Who would want an Executive Assistant?
Someone who wants to inject business knowledge and acumen into their team but does not want the risk and commitment of employing staff or giving away equity.
Let’s put it another way:
- Are we right to assume you have a skill or passion and that you started your business to generate wealth for you and your family (rather than just to make yourself busy)?!
- Do you aspire to have a business that pays you irrespective of the hours you work, but right now working more hours is the only way to increase your income?
- Do you lay in bed at night thinking about the awesome things you’d like to do with and in your business, only to get up the next day and be dragged back into an endless list of time-sapping tasks?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions (and especially if you answered ‘yes’ to them all!) then you want (and need!) an Executive Assistant (EA).
What is the role of an Executive Assistant?
Put simply; the planning, coordinating, and overseeing of the day-to-day activities of an organisation in order that they align with and move it toward its objectives.
Often referred to by other titles, such as Online Business Managers (OBMs), Business Operations Managers, or Office Managers the roles are always similar, although varied. An EA will ‘slot in’ between or alongside a business owner(s) and their team (if they have one) and act as a conduit between the two.
What is the purpose of an EA and what can they do for your business?
An EA is there to ‘free up’ the business owner(s) so that they can focus their time and energy on the things that only they can do in their business. They are a business development specialist and will bring knowledge, experience, and understanding to a business that the owner themselves may not have. In essence, they establish what needs to happen, how it needs to happen, and then ensure it actually happens. Examples of the responsibilities of an EA include:
- Managing and training staff
- Creating or providing a team
- Creating and maintaining Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
- Taking the businesses ‘Big Vision’ and mapping out the steps necessary to make it a reality
- Putting systems & processes in place to ensure every aspect of the business runs smoothly
- Deal with the unexpected curve-balls life in business throws such as organising repair or replacement of a broken piece of equipment or a client emergency that warrants prioritisation.
- Identifying and implementing the platforms & programs necessary to support the ‘Big Vision’
- Holding the team business owner(s) alike to account
How does the role of an EA differ from that of a Virtual Assistant?
An EA provides management level support to business owners- their role is not a clerical or administrative one as it is for a VA. An EA will work with the business owner(s) to define the strategy, then turn that into a set of processes other staff, which may well include VAs, will implement. The Executive Assistant A will then ensure these are adhered to and firmly embedded.
Examples of the type of client we work with
- A Heating & Plumbing company:
- Creation of business procedures and processes for both their admin and on-site procedures so that they can be carried out in a structured and repeatable way with attention to gaining efficiencies in areas such as route management and consumable stock purchases.
- Onboarding of their complete admin stack including telephone answering, diary management, and invoicing.
- Managed the process of their becoming a Limited company, employing a new team member, and purchasing a new van on asset finance.
- Ongoing ‘office management’ where we remain responsible for all day-to-day business functions and ensuring they go to the right properties at the right time with the right kit.
- A driving instructor:
- The primary problem is the fear of running their own business even though they know the flexibility and profitability of doing so makes it worth it.
- Complete admin stack managed as above with close attention to route/locality management.
- Liaise with students to book tests and assessments
- A Graphic Design agency owner:
- Their primary goal is to travel the world and they fund their lifestyle through their graphic design agency.
- Their UK-based team all work from home but require management via regular web-based meetings either as a team or on a 1:1 basis and we carry this out on our client’s behalf and report back to them.
- Given time-zone differences and their determination to work whenever they want, we have devised a process of handling all new client engagement on their behalf before passing the clients to their staff.
- Act as management in decision-making scenarios such as in the case of escalation of a client’s concern.
Intrigued?
Ponder the following questions:
- Do your day-to-day responsibilities keep you from more important things?
- Can you go on holiday without your business suffering?
- Is your business beginning to stall?
- Do you feel like you need to employ someone, but the commitment to doing so feels too great?
If you think you might be ready to take your business to the next level, book a ‘discovery call’ with us and let’s discuss how we can help you turn your business into the one you’ve always planned to build.
Pricing and package information
We believe in what we do and that you will see the value in our work. As such, you are not tied into anything – all work is undertaken on the basis of a one-month rolling contract and if you don’t believe you get value from our work, we’ll refund you. Simple as that.
We have found the best approach is to agree on a number of hours we will work with you per month as this allows both you and us to plan accordingly.
Of course, different clients have different preferences, so we are happy to build bespoke packages to suit your needs, but for a number of clients, we’ve agreed on 20 hours of work for a price of £995+VAT.
