their time doing the work they love. Sadly, many get bogged down by having to handle the administrative side of running a business.

That is where having a virtual assistant comes into play. Having a VA handle certain tasks frees up your time to concentrate on doing the things your love about running your business. Tasks that you are the best person to handle … things that grow your business and make money. One of the best business decisions you can make is to delegate / outsource certain tasks to a virtual assistant.

Well-informed small business owners know the importance of having an online presence in today’s high-tech, 24/7 world. Social Media Marketing is necessary for all types of business, large and small. The difference is the large corporations have a Marketing Department. The small business – not so much. Unfortunately for the small business owner, social media management is one of those (very) time consuming tasks. On the up side, social media management is a task that many small business owners delegate to their VA. Your VA will work with you to put together a workable strategy and schedule for posting on your various social media platforms. You will decide what content will be posted to each platform, as well as, the timing and the frequency. After you and your virtual assistant have come up with the best social media strategy for your business, you can then hand that task off to your VA, knowing your SMM is in good and capable hands.

Delegating the task of social media management (or a multitude of other tasks) to a trusted VA will free up some time that you can then use to tackle the other tasks on your to-do list ?

Remember, “help” is just a phone call (or text, or email) away ?

Save Valuable Time ~ Delegate Social Media to Your Virtual Assistant

Owning your own small business is very rewarding … and, at the same time, quite exhausting! There is never enough time in the day. It is very time consuming to create relevant content for your audience and/or find inspiring quotes and tips to share. Hiring a virtual assistant to handle posting to your social media platforms is the answer to having enough time to manage all the other aspects of running your business.

Of course, you may be thinking that the VA may post something you wouldn’t like and/or you wouldn’t have posted. You may be thinking the VA wouldn’t convey your company’s “voice”. As a virtual assistant, I spend time learning my client’s personality and company “voice” via scheduled phone or Skype calls. My clients provide me with content ideas and relevant articles to use as reference for creating industry related posts.

You may be thinking it will be expensive to delegate your social media tasks. It is money well spent when you consider the time you will be saving (time that can now be devoted to growing and building your business) by taking this task off your plate every day (and you should be posting consistently/daily). It will give you peace of mind knowing that your social media posting is being taken care of by a trained professional. Tracy Helps You offers Social Media Packages that provide a certain number of posts per month, as well as, managing engagement (likes, shares, comments & messages) with your followers on your behalf. Think of it as you would any other necessary expense for running your business.

You may be wary of completely outsourcing your social media postings. The good news is that we can work together in creating and implementing your social media strategy. Tracy Helps You can create and schedule the bulk of the posts and you can add some personal content type posts. You can also respond to comments and messages. Another great idea is to post Live Streaming video. This gives your online presence a face and a voice for your followers to connect with. Interacting and building relationships is the main reason to use social media as a business tool … it’s social 🙂

Save some valuable time by delegating your social media posting to Tracy Helps You … help is just a phone call away! Call now!

Super Bowl 50 Helps Local Small Businesses

Super Bowl 50 weekend is here … the big showdown between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers !

I must confess that I’m not a huge football fan. I’m not one to rush home to watch a game, but I do enjoy actually going to a game … I’m sure it’s the ambiance.

The Super Bowl is different. For me, it’s mostly about the party … being with friends, the food & drinks. Its fun to have friendly debates on whose team is better. It’s fun seeing the million dollar commercials. It’s fun watching the halftime show (will there be any wardrobe malfunctions?). It’s the fun party ambiance centered around a football game called the Super Bowl 🙂

Being a small business owner, I was happy when I saw a segment on the news a couple days ago. It was about how the Super Bowl planners were using the local small businesses during the week building up to the game. They interviewed a local businesswoman who owned a bakery. They placed the largest order she ever had in her 10 years of being in business … How exciting !! You can view the clip here.

As a local small business owner, I know that every day can’t be super exciting. For me, what is exciting about owning my own business is having steady repeat clients, while always welcoming new ones! Its knowing that my hard work and persistence is paying off by earning an income to help support my family!

So while it’s a one in a million shot of getting a Super Bowl type client, we can support our own local small businesses in our own communities … one purchase at a time … it all adds up. Make a difference in your community ~ #SHOPSMALL.

Tracy Helps You’s Thankful Thoughts for Today ~ 11/29/14

November 29, 2014 ~ Today I am thankful for Small Business Saturday. The holiday season is upon us! For many people, shopping is a big part of the season. It seems like Black Friday has been around forever, Cyber Monday came on the scene a while ago and Shop Small Saturday started several years ago.

I have to confess, before becoming a small business owner, I never really thought much about where the money I spent while shopping went. I usually just went to the store that advertised the best deal on the items I wanted … which, more often than not, was a “big box” or department store chain. These stores spend millions of dollars on advertising to lure you to their store. Many times when you get there, you find messy aisles; items discarded wherever and frazzled employees. Sadly, many of those frazzled employees are rude and have no concept of customer service.
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