Mike Richards of Richards & Associates wanted to streamline his CPA services business. With the economy in a tailspin, he started seeking out opportunities to outsource some of the administrative tasks that were burdening his core staff, to allow them to focus on actual client work that generates income. Richards & Associates perform audits of financial institutions and in order to be profitable, his staff needed to be out on site at the clients’ offices doing audits. He found that staff members were taking time out of their day just to take care of administrative tasks on their own that could easily be outsourced.

Additionally, he was finding it extremely difficult to keep up with responding to new business proposal requests in a timely fashion. He started researching administrative support options and had tried other services like eLance.com but never found the right match until he struck up a conversation on a Southwest flight. Richards’ seatmate on the flight raved about his virtual assistant (VA) and how much they had helped him to streamline his business. That VA was Cybertary.

Cybertary was a perfect solution for Mike Richards and Richards & Associates for three reasons:

1. Cybertary took over many of the administrative tasks that were taking staff time away from revenue-generating activities and costing the company and staff a lot of time and money both in commute time and in productivity
2. Cybertary prides themselves on being very secure and have pledged publicly that they do not outsource to teammates outside of the U.S. in order to protect their clients
3. Cybertary helped increase efficiency for Mike Richards response time to new business requests

“Cybertary’s VAs are meticulous in their work and extremely fast. I often contact them for a project and the work is returned before the scheduled deadline.”

“The level of expertise I get from the Cybertary VA team far surpasses the experience I’d get from just one administrative assistant. We have been able to consolidate offices, thus allowing us to reduce our administrative and overhead costs, commute time and associated costs.”

“Confidentiality is critical in our business, dealing in audits for financial institutions. Even though Cybertary doesn’t currently work on any projects that involve sensitive materials, Cybertary has openly pledged that they are very secure and do not hire VAs from outside the U.S. in order to protect their clients.”

“Cybertary has allowed me and my staff to be more efficient and effective. My staff can now focus on working with our clients on the audit activities, their area of expertise, rather than taking time to do administrative tasks. Cybertary also turns around my new business proposals in just a day, something that used to take me a week to 10 days on my own. The result has been that I have been able to GROW my business, despite the economy.”

bizSugar is a free social bookmarking and networking site geared specifically to small- and medium-sized business owners and managers. This site allows users to share news, information, blog posts, videos, podcasts, images, and other content that is relevant to small business. bizSugar then takes it a step further and encourages other users to vote for their favorite links making it easy to find the information you need on everything from marketing to finance to management to technology.

Now you can quickly and easily find answers to your questions, expand your knowledge, refine your strategies, and connect with other business owners. Becoming a member is easy, and free. Just visit bizSugar, click the "register" icon. Sweet!

With the start of the New Year brings the promise of resolutions, great and small. Nearly everyone takes this opportunity to get a fresh start, do away with some old bad habits and replace them with newer, better ones. For business owners, the New Year is a great time to reassess your business and create both short- and long-term goals which may include: expanding your product line or enhancing your services, increasing profits, or achieving a better work-life balance.

Whatever your objectives, there is one simple concept that can help you attain them … delegation. As Andrew Carnegie once said, “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.”

As a business owner, you are likely a hard-working, ambitious professional, who is driven toward growth and success. Unfortunately this motivation and ambition is often accompanied with an obsession for doing everything yourself to ensure it is done “right”. The problem is that spending too much time working “in” your business leaves little time for working “on” your business. Delegating everyday tasks such as bookkeeping, database management, customer follow-up, managing your social networking profiles, and creating marketing materials can free up precious time for doing the things that truly only you can do, like planning, networking, or managing.

Mastering the art of delegation requires communication, honesty, and trust. You must be able to communicate effectively to everyone involved in order to ensure they understand not only their tasks, but also how those tasks contribute to the bigger picture. It’s critical to be honest with yourself, and to those involved, especially when communicating expectations and providing feedback. But often, the most difficult challenge for any business owner is to entrust others with vital tasks or projects. It’s important to realize that even if something isn’t done precisely the way you would do it, you are successful if the task or project is completed efficiently and with high-quality results.

Here are some keys to delegating with confidence:

· Clearly define goals, as well as time and budget constraints.
· Clearly communicate expectations and requirements
· Fully disclose the information needed to complete a project
· Encourage questions, take comments, and give timely feedback
· Set up and help meet deadlines
· Express constructive criticisms and concerns openly
· Respect and value the expertise of the person you choose for the task
· Actively contribute to all efforts to achieve your goals.

Delegating may sound difficult at first, but in doing so, you will be freeing up your valuable time to focus on the most important aspects of your business and your life. Delegation does not mean you give up full control of your business, it means you are open to attract more clients, have the freedom to work ‘on’ your business instead of ‘in’ it, and so many more possibilities. Consider hiring a Cybertary to allow you to focus on tasks that generate new income for yourself.

Last time we talked about some networking best practices.  Now we will share where to find in person networking opportunities.

•Start with your city's Chamber of Commerce. Most have websites where you can find membership information and upcoming events. It is not uncommon for large metropolitan areas to have multiple chambers of commerce. Chambers and other organization memberships can cost anywhere from $100-$500 per year depending on their annual rates vs. monthly dues.

•Look for local events and meetings put on by other types of groups, such as Social, Industry, Training or Networking groups.

•Review large newspapers, magazines and website calendars to see what is going on in your area.

•Attend area trade shows and expos.

•Consider industry associations related to your specific customer niche. For example, if you are a realtor, you might attend an Association of Realtors or the Building Industry Association.

Bottom line, think about where your target market would be networking or spending their time. And remember, you only get out what you put into these groups. So get out there and start networking!

Networking is one of the least expensive yet very effective forms of marketing you can do to promote your business. It allows you time to introduce and explain your products and services to people and answer questions for them unlike a static advertisement that they will quickly glance at and then turn away. But more importantly in-person networking should be about forming relationships with people that will go much further than just a one time sale. If networking is approached in this way, you will find it to be more fun and ultimately more lucrative.

Here are some networking best practices:

•Don't be afraid of joining two or three organizations if you can make the time and they are all in your target geographical area.

•You should visit a group a couple times before joining to make sure it is a good fit for you and you will receive benefit from your membership investment.

•Be selective on which groups you join and make sure the members are either your target market or they have clients that are your target market.

•To get the most out of a group, you should consider becoming an active member. You can join committees, volunteer to help at an event, or even run for a board position.

•Make every effort to attend or send someone from your organization to all mixers and functions (even those you don't belong to yet), this will be a very cost effective form of advertising and it will help build word-of-mouth. Many mixers are free and you don't even need to be a member to attend.

•Bring lots of business cards and brochures to events and go early and stay late to distribute them, work the crowd and "meet and greet."

•If you come late and/or leave early, the potential number of people you will meet decreases significantly due to lack of time.

•Visit members' places of business to get to know them further, especially those in related industries who can be good referral sources.

•Give referrals to members of the group as much as you can. People remember that and will do the same for you (Giver's Gain!).

Stay tuned for part 2: Where to find in person networking opportunities