While this sounds good on paper, realistically, there are some pain points that need to be poked before a business owner finally invests in adding people.

The good news is you don’t need to jump right into hiring employees. Sometimes you may not need or want permanent, on-site employees (I’m looking at you, work-from-home-er’s), and sometimes it makes more financial sense to outsource specific tasks instead of committing to an employee.

Luckily, there’s an entire industry dedicated to filling this gap. Here are five signs that it’s time to hire a virtual assistant.

1. You’re spending more than 50% of your time in the business instead of on it.

We all know the sermon. “You should be spending the bulk of your time on your business instead of in it! Finding clients, marketing, strategic planning, client services, and super-high-value work is where your time is best spent! Get out of the daily grind!”

While that’s great in theory, let’s be honest … it’s sometimes not realistic, especially for small business owners. We all need to dive into the weeds sometimes to solve problems or extinguish fires. Sometimes, we want to get our hands dirty and work in the trenches of our business; for some of us, it’s being able to practice our craft or learn something new, and it reminds us why we went into business in the first place!

But, track your time for a few weeks and, if you find you’re consistently spending more than 50% of your time in the weeds, then it’s time to find someone to delegate something – anything – to. It’s time to hire a virtual assistant.

2. You’re bumping your head against the ceiling of capacity.

This is especially true for billable-hour business models. There are so many hours in a day, which means you can only work with so many clients. It doesn’t matter if you max out at 10 clients or 100 … there’s still a maximum you can work with.

So, it’s time to figure out what you can offload to a support staff so you can increase capacity. Client onboarding steps? Regular reporting? Calendar support? Operational processes? Marketing lifecycle tasks? Hiring a virtual assistant can help you manage these support tasks.

3. You have (or know you need!) processes, procedures, and checklists for routine operations.

Everyone knows the backbone of any business includes repeatable processes, standard procedures, and operational checklists. But, developing them may not be your strength. Or, if you have them, you find you’re running all these processes and checklists yourself … and you don’t have to.

The point of processes, procedures and checklists is to make life more efficient. But, they’re also designed to be repeatable and – listen carefully – delegateable.

4. You need a specific skill set to “next level” your services.

At the beginning, most of us did all the things ourselves – from providing services to updating our Websites to bookkeeping to creating our marketing materials. It’s bootstrapping at its best, and is practically a right of passage for most small business owners.

But, you’ll get to a point where you need to “next level” things in order to continue growing and honing your brand, your operations, and your services. While the work you did at the beginning was sufficient, it’s time to bring in an expert. If you hire a virtual assistant (or an entire virtual assistant firm), they typically bring a wide skillset to the table — from expert graphics to financial reporting to copyediting to project management to business process development.

5. You want to make more money or, worse, you’re losing money.

This is a culmination of all the previous signs. At some point, you’re going to start losing money by not delegating or doing it all yourself. The math doesn’t lie; you get to a point where you can’t afford not to grow your team. If your time is worth $100/hour, it doesn’t make sense to spend too much time on $50/hour work; in general, that $50/work is stuff that needs to get done, but is also stuff you’ll never get paid for.

Growing your team is a big deal. It requires reaching some pain points that you can’t tolerate anymore, a little bit courage, and finding the right fit for your needs. But, thanks to an industry that’s dedicated to helping clients fill this gap and allowing them to scale, virtual support services and virtual assistants can be the perfect next step in growing your business.

The post 5 Signs It’s Time to Hire a Virtual Assistant appeared first on Rescue Desk.

We found a fun little tidbit that marked December 11 as National App Day. It’s fitting recognition since, over the past decade, apps have become as vital as the phones they ride in on. So we thought we’d do a little digging and ask around to some of our own team and a few of our clients about apps for all occasions, and which apps are deemed can’t-live-without.

Besides the obvious ones (I’m looking at you, all Social Media apps), here are a few popular apps that popped up in our (very) unscientific poll.

Popular Apps

Evernote – Evernote is handy for not only note-keeping, but for organizing both thoughts and documents. It’s like an organizer for your organizer. The keyword function is especially handy if you tend to be a saver of All The Things.

IFTTT – Stands for “If This, Then That” and is helpful for setting up dependencies and automations across your business processes. For example, “If I schedule an appointment on my Google Calendar, then send me text message an hour before.”

Microsoft OneNote – As part of the Microsoft Suite a products, OneNote is definitely advantageous if you rely a lot on Microsoft tools, since it allows for easy syncing across the products.

ToDoIst – This is one of the more popular and robust to-do list trackers and project management tools, especially when things need to be done by a certain time, by a certain person, and in a certain way. A great app for those Type A folks among us.

Basecamp – This probably has the most longevity in the world of collaborative apps and tools. We’ve used it a handful of times, and it’s pretty intuitive. It’s made collaborating pretty streamlined.

Stickk – If you need some accountability to improve your habits, this app could be useful. It’s also a great way to track progress and eventually see the payoff of your hard work.

MyFitnessPal – There’s no shortage of health/nutrition/diet apps out there, but this one seems to offer the basic “common denominator” that all of them have – most notably a way to log and track what you eat and how often you move.

YNAB – Short for “You Need A Budget,” this one pops up on general “life hack” app lists a lot. By helping you create – and stick to – a zero-based budget, it could potentially help you both save money AND make money.

Mint – Along the same lines as YNAB, Mint is a popular money management tool that helps you track where your cash is going. It takes it a step further by allowing you to track not only your bank balance, but also investments and your savings goals … like for that vacation you’re craving.

Headspace – Everyone knows meditation and mindfulness are proven to be awesome. Headspace is a hugely popular app that provides guided meditations and other tools to help you show your brain some love.

Grammarly – This one is awesome for the creatives and word nerds in the group. Copy and paste content, and it will highlight any mistakes AND give you suggestions for different or better words to use.

Waze – If you don’t want to be late, use Waze, a GPS app that gives you the lowdown on shortest routes and traffic jams.

Expensify – Tracking expenses can be a tedious chore, but this app can help streamline it a little by allowing you to connect the app to your credit cards and upload receipt pictures.

RescueTime – This app shows up on quite a few “best of” lists, probably because its main focus is to show you exactly how and where you spend your day. While it can be a wake-up call, simply knowing what’s eating away the minutes can help you make better decisions about how to prioritize your day.

LastPass – Personally, this is one I use All. The. Time. Given how many passwords we use not only for ourselves, but also need for our clients, this is an amazing tool to keep all those credentials in one, easy-to-navigate, SAFE spot.

These are just a few that might help make life just a little easier (if you aren’t using them already). So, in honor of #NationalAppDay, take a second to appreciate how technology has played a role in improving our productivity, our health, and our lives … even just a tiny bit.

The post Apps for All Occasions appeared first on Rescue Desk.

When I was introduced to the Danish concept of Hygge (pronounced hue-gah) a few years ago, I embraced it immediately. Not only did it speak to my natural need for quiet downtime and my constant quest for all-things-comfy, but my own Danish heritage practically demanded I jump on board.

So I did. Happily.

If you aren’t familiar, Hygge is a Danish concept that embraces coziness, self-care and well-being, with permission to indulge in life’s small-but-wonderful things. It’s helped the Danes become some of the happiest people on earth, and it’s often credited with helping folks not only survive a long, cold winter, but embrace it. It’s about mindset and intentionality, and doing things specifically to bring attention to an enjoyable moment.

So, with the shorter, darker days of winter upon us, and with so many of us working from home, I was thinking about how to introduce a little Hygge into a home office.

1. Light up a room. Sorta.

Lighting is important in the Hygge experience. Open the blinds and let the sun shine in. Ditch the harsh overhead bulbs and instead use lamps with softer lighting. Light a few candles in the corner to provide a soft glow as the afternoon gets a little darker.

Use light as a means to subtly quiet your mind and slow your thinking down, just a bit. This helps relieve a little stress, and can help you relax into the last few hours of the workday.

2. Dress for the (non) occasion.

This is one of my super favorite things about Hygge – it’s about comfort. While our usual “get ready for work” routines have probably slacked quite a bit lately (I’m looking at you, nice-shirt-hanging-in-the-corner-for-Zoom-calls…), go ahead and embrace it.

Hell, kick it up a notch now that it’s getting cold — dig out your wool socks and favorite slippers, put a lap blanket on your chair, and pull out fuzzy sweaters and oversized sweatshirts. Settle into your home office in all your cozy, pajama-pants glory.

3. Honor your senses.

Hygge is about finding ways to notice, enjoy, and embrace the moment; sight, sound, taste and smell are an important part of the “in the moment” experience.

Put something you enjoy from your travels on your desk, or add a plant to bring some life to the space. Make sure only your favorite pens are at the ready. Instead of your usual (boring) cup of coffee, add a cinnamon stick or a touch of chocolate to make it a smidge more indulgent. They say classical music helps with focus and productivity, so try out a new streaming station of background music. Fire up an essential oil diffuser to make deep breaths more cleansing.

Whatever makes your senses happy, do that.

4. One thing at a time.

This is a tough one, and not always possible (#businessowner). But, when you can, choose to slow down in your work. Work with intention. Stop multi-tasking and do only one thing at a time. If you’re embracing a Hygge moment on a Saturday afternoon, you’re not reading a book, watching a movie, chatting with a friend, and baking cookies … all at the same time. You’re doing only one of those things, and enjoying that one thing fully and completely.

Set aside a little time each week to work on one thing – just one thing — you truly enjoy, but do it at your own pace with no expectation other than you simply like doing it. Your only intention is to slow down and focus your time on something that brings you joy in your work.

Perhaps it’s writing a blog post. Or brainstorming Big Ideas in a journal. Or decluttering a desk drawer. Or catching up on your reading. Or handwriting cards to clients.

5. Get outside.

I once heard a Scandinavian saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing.” So, make it a point to get off your pajama-pants tush, bundle up, and get some fresh air. Take a walk around the block (bonus points if a friend joins you). Everyone and their brother bought fire pits this year, so dust the snow off it and light er’ up at the end of a busy workday.

Just get outside. You can hate winter, but winter is still coming no matter how you feel about it. You may as well embrace it, if for no other reason than out of spite.

It’s been a (really!) tough year for a lot of us. Introducing a little Hygge into your home office probably won’t solve all the world’s problems, but it will help you find moments of peace and enjoyment. It’s the little things that will remind you to come back to gratitude. And it just might make this work-from-home COVID winter a bit more palatable.

The post 5 Ways to Add Hygge To A Home Office appeared first on Rescue Desk.

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The business use of websites is widespread. But surprisingly, the IRS hasn’t yet issued formal guidance on when Internet website costs can be deducted.

Fortunately, established rules that generally apply to the deductibility of business costs, and IRS guidance that applies to software costs, provide business taxpayers launching a website with some guidance as to the proper treatment of the costs.

Hardware or software?

Let’s start with the hardware you may need to operate a website. The costs involved fall under the standard rules for depreciable equipment. Specifically, once these assets are up and running, you can deduct 100% of the cost in the first year they’re placed in service (before 2023). This favorable treatment is allowed under the 100% first-year bonus depreciation break.

In later years, you can probably deduct 100% of these costs in the year the assets are placed in service under the Section 179 first-year depreciation deduction privilege. However, Sec. 179 deductions are subject to several limitations.

For tax years beginning in 2020, the maximum Sec. 179 deduction is $1.04 million, subject to a phaseout rule. Under the rule, the deduction is phased out if more than a specified amount of qualified property is placed in service during the year. The threshold amount for 2020 is $2.59 million.

There’s also a taxable income limit. Under it, your Sec. 179 deduction can’t exceed your business taxable income. In other words, Sec. 179 deductions can’t create or increase an overall tax loss. However, any Sec. 179 deduction amount that you can’t immediately deduct is carried forward and can be deducted in later years (to the extent permitted by the applicable limits).

Similar rules apply to purchased off-the-shelf software. However, software license fees are treated differently from purchased software costs for tax purposes. Payments for leased or licensed software used for your website are currently deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses.

Was the software developed internally?

An alternative position is that your software development costs represent currently deductible research and development costs under the tax code. To qualify for this treatment, the costs must be paid or incurred by December 31, 2022.

A more conservative approach would be to capitalize the costs of internally developed software. Then you would depreciate them over 36 months.

If your website is primarily for advertising, you can also currently deduct internal website software development costs as ordinary and necessary business expenses.

Are you paying a third party?

Some companies hire third parties to set up and run their websites. In general, payments to third parties are currently deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses.

What about before business begins?

Start-up expenses can include website development costs. Up to $5,000 of otherwise deductible expenses that are incurred before your business commences can generally be deducted in the year business commences. However, if your start-up expenses exceed $50,000, the $5,000 current deduction limit starts to be chipped away. Above this amount, you must capitalize some, or all, of your start-up expenses and amortize them over 60 months, starting with the month that business commences.

Need Help?

An experienced accountant can determine the appropriate treatment of website costs for federal income tax purposes. Rely on an expert to help you navigate the proper deductions and expenses at tax time.

The post Business Website Costs: How to Handle Them for Tax Purposes appeared first on Rescue Desk.

Although, maybe we should look at the weirdest requests we’ve ever had…

It’s a good thing our team is awesome and knows how to do a lot of stuff!

If you’re curious about what else we can do (or how we manage all of these things!), take a look at our services page or drop us a line!

The post Top 12 Requests Our Clients Make [Infographic] appeared first on Rescue Desk.

I talk about the value of time quite a bit with colleagues, friends, and clients. Especially when we’re talking about how to grow your team. We talk about what’s eating away the hours, the benefits of outsourcing and delegating part of our to-do lists, how it works to have a “virtual” team, who makes a good client and who doesn’t, and the goals we are all trying to achieve.

Then we talk numbers.

I have this handy little chart I’ve used for years with potential clients. It’s admittedly very elementary, but it’s still effective at showing where you’re leaving money on the table by not getting the support you need. This is especially easy to determine if we’re working with coaches, consultants, speakers, professional services, and other billable-hour business models.

The cost to not grow your team.

Let’s say your billable time is worth $100 an hour (which I’m only using to keep the math simple … I can practically guarantee your billable time is worth a lot more) and you spend 4 hours a week on non-revenue-generating tasks. You’re basically giving up potentially $400 a week in billable hours… or $20,800 a year!

$100/hour
x 4 hours/week
$400 per week

Otherwise looked at like:

$400 per week
x 52 weeks/year
$20,800/year

You’ll never bill for those hours because, unfortunately, nobody will ever pay you for those tasks.

How much a team can support your business.

Now…

Say you outsourced some of those tasks to a service provider who specializes in business support – a bookkeeper, a virtual executive assistant, a copywriter, a Website expert, a virtual receptionist, or whatever support you need. You pay that specialist $50 an hour to tackle those 4 hours of non-revenue-generating tasks every week (or roughly 16 hours every month).

At the end of the month, they will send you an invoice for $800.

$50/hour fee
X 4 hours/week
X 4 weeks/month
$800/month

If your time is worth $100 an hour, and you just gained back potentially 16 hours of billable time in a month, you’ve just earned a minimum of $800 in potential revenue after paying for some much-needed support.

$1600 in potential revenue
– $800 fee for services
$800 in potential revenue

That $800 per month … or almost $10,000 a year …. will remain out of reach until you have support because you’ll continue doing it yourself. Nobody will ever pay you for that time or those tasks.

As I mentioned, I used these numbers to keep the math easy.

Do the math using what your billable time is really worth. $150/hour? $200/hour? $400/hour?

If your typical billable hour is $150/hour, for example, and you hire an expert for the same $50 an hour to do those 4 hours worth of work, you potentially opened up more than $20,000 in annual revenue.

Now consider the work you do that’s arguably worth even MORE than your typical billable hour … strategic planning, business development, product or service innovation, etc.

The bottom line is the cost of your support team remains the same, but your potential revenue increases significantly.

Where business owners need to spend time

Business owners need to spend their time growing their business, generating revenue, strategizing, innovating, and exceeding customers’ expectations. They don’t need to spend time managing marketing touch points, or updating their Websites, or researching vendors, or maintaining their social media, or reconciling their books, or answering their phones, or any number of other process-driven, systems-based tasks.

Invest in growing your team and stop bumping your head against the ceiling of capacity.

Related:

• Quiz: Do You Need Support Staff?
• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): A Brave New World
• How To Have More Time Off This Summer
• What does it mean to work with a Virtual Assistant?
• How to buy yourself time when you need to hire the RIGHT person

The post The math doesn’t lie. You can’t afford NOT to grow your team. appeared first on Rescue Desk.

Is it?

I’ve had lots of creative projects and business-building ideas not make it out of the drawer and past my perfectionism filter because I couldn’t “get it quite right.”

Does it hold us back a bit, if I don’t get a specific marketing piece or creative campaign out the door until it’s “just right”?

Probably.

Do I worry about it?

Not really.

I’ve always believed that you have one chance to make a good first impression. When it comes to business you are always making a bunch of first impressions … especially when it comes to marketing and sales.

That email campaign or blog post or direct mail piece or social media graphic or Webinar might be the first time several people are exposed to your organization.

There’s nothing wrong with working to get these things as close to your idea of perfect as possible.

Controlling the narrative around our business is marketing 101. We get the benefit of deciding how we’re showcasing our personality and explaining the value of our services, and what it means to be welcomed into our firm’s family. It’s also a chance to do a little showing off – our humor, our standards of excellence, our expertise, our professionalism, our experience, our creativity and all the other things that someone would expect from a high-level virtual assistant firm that provides services like ours.

The hard part of adhering to a certain expectation of excellence and perfectionism is that it often doesn’t fit nicely into a formula or checklist. It requires thoughtfulness, nuance, and a bit of forward-thinking. You need to flush out how things will be perceived by those who see it. You need perspective so your message is clear and is easily understood in literally seconds.

It can take a huge amount of work to make something appear effortless.

And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. If it takes longer and more work than some think it should to get it right, then so be it.

After all … one chance to make a first impression.

Nothing irritates me more than when I see a good business ignore the details just to “get something out the door.”

A link doesn’t work in an email campaign. Social media posts have errors. A graphic doesn’t properly fit the space. A new service was announced, but the logistics about how to best provide that service weren’t completely hashed out. An event was planned, but not enough thought was given to lead time or the agenda or presenter practice time. A call to action wasn’t clear.

All of these things add up. Quickly.

It’s like having a clean house. Nobody notices when it’s tidy and clean and welcoming – they just know they feel comfortable and aren’t distracted. But if it’s cluttered and disorganized and smells a little funny, it gets noticed.

Are we going to get it perfect every time? Of course not! We’re human, so it would be super weird if we didn’t occasionally mess up. We’re also hard-wired as business owners to take risks and, sometimes, they just don’t quite work out. And that’s fine.

I’m also not suggesting you use perfectionism as an excuse to not move forward. In fact, for those of us who believe in getting it “just right,” we have to be a little careful about not letting perfectionism impede progress.

But, a little awareness goes a long way. When you’ve been in business long enough, you instinctually know when you’re holding off on pushing something out because you’re a little nervous (not because it’s not awesome).

I don’t think striving for perfection is something to be ashamed of.

Sometimes waiting until you get to what you think is 100% before you get it out the door is the best thing you can do for your business.

The post The Case for Perfectionism appeared first on Rescue Desk.

We’re anxious about figuring out ways to appropriately respond instead of impulsively react; yet, right now, it’s exceptionally difficult to tell the difference between the two.

We’re being asked to build a new car while it’s driving down the road.

Many of us are also dealing with some pretty hefty emotions and unavoidable distractions — we’re worried about friends and family, we’re struggling with the isolation, some are quarantined at home with active kiddos, and none of us can avoid the wild uncertainty of the economy.

As a result, decision fatigue and mental exhaustion are very real. We’re used to taking risks and making quick decisions and navigating uncertainty as business owners, but when the world exploded, none of us was mentally or emotionally prepared. There’s no way we could’ve been.

So, what do we do when we have days when there simply isn’t any gas left in the tank? When our positivity meter is in the red, we can’t stomach one more Zoom call, and we want nothing more than to succumb to the call of the bed covers?

I’ll tell you what you can do.

Designate an Anti-Stress Business Day.

You take a day (or two!) to refuel. You work on stuff that’s productive, but low stress. You focus on things that are interesting, yet maybe without any intention of actioning it right now. You work on something for no other reason than it sounds kind of fun. You focus on something that takes very little thought, but may pay off down the road.

Take time to focus on the long game, instead of the (ultra!) short game we’re playing right now.

Pretend the world isn’t in a total tailspin and, instead, pretend you’re on a very short sabbatical and have the freedom to focus on anything you choose.

To get the juices flowing, here are 10 ideas from my own notebook of “Anti-Stress Business Day Project Ideas.”

1. CLEAN SOMETHING
When was the last time you cleaned up your contact list? Or your digital files? Or your desktop? It’s like cleaning out a closet … it can be very cathartic. It doesn’t take a ton of brain power, and it always feels good when it’s done. And you know your life will run a tiny bit smoother because of it.

2. SEND HELPFUL STUFF TO PEOPLE
Pay it forward and remind people how important they are to you. Spend a day focused on everyone important to you, and scour news and resource sites on their behalf for relevant info that would be useful to them. Or order and ship a little gift from a local retailer (who could also use a little help!).

3. REVIEW AND UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE
Look at every page on your Website, and update outdated information. Or get that blog updated with new content!

4. LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Bury yourself in learning something new. Learn how to record videos, or more about SEO, or how to use webinar tools, or binge watch TED talks… The list is endless!

5. CREATE A DEFAULT CALENDAR
Blow up your calendar and create a new, more efficient, more impactful way to track and spend your time. Now, while things might be a little quieter, is a great time to redraw a few boundaries on your time. Create blocks to work on your highest value work, make it a habit, and it’ll be that much easier to maintain it once we get through this mess.

6. DEVELOP A RESOURCE GUIDE OR WHITE PAPER
You know a TON of stuff. Create white papers or guides to tell the world! If well designed, this is also a fantastic sales and marketing tool to showcase your expertise, when the flood gates open and you’re back to prospecting again.

7. DO A DAY-LONG CONNECT-A-THON
Line up all your favorite business friends and have catch-up sessions. No agenda, other than to simply connect, check in, and ask about their families.

8. EMAIL MARKETING
Developing and executing a consistent email marketing plan takes time and effort to pull together. Work on a strategy to launch an email campaign this summer – brain dump content ideas, write draft articles, create graphics, perhaps an ideal a distribution calendar, develop/clean your list, or set up (or update) your email management tool.

9. SOCIAL MEDIA
Perhaps social media has been on the periphery of your marketing strategy until now, but you want it to play a bigger role. Research best practices in social marketing, think about a content calendar around relevant topics, and perhaps start developing initial content to reach your followers. Include things like tips, links to resources, videos, relevant news, infographics, questions, testimonials, etc.

10. TESTIMONIALS AND CASE STUDIES
This a good time to connect with your clients and explain you’re working on some future marketing materials. Assuming they’re happy customers, they should be glad to provide a testimonial (and they’ll probably be happy to help another business owner). You can add testimonials to your Website and/or add them to your digital channels. Or work with a client on a case study project that showcases how they benefited from your services.

These are just a few Anti-Stress Business Day ideas to help you continue to be productive, but might (temporarily) calm a little bit of the anxiety. After getting a few things done that are within your control, you’ll be ready to get back into the fight of rapid-fire decision making and determining your next moves forward.

The post 10 Ideas for an Anti-Stress Business Day appeared first on Rescue Desk.

If you’re one of those folks who’s struggling to find reasons why working remotely isn’t so bad, let me help.

There are obvious advantages of remote working – wearing pajamas all day, having your pets close by, saving money on gas and lunches, the two-second commute, a thermostat you control, and an environment that may or may not include music blaring in the background.

I’ve been working remotely off and on for years. While we have a dedicated office, I still work from home fairly regularly. I’ve discovered quite a few, somewhat unexpected, perks that come with working remotely. But only if you take advantage of them.

1. You can re-imagine how you use the space in your home.

How many people have a formal dining room that’s never used? Do you have some “dead space” in the corner of a living room? Maybe a guest bedroom that rarely hosts guests? Or a hall closet that only holds junk you don’t really need? Now is the perfect time to fire up Pinterest and get creative, and be completely honest about how each area in your home needs to truly serve you. Ask yourself how to be more intentional with your spaces. Have fun turning spaces into something that will be a lot more in-tune with how you really live your life.

It’s surprisingly liberating to give up what conventional wisdom says a space “should” be (I’m looking at you, formal dining room) and instead use it for something that actually WORKS for you (a library/office/den that’s enjoyed for years to come).

Most of us go through our mornings on autopilot. But, when you wake up and have nowhere to go except down the hall to your computer, your morning routine is thrown completely out of whack. You notice things like what time you wake up, or how much time you have with a cup of coffee and the news, or that you can walk an extra block with the dog and still start work on time.

2. It forces you to notice – and upgrade – your routines.

As a result, it’s the perfect time to incorporate some new, healthy habits into your day; habits that would’ve been so much harder to start when you weren’t forced to notice your usual routines.

3. Your time can do double-duty.

When you’re working from home, the obvious expectation is that you … well … work. But, because you’re at home, there’s no reason you can’t have your work hours pull double-duty. There are tons of things you can do “in the background” that shouldn’t impact your productivity or availability. Throw in a load of laundry, schedule that visit from the cable guy, pop something in the oven, or do a few dishes on your lunch break.

Not only does this mean you’re using your time more efficiently, it opens up the time that would normally be spent on boring chores to do way cooler stuff.

4. You can work at your own circadian rhythm.

Assuming you don’t have a micromanager breathing down your virtual neck, insisting that you be visible online from 8am – 5pm, this may be the biggest perk of all for some people. It allows you to do your best work when you know your brain is most focused – whether that be 4am or 10pm.

Not being “boxed in” and forced to be productive when you know you struggle with concentration can be a huge bonus not only for you, but for your organization. Imagine how much more creative and efficient you’ll be if you can work at a time when you know your brain is wired for peak performance?

5. Strengthens your discipline.

Anyone who works at home regularly will tell you one of the most difficult things at first is to stay – and remain – motivated. It requires self-discipline, focus, and a lot of self-awareness to recognize when your attention is waning. It also means you need to learn how to dig deep to “play through” the distractions and get back to work.

Self-discipline, self-awareness, and finding focus (even when you don’t feel like it) are all skills that can be learned and are worth knowing how to do. They’ll serve you exceptionally well in all areas of your life.

6. You’ll get stuff done faster.

For people who don’t have little kids at home (or kids who are otherwise occupied), there are way fewer distractions if you work remotely. You can reach peak productivity quicker than you normally would, which means you’ll probably reach the exact same results, but faster. After all, the value isn’t necessarily isn’t how long it takes you to do something; the value is achieving the desired outcome.

Who doesn’t love beating a deadline AND having extra playtime at the end of the day? It also could free up time to take on more responsibility, or take that online professional development class, or work on a passion project.

Working remotely definitely isn’t for everyone. For some people, it’s a Godsend that sparks creativity, productivity and innovation. But, if you’re struggling with it, try to acknowledge and take advantage some of the perks that come with it. Even though it may only be temporary, you could also find yourself discovering new – and better – ways to live.

The post 6 Unexpected Perks of Working Remotely appeared first on Rescue Desk.

Since launching in early 2008, we’ve been ducking and weaving our way forward through growth spurts, setbacks, huge wins, challenging times, and everything in between. I’m proud to say that, as a result, we have become a small-but-mighty virtual assistant firm that’s lead by our amazing team and fueled by our even more amazing clientele.

Recently, as part of a year-long series for a local business publication, I was profiled as part of a “Where Are They Now” feature of business owners, executives, and local leaders. They mostly asked what I’ve been up to the past several years, but one of the questions was: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently?

No.

Well … maybe.

Yes.

Had I known then what I know now about all the insane stuff that happens when you start a business and run your own show, I’m pretty sure it would’ve terrified (the old) me enough to never take the leap in the first place.

I can say, almost without hesitation, that if my extremely introverted, short-attention-span, soul-of-an-artist, not-always-super-confident, perfectionist self would’ve known what I was getting into, I would’ve given the whole thing a resounding, “That’ll be a hard pass, thanks.”

In celebration of our 12 years in business, here are 12 solid reasons my current self would’ve given my past self not to ever start a business. Ever.

1. You’ll hang out with the weirdest people.

Business owners are an insatiably weird bunch. They’re scrappy, stressed out, innovative, funny, and can’t help but color outside the lines. They don’t look at the world the same way as everyone else and, as a result, you’ll find your mind uncomfortably stretched and your understanding of the world broadened more than you ever expected.

2. You’ll be shoved outside your comfort zone so many times, you’ll have a permanent bruise.

You’ll be pushed, pulled, poked, and shoved into doing things you never thought you’d be able to do. But you’ll do it because you have to. And when you come out the other side, your views of yourself will evolve and shift and grow in unexpected ways.

3. You’ll lug around a giant toolbox of problem-solving skills, and you’ll never be able to get rid of it.

This toolbox is heavy. SO heavy. And it only gets heavier. You’ll be armed to the teeth with ways to solve All The Problems. The longer you run a business, the more experiences, people, resources, and junk you’ll collect and carry around. You’ll be like a trouble-busting pack mule.

4. You think you’re stressed now? Just wait…

You know how you were super stressed that one time you had that interview for the job you really wanted, and had to convince them to hire you?

Bahahahahahahaha!

#SalesSkills

5. The battles you pick will be bigger and more meaningful.

Remember when you had that super-duper-horrible manager who was exceptionally mean? And it was a big deal and you took it personally and you cried a lot and thought you were going to die? Turns out, crap like that won’t matter to you anymore. Your skin will get a little bit thicker, and you won’t really care what anyone thinks about you and the path you’re paving, You will defend your truth with everything you’ve got.

6. Don’t even get me started on leaning in and pushing back.

As a woman-owned business… in professional services… that provides administrative support… you will run into the occasional old white dude who won’t take you or your business seriously. You’ll quickly learn to put on your big girl pants and send the message that disrespect isn’t an option. And you’ll smile when you explain that if they want to engage your services, your firm’s rates just doubled.

7. You’ll learn leadership, whether you like it or not.

You’ll slowly – and very ungracefully – learn how to take the lead until you’re eventually tasked with making Big Decisions for the Greater Good. This will happen before you’re ready for it, but you’ll have no choice but to build your expert team and lead them to victory in all the battles of small business.

8. You have the freedom to decide All. The. Things.

Where you work, who you work with, when you work, what you do, how you do it, why you do what you do… all of these things are entirely up to you. It’s the curse of being Boss Lady. You – and only you — are responsible for you.

9. You’ll find security in the strangest places.

Long gone will the days of a steady paycheck and predictable schedule. Instead, you’ll learn to find security in your own abilities, your own processes, and your own style. You’ll be forced to remind yourself time and time again that you can only control what you can control, and you’ll learn to have faith simply trusting the process.

10. Kiss that fixed mindset goodbye.

A lifetime ago, someone once told you that intelligence, grit, and perseverance is something you’re born with. You either have it or you don’t. Well, kiddo, you can kiss that limiting belief goodbye. These are all things that you’ll learn very quickly can be developed, practiced, built upon, and grown.

11. You’ll curse a lot more.

This will mostly involve you looking in the mirror a lot and saying “Ok, f*ck it. Let’s do this.”

12. You’ll have so many transferable skills that you’ll even surprise yourself.

Learning how to build a business from nothing requires an insane amount of constant learning. Turns out, this knowledge and these skills are easily transferable to pretty much every area of life. You’ll be able to plan an entire wedding in a few phone calls, one meeting, and three follow up emails.

So, there you have it. A dozen very solid and very sound reasons not to start a business. If you choose to ignore these clear warnings, do so at your own risk.

And have a TON of fun doing so.

The post 12 Reasons NOT to Start a Business appeared first on Rescue Desk.