4/25/2020

Useful Online Resources

Good afternoon everyone, I hope everyone had a wonderful week despite the current global situation.

This week is a short and snappy run down of my favourite online apps and resources, so let’s kick off the list:

Trello

Trello offers so many things it’s hard to get everything down.

Now, when it comes to everyday to-do’s I am an analogue kinda girlboss and use my trusty planner (no, you’re a stationery addict). However, Trello has been an invaluable resource for planning my future projects, getting ideas down, working out how I get there and ticking off tasks as I go. You can create team projects, so everyone has an awareness of how far along a project is, you can update each subtask with comments and upload documents – perfecto!

https://trello.com/en-GB

Notes (IOS) and Memo (Android) App

A quick shopping list, gift ideas, reminders, a blog post on the train these apps are perfect for jotting things down on the go. They’re simple and easy to use and are my go -to apps when running around.

G Suite

I love, love, love the G Suite products.

Email, chat, documents and storage all in one package – what more could you ask for? The documents are available offline too, so you can still work when you have no Wi-Fi and the next time you hook up to a connection it will automatically sync your changes – perfect for when you have a dodgy connection or need to get things done on the daily commute.

https://gsuite.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/

Canva

Canva is great. I have the free account but if you can justify the expense, the paid options offer so much more, like branding, you can upload your own fonts and have access to premium templates and images. Canva offers you access to tonnes of beautiful social media templates along with standard marketing materials.

https://www.canva.com/

Buffer

Keeping on top of my social media schedule is exhausting and takes up so. much. time.

I’ve taken tips from other bloggers and dedicate one full day a week to getting my next week’s content done all in one day (check out my Instagram post about Constant Contact’s scheduling calendar) – all images, content and scheduling happens on one day. I then upload everything to Buffer, schedule the dates and times of release on all my platforms and Buffer does the rest, leaving me free to get on with my work throughout the rest of the week safe in the knowledge my posts are all taken care of.

https://buffer.com

Hubstaff

Hubstaff is great for small business owners, freelancers and solopreneurs. It allows you to time your tasks so you can ensure you are billing your clients correctly. I don’t use Hubstaff to the its full potential, but it is super handy for recording time, especially if you use the chrome extension. If you do want to check it out, it offers team tracking, reporting and timesheet creation!

https://hubstaff.com/

Short and sweet this week but I hope this post has been helpful and insightful and I wish you all a productive week!

Speak to you soon.

Naomi | VIRTUALESQUE

https://instagram.com/pixistock
https://styledstock.co/
https://styledstocksociety.com/

Staying Motivated

Motivation is a precious commodity.

Keep hold of it and you feel like you’re flying, loose it and its super hard to get back. During these difficult times, I thought it would be handy to have a list of tips and tricks to help you keep hold of your motivation!

Take Regular Short Breaks

Take a (socially-distanced) walk, read a book, listen to a podcast, meditate, finish early on a Friday – Take a 10,15 or 20-minute break to do something for you that you enjoy. If you end up spending all your time on your business, you’ll just end up resenting it instead of enjoying it.

Listen To Others

You can’t be on you’re a-game all the time, there will be days when you need a little help to get going. On days like these, talk to your colleagues, find out what projects they are working on, if there’s anything you can do to help. Talking to people, seeing and feeling their motivation will likely put the spring back in your step.

There’s a plethora of virtual communication tools out there, find the one you like and get to talking.

Build on your goals

One reason your motivation is a bit sluggish is that your goals may not be quite as fleshed out as they could be, so you loose sight of how to get there. There are many processes out there for setting meaningful goals, here are a couple for you to Google:

- - Visualisation - Life Mapping

Spend some time with your customers

Spending time with your customers can give you a motivational kick when you need it most. It can remind you of your “why”, why you started your business in the first place. Hanging out* and speaking with your customers can help give you another perspective on your business and you will likely come away with a bit of a boost.

*see previous mention of virtual communication tools to ensure you’re following the current social-distancing rules.

Set a personal mission statement

If you run your own business, its likely you have a business mission statement.

For Virtualesque it’s:

“Virtualeque is an Administrative Consultancy supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs who need help with their business processes and administration, so they can spend more time doing what they really want. Virtualesque will endeavour to make a healthy profit so that it can contribute back to its community”.

But that’s business, and while your company is your baby, it’s not you. Having a personal mission statement will help remind you why you are putting in countless hours, blood, sweat and tears to build your dream. My personal mission statement is:

“To create a harmony between my home life and my business which will allow me to feel happy, balanced and successful, helping me toward my goal of supporting my community”.

Having this statement on show in my office helps me on days when I am feeling a bit sluggish and instantly gives me a double-espresso-style shot of motivational energy.

Remember your successes

The day to day can get on top of all of us sometimes and we can feel like we aren’t making any progress or making a difference. On days like these, I like to dip into my “YOU GOT THIS” folder in my inbox that holds lovely messages and testimonials from clients about me and my business. Comments like the below really help get me out of a slump:

“…you are efficient! - I almost forgot”.

“If you're ever looking at this and wondering whether to get in touch and enquire about Nai's service then do, don't even hesitate, you won't regret it I promise you!"

"Naomi is meticulously organised and without her the business could not have delivered its key services.

“…I would have been lost without Naomi".

Give a helping hand to your community

Does your business have skills that could benefit your community? Is there a local project you could get involved in or sponsor? Does a community charity need help fundraising?

You can keep this modest or go as big as you want but seeing the positive difference you can make to your community is not only motivating, it does wonders for your soul to know you got involved and helped a local cause.

I hope this post has been helpful and insightful and I wish you all a motivational week!

Speak to you soon

Naomi | VIRTUALESQUE

Photo by Jess Bailey from Pexels
Photo by Dee @ Copper and Wild on Unsplash

Photo by Ella Jardim on Unsplash

Mental Health Awareness Week 2019

It’s Mental Health Awareness week, a campaign that I support and promote as much as possible and in this post, I’d like to talk about stress, something we all feel in varying degrees in our daily lives and something I am struggling through as I type!

What with the social expectations of being professionally successful, having a large income, a beautiful house, eating healthily, spending at least an hour in the gym every day, having a busy social life, making time to see your family and ensuring the kids aren’t malnourished, neglected and make it to all their extracurriculars every week, life can be pretty intense.

Stress and Mental Health in The Workplace

In this post, I want to raise awareness of stress and mental health in the workplace, as Mind.org.uk say, “Prioritising the mental health of your staff needs to be core business in your organisation”.

Research conducted by Mind shows that:

· More than one in five employees agreed that they had called in sick to avoid work when asked how workplace stress had affected them.

· 14 per cent agreed that they had resigned and 42 per cent had considered resigning when asked how workplace stress had affected them.

· 30 per cent of staff disagreed with the statement ‘I would feel able to talk openly with my line manager if I was feeling stressed’.

· 56 per cent of employers said they would like to do more to improve staff well being but don't feel they have the right training or guidance.

I know that when I was an employee, I could certainly agree with several of these statements. But it doesn’t have to be that way for your business and employees!

What can you do?

There are so many resources available to you from Mind.org.uk, who have a wide selection of training programmes such as:

Mental Health Awareness training
Managing Mental Health at Work training
Customer Support and Mental Health training
Emotional Intelligence and Resilience training

They will soon be launching their e-learning platform specifically focusing on mental health awareness at work and can even arrange training sessions for your employees at your office.

The Mental Health Foundation have a large selection of publications, papers and reports which can be ordered in hard copy or printed as a PDF, on subjects such as:

How to manage and reduce stress
Added Value: Mental Health as a Workplace Asset
Managing Mental Health in the Workplace
How to Sleep Better

And many more, all of which you could print and leave in break out areas in your office.

The Benefits

By implementing simple and relatively cheap ideas to your workplace, the effects (detailed in Mind’s Mentally Healthy Workplaces booklet) could be:

An increase in productivity, efficiency and innovation
An increase in profits and reduced business costs
Improved staff morale and performance
A reduction in absence and staff turnover
An enhanced reputation as an employer
Help you to honour your duty of care as an employer

Here are just a few of my tips for helping to raise awareness of Mental Health in the workplace:

Order relevant booklets and publications and keep a catalogue of these in your break out areas for employees to read through
Encourage employees to take a walk at lunch, or on their break. It's know that spending time in nature can help reduce stress
If you have space, investigate holding before or after work Yoga, Pilates or breathing exercise classes at the office.
Instead of bringing in biscuits and cake to the office (delicious though they are), stock up on healthy snacks like carrot sticks, strawberries, grapes and apples which will help your employees get in their 5-a-day.
Promote flexible working practices, helping your employees find that coveted work/life balance.
Praise your employees and acknowledge their efforts.
Open the windows. Research shows that exposing your lungs to fresh air, and the scents of flowers and plants can help to relieve stress.
Take advantage of all the free resources provided by Mind and the Mental Health Foundation to learn and put in place policies and procedures to help manage the mental health and stress of your employees.
Take a training course to really understand how improving the mental health in your workplace can benefit your business.

Raise Awareness

To raise awareness of mental health and Mental Health Awareness week, make sure to wear your green ribbon pin badge, find them here: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/green-ribbon-pin-badges.

And to find out more from Mind.org.uk and The Mental Health Foundation, click the links below:

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/

https://www.mind.org.uk/

I hope this post has been helpful and insightful and I wish you all a stress-free week!

See you soon!

Naomi | VIRTUALESQUE

Photo by Tim Goedhart on Unsplash
Photo by sharon wright on Unsplash

Spring Clean Your Business

Spring is in the air and I’m itching to have a spring clean and re-focus my priorities!

If you too are thinking of taking advantage of the new season to clear a path and re-energise your small business, here are a few tips to get you going:

Paperwork

This is usually the thing that gets left until last but block out a day to get that mountain of paperwork under control.

Make sure everything is scanned, filed correctly or shredded if no longer needed so you aren’t constantly looking at a forest of documents - it will make a huge difference knowing everything is where it should be, and that you are on top of your paperwork.

Reconciliation

Have you been neglecting those slightly awkward reconciliation transactions because you haven’t got the time to investigate it properly? Can’t find the receipts to get that last one ticked off, “it’s in my bag somewhere”? Get down to it and get your reconciliation done, not only will this give you a sense of achievement in clearing down your transactions, it will help with your accounts reporting also – two for the price of one!

Electronic Filing

Knowing that everything is where it’s supposed to be not only gives you a sense of satisfaction, but it can save hours of your time when you don’t have to search about for that one important document.

If your Dropbox, Google Drive or the like is looking a little like a dumping ground for PDFs and JPEGs with file names like “P0AOFN15631.png”, spend a few hours sorting through your files, renaming and refiling so you always know where to look to find that all important contract or design.

Profit & Loss Reports

This time of year, as it coincides with the start of the new Financial Year, is a great opportunity to have an in depth look at where your hard-earned money is being spent.

Looking at your P&L reports and reviewing each of the accounts on it can throw up real insight into where you could shave a few £’s off certain areas (stationery is my weakness), invest in others and stop wasting money all together on other accounts.

New Technology

If you are using systems and technology that are a bit outdated, spend a bit of time researching new ways your processes and tasks can be done – we live in amazing times, do you want to organise your team’s holidays, shifts and personal documents on one, easy to use platform? Someone’s got an app for that. Do you want to communicate with your teams online, create teams within those teams, assign projects and tasks and report on the overall project progress? Someone’s got an app for that – and sometimes, these apps and software is free!

Peruse the web and have a look at all the new and exciting software available to you to get your business running smoother than a bar of Galaxy chocolate (one of my other weaknesses)!

Review your Social Media Accounts

Just like your software, your Social Media accounts need a refresh every now and then.

Block out some time and a local Eventbrite workshop to get a handle on the new social media marketing trends, spruce up your images, re-write your LinkedIn profile to celebrate all your recent achievements, update your hashtag lists, create Instagram Storyboards, update the videos on your website, connect with your networking contacts or even create a Pinterest board for your business (it’s much more of a search engine than you would think).

Phew, after all of that you should be finished just in time for a summer holiday!

I hope this post has been helpful and insightful and I wish you all a productive week!