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June 4, 2018 0 Comments

4 Ways to Share Information as a Remote Team

 

Remote teams are becoming more and more prevalent as more people work from home.  Although working from home tends to boost productivity, eliminate sick days and commuting, it can also make communication more difficult.

As businesses grow and hire more employees, communicating as a remote team becomes crucial.  Read along for some of our best tips for staying connected in a home based career.

Use a program

There are several programs out there that can make communication and collaborative work much easier.

Google Drive features word documents, spreadsheets, forms, presentation templates, and other options that allow you to work as a team.  The best thing about Google Drive is that it consistently saves and updates the documents, and you can share them in real time amongst your team members.  Additionally, it’s a free service.

For chatting, Slack is an option that allows you to speak to your team throughout the day, while saving conversations and making things more streamlined.  It’s the perfect place to message, share files, and collaborate in one location.

Lastly, you can try an option such as Basecamp for client management and team communication.  There are “Projects” for each client, and each member of the team can add notes, Discussions, files, folders, and so on.  An added benefit is that you can share this data with your clients, taking your collaboration to the next level!

Try texting

High-tech programs are great, but sometimes a little bit of communication is all you need.  Texting is an informal way to stay in touch with your remote team.

If your team is smaller, or more casual, you can begin a work group text and keep in touch throughout the day.  You might even create specific check-in times and a protocol for using the group text. This can also be fun, as chatting with your team also fosters stronger relationships and bonds that go beyond the workplace.

Set a meeting

Meetings are incredibly important for remote teams! Since you don’t see each other very often, communication is key.  Keeping a running meeting on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis is crucial. Depending upon the size of your team, the complexity of projects, and other methods of checking-in, the scheduling around these meetings might change.

Either way, keep meetings productive, quick, and as a way to check in.  Do you need to address client issues daily? Set it up. If a weekly meeting is enough, keep it to a format that works for everyone, and create a schedule so that team members feel heard, productive, and that they are using their time wisely.

Set expectations

Expectations aren’t just important on an individual basis for at-home employees, they’re also needed for teams.

We already addressed meeting and check-in schedules, but what else is expected of your team?  Do you require detailed time sheets? Client or work summaries on a daily basis? Set these parameters up front, and be honest about them in the hiring process.

It’s important to stay out of micromanagement territory, but there’s still a great need to stay on top of employees.  Since you aren’t meeting in the traditional office daily, keeping tabs is more than fair. Simply establish a schedule, protocol, and method of expectation that works well for everyone and their schedules.

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March 19, 2018 0 Comments

4 Resources for Remote Teams

Successfully managing remote teams is becoming more necessary as telecommute jobs are more widely available.  There are countless tools and options to make this possible, and we’ve narrowed down some of our favorite options.

Whether you’re looking to track time, communicate with your team, or send professional invoices and billing notes, we have something for you!

Slack

Slack is a great communication and messaging tool that keeps everything in one place.  According to Creative Boom, with Slack you can “hold conversations that are open to others or private; organize and prioritize conversations based on topic or project; share files; connect up your favorite tools; search the archives later” and more.

It also integrates with several other productivity products and allows your workflow process to be more streamlined.

Google Drive

Google Drive offers everything you need to communicate! You can create documents via Google Docs, spreadsheets via Google Sheets, forms via Google Forms, slideshows through Google Slides, and so on.  It also automatically saves and updates, so you can make changes in real time with your team.

You can search for and share files, create folders, and generally work together on projects as they’re happening.  Google Drive offers “online storage, so you can keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos – anything,” according to their website.

The first 15GB of storage is free, then goes to $1.99 per month for 100GB.

Moon Invoice

Moon Invoice is a simple billing and invoice tool that lets you complete tasks such as businesses accounting, estimates, purchases, payment reminders, and so on.

According to their site, “Not only you could add and manage multiple business but you can also create unlimited invoices.  Irrespective of the nature of business, whether you are trying to simplify the complex business model and process, maintain databases, remove errors and simultaneously increase the efficiency online invoicing, Moon Invoice lets you do it all effortlessly.”

Moon Invoice offers a free trial and then costs $14.99 to purchase with unlimited invoices.

For Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/moon-invoice/9wzdncrdchr8

For Mac: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moon-invoice-easy-invoicing/id1109397812?mt=12

Basecamp

Basecamp is a great tool for teams, and it comes with many features.  It’s a great project and client management tool that offers messaging, to-do lists, schedules, file storage, document storage, chat, and more.  You can share information with your team and/or your clients, and it keeps everything in one convenient location.

You can also sync it with Google Docs, so if you want to take notes in a separate location, it can all be stored in Basecamp in the end.

If you’re looking for more tools with helpful descriptions, check out this comprehensive list from Creative Boom.

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March 5, 2018 0 Comments

4 Tips for Boosting Effectiveness

Becoming more effective is not just applicable to work.  The more available time you have for your family and friends, the more your quality of life increases.  However, effectiveness at work is also important, and can make your work day much more manageable.  Working to be more productive or effective means saving time, money, and leaving time for those things you love most, all while producing quality work where you need to.

Read our blog for some of our best tips and advice for boosting effectiveness in and out of the workplace.

Where’s your time?

To become more effective, it’s very helpful to know where your current time is being spent.  Spend a few days taking inventory of your time, from business to personal.  If you find you can cut a few unnecessary hours in front of the TV, or eliminate a meeting that you no longer enjoy attending, you might find more time for the things you need and love.

You can avoid wasting time by taking inventory, prioritizing the most important tasks first, and truly listening.  Many mistakes and wasted hours can be saved by really listening to what a client or employer is looking for.  This eliminates hours of edits, re-dos, and spending time on projects that could’ve been done correctly from the start.  This can also be helped by asking a lot of questions at the beginning! Work smarter, not harder, and you’ll boost effectiveness quickly.

Focus on quality

Even though you’re trying to be more effective, quality is important, and focusing on it can save you time down the road.

Don’t just speed through your work – take your time to do it right.  When we want more time for ourselves, we can often speed through work, but it ultimately does not save us time.  Focus on quality in everything you do, and you’ll end up saving time in the end.

Set a timer

Break up your tasks! For example, exercise for 40 minutes, work on freelance job #1 for 60 minutes, break for 10 minutes, then work on freelance job #2 for another 60 minutes.  When you break up your day into sections, it helps you to focus directly on the task(s) at hand, and you know that you’ll get to other things later. Set an actual timer for these tasks, so you aren’t tempted to keep working when it’s time to move on.

This is also a great way to fit in the things you want to do! When you know you’ll be working on freelance work for 3 hours, but then have a 60 minute walk with a friend later, it makes your day that much better.  Not only are you being effective, you’re adding some more enjoyment to your day.  Your whole day does not need to be mapped out, but once you do this for a while, you’ll get into the habit of focus and effectiveness – one task at a time.

Take a break

Breaks are so important! As we mentioned in the tip above, you should even factor them into your schedule.   Breaking up your tasks and your day makes you more productive and keeps you fresh, leading to less mistakes and less chance of burnout.

We’re often believing that more work is always better, btu keeping yourself healthy – mentally and physically – is the first key to success.   You know how you feel after a vacation; you often feel refreshed and ready to work again.  Breaks in your day can do this on a smaller scale! Breaks can be 5 minutes to do a meditation video, a 10 minute walk, or a nice hour and a half lunch break with a friend from time to time.  The more you add some ease into your life, the more zest you bring to your job and your life.

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January 15, 2018 0 Comments

5 Time Tracking Options for Virtual Professionals

When you work remotely or hire virtual professionals, you need a reliable way to track hours. Small businesses want to see how their virtual contractors or off-site employees are spending their time.  And contractors need a professional and reliable way to track their hours and bill their clients.

We’ve complied a list of some of the most popular time-tracking websites below. Many of these tools also integrate with other team and client management software which can be very helpful.

Toggl

Toggl makes it easy for you.  “Logging time with Toggl is as easy as it can possibly be. Just click a button to start the timer, and stop it once you’re done with your tasks. Simple as that, on any device.”

Toggl also allows you to log time anywhere on the web, so you don’t have to login to Toggl every time.  You can also discover what’s taking up your time via their visual reports option, so you’re able to visually see how long each task takes, as well as the time spent by your team members.

Pricing begins at $9.00 per month for the Starter level, and goes up to $49.00 per month for larger organizations and those who want additional features.

Harvest

Not only can you track your own time on Harvest, but you can see where your team’s time is going as well.  “Harvest collates this raw timesheet data into a visual summary of where your team’s time is going,” according to their website.

You’re also encouraged to keep track of Projects, so things never slip through the cracks.  According to their features, you can “Keep your projects on track (and make sure your business is going strong) with answers to key questions, courtesy of intuitive visual reports pulled right from your timesheets.”

Pricing is free for one person and 2 projects, and goes up to $12.00 per person, per month if you purchase for a team.

Timely

Timely offers great features that allow you to “Let your timesheet create itself. All you need to do is to confirm.”

The site allows you to create an automatic timeline based on tasks, from your calendar, which you’ve completed in an easy to see and use format.  This was created because “People forget what they worked on, and they don’t want to spend time tracking time. So they avoid it, and you have to chase them down. That’s where Memory comes in: A radical new way to track time,” according to the Timely website.

Pricing begins at $7.00 per month and goes up to $59.00 per month for larger teams and more in depth features.

MyHours

MyHours allows you to “Start or stop timer with a single click, switch timings between tasks in seconds or, just as important, pause for a coffee break.”

MyHours also has the capability to set variable hourly rates, report work to your clients in style and detail, and do this via PDF and Excel reports.  They also offer a graphic breakdown of your work, so you’re able to see how your time is spent, how tasks are going, and what your team members are up to.

Pricing begins for free, and goes to $6.00 per user, per month for more capabilities, such as budgeting, billing, additional team members, and more.

Paydirt

Paydirt offers Smart Time Tracking, which means you can “Use the built in tracker to start a timer for any client in one click. Tracking time is a pain, but Paydirt takes the sting out,” according to their website.

It also integrates with Basecamp, Trello, Redbooth, Google Chrome and Zapier. Pricing begins at $8.00 per month for a single user, and up to $149.00 per month for a large agency of 20 team members.  “Smart Reminders” allow you to “determine who you’re working for automatically, and adds a link to start a timer right there on the page.”  It’s a very simplified option that keeps you on task.

 

 

 

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January 8, 2018 0 Comments

HireMyMom Employer Success Story: Ralph Massetti

www.thefranchisebuilders.com

Tell us a little about your business and how you got started.

We began 17 years ago as a franchise industry technology company. Then, about 11 years ago began offering a suite of complete franchise development and consulting services to existing and aspiring franchisors.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs and home business owners?

Control costs, grow strategically and hire the best talent you can afford.

What is your top tip for hiring great talent? And when should one consider outsourcing or hiring additional help?

We like to outsource when we are developing new positions, and either hire the early performers direct, or learn the scope of the position(s) before making permanent offerings and job descriptions.

What’s your favorite thing about HireMyMom.com?

The quality of the respondents and the flexibility of the workforce.

What’s one fun fact about you?

I’m a passionate animal rights advocate and often refer to myself as “the fattest Vegan you will ever meet”, as I still love fun and food, despite my no longer eating the animals I cherish.

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December 11, 2017 0 Comments

5 Tips for a Successful Blog

Running a successful blog is a very important part of running a business.   How can blogging help you?  It can boost SEO, help you establish yourself as the expert in your field, and provide content for social media posting.

We’ve all heard that blogging is important, but how do we achieve success with our blog?  Read along for some best tips and tricks to make blogging painless and effective!

Post consistently

Consistency is key! If you only blog once or twice per year, you’re not accomplishing any of the goals of blogging.  You need to get on a consistent schedule, whether it’s once per week, 3 times per week, or once per month. Decide what you can commit to and stick with it! It will take some time to see results, but it’s worth sticking it out.

Create a content calendar of topics and blog post ideas and work from there.  Once you lay out your schedule, make it easy on yourself and have everything ready to go. From here, you can simply start writing and let the words flow.

Share it

Once you create blog content, you have to share it! Start by sharing on your business Facebook page – and even your personal page if it’s a widely relevant topic.  From there, you can share to Twitter, LinkedIn, and anywhere else that your business has a presence.  This allows for more eyes on your blog post, which makes the effort even more worth it.

Another thing you can do is add the blog post to your LinkedIn page.  There’s the “Publisher” or “Write an Article” feature at the top of the page, and it’s useful to share your content there as well.

Use the content

Use the content that you worked so hard to create! You can break down your blog post into little tips and advice, which you can then share on social media.

Find a central topic and create an eye-catching graphic around it.  You can simply copy and paste the information into the graphic, making it very shareable and beneficial, since you’re reusing the content for social media content purposes.

Write about what matters

Write about things that people would want to know most in your industry! When people come to your blog, they want to know more about your expert topic.  Show your skill set! Provide answers to common questions, show the benefits of your business or service, or simply write on a topic that’s also relevant to your specific audience. When people are connected to your blog posts, they’re more likely to keep reading and to share with others.

Search it out

Try the Google Keyword Planner! It’s a great place to test searches and see what people are searching within your industry and knowledge base.  You can test keywords and see how they perform, as well as the competition around certain keywords.  This is a great way to stay above the competition; it’s like you’re reading the minds of your audience!

When you know what people want to see, it’s easier to come up with a content calendar.  Create a content calendar with post topics, titles, and blog graphics at least 4-8+ weeks out, which will make it all the easier for you to blog on a consistent basis.

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November 20, 2017 0 Comments

4 Tips for a Successful Facebook Business Page

Facebook business pages are almost a necessity if you own any type of business.  If you’re not super social media savvy, you might have a lot of questions.  What should I be posting? How often? Should I just constantly push my products and services?

There are many ways to be successful online, but there are some things you can do to create a valuable presence on your Facebook business page.

Be consistent

If you’re going to have a Facebook business page, you need to be consistent in posting! It doesn’t mean you have to post daily, but it means you have to stay on a normal posting schedule.

If you know you can’t post daily, don’t post daily; this isn’t necessary. If you know you can commit to 2-3 times per week, go for it.  It’s whatever you can do to provide quality content on a consistent basis that matters.

Don’t sell

This might be counterintuitive, but you should refrain from selling most of the time.  Your Facebook business page should be a place where you show your expert status and provide valuable and inspiring information.

While it’s fine to mention your products and services once in awhile, it shouldn’t be the main focus of your posts.

Show your human side

Your business page should be kept professional, but not always business related.  Which means, it’s fun to show some behind the scenes items and share a bit about yourself.

Obviously, this depends on the type of business you’re in, but especially if you’re a small business, people want to know YOU.  People do business with those they know, like and trust, so it’s fine to share some personal details or the behind the scenes parts of your business.

Be valuable

After all of this, what should you be posting?  Anything valuable! What does your audience want to know about? Establish yourself as the expert.  Share fun information, helpful information, tips and advice that can be actionable for your readers.

When you provide value, stay away from selling most of the time, and develop a consistent presence, your page will begin to grow, leading to greater exposure for your business.

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October 30, 2017 0 Comments

HireMyMom Employer Success Story: Zachary Sexton

Tell us a little about your business and how you got started.

I teach digital productivity to business owners. I got started by fixing my own productivity issues. That lead me to working with small business owners who had the similar struggles with focus and organization.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs and home business owners?

Carve out time every week to think, plan, organize and review your work. Put it on your calendar. Taking 1 to 2 hours a week to do this may seem like a waste of time, but the:
  • planning- will save you from going down unproductive rabbit holes and get you off the hamster wheel of reacting to one emergency after the next
  • organizing – will allow you to work faster during the week and prevent redoing work you’ve already done
  • reviewing- will give you the opportunity to see what type of work that gave you the best results with the least effort. This information will give you a better idea of the types of projects and clients to engage with. It will also let you know what work should be automated or delegated (to a productive mom of course ;-).

When should one consider outsourcing or hiring additional help?

As soon as possible. The more time you can spend working in your zone of genius, the more value you will produce and the better you will feel. The only way to spend time doing the things you are great at is to have people help you with the areas outside of your sweet spot.

What is your top tip for hiring great talent?

Be annoyingly specific about how you want people to reach out to you about the position. If they can’t follow specific written instructions when applying, that’s not likely to change after hiring.

What’s your favorite thing about HireMyMom.com?

The talent! I was blown away by the quality of the candidates I received from my job posting.
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October 16, 2017 0 Comments

5 Tips for Instagram for Business

As Instagram continues to be one of the biggest players in social media, it only makes sense that you’d use it for business.  According to Wordstream.com, 6 in 10 adults have Instagram accounts, while there are 15 million registered businesses using Instagram business profiles.

It’s an important place to be, and there are many things you can do to improve your presence on the platform to reach more people and share your knowledge.

Use Stories

We’ve all heard of Instagram Stories by now, which is Instagram’s answer to Snapchat.  According to Techcrunch, Instagram Stories are now doing better than Snapchat, with Instagram Stories at 250 million daily users compared to Snapchat’s 166 million.

Stories are a way to share behind the scenes content, everyday life, and more of a personal look at yourself and your business.  People do business with those they know, like, and trust, and stories are a fun, unfiltered way to show this off.  Give your followers a day in the life of your business, show them your favorite things, or some of your top tips and tools in doing business.  If you have employees, allow them access to post about their days in the business as well.

Another great thing about Stories is that it keeps you at the top of the page as you post content, so you stay on the minds of your customers and prospects.

Connect with Others

It’s great to utilize Instagram for posting, but it’s also important to interact with others! Take some time everyday to seek out other users and posts, adding thoughtful likes and comments as you see fit.

Go outside of your industry as well, since you’re more likely to find customers this way.  You can simply spend 10 minutes per day liking, following, and building up network on Instagram; this will make a big difference in your follower count and engagement.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags are important ways to be found on Instagram.  You can – and should – use hashtags on your own Instagram Stories and Instagram posts, but you can also use them to find others.

In your own posts, it’s best to post your normal post and caption, then include hashtags in a separate comment.  You can use up to 30 hashtags, and they should be a mix of generic tags (i.e. “#success”), more specific tags (“#hiremymom”), and location-based terms.  Location-based tags (i.e. “#palmbeacheventplanner”) are especially important if your business is local or brick and mortar.

Search hashtags daily to find others that are posting similar things to you, or seeking your services.  Offering a simple like or comment can lead them back to your profile, increasing the likelihood of a connection – or a sale.

Be Consistent

As with all social media sites, consistency is king!  Think beyond business posts too – your audience wants to get to know you.  Participate in #FollowFriday, a fun Friday event on Instagram where you introduce yourself to your followers.  You can include little-known facts and other information about how you got your start in business.  These types of posts keep you relevant while providing content.

Do your best to post on a consistent schedule in a way that’s feasible for you and your schedule.

Keep an Eye on Quality

Instagram is still a visual platform, so quality photos are a must on your main Instagram feed.  Instagram Stories can be much more informal, but do your best to edit your regular photos to be as nice as possible.

People like to look at beautiful images, so do your best to keep your feed looking good.  Also, the top 9 images on your Instagram feed are the most viewed, so always ensure that they’re reflecting you, your business, and your brand as well as possible.

To succeed as a business on Instagram, include some items that aren’t simply business, connect with your audience, and be consistent!

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