Working Smarter – not Harder Part 2

Recently, I heard about a corporation paying $20,000+ for hosting of a simple file server for clients to access as needed. What’s equally sad about this is that they have staff on hand that could have orchestrated a much cheaper option that worked twice as well. They pay for the fastest connection possible and have their own data center but pay tens of thousands of dollars for a simple file server!

I witnessed another corporation recently that pays a contracted company to deliver their mail, act as the receptionist in the mornings and afternoons and ship out the mail at the end of the day. While those are great services, they are paying a premium for staff to do just this but not fully utilizing these staff. They have their own staff that stock supplies, call for copier service, stock paper and toner for printers and arrange for a service tech to fix their copiers and printers. Managers spend their time trying to track down who fixes what. Do you fix my copier? Where do I get toner for the printer?
Both of these are examples of situations where corporations could be working smarter and saving some much needed cash in these trying times.

In many situations, jobs go undone because someone hasn’t filled in the blanks. Sometimes, there’s higher savings by combining all these services through one contractor. Other times, it’s better to spread those out under one department head, having one person keep track of who does what as the primary contact.

In each situation, it’s best to have someone an independent consultant evaluate the return on investment for each situation honestly and forthrightly.

Have you ever wondered if that copier sales person really knows best what you need or is he just trying to pay his car payment? Or perhaps that staffing representative is paid on commission and their only thought is how they are going to pay their bills this month. Or the Office Manager who is proud at all she’s done. She’s overwhelmed and doesn’t want to fix what’s not broken. Not only that, she doesn’t want to admit it could be better.

You could eliminate all this frustration by hiring an independent consultant to come in and fully evaluate how things are currently being done. The best thing about an independent consultant is there’s no commitment. If you don’t like the ideas, you don’t have to launch them. However, if you like the ideas, you find you can actually save money and work more efficiently, everyone is happy.
Big or small, every company can stand to learn more about working smarter. Instead of having all employees working into overtime, tired, exhausted and over-worked, you could have employees who enjoy their work and have time and energy to do it well.

Ruth Incorporated is ready to start helping you save. The choice is yours so when will you start working smarter?

Why you need a Virtual Assistant

If you’ve been on the internet long, you have probably heard of something called a Virtual Secretary or a Virtual Administrative Assistant.  There are many companies all over the web offering to connect you with a virtual assistant of all sorts.  There’s the ones that answer your phone for you or the ones that help with accounting and taxes and then there’s the ones that will do everything.

The promise of a virtual assistant is intriguing.  If you use one, good for you.  If you don’t, why don’t you?  As a business owner, your focus should be on managing the business.  A virtual secretary can do data entry, compile reports, research projects, design your stationary, business cards and envelopes and so much more. 

In a previous post, I talked about cost saving on the business side.  How having an engineer being paid $30/hr make copies of presenations is not the most cost effective use of his time.  The same goes as a business owner.  Why would you spend so much time on business cards, websites, reports and other administrative duties when you could be spending time on building your customer base, networking with other business professionals? If you are a programmer, spending your time actually doing the work your clients are paying you to do seems like a more cost effective strategy. 

After all, even if you are business owner, you should still have some work-life balance.  So often, I talk to small business owners who say they never have any time for a personal life.  While I respect their ability to work non-stop, we all need to work smarter with our time.  Work with purpose.  Do the things you are good at-selling your business, programming that next program, showing that house to that next homebuyer.

Working Smarter – not Harder

I was asked earlier today whether Ruth, Inc is a Virtual Assistant business and while we do offer Virtual Assistant services, there’s so much more to Ruth, Inc.  The purpose to Ruth, Inc is not just to offer Virtual Assistant services but to offer the whole package – a consulting firm that understands your needs to cut costs while maximizing efficiency. 

One might ask why, when cutting costs, would a company hire a consulting firm to show them how to shave their costs?  Here’s why:

An experienced efficiency expert can spend just a little bit of time watching how you do business and see simple steps that can be made that save hundreds of dollars each week.  For example-an engineering firm I once worked with had their engineers making all their own needed copies.  They had a self service copy room with all that was needed to do this.  Problem was, they were paying their engineer’s $25 & $30/hr to stand at the copy machine making copies!  Another aspect to this issue is most of these engineers don’t know the nuances of that copier.  Trying to figure out how to copy a document 1 to 2 sided, stapled probably took them 5 minutes to program.  By bringing in a copy center employee, they 1-quadrupled the amount of work that could be done in the copy center while 2-saving tons of money.  This copy center employee spent his or her time focusing on efficiency and doing the job right the first time while the engineers were back at their desks making this engineering firm more money!  In this solution, everyone won.  The employees got to focus on what they loved and the company got to put more money in their bank account. 

This is just one of many ways companies can save money while working smarter – not harder.  You can only pile so much work upon each of your employees before they explode.  Call Ruth, Inc today to schedule a time for us to come out and evaluate your current situation.  We will help you work smarter-not harder!

Virtualizing your workforce

In this current economy, many companies are looking for ways to cut costs.  Often, this means laying people off.  I am here to say there are better ways to utilize your current work force while reducing costs. 

There are easy and affordable ways to virtualize your current work force.  The biggest benefit to virtualizing your current workforce is the fact that your employees are already trained.  Honestly, your employees likely spend their entire commute every day wishing they could luck out and find that work from home position. 

While there are plenty of people out there offering their services as a virtual assistant, the trouble is that many don’t know your market or your needs as well as someone who has worked with you in the past.  You also have no idea what their work ethic is like, the quality of work they will provide and how dependable they will be.

By providing a few simple tools to current employees, they can work from home, you can save money and everyone wins.

Among these tools are the Blackberry.  You may already provide your staff with cell phones.  For a little bit more, you get the advantage of constant communication with them even when they aren’t in the office.  They can check their email, communicate via messenger, access their office documents and more.  The more advanced could even use that blackberry to connect to the internet with their laptops. 

Instant Message software has come a long way and, let’s face it, most of your employees probably already know how to use one.  By incorporating Instant Messaging software along with the blackberry, you will find your employees are even more connected than they were while working in the office.

By virtualizing the staff in your office, you save money on things like coffee, heat, electricity, copiers, paper and much more.  There are many other ways of virtualizing your workforce to save money. 

This is the age of technology and finding ways to make it work for you.   Entire call centers are staffed with home agents.  Airline reservations, sales and so much more.  The opportunities are endless.  All it takes is an open mind and a creative spirit.

Of course, there are the positions that require an office space or heavy duty equipment.  Those may never become virtual but the technology is here now for your staff to become virtual. 

Intrigued?  Need more ideas? Need someone who can train your employees?   Want to get started but don’t know where to start?

Contact Ruth, Incorporated Consulting today!

Love the idea but don’t have the staff? 

Ruth, Incorporated Consulting can help with that too. 

We will help you with all of your in office and virtual needs!