It’s the Andover Business Expo’s  second year and it’s bigger and better than before. There are over 50 exhibitors, some must-see seminars, including a seminar by entrepreneur & star of The Apprentice, Karren Brady.

Bizpro will be at stand 35, and we have some fantastic prizes to give away in our FREE business card prize draw, including an annual licence for an In Touch CRM, courtesy of Nett Sales, 2 x annual licences for Kashflow accounting software, courtesy of Bizpro & PAH accounting, and 4 weeks FREE telephone answering courtesy of those lovely people at Kendlebell. These are just some of the fantastic prizes on offer, so why not come along to say hello and you never know, you may just walk away with one of our prizes!

Entry to the exhibition is free and there are exclusive show offers that could save your business thousands, plus the chance to win a £1,000 advertising campaign on Andover Sound.

The Andover Expo this year features “How To” Seminars, a Vision for Andover Business Forum and a Business Link Breakfast which you can register for online here: www.andoverexpo.biz

Look forward to seeing you there!

Yes, this post has been inspired my one of my own experiences. Over the last few months I have been extremely busy putting together the finishing touches for the franchise package, and this has involved contact with several other suppliers to enable me to accurately cost the model. Out of the many businesses I’ve spoken to, one in particular is standing out like a sore thumb, and for all the wrong reasons… 

I contacted this company, (who shall remain nameless), to inquire about data lists. I didn’t call them, I completed their online form to find out prices. Unfortunately there was no other option on their site but to complete your information. I don’t normally have any objection to this, and I’m happy to speak to anybody, but with this firm I received a call the very next day and almost every other day since. Some days they have even left messages for me three times in one day!Not to mention the countless emails I have received. Oh, and in case you are wondering, I did tick the ‘No’ box regarding marketing.

I have spoken to them and explained I am no longer interested, I have emailed and told them I am no longer interested. Sadly, I’ve now had to bar their email address and their number, as this continual harassment is driving me crazy!

So, as a business, where do we draw the line? The example above is an extreme case, I’ve never experienced it before, and hope not to experience it again, (and yes, I will be emailing the director to point him in the direction of this blog!).

As a general rule, we start to recognise brands / names after the third time of hearing / seeing them, but to really alight our subconscious and make us memorable, it’s seven times. So, the question is, when is too much? At what point do we stop the contact?

At what point does ‘No’ definitely mean ‘No’? Certainly every business wants to keep their name in front of prospective clients, especially those that have contacted them; the warm leads.

I guess we’re lucky at Bizpro; most of our business comes from networking, where we meet the clients face to face, so we’ve little need of constantly contacting prospects by telephone. That said, we do have a system for canvassing local businesses, and it does include some calling, however if a business is really not interested in us we won’t continue to canvass them, we don’t believe in wasting our time and theirs.

To our way of thinking, if someone changes their minds and then wants our services, they will already know where we are.

The most ironic thing about the firm that’s been bombarding me, is that out of all the businesses I researched for data, I quite liked their offering, and may have chosen them. As it stands now, I have had such a bad impression of their business I would rather pay more elsewhere than use them…

Using a virtual assistant to help out with planning a networking meeting, a product release, a conference or other event can take a lot of the work out of the proposition and still gain a company some very positive public relations in the process.

At Bizpro it’s not only our job to help with event planning, it’s also our pleasure. I, for one, find this to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of working as a personal assistant. It is very gratifying to take the burdens off clients’ minds and help them map out and pull functions that dazzle attendees without breaking their budgets in the process.

So, what can a virtual assistant do to help with event planning? A whole lot more than you probably think!

Some of the things that Bizpro can tackle on a client’s behalf include arranging the venue, helping with the food, getting entertainment in place (if it’s desired) and even managing the guest list and RSVPs. Basically, we can do just about everything that would take a small business owner or staff days or weeks to organise in a fraction of the time.

When an experienced virtual assistant steps in to help with event planning, small businesses gain the skills necessary to pull off a great event. Plus, they can even save a little money along the way. After all, pros in the field have the know-how to cut corners on the expenses without hampering the quality of an event.

Assisting clients that want to adopt a “big business image” is one of the most rewarding endeavours that Bizpro undertakes. When a virtual assistant is used to take some of the workload off a small firm, every aspect of an operation can benefit. Some of the ways in which a virtual assistant can help even the smallest of companies enjoy a bigger, more professional image include:

• Assisting with organisation – Virtual assistants thrive on tackling the time consuming, tedious jobs that are extremely important to most companies. Some of the things pros in the field can help out with on the organisation end include making appointments on clients’ behalf, organizing contact lists, scanning business cards and even filtering emails.
• Assisting with presentations – When reports need to be typed, notes transcribed or even PowerPoint presentations created, virtual assistants can get the job done.
• Helping with bookkeeping – A good virtual assistant can tackle more than basic office jobs. Many of us pride ourselves in having the ability to take the burdens of payroll, credit control, invoicing and even VAT returns off a company’s plate.

It’s not uncommon for clients and potential clients to perceive big businesses as being more professional. Even the smallest of companies, however, can gain an advantage in this department by obtaining help with the “little jobs” that matter a lot.

Organising your emails increases productivity and improves time management. In the last two days I have spoke to two people with email fatigue! One of whom had just returned from their two week holiday and it’s taken them 2 days just to shift through the mountain of emails they received, and the other had over 1500 unread emails in his inbox!

There is a better way!

Most Virtual assistants offer an email filtering service, where, for a relatively small fee, they have access to your emails and they sort and organise them for you, keeping you up to date with any urgent messages, responding to requests for standard information on your behalf, and deleting any unnecessary spam. You even get a summary at the end of the day of what you’ve had in, and what action has been taken. Imagine freeing up the time you spend on emails to be able to get on with your real work!

Of course, If you really can’t bear to hand over control of your emails, then you can organise emails yourself easily by utilising the functions your email client (such as outlook) provides. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Be strict when responding to emails. There isn’t a need to answer each email as it comes in. If you want an instant answer, pick up the telephone. You won’t get much more instant than that!
• By setting rules for each newsletter you’ve subscribed to so that it goes into its own folder means they’re not clogging up your inbox and you can read them at your leisure.
• Set aside a couple of hours each day to go through your emails, say 1 hour at 11:00am & 1 hour at 4:00pm. If you are really concerned about delaying responses to people, put an auto responder on your email informing people you will respond within a set time.
• When you do check your emails, be strict! Look at every email with RAD in mind – Read, Action, Delete. If you don’t need to keep it, then delete it straight away. If you have to take action, consider whether it is going to be a quick action (in which case action immediately), or whether you need to schedule it into your diary

So now the big question is: once you’ve organised your emails, what will you do with all that spare time?