Executive assistants may be a lifeline when it comes to staying organized, but they can also be a valuable asset to keep your finances on track. As an extension of your office, an executive virtual assistant can be a huge help with the organization and management of your budget. Financial tracking is one of the many ways an EVA can make your life easier on a daily basis and at key points throughout the year such as tax season.  

As always, establish expectations up front. An EA can’t replace a financial professional, but they can be very useful when managing finances. Think about the following questions. Are they simply storing receipts for you or also tracking and reporting them? Are they helping to track your personal purchases in addition to company expenses? Do they have a corporate card and are they authorized to make purchases without approval? Once the scope of their responsibilities is determined, connect your EA to your finance office and make sure they are given access and training to any financial software or internal systems. 

Here are some key ways you can optimize budget management with the help of your Executive Assistant.  

Delegate daily budget tracking and reporting to your EA. 

Most assistants are perfectly positioned to track budgets. They likely already have the records of travel expenses, supply orders, subscriptions, and business dinners. Your EA can continually input these purchases into a shared spreadsheet, freeing up time for you to focus on other tasks. These spreadsheets are a great way for you to see the state of your finances at a glance. Additionally, passing the responsibility of receipt reconciling to your EA will free up your valuable time at the end of each month. 

Use your EA to streamline financial communication. 

EAs can also serve as a liaison between you and your finance team or any external financial professionals. They can answer questions from your accounting department about specific expenses or take notes during meetings with financial advisors and help track any action items discussed. As in all things, they can manage a large portion of the back-and-forth communication that happens with these parties, to free up time in your day and space in your inbox. 

Use your EA’s project management skills.  

EAs can also help manage budgets for specific projects or events. As they facilitate scheduling and email exchanges, they can be a gatekeeper to help you keep track of where a project’s budget is going. Often, they are already managing catering, reservations, and supply ordering for events. Wrapping expense tracking in with that will cut down on unnecessary miscommunication or redundancies during the planning process. 

Be prepared for tax season. 

While tracking your daily finances, your EA can also be a huge help in preparing for tax filings. They can gather and sort invoices and help track down any missing receipts or paperwork. They can facilitate communication with your internal accounting team or external financial advisors. Additionally, as part of managing your calendar they can help keep track of filing deadlines, the status of returns, and any outstanding payments. 

Are you looking for help in keeping your finances organized year-round? Book a consult with us today to find out how an executive virtual assistant can improve your business! 

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Transparent  

Clarity at every phase of a working relationship is necessary to build trust and get the job done. Our team understands that effective communication about expectations is necessary in creating and maintaining business partnerships, as well as in getting daily tasks done efficiently and accurately. At every phase, we believe quality communication will make the transition to using a virtual assistant simple and seamless. 

Flexible 

Our staff have over two decades of experience supporting C-level executives in various industries, from Strategic Marketing and Non-Profit to Biotech and Venture Capital. Because of the varying nature in how each company works and grows, we have to be flexible in how we approach every job. We’ll work with you to customize our services to fit your needs.  

Adaptable 

Our experienced team of support professionals has seen administrative work move away from daily planners done in pen and pencil, to Outlook on the computer, to now using AI. Whether instituting new systems and workflows, or simply changing the day’s schedule, our top-notch staff are always ready to adjust the plan as your business grows. 

Action Oriented 

A great executive assistant is action oriented and forward thinking.  When coordinating travel, planning events, managing expenses, and maintaining the daily calendar, a proactive virtual assistant will stay one step ahead, so you can focus on your work. 

A Valued Partner 

At Ann Albrecht Consulting, we are here to provide support resources that help you streamline your business operations. We thrive on helping executives be as productive and impactful as possible. Whether we are working on a long or short project, with an executive team or independently, we are thoughtful, meticulous and professional. Every team is only as strong as its members, and Ann Albrecht Consulting can help complete that dream team. 

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An Executive Virtual Assistant is undeniably an important asset to any high-ranking executive, president, CEO, or members of a C-suite. And behind most successful executives is a hardworking and talented EVA that plays an integral role in the success of the company.

Thinking about hiring an EVA? Check out these Seven Must-Have Traits To Look For When Hiring An Executive Virtual Assistant (EVA):

CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

Executive Virtual Assistants are expert problem-solvers. They are often tasked with issues and challenges that business owners don’t have time to handle. When hiring an EVA you should be looking for someone that has the ability to think outside the box when it comes to problem solving. A talented EVA will be able to offer alternative solutions and quickly think on their feet to handle any situation thrown at them.

Problem-solving skills like creating budgets, working on multiple projects at one time, scheduling meetings or conferences and managing executive operations within a company all requires effective problem solving.

You will want to look for a candidate that knows how to break down a problem, understand the problem and generate ideas to effectively solve the problem.

WILLINGNESS TO LEARN

When hiring an EVA, you want someone that is willing to go the extra mile without being asked. They will need to be familiar with the company’s mission statement and work to promote it. Even when the work week is moving at a hundred miles an hour, your EVA should be dedicating some time to keep up with the latest news and trends within your industry and be on the lookout for the tools that could help make your life easier.

ANTICIPATION OF NEEDS

Anticipation of the business owner’s needs is a trait that normally would come with years of experience. A successful EVA has the ability to anticipate what an executive’s needs are and plans accordingly.  Good EVAs respond to the boss’s requests but great EVAs anticipate those requests, and most likely already have solutions ready. Anticipation is an important requirement of the job. Anyone can take a direction, but successful EVAs are always one step, actually make that two steps, ahead of everyone.

RESOURCEFULNESS

Some of the best EVAs are those who know how to find answers where there might not be any. You should look for an EVA who has the resources to identify solutions and make intelligent decisions, even without you, and who always has the best interest of company.

A resourceful EVA knows how to get things done. It takes an entrepreneurial spirit, someone always looking for ways to make things better. Because EVAs are solution-oriented, they don’t just anticipate challenges, they know how to get resolution.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Attention to detail is a critical trait for the success of any EVA. As a business owner, you probably have high expectations. An experienced EVA becomes your first and last line of defense against mistakes whether it is a typo in a presentation or a board member’s name misspelled in a document. EVAs double and triple check every detail to ensure accuracy. You’ve heard the expression “The devil’s in the details”. You don’t have time to oversee and manage every detail. Be sure your EVA candidate possesses the skills to manage the details and meet expectations.

THE ABILITY TO PRIORITIZE AND ADAPT

An outstanding EVA has the ability to take chaos and turn it into a smooth-running machine. Always look for a candidate who demonstrates unique organizational skills. You will need someone who can identify an area that could use a little organization and show initiative by making recommendations.

Change is something your EVA will need to embrace. Crises may pop up unexpectedly, the phone is always ringing, emails constantly filling the inbox, and, of course, execs require constant attention. They should be able to prioritize and adapt to the ever-changing environment while constantly evaluating processes and finding ways to make them more efficient and effective.

EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION SKILLS

An EVA’s greatest quality is the ability to speak and write in manner that creates a good image of the company and the executive that they represent. In addition to having a good grasp of grammar, a key component to look for when hiring an EVA is someone that has the ability to interact with coworkers or your company’s clients in a positive manner that is efficient yet friendly.

An EVA deals with people all day long. From the executive they work for, to other team members within the company and clients and stakeholders outside of the organization, your EVA will be your spokesperson for the company and must, therefore, possess great communication skills as well as people skills.

Behind most successful executives is a hardworking, talented Executive Assistant that plays an integral role to the business. How do you find the perfect EVA? Be sure to ask specific questions during your hiring process to help you evaluate potential candidates.

Ultimately, anyone can be an assistant. But, only choose those who possess these traits when choosing your EVA. For more tips or to learn more about how Ann Albrecht Consulting can take your business to the next level, contact us today.

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Before we look at how you will save money by hiring an EVA, it’s important to understand what an EVA is: a remote executive assistant who works from anywhere and can work either full-time or on specific projects. EVA’s have experience, add value to your business and help you operate your company efficiently.

Every organization, no matter how small, has daily operative and administrative tasks that need doing to keep things running smoothly. As a business starts to grow, it becomes difficult to keep on top of these tasks, and this is when mistakes start to be made. 

Even small errors can lead to big financial losses eventually, so instead of having several employees juggling multiple admin tasks, it makes sense to hire one person to do them all.

Virtual assistants fill the same role as an executive assistant, except they work remotely instead of physically being present in your office. Let’s take a look at ways an Executive Virtual Assistant saves you money as a business owner.

No Office Space or Equipment

Did you know that a new cubicle costs about $2,000? The money a business can save by hiring an EVA extends beyond the initial outlay for office furniture. There are also other hard costs, like office supplies, utilities (lighting, heat, and air), parking, snacks, beverages, meals, on-site childcare, on-site work-life amenities and even on-site wellness and fitness amenities. EVA’s have an office, either at home or in a co-working space, so you can run your business without the expense of renting an office.

No On-Boarding or Staffing Costs

Whenever you on-board new employees, you spend money and time on training. EVA’s ensure that you save hours spent on training and dedicate that time to something more profitable.

EVA’s will bill you either on the number of hours they work, or on the scope of the work required – you pay them for their productive time, and not any time spent on breaks, etc. When you hire an EVA, you only pay for hours worked.

With full-time employees, you pay a salary whether there are tasks to be done or not. And there’s no overtime, hourly rates with EVAs. Sick days, turnover, disengagement, and other pitfalls associated with some work cultures have true business costs.

You Save Time, Time is Money

Time is a valuable resource that always seems in short supply, and once it’s gone it’s gone. That’s why it’s critical to hire people that you can delegate tasks to.

Business owners that spend their days addressing low-level administrative tasks are destined to stall. Having an EVA frees you up from your routine administrative tasks, so you and your team can focus on growing your business instead. 

Ease of Operations and Lack of Time-Consuming Arrangements

The expertise of EVA services, like Ann Albrecht Consulting, offers ease of operations and allows you to streamline your operations. And because EVAs are tech-savvy and have a wide range of experience in different software, they can help improve your office processes and services to your business run smoother.

High quality of work

EVAs are independent contractors. They know that their reputation and success rides on being productive and delivering value to their clients. EVAs strive to perform at a high level, and don’t suffer from the distractions that a typical office-based assistant on a salary will.

Flexibility

EVAs are highly skilled and can generally take over the workload with minimal supervision from you. This is crucial when your business is going through a busy period, and you need to be concentrating your efforts elsewhere.

Hiring EVAs gives you the flexibility you need. Many companies have busy times and having an EVA you can scale their work according to your business needs.

We all know that multitasking is often not effective or efficient and hiring an EVA can help you focus on the important things.

If you think about it, having someone that you can delegate to that you can trust is priceless. What’s your sanity and peace of mind worth?

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If you’re like most, there’s no way you can do everything on your to-do list by yourself. Professional time management skills is critical these days, which means hiring an Executive Virtual Assistant (EVA) could be one of the best investments you’ll ever make! EVA’s will provide invaluable support for business owners who want to take their businesses to the next level without sacrificing any personal time with family or friends during this busy time of year.

TRAVEL PLANS

Your EVA can help you arrange all your holiday travel plans. Let them book flight tickets, hotel reservations and transportation. Give them a list of things you need for your trip and let them take care of it.

MANAGE BUSINESS WHILE YOU’RE GONE

Take some time off to refresh your mind and recharge your battery. Unplugging is truly one of the hardest things to do as a business owner. Your EVA is there for you. Knowing that someone has your back will give you the stress-free time off that is much needed.

HOLIDAY CARDS

Giving Christmas cards is a yearly tradition that can take a lot of time and effort. Your EVA can take care of all of this for you – making sure they are ordered and sent out on time.

EVENT PLANNING

Hosting a holiday party is a good way to show appreciation to your clients and employees. During the busy holiday season, you may not have the time to plan – sending send invitations, tracking RSVPs, book a venue, etc. Let you EVA handle it all for you. This would allow you to focus on other tasks while knowing that your company party is going to be a huge success.

EMAILS

If you are planning to take some time off during the holidays, it’s important to remember that not all of your clients are taking time off. Someone still has to keep your social media accounts updated, reply to emails, and process transactions. These are tasks that your EVA can take care of for you. Knowing that someone is keeping an eye on your inbox will give you peace of mind.

GIFTS

Do you love to give gifts but don’t have the time to go shopping? Have your EVA purchase gifts for your employees and clients. With enough information and details about the people on your list, your EVA can find the best gifts.

PREPARE FOR THE COMING YEAR

Your EVA can help you analyze your company’s performance during the year and plan for next year. Their involvement will help provide insights on your business. This feedback can help you and your team come up with best strategies for a successful New Year.

MORE FREE TIME

Hiring an EVA can do a lot for your company. Having more time to focus on your business and being able to spend more time with friends and family is priceless.

So, spend the holidays with less stress and more joy with the help of your EVA!

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Understanding Corporate Event Planning

Corporate event planning goes beyond meeting planning. Although conferences and meetings are typical events, other events you may be tasked to organize include corporate hospitality, client entertaining, conventions, exhibitions, and employee events—team reward programs, team building, motivational events, receptions, parties, and charity days.

Planning and executing a successful corporate event is no simple task. It’s typically a months-long process with many stages and organizational steps.

As you start to plan for any type of corporate event, it’s best to think of them in terms of their size from the beginning.

Micro events are events planned for up to 100 attendees and often take the form of meetings or smaller training sessions.

The planning requirements for these micro events may simply involve a room booking, presentation facilities, breakout refreshments, and registration.

Small events are generally host to between 100 and 250 attendees. They could be seminars, training days or departmental conferences.

As an event planner you may need to manage a main stage itinerary or several breakout sessions, along with lunch, refreshments, AV needs, online registration, and transportation.

Midsize events could be company-wide conferences for up to 1,000 attendees or leadership summits for important client customers.

There are other considerations when it comes to planning a midsize event – an event website, pre-event communications and outbound strategy, and perhaps an event mobile app. Attendees may require hotel accommodations and transportation. Also keep in mind that a pre- or post-event reception or evening entertainment may be required as part of the planning for this size event.

Large-scale events often require additional technology tools to manage elements such as hotel room bookings, flights, budgets, and online registration.

Large-scale events may be multi-day events – so things to consider when planning include offsite activities, dinners, partner programs, an awards ceremony or other itinerary planning.

Staffing, catering, registration, speaker and attendee management will all need to be carefully planned. Conventions, for example, can attract over 10,000 attendees and can last a few days.

Events in a corporate environment are often staged designed to communicate company strategy, change internal company behavior, launch a product or service, motivate, train or reward staff, or influence the external behavior of customers towards your company.

To ensure effective and successful corporate events, here is a checklist of action steps to keep in mind as you begin to plan:

• Determine the goal and the primary objectives of the event
• Identify the audience to set the event’s tone
• Understand how the event fits into your overall company strategy. What are its long-term objectives?
• Make a comprehensive list of all the budget line items for the event
• Identify a planning team and delegate responsibilities
• Establish a schedule for planning meetings
• Decide on the date(s) when the event will take place
• Prepare a preliminary budget based on historic costs
• Create a list of venue requirements, compare venues and negotiate pricing
• Plan the event layout and design
• Secure speakers
• Develop an event-marketing plan
• Prepare an event timeline
• Reserve accommodation and transport requirements
• Plan menus for meals and refreshments, taking dietary needs into consideration
• Prepare and print event collateral, invitations/registration
• Prepare all digital/video content. Secure AV needs
• Confirm or recruit event staffing
• Create a Run of Show, include speakers’ rehearsals and tech checks
• Follow-up with speakers and attendees post-event to thank them for attending and provide key takeaways
• Conduct post event survey, secure feedback and final costs for future reference

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! When planning an event, location is key and should be determined before you start planning anything else.

Factors to consider when choosing your LOCATION:

• Nearby airports and convenient public transportation options, walkability
• Number of quality venues available to choose from
• Weather
• Distance from most target attendees
• Conflicts with city-wide events
• Safety
• Traffic
• Free attractions
• Flight availability and cost

Tip: To save time narrow your search down to your top three cities. Explore the personalities of the cities. Ask a few key stakeholders to share their thoughts as they might have insights you never even considered.

Factors to consider about your VENUE:

• How do you feel when you first walk into the venue? First impressions do matter. The venue has to have the right personality for your event
• Check out the staff. Are they smiling and courteous?
• Is the venue clean and well maintained? Be sure to check the restrooms!
• Layout and sizes of the rooms
• Hotels within walking distance—if the venue is not a hotel
• Restaurants and coffee shops within walking distance
• Customer reviews
• Parking
• Services offered in-house, including catering, audiovisual, wait staff, cleaning services, etc. and outside vendor policies
• Insurance and Accessibility

Once the location and the venue have been secured, you can begin to put your plan together for the event – developing your budget, event marketing strategy and attendee engagement ideas.

Virtual Meeting and Event Planning

Not all corporate events are held in-person. If you are planning a virtual event, you will need to ask yourself some additional questions. Does your company have the technology to allow you to host a virtual event? And if it’s a virtual event, do you want it to be casual or formal? Is the content engaging? While the planning process doesn’t vary much from in-person to virtual, the main difference will be in the production and presentation of your content, as well as the virtual technology used.

What ever direction you go with your event, whether in person or virtual, or a hybrid, the best advice I can offer when it comes to event planning is this:

• Stay Organized
• You Can’t Start Too Soon
• Create A Timeline and a Checklist
• Have a Specific Goal and Purpose for The Event
• Delegate!
• Stick to Your Budget
• Be Prepared to Negotiate
• Embrace Event Technology. …
• Don’t Take a Risk When It Comes to Venue
• Be Prepared to Brand and Market Your Event

Event planning can be extremely successful. Nowhere else is Murphy’s Law more applicable than in event planning. If anything can go wrong, it probably will. So be prepared for all emergencies and make sure you have contingency plans in place long before the day of your event. Unpredictable weather, malfunctioning technology, last-minute cancellations – have a backup plan for everything.

At Ann Albrecht Consulting, we know what it takes to plan event. Have questions? Shoot us an email at [email protected] we are happy to help.

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It was a great reminder that there is an entire community out there of Administrative Professionals. It was an opportunity to network with companies from all over the globe with 3 full days of sessions and workshops presented by professional trainers. APC is one of the leading training conferences for administrative and executive assistants. It was a chance to develop new skills to bring back and share with my team. It was a time to exchange best practices and ideas with peers and making new connections. It’s always exciting to learn new things that can increase productivity and increase our value as Administrative Professionals. Ultimately making us more valuable to our clients.

During the conference the session tracks were organized into five educational tracks – Business Acumens, Core Competencies, Effective Leadership and Influencing, Professional Personal Growth and Technology Tools.

One of the powerful take-away for me was listening to Ryan Leak’s Keynote:.  “The most important part of communication isn’t how well you talk, but how well you are listening. And are there levels to it. Once we learn them, we can nurture incredible work relationships, so that we’re all the team members that everyone wants to work with. Listening is probably the most underrated component of communication”

Seven Levels of Listening

1. Not listening: Not paying attention to or ignoring the other person’s communications.
2. Pretend listening: Acting like or giving the impression that you are paying attention to another person’s communications, but in actuality not really paying attention to that individual.
3. Partially listening: Only focusing on part of the other person’s communication or only giving it your divided attention.
4. Focused listening: Giving the other person your undivided attention to his or her communication.
5. Interpretive listening: Going beyond just paying attention but really trying to understand what the other person is communicating.
6. Interactive listening: Being involved in the communications by asking clarifying questions or acknowledging understanding of the communication.
7. Engaged listening: Being fully engaged in communications involves listening to the other person’s views, feelings, interpretations, values, etc. concerning the communication and sharing yours as well with the other person(s). In engaged listening, both parties are given the opportunity to fully express their views, feelings and ideas.

Often times working in our industry as an Admin Professional it is easy to feel like you are working in a silo, not feeling valued. There are times when the roles of the admin or executive admin are not understood. It’s a position that is not often thanked publicly. Global industries send admins of all levels to this conference as a way to recognize their value and reward them by sending them to APC.

Another reminder for me – the Administrative Professional is more than a job, it’s a profession.

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Before we get into the five reasons virtual offices need a virtual assistant, it is important to answer the question – what is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is an individual who provides services to businesses or entrepreneurs from a remote location. While they are not in-office employees, they can access all the necessary data and tools to do the required jobs virtually. These services may include office and administrative support, calendar and expense account management and HR support, just to name a few.

Reason #1 – Reduced Overhead Costs – Lower Salaries, Operating Costs and Training Costs

Most business owners and entrepreneurs hire virtual assistants to reduce their overhead costs. Instead of hiring a full-time employee, virtual assistants are hired to do the same jobs but because they are virtual, it lowers overhead costs for businesses. Virtual Assistants can usually jump right into a project or task with little to no training. When you hire a new employee, think about how much time and resources you have to invest to train them for different aspects of their job. Virtual assistants only work on specific tasks that they are already trained in, so you won’t have to worry about spending a lot of time training them.

Reason #2 – Increased Efficiency

Another great reason to hire a virtual assistant is that they allow you as the business owner to focus on their core competencies and taking care of what is important to grow your  business and manage your time. As a business owner, you have to deal with a large amount of non-revenue generating activities like scheduling meetings and travel, event management, expense account management, and on-boarding new hires, just to name a few. While these are necessary tasks, they are not core tasks that need to be done by business owners or an in-house team.

By outsourcing your non-core activities to a virtual assistant with the right skill set, it lets you invest your time and resources into tasks that needto be done to grow your business and increase your efficiency.

Reason #3 – Scale Your Business Operations Quickly

Virtual assistants will help you scale up your business operations quickly when it comes to hiring. A virtual assistant will give you the ability to quickly hire talent on a project-by-project basis, you can easily cope with increasing work demands without worrying about rushing your recruitment process. Think about how much time you will save not having to handle on-boarding new hires, benefits and enrollment, and even time sheets. A virtual assistant gives you the chance to handle the important tasks you need to deal with to manage and grow your business.

Reason #4 – More Free time for Strategic Thinking

Since virtual assistants can perform your non-core activities, you have more time to focus on growing your business.

Rather than wasting time and resources in doing day-to-day operations, you can invest your time in what’s important – strategic thinking and future plans for your company – setting you up for long-term success.

Reason #5 – Maintaining Your Work-Life Balance

By hiring a virtual assistant, you no longer have to deal with the time consuming tasks that drag you down as a business owner. Virtual assistants are great at staying one step ahead at all times, providing you the resources to help you thrive and be as productive as possible. Having a life outside of work often sounds too good to be true to most business owners.

Call Ann Albrecht Consulting if you are ready to get your free time back!

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