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As I sat down to write this first Gayle’s Desk of 2009, I just had to look back at my first one from 2008. It was the Year of the Rat, according to the Chinese…predicted to be “an exciting year full of new beginnings and major accomplishments.” In a word…eeeeYuk!
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As I sat down to write this first Gayle’s Desk of 2009, I just had to look back at my first one from 2008. It was the Year of the Rat, according to the Chinese…predicted to be “an exciting year full of new beginnings and major accomplishments.” In a word…eeeeYuk!
By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®
Reflecting on 2008
The year turned out nothing like most of us expected. 2008 threw all of us some curve balls, that’s for sure. Toward the last quarter of the year we saw a lot of clients go out of business and still more struggle to keep their businesses alive in a down economy.
The year wasn’t all bad though. For me, there is always a silver lining and I fully believe that when one door closes another one opens and opens wider. As I reflect back on 2008, I see what a wonderful job our Sales Director/VSR Director/Right-Hand-Woman, Janice Clark has done in improving profits and customer service at Team Double-Click®. I see what a stellar job our Virtual Services Reps did in speaking with new clients and educating them as to what virtual assistants can do for their businesses and matching them with the best virtual assistants. I applaud the team we’ve assembled at Team Double-Click®. These folks truly know how to do their jobs, do them well, and help a company grow.
Celebrating What Works
At Team Double-Click® business is booming. Are you kidding? A down economy? Clients going out of business? How does that translate to “business is booming”?. While some clients just couldn’t hang on in this economy, others have thrived. Yes, we’ve cut staff. Yes, we’ve cut expenses. But those things are what have kept the company strong during this storm.
For some clients, circumstances dictate that there just isn’t much to be done to hang on in this economy. I think about a good friend of mine who happens to be a Realtor®. She hasn’t sold a single house since May. We live in a small mountain town where the cost of living was already high and jobs were already few. She doesn’t have the luxury of mining sales in other neighborhoods – the entire county is made up of roughly 2,000 people. So she’s been forced to pick up other jobs that allow her to continue showing homes when folks are ready. She tends bar, offers massage, and a few other things here and there to make ends meet until the economy improves. In her case, short of moving, there isn’t much more to be done.
But for others, one key has been to cut back spending as quickly as possible. Cut back expensive staff salaries through layoffs. Cut services that aren’t so needed right now. Stop going to movies and dinners. You get the picture. This exact strategy is one we’ve employed here at Team Double-Click® in order to help us weather the storm. We’ve cut vended services to the bare minimum as we have with staff. What this has done for us is kept profits steady and cash flow strong.
Many of our clients are heeding the advice of the gurus and doing the same – cutting expensive in-office staff and replacing them with virtual assistants at a much lower cost and higher efficiency. This is helping their bottom line and cash flow grow. By first cutting the expenses, these clients can then take the next set of advice from the gurus and continue and even increase their marketing. The experts tell us that in order to weather a recession, you must remain in front of your potential customers through marketing and sales. Do this and you’ll be the first to rebound from recession. Good advice. Those Team Double-Click® clients who are marketing, marketing, marketing, are also thriving, thriving, thriving – even in this economy. They’re using their virtual assistants to perform public relations work and internet marketing to keep their companies in front of clients.
I recently analyzed our client data for the last couple years and compared their virtual assistant use to the equivalent usage of bricks-and-mortar staff. The numbers showed that to date, Team Double-Click’s clients have collectively saved nearly $2,000,000 by using virtual assistants as opposed to hiring their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. Those same clients continue to collectively save over $1.40 per second 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. Impressive numbers! This cost savings allows many of them to continue to thrive and grow where their competitors are failing and dying.
Virtual staffing is the place to be…NOW! Those companies which are surviving and thriving are looking for ways to cut expenses and cut outrageous bricks-and-mortar staff costs. They’re being retrained to avoid gluttonous spending and are looking for less expensive but equally more productive methods. Enter virtual staffing and virtual assistants. That is why business is booming at Team Double-Click®! Clients still need all of the same day-to-day functions performed. But they need them done on a smaller scale and they need them done at a better cost and more efficiently. Virtual assistants are the key.
So keep honing your skills. Take all the training you can get your hands on. And be sure to check out our last two teleseminars (listen-to links appear later in the newsletter) and by all means, check out our job openings. While the demand for general virtual assistants has dropped, the need for sales people to keep up with client demand and public relations and marketing people to help clients grow their businesses has exploded.
I wish you a happy, safe, and prosperous 2009.
About the author:
Gayle Buske is the co-founder and CEO of Team Double-Click® the country’s leading virtual staffing agency. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with tens of thousands of virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to speak to the ins and outs of the industry. Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband and business partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, practicing Yoga, reading, hiking, flower gardening, off-roading, watching NASCAR®, chairing the Lymphedema Lifeline Foundation, and playing with the family’s three dogs and three cats.
Team Double-Click® provides virtual assistance for large and small businesses. Visit Team Double Click’s Web site at www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129. Click to receive your free report, 101 Ways To Work With A Virtual Assistant.
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