Your Questions Answered

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If you are running a business of any size or have a busy lifestyle,  you wear many hats at the same time whilst trying to organise, manage and grow your business or creating balance in your personal life. A freelance administrator can help you in every stage of your journey with a flexible approach and support. These could be (and not limited to) the following.

• Current responsibilities: Are you juggling many balls at the same time and  continually worry you may drop a ball if you take your eyes off them? This could be your work, home, family, friends, goals, aspirations, growth, health etc.  What if someone can share some of the responsibilities with you and help you with your goals and aspirations? One less ball to juggle.
• Backlog: Do you have tasks moving up and down your to-do list that are not urgent but are important and need doing? For example scanning and filing documents, re-organising/setting up your filing system? Perhaps you have business cards from the last conference you attended waiting to be added to your contacts for future marketing or collaborations. Your inbox is heaving but you need to record important information and make time to purge and file.
• Future planning: Do you have plans for your business/lifestyle but not getting around to carrying out research? These could be sourcing a new product of supplier, financial planning such as pension options, looking to acquire or merge with another business, sourcing Christmas gifts for clients or staff or planning an event.
• Project support: Are you needing support in managing an ad hoc project? This is when you are needing a little extra support to execute one-off event in addition to you managing your business/busy lifestyle. Examples of this would include managing an event, new client, setting up new process or training staff and managing a meeting including taking minutes,  providing cover during staff absence, keeping your business open to clients in your absence, arranging a surprise for a loved one or perhaps help organise your child's birthday party...the list is endless. 

We recommend you do an analysis of your business, life and goals. Identify why you started your business, list each activity you do - no matter how small, what is the next step in your business/lifestyle and what you need to do to achieve it e.g. open a second branch, find a venue to host an event, planning a surprise, research options etc. 

Label and rate each item by importance, the time you spend doing the task, does it excite or motivate you or do you dread it? Can you delegate the task to someone? This is where you will realise if having a freelance administrator can support you, your business or lifestyle. If anything, this will give a clear insight into how you operate and help you find solutions to work more smarter.

To help you, we have created a generic list of business/personal administration tasks you carry out.  Our list will give you an insight into your administrative function and allow you the opportunity to explore how you can delegate some or all of your administration to an administration professional.   

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

How would you feel if someone can free up some of your time? The value is not always in the financial cost...but in the priceless moments it creates and in the opportunities it brings.

A freelance administrator will add value to your business and/or lifestyle in many ways. Most importantly, by relieving your workload in managing your administrative duties and therefore allowing you to focus on what matters most to you.

You are more in control of how much or how little support you require and when. You have the flexibility to manage the level of support you need based on your business and personal commitments. 

As a business, you have to grow and evolve.  A strong administration function of any business enables everyone to work seamlessly and effectively. Do you employ and administrator or take on a freelance administrator?

Employed

• HR Management & Costs: Contractually bound to your business and you are responsible for payroll, annual leave, sickness absence, business insurance, national insurance contributions, pensions, training costs and all other HR responsibilities.
• Contracted Hours:  You have assigned a number of hours and you pay a monthly salary on a part-time or full-time basis. The employee will work within the time allocation even when their workload is not at 100% capacity. If the employee works more than the allocation, you may need to pay overtime. Are they flexible?
•  Skills: Brings an invaluable skillset to  the role however, the business will incur training costs to manage the evolving role, business needs and for employee development and retention.
• Commitment: They will support your business needs but will they help business growth? Do they have a vested interest in your business? Ultimately, this is a job they are employed to do. Will they have the passion and drive to treat your business goals as their own?

Freelance 

• HR Management: You commit to the number of hours you require and renew these based on business needs. Only extra cost will be expenses incurred by the freelancer which you will be invoiced for. No other HR responsibilities.
• Contracted Hours: As a freelancer, we would provide optimum service for the number of hours contracted. 
• Flexible Working: You only use the number of hours you require and have the flexibility to increase or decrease these in line with changing business needs e.g. more hours will be required to manage month end or fewer hours for quieter periods. More cost-effective option - only pay for what you use.
• Skills: Brings an invaluable skillset with a broader mindset with ever increasing portfolio of clients. This can add value by introducing new ideas and systems to support your goals. If you require a particular skillset, we have the option to collaborate with other freelance professionals to support your needs.
• Commitment: We work as your partner and not an employee. Your continued success is our ambition and your goals form a part of our vision.  
• Networking: We can open up opportunities and collaborations for your business through recommendations using our networks. We believe people sell people.

At Cogs, we offer both remote working and onsite support. We are based within the London Underground network and within the M25 corridor and therefore offer on-site support for those based within commutable distance. How can virtual working be practically managed?

• Virtual or remote working has become much easier - now more than ever before. We offer online video conferencing meetings and opportunities to meet in person based on location. Regular catch up or progress meetings virtually and in-person where possible.
• Sharing files and information is easier with various online options. You may prefer Google Suite, Drop Box, One-Drive or any other file sharing options you prefer. Alternatively, you can allocated shared space on your business servers where we can directly manage the files and documents.
• Allocation of work  can be managed safely and securely using the above channels, however, if physical documents need to be exchanged, collection and drop off can be arranged either in person or via a secure courier service.
• A big element of working as a freelancer is to establish trust and confidence with the client and vice versa. Regular communication and helping the client to offload their responsibilities is an important element of a successful relationship between the client and freelancer.

Cannot find an answer to your query? No problem. Please drop us a message and we will contact you.