IT

Reaching your goals with a project manager

Imagine that you are in the middle of planning your biggest fundraising event. There are half-implemented ideas, lists of to-dos, and you’re missing key deadlines to kick off your event. Invitations, receipts, and sticky notes litter your office space. This is where a project manager comes into play.

A project is a set of tasks that must be completed to arrive at a unique goal or outcome. Depending on the size and scope of the project, these tasks may be simple or elaborate, but all projects can be broken down into objectives and what needs to be done to achieve them.

A project manager is the point person for all the project’s major goals by implementing important plans and managing teams. They follow a project from ideation to completion. At Richardson Professional Solutions, we help you make more time in your business by providing back-office solutions. One of the many services we provide is Project Management.

Here at RPS, we have a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) on staff and can help with any stage of a project, from brainstorming to budget/invoicing and risk management to day-to-day coordination for go-lives or events. We can help with as little or much as you need to help you be successful.

No two clients are the same, and neither are your projects. As a project manager, we are here to fill you in on three simple steps to help you keep your project on track.

1) To keep from losing touch with your project, schedule a set time to work on any open items or check in with your project manager. Put this time on your calendar, so that it’s in writing and so that you’ll get alerts. This scheduled time is particularly useful for answering unanswered emails, completing actionable items, and planning for the next project meeting or presentation.

2) Evaluate your project from multiple perspectives. It is extremely beneficial to run all the potential ways delays could happen in the project. Finding out this information early can allow you to begin working on getting what you need well in advance and have potential solutions mapped out.

3) Keep the group that is directly involved small. A project will only be as successful as the people working on it. Each person on a team should be picked for the skills and personality they bring to the project. Not everyone will be a great fit for every project, and your best team may not even include all your “best” people.

There are dozens of project management tips, and they all have different benefits and limitations that make them good for some environments and bad for others. Do you have a project in mind but don’t know where to start? Reach out to us, we can help point you in the right direction.

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Benefits of Outsourcing

Since Richardson Professional Solutions was born three years ago through my desire to be at home with my new son as much as possible, helping others make time for the things that matter most to them is extremely important to us at RPS. Essentially, it is why we do what we do.
 
Today I wanted to share three reasons outsourcing could benefit your organization.
 
1.     First, it can save you time by allowing you to get more done on the important work that needs your attention. Outsourcing those draining, repetitive tasks that distract you from your main role and goal can help you make up some time in your day.
2.     Second, it can save you money on not only traditional overhead items like office furniture and computers, but also the intangibles like benefits, wages, and the associated payroll taxes. Working with a vendor rather than an employee you also avoid things like paid time off, performance reviews, and raises. Although vendors may charge you a higher rate compared to a traditional employee, you tend to save money in the long run by avoiding the other items mentioned before that increase the true cost of an employee. So, make sure to keep an open mind when discussing pricing.
3.     Lastly, it can make your organization more money by improving your customer service, and productivity, and allowing your organization to thrive. For example- By giving up those mundane tasks mentioned earlier, you now have more time to focus where it’s needed, and your response time to customers improves. Outsourcing can also give you the freedom to grow your business in any direction you choose, meaning you can expand on your services and products because you are no longer limited to the skills and tools within your current team.
 
At Richardson Professional Solutions we love watching organizations grow and thrive! We can help with as little or much as you need to make time for the important things in your life. No two organizations are the same, and neither are the ways that we support clients.
 
Whether you would like more time for a new child or grandchild, a hobby, or traveling, I’m Amy Richardson of Richardson Professional Solutions, and my team and I look forward to helping you make time for what matters.

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Small Business Tips in 2023

It’s 2023 and we are celebrating our third anniversary here at Richardson Professional Solutions. We love seeing small businesses thrive, so this month we want to bring you some tips and tricks to take into this new year as a small business owner and/or operator.

Did you know that according to the Small Business Administration, 20% of startups fail within the first year, while half go under within five years? Sometimes a small business, although a highly creative idea, can eventually suffer because there is a lack of business sense. Here are 5 tips for small business owners:

  1. Stay organized. Control the chaos by keeping accurate records of business finances, setting and keeping deadlines, and planning ahead by using the scheduling software for things like social media, email marketing, and/or text campaigns.
  2. Maintain a personal touch. This can be as easy as a handwritten letter when a client joins your company or a small note to someone after meeting them at a networking event.
  3. Cut costs as needed. This is the key to staying afloat, especially as a fresh start-up. Decide where spending money is important to you and your business (maybe a special software or a higher-end swag item to make an impression), and where you can stand to shave off a few dollars (premium subscription to something or buying used rather than pre-loved office furniture).
  4. Prioritize customer support. These are the people who help keep your lights on. If they aren’t happy, it will be hard to keep your business running. Make sure to maintain expectations and boundaries, while keeping your promises and providing top-notch customer service.
  5. Build a strong team. A business can crumble in a flash if its workforce isn’t strong. Find people who are passionate about what they do and have the same mission and goals as your business.

Every business looks different to each individual owner. Always remember to set regular goals and change them as your business grows or as you accomplish them. Just like Dr. Ivan Misner said about networking, “Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting.” This too remains the same for small businesses. Enjoy the journey!

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Keeping Your Online Office Safe

At Richardson Professional Solutions (RPS), we utilize a variety of software and applications to complete our work. Since most positions are remote, learning how to use these is critical to our job.

Some of the programs we use include email and cloud storage tools; bookkeeping and bill pay software; time tracking, project management, and task tracking applications; digital marketing and graphic design tools; and password and critical data storage applications.

Utilization of a password and critical data storage application, such as LastPass, is critical in RPS since we deal with a lot of confidential client information. LastPass is a password and data manager that stores your passwords and helps to create strong, complex passwords when creating new accounts for different programs. Safely sharing business passwords is crucial in keeping your online office safe.

Amber Steel from LastPass explains it best why keeping everyone in sync is crucial when your team is working on a project: “Passwords are a fact of work life. We use passwords to access company email, the corporate network, cloud apps, databases, subscriptions, client portals, and dozens more accounts in the workplace. As team members collaborate on projects or manage shared tasks, password sharing is often required. The challenge is to share those passwords securely, especially when team members are in different locations.

“In the past, team members have relied on sticky notes, shared spreadsheets, emails, or text messages to share passwords. Unfortunately, in addition to being insecure, all those methods are tedious timewasters. Searching out a password every time you need it, bothering team members for the correct password, interrupting your workflow to remember where you can find that password – this style of password sharing is inefficient and disruptive. The lack of encryption or verification also means that data is open to cyberattacks and theft. With 80% of data breaches traced back to poor password management, using a password manager to securely share passwords can reduce your organization’s risk of a data breach.”

At RPS we help you make more time in your business by providing back-office solutions such as bookkeeping, marketing, or project management. This, in turn, provides small business owners the flexibility to do the things that matter most to them – like building their business, continuing their education, traveling, or spending time with family.

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Keeping You Safe

Social media has changed the way we view the world, especially businesses. It can also help us unwind after a long day, but social media isn’t always a safe place.  Cyber scammers and identity thieves are on social media. It’s extremely important to take precautions before stepping into the digital world. A big part of what we do in Social Media Marketing is to help keep you safe. Here are some 3 ways to steer clear of scammers and keep your company safe on social media.

  • Privacy Settings

You lock the doors to your house to keep out intruders, why not do the same for your social media. Check your business account settings to make sure your telephone number and email address are hidden from the public sight. Default settings aren’t always safe as they give strangers more knowledge about you and your business than you’d like. It might be time to dig a little deeper into each platform’s settings. New privacy settings are updated from time to time. If you’re not frequently checking, you may be missing the chance to lock down your digital security.

  • Knowledge is Power

With all the new technology, social media allows you to share your life with the people you care about… along with everyone else. Be sure to not post about travel plans when you are away from your business. It is easy to share information about where you live without typing anything. Your images and posts can be tagged with your location if you haven’t changed your privacy setting. Try to share as little as possible with the digital world. They don’t need to know personal addresses, phone numbers, or even your goldfish’s name.

  • Always Think Twice

Scammers love to impersonate, especially your closest friends. Be sure to avoid those duplicate friend requests. If it’s a friend you know, reach out to them, make them aware their social identity is being used, and then report the imposter. Be careful when adding new friends as well. Take some time to review their friend list to see if this is someone you might know. If someone sends you a message be hesitant to respond back. Take caution with each message and post, especially if it has links and doesn’t sound like something your friend would post.

By taking these steps to stay alert and adopting a few of these smart practices, you’ll be able to share your story with the world with a little more ease. One of the many services we provide is Social Media Marketing, which includes helping keep you safe from potential scammers.

At Richardson Professional Solutions (RPS), we help you make more time in your business by providing back-office solutions such as bookkeeping, marketing, or project management. This, in turn, provides small business owners the flexibility to do the things that matter most to them like building their business, continuing their education, traveling, or spending time with family.

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