Gary Smith Marketing is a virtual / technical team specializing in assisting solo entrepreneurs, small business owners and corporate executives with their growing projects, busy schedules and important recurring tasks. There is a great deal of need for growing schedules of busy people to maintain organization to enhance productivity. The ability for these people to connect to those of us with that specialty is readily available thanks to the virtual world connecting people quicker and more closely.
Why should I hire a small team instead of a single person?
Short answer: enable redundancy.
Many people have told us that they are just looking for one person to help their own team with project organization, reporting, customer service and all the common virtual assistant tasks rather than finding a team. I completely understand this need however, your projects don’t stop, a sole person may have to. People get sick, have appointments, take vacations and have to maintain all the other aspects of every day life, although not always at the most convenient times for you. We dedicate a single person to your project so you can work with them directly and build that important relationship without the interference of a middle man or team supervisor, but, in any event where that person may not be available, someone else can pick up the pieces in the mean time and your work never comes to a stand still.
What does a virtual / technical assistant do?
Short answer: enhance productivity.
The tasks of virtual / technical assistant vary from one client to the next. Maintaining the lines of communication and updates over social media. Managing company blogs and WordPress projects. Organization via email correspondence and calendar management. Returning calls and setting appointments / meetings in addition to travel arrangements and bookings. Some clients require financial tracking assistance and project management. All of these activities and more can be done virtually, some are more common than others and some require a very specialized person with a wide array of skills. This is why our team excels at virtual / technical assistance, we have very technical people mixed into our team of customer service / admin support people. (find out more about the specifics of what we can do)
How does it work, having a virtual team?
Short answer: constant communication.
Every great business person knows that communication is the key to having successful plans come together. For every client we work with, we setup a dedicated email for that client that has 2 stages of access. The person dedicated to your project has primary access, but everyone can review it if its necessary so that too much time does not lapse between something you need and getting in touch with someone that can work on it. We work through Elance, which enables us to use their tracking software to maintain the hours we work on your project. There are a fixed amount of hours in the week setup as billable hours that we work within. This depends on how much help or time you need for your project. All the work we do during that time period can be reviewed in random time segmented screenshots to see exactly what your team member is doing and when. This system gives us the flexibility of assisting you at 10am one day and 2pm the next depending on your specific needs, though we do also dedicate segments of time in the week for clients that have a very tight schedule.