How I am a Better Assistant Now

My favourite book teaches us how to treat others and highlights how to listen and understand people much better than we might do. 

I thought I was pretty good at this, particularly as a Personal / Executive Assistant in high pressured corporate environments in my previous chapters for many years. 

Since then, I have learned a lot more. 

Now that I am a Business Owner myself I can see how much better I am as an Assistant now than I ever was during the many years I worked in  corporate environments. 

I would go so far as to say that my skills in assisting and supporting people have improved substantially. 

Is that because I have more empathy now that I have first-hand experience of being a Business Owner?

I can look back now and see what I considered as priorities so often chased (and chased) were not necessarily as important as I felt they were.

Being a Business Owner, nothing ever stops and so timing everything to the minute detail is as important as making the right every day business decisions and actioning them at the appropriate time.

Focusing on important tasks as a priority is key in business ownership. 

Could it be because I know exactly what is required ‘behind the scenes’ of a  business so I can support Business Owners better?

Whilst I had huge visibility in my more senior roles within my corporate career which included the makings of a business and how it operated (including all the politics that went with it), having the direct responsibility as a Business Owner it has given me first-hand experience of how a business functions on a day-to-day basis.

Being able to identify the priorities and timelines of a Business Owner and the business itself is essential in order to assist them as much as possible. 

Business ownership is a 24/7 role and organising all business functions that are required at the appropriate time has only served me positively by the need to organise everything around me even more tightly which, if you ask people that have worked with me in the past, would raise a smile, having been described as the most organised person they know! 

Recognising ‘Leads’ and potential business becomes easier when you do it day in, day out for yourself.  You tend to become more instinctive and know what to bring to the table. 

Admittedly I have never been the strongest sales person, however, having owned a business for over five years, an intuition in me has grown enabling me to identify a potentially good prospect to a whole load of spam!

This is something that, until I needed to focus on this part of business with it being my own, I never needed to take much part in the workings of it. 

Now that I fully understand the need to constantly market and promote myself, my business and what I do, it has allowed me to come to the realisation that it is a constant churn in order to maintain the level of business required to remain operational. 

Although I have always been fairly savvy when it comes to needless marketing it has become much easier to recognise what the Business Owner I am supporting might realistically want or need, when to do it and, to a large extent, how to do it. 

This has also improved my creativity and quite often the ideas that I come up with are run from inception through to completion.  

Whether my business ideas are followed more now than ever before because I have had more experience of doing so or if I am more in tune with the people I do business with now I am not so sure of. 

What I do know is that I am called upon for my professional expertise that comes with suggestions and recommendations, and having the experience of business ownership, this gives me the encouragement to do just that. 

Time management has always been important to me and, in my view, is very much a compulsory element of being a Business Owner. 

A common misconception is that time management is defined by someone being late or early at any given time, either for a deadline, call or meeting. 

It actually comes down to whether or not a person utilises their time as efficiently as they can. 

If a person only has five minutes until a meeting or a call, rather than starting a big project, it is far better to complete one small task and being able to tick it off the list. 

Since becoming a Business Owner I have become a master of this as there are no minutes that can be wasted and I find that my productivity levels are far higher then they were before I became a Business Owner. 

The efficiency that arises from excellent management is something that I have enjoyed since becoming a Business Owner. 

As the leader of my own fate, as well as that of my business, the efficiency of making decisions when required, keeping to meetings that have been scheduled rather than postponing them, maintaining a sound financial position and all other business matters that would require approval or sign off in a corporate setting leads to a quicker and possibly more efficient process.   

This leads to a motivation that, quite frankly, I haven’t seen in myself since my competitive sporting days in which I worked tirelessly to achieve the goals and objectives that I set myself.

This quite likely happens because business ownership can be challenging:

I have direct responsibility and accountability for my business and there is no one else to do things if I choose not to.

A stark awareness of deadlines was always something that I have never had a problem with. In fact, it can be classed as one of my strengths. 

The difference now, is that if a deadline is not met, there can be serious consequences for a Business Owner.   

His Majesty‘s Revenues & Customs is not forgiving of late payments or registrations!

Interestingly, to date, as an a Assistant I have not yet supported a Business Owner with their tax payments, government registrations and so on.

I can only think that this is because they have outsourced it to a professional specific to that field (Accountant, Tax Adviser or Lawyer for example), because, quite frankly, their livelihood depends on it and so Business Owners certainly do not want to slip up in this area; or Business Owners want to do it themselves for peace of mind.

I also now have the advantage of building up my own contacts and being able to recommend people to my Clients, which is hugely valuable. 

Once my Clients get to know me, like me and trust me they appreciate that I would not recommend anyone lightly. 

I shall never provide a referral unless I have worked with someone personally so what I often do is let a Client know of one of the many people I meet in my circle who offers a service that they may wish to consider but advise them that I have never had direct dealings with them. 

When it comes to it, it is always easier to engage with someone if we have similarities in experience, lifestyle or aspirations.

As a Business Owner myself now, I recognise that I have a much more rounded sense of business acumen and what it takes to operate it day in and day out.

The pressure alone allows for a calmer and more logical perspective and, having dealt with Senior Executive Assistants since becoming a Business Owner, it has surprised me how rigid and non-flexible many of them can be.

When I was asked by one of my Clients why a particular Assistant seemed woolly and vague, I explained to her that I believed it comes down to two main reasons. 

The Assistant in question is most likely disengaged with the person she supported.

Flexibility is key.  

Whilst I would always try to be flexible when I worked in a corporate environment, there were times that it would not possible to be. 

As a Business Owner, I find myself making something work even more than I ever have done before. 

The more an Assistant is let in and trusted by the person they support, the more knowledgeable they are (it makes sense) and they will therefore be a much more efficient and amenable support to them.

As an Assistant and a Business Owner, I feel that I am given an advantage because the person I work with is more likely to let me in because, as Atticus Finch said to Scout in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around it."

To gain a true understanding of anything in life it takes more than just a superficial glance. 

If something is not yet experienced first-hand, Atticus’ advice is the next best thing. 

If you want to work with an Assistant who knows first-hand what it entails to be a Business Owner and knows what needs to be considered, please get in touch. 

Anna

anna@akavirtualassistant.com