CASE STUDY
HOW THIS ACCOUNTANT FREED UP 60 HOURS PER WEEK AND ADDED 200% MORE VALUE TO HER CLIENTS
"After 9 months I have been able to completely remove myself and others from the administration components of our business while spending much more time in front of my clients"
Carmelina’s Problems
When we first met with Carmelina from XPAL Tax & Accounting, she and her team were a busy bunch. But their busyness didn't always translate into increased revenue.
She was hungry to grow her business and scale things up, but the team was often bogged down in lower value tasks. This left her with little time to add real value to her existing clients, let alone attracting new premium ones.
Her top 5 complaints were:
- they were too busy with basic bookkeeping, client follow ups, filing and administration
- and corresponding back and forth with the ATO to ensure that their clients were compliant
- which prevented them from providing higher value advisory work and
- limited their existing client’s billing growth opportunities and further
- impacted their client retention due to not providing consistent high quality advice
She couldn't scale her business and desperately needed more back-of-house help, as her team was stretched and simply didn't have any time to find and train up new staff members.
The Solutions
Carmelina was originally quite hesitant about hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA). She’s heard some horror stories about VAs not being able to speak English, delivering inferior work and in simple terms, she just couldn't see a world where their data and accounts would be secure.
So, her options were:
- try to hire another local staff member and hope they pick things up fast,
- ask her staff to increase their working hours or
- be content with the current situation and bottle neck in her business
Well, she didn't have the time to train new staff, her team was not capable of working any more hours and she wasn't going to remain static.
Carmelina wanted to grow!
So she decided to talk to Julian from our team and hired her first part-time Accounting VA, which provided her with:
- a suitable team member that was an extension of her team
- standard operating procedures (SOP) being created for all admin tasks specific to her office’s requirements
- all low value tasks being taken off her and her team’s desks
To find out if hiring a VA could help you free up time to focus on more high value advisory work:
Carmelina’s Outcome
After a few months of working with Space, Carmelina decided to hire her second VA and in the process:
- freed up 240 hours of her team's time every month while increasing their overall productivity significantly,
- provided her team space to focus on adding better value and advice to her existing clients,
- had her compliance management systems completely in order,
- increased the billing value of her existing clients by 50%,
- grew revenue 200% faster than the previous year,
- retained her clients for longer which decreased leakage by over 230% and
- doubled her overall high value advisory work
To find out if hiring a VA could help you free up time to focus on more high value advisory work:
About Space
Having run multiple businesses ourselves, we understand that the day to day administration and management can really deplete the passion that led you to start your business in the first place.
If you’ve lost that passion, we want to help reignite it. If you feel like you’re carrying the weight of the business on your shoulders for you and your team, we aim to relieve that stress.
Through years of trial, error and refinement we inadvertently created a structure and process to make outsourcing work for ourselves, ensuring that our virtual staff were effectively embedded into our team, culture and business.
Our Core Team
Basil
Founder
Julian
Partner
Maybelle
Onboarding Manager
Eva
Team Leader
Our Process
We’ve been the guinea pig, so you don’t have to. After years of making mistakes and learning from others, we created this proven process to make outsourcing work.
1.
Set Goals
We help you breakdown your workflow, identify which tasks to outsource and how to define measurement tools so you know your tasks are being done effectively.
1.
Get Goals
We help you breakdown your workflow, identify which tasks to outsource and how to define measurement tools so you know your tasks are being done effectively.
2.
Hire Smart
Attitude, aptitude, enthusiasm, attention to detail and excellent communication skills are what we look for. We hire for what the task is – which is not always what you think is needed. Our proven process shows that tasks can be trained. We recruit assistants who want the chance to grow and stay with clients for the long term.
3.
Onboarding & Training
We know that no virtual assistant has your experience, only you do. Training is not just task related – its capturing the nuances of how you run your business – we replicate what you do. In bite sized chunks, capturing what you do doesn’t take long. Our onboarding team takes care of the rest ensuring your virtual assistants creates a library of your procedures that are easy to follow.
4.
Check Cultural Fit
Understanding is integral to any great relationship. Our job is to create space for our clients but at the same time close the gap on any cultural differences. Our Filipino team don’t always understand the funny, dry and sometimes direct nature of Aussies. We provide a buffer to manage this process and bring virtual assistants and clients closer together.
5.
Communication
Regular communication is key for any successful working relationship but especially with virtual assistants. In addition to email and video, Space also set up a phone number direct to your VA and coach on utilising online tools such as Slack or Microsoft teams.
6.
Feedback
A crucial component of our process – lack of feedback or feedback that’s not actioned is essentially what makes outsourcing fail. Space provide a team around you to ensure that feedback, from client and VA, is actioned. Never assume “that’s just common sense”. Being clear on what you want done and setting deadlines leads to a successful outcome.
7.
Ongoing Management
Our aim is to make life easier for business owners that want to achieve something for themselves. Virtual assistants really can add value to your business and your lifestyle if you take the time to invest in the relationship.
2.
Hire Smart
Attitude, aptitude, enthusiasm, attention to detail and excellent communication skills are what we look for. We hire for what the task is – which is not always what you think is needed. Our proven process shows that tasks can be trained. We recruit assistants who want the chance to grow and stay with clients for the long term.
3.
Onboarding & Training
We know that no virtual assistant has your experience, only you do. Training is not just task related – its capturing the nuances of how you run your business – we replicate what you do. In bite sized chunks, capturing what you do doesn’t take long. Our onboarding team takes care of the rest ensuring your virtual assistants creates a library of your procedures that are easy to follow.
4.
Check Cultural Fit
Understanding is integral to any great relationship. Our job is to create space for our clients but at the same time close the gap on any cultural differences. Our Filipino team don’t always understand the funny, dry and sometimes direct nature of Aussies. We provide a buffer to manage this process and bring virtual assistants and clients closer together.
5.
Communication
Regular communication is key for any successful working relationship but especially with virtual assistants. In addition to email and video, Space also set up a phone number direct to your VA and coach on utilising online tools such as Slack or Microsoft teams.
6.
Feedback
A crucial component of our process – lack of feedback or feedback that’s not actioned is essentially what makes outsourcing fail. Space provide a team around you to ensure that feedback, from client and VA, is actioned. Never assume “that’s just common sense”. Being clear on what you want done and setting deadlines leads to a successful outcome.
7.
Ongoing Management
Our aim is to make life easier for business owners that want to achieve something for themselves. Virtual assistants really can add value to your business and your lifestyle if you take the time to invest in the relationship.
To find out if hiring a VA could help you free up time to focus on more high value advisory work:
Accounting Firms We Help
Accounting Firms We Help
Accountants who want some breathing space
Accountants looking to effectively scale their business
Accountants who want to provide more high value advisory work
Accountants who may be bogged down and want to reignite their passion again
Our Partners
Our Partners
What Our Clients Say
We were referred to Space, as we knew there must be a better way of increasing our efficiencies. After a few meetings, we understood their model and knew it could work. Our VA has been a breath of fresh air helping us streamline our own procedures and increasing the number of loans we process every month. The quality of work and communication are excellent and as a result we will be taking on another dedicated virtual assistant so we can double our current revenue. Best move we ever made by far.
Kerry, The Advisory
Space completely transformed how we do business and engage with our clients. Simply awesome! We would recommend Space to any business owner, large or small.
Braith, BNI
Initially we were hesitant to take on a Virtual Assistant as we couldn’t see how it would work in our business. Space's specific model made sense to us so we took the plunge. After only 6 months of using a Space managed VA, we have completely changed our internal processes based on what our dedicated VA does for us. Our admin processes have streamlined allowing our internal staff to support our brokers more effectively, resulting in 125% revenue growth. We are now gearing up for our second VA to come onboard.
Simon, Go Loans
Space provided us with the support to be able to completely systemise our business and create checklists and Standard Operating Procedures for every task. They are fantastic at helping us with nurture our VA to ensure we get the out of him while building a good relationship along the way. I would recommend Space to any small business owner looking to scale things up.
Brad, Gro
Our VA saves us time, our processes and efficiencies have improved helping us get on top of my admin tasks, data entry and marketing. I love the fact that they create our processes as they learn our business.
Natalie, Daws Conveyancing
Simon, BNI Adelaide
To find out if hiring a VA could help you free up time to focus on more high value advisory work:
Frequently Asked Questions
How does it work in a nutshell?
We go and find a staff member (Virtual Assistant) for your business and put them through our Rigid Quality Assessment process. We then create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) specific to your business and train your VA to complete those tasks on your behalf. We then continue to manage and quality check your VA on an ongoing basis to ensure you are satisfied.
What can a VA do?
They can carry out whatever you can ‘show’ them. They are a ‘blank canvas’ for you, so they can replicate your work. They can do simple or complex tasks which may include, Aggregator CRM data entry, compliance file notes, general administration, ATO correspondence, debt collection or data mining. However, VAs don’t do telemarketing or cold calling….it simply doesn’t work!
Is there a minimum period I need to sign up for?
No.
Can I hire a part time VA?
Yes. Part time VAs work 20 hours per week. Full time VAs work 40 hours per week.
Is this traditional Outsourcing?
No.
Traditional outsourcing is when companies delegate some of their tasks to external teams or individuals, such as with a call centre for example. What we do is called "insourcing", which is bringing a remote team member into your business to collaboratively work on tasks with you on a daily basis. Your VA will be part of your team as much as the person sitting next to you.
Where are your VAs located?
All our VAs are located in the Phillipines, working from our dedicated office.
Can your VAs speak and write in English?
Yes. All our VAs go through a systematic screening process for written and verbal communication in the English language.
Are your VAs normal people with common sense?
This might sound like a crazy question, but we get this a lot. The answer is yes! Your VA will be a normal member of staff that is part of your team. They may be working remotely, but you will be working together as if they were sitting right there in your office.
How can I be sure I get a high quality VA?
We get hundreds of applications to work for our company every month and only select the cream of the crop. We carefully screen for communication (written and verbal), work ethic, values and attention to detail. We also make sure all our VAs are a good cultural fit for our Australian client base. Further to that, Regular Quality Assessments are part of our ongoing standard operating procedures.
What if I don't have time to train my VA?
No problem. We will create the processes for you and train your VA to complete them to your satisfaction. We hire, train and manage your VA on your behalf, so you can be freed up to sit in front of more clients.
Do I need to have my procedures in place before bringing on a VA?
No. We will create your procedures for you. Our SOP and task capturing model makes the procedure capturing effortless.
You've made it all the way to this point, so why not:
Disclaimer: The figures stated above are figures from (personal results, client results). Results are not typical. We are not implying that you will be able to duplicate these results and are using these references for example purposes only. Your results will vary and depend on many factors...including but not limited to your region, background, experience and work ethic. All business entails risk as well as massive and consistent effort and action.
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