In this episode, we hear from Melissa Gauge, founder of virtual assistance firm SpareMyTime.  Melissa spent 15 years working in the City and, having two children to balance alongside work, soon found herself pulled in different directions with various professional and personal responsibilities. Determined to create a solution for other professionals in a similar position, Melissa founded SpareMyTime. Today, Melissa’s company provides busy entrepreneurs and executives with administration, bookkeeping and social media marketing services. 

Melissa shares her advice on how being a fully flexible service provider pays dividends, how VAs can free up vital time for entrepreneurs to focus on building their start-up and why sheer grit and determination are important factors to keep you going.

If you’d like to contact Melissa you can reach her via [email protected] or @sparemytime 

Melissa’s advice: 

• Know you can only do the best you can do, make this your core belief
• Be strong minded - if something’s not working, take a decision even if it's a hard one
• Always take care to listen - both to your team and your clients
• Build a community around your team; be understanding, fair and don’t jump to conclusions
• Find smart timekeeping software such as Harvest
• Aid faster book-keeping with Xero
• Cash flow is essential; always be aware of what you have, both to run the business and to live on
• Believe the compliments you are given to build your own self-confidence
• When pricing, look at other businesses to start with and keep changing as you grow the business
• Don’t be afraid to charge what you’re worth 
• Be patient and determined; keep going

Head over to Speakpipe to leave your voice note for future guests too.

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
• Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
• Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.
• For contracts check out Law Depot.

Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2022 founder of PR for startups advisory Fallow, Field & Mason. MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link & Licence

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