The Most Common Problems Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs Face

Welcome to GinAdmin!

Your host, Gina Koran

Welcome to the very first Blog Post from GinAdmin! My name is Gina Koran ~ and I’ll be your host. For those who don’t know me, or maybe don’t know my background, I’ve been in some type of administrative role for, well…let’s just say a while.

I left the corporate world to be my husband’s office manager, and since then his business has become nearly 100% digital, so basically my role is to check his messages and a couple to-do’s every morning…and that’s it.

A couple years ago, I was helping my best friend (who is so completely NOT tech-savvy) build her online presence. I was having such an absolute ball coming up with ideas and getting her digital footprint out there, that my husband suggested to me that maybe there were others out there who could use the same help.  

And here I am…with my own Virtual Assistant business – and absolutely LOVING the Freelance world.

Now those of you who know me know that while I AM an introvert, I do enjoy trying new things. However, writing a blog was NEVER on my bucket list, but it’s the first step I am taking outside of my comfort zone.

I hope that I can bring you some great ideas, tips, juicy tidbits of information~after all, my tagline IS “My job is to make yours easier”.

So sit back, grab your cup of tea or coffee and enjoy. And if you have something you’d like me to share in a future post, feel free to contact me!

Ok, here we go…

When I was researching what to write about for my first post, I came across this headline from StatusBrew:`

The article was written in 2017, but I can promise you through my own research that these problems are the same today as they were the day it was written! If you are interested in reading the entire article, you can find it here: https://statusbrew.com/insights/small-business-problems/

6 Small Business Problems Faced By Entrepreneurs

According to StatusBrew, these are the 6 areas where small businesses and entrepreneurs find they need the most help:

  • Lack Of Proper Marketing.
  • Getting And Retaining Customers.
  • Money Management.
  • Maintaining Online Presence.
  • Time Management.
  • Social Media Management Tools.

Now, I’m going to tell you that Money Management…not my area of expertise. I’m fortunate that I’m married to one who takes money management seriously and IS the expert.

However, marketing, getting customers, maintaining your online presence… those I CAN help you with… and along with that, I can help with the time management aspect. How? By freeing up your time taking care of your online presence for you!

And yes, you absolutely CAN do it all yourself, unless you’re my best friend who asked me to explain this “social media thing” to her. (sigh)

But let me ask you this. As a business owner, is it the best use of your time to sit down day after day and come up with content to post?

To decide WHICH platforms you should be posting on?

What days and times are best to post?

AND make images to go along with each post? Because images are king on social media.

What size do those images need to be?

Do you know what your time is worth?

Do me a favor – sit down and figure out how much per hour you charge for making widgets (whatever it is you do for your customers). I have a client that knows to the penny how much she gets paid per widget, per client. And when she looked at some of her administrative tasks, she was like… yeah, I can outsource that. Because she understands that her time is better spent making widgets, not sitting at her desk creating social media posts and all those things the she now leaves to me.

As a business owner, you understand that time is money. So the question is: Where are you spending your time?

Check out the information I read in “US finds exponential growth in freelancers, with no signs of stopping” from Digital Information World:

Upwork recently published its data on how the freelancing market is moving forward. The report shows that about 59 million Americans in the past 12 months provided their services as a freelancer. That represents around 1/3rd of the entire workforce of America.

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/12/us-finds-exponential-growth-in.html

What this tells us is that Business Owners KNOW that they’re having to do more with less. Has this been going on for years? Yes. However, business owners and entrepreneurs have become EVEN MORE aware of since the pandemic has increasingly pulled people out of the workforce, forcing those entrepreneurs to find other ways to get the job done.

Now, I don’t claim to have all the answers. But what I can tell you is what my clients tell me. And that is that outsourcing to freelancers has become the way to go for many of them. In addition to the time savings, look at the financial savings:

  • No employee-related paperwork, insurance, taxes, retirement. Freelancer pay these for themselves.
  • No office space or supply/equipment expenses. Freelancers already have their own.
  • No paying an 8-hour wage. You get the support when and as you need it.

Go back to my favor (remember you were going to figure out how much you make selling your widgets…)

Now I want you to figure out how much time you’re spending on those pesky administrative tasks…and how many more widgets you could make and sell if you had a Freelancer doing those things for you.

I promise you will find that the old adage “You have to spend money to make money” will make a LOT more sense to you!

Phew…that wasn’t so bad!

Phew! That wasn’t so bad – at least on my end. What do YOU think? Drop me a message and let me know. And if you have ideas of other things you’d like to learn more about, let me know that, too!

And if you’d like to know what GinAdmin can do to make your life easier, hit me up and let’s talk! Head back to the homepage and send me a message! http://www.ginadmin.com/#contact