Category: Articles

Recently, S&P has increased the Philippines’ investment grade to BBB+, two notches above the minimum rating.

This is the highest score the country has received since 2013. Local economic managers attributed the upgrade to policy priorities as well as key economic growth drivers such as the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector.

The upgrade is expected to stimulate investment and generate new jobs across crucial growth sectors such as the services industry.

How will this impact the BPO sector which is expected (along with other factors) to transform the country into a trillion-dollar economy by 2032?

 

With sustained growth efforts and lower borrowing costs, the country will be able to fund more infrastructure as well as upgrade existing facilities. Along with the government’s current tax reform program and its ambitious infrastructure development initiatives, the country is poised to introduce more opportunities for domestic industries to thrive. Local BPOs, which accounted for at least $10.4 billion in foreign receipts, are expected to feel the impact of strong investment fundamentals. The S&P upgrade will no doubt encourage expansion and reinforce local outsourcing companies to innovate the products and services they are selling.

 

 

The resulting spike in investments will bolster job growth and supply the current business environment with quality talents. As spending for schools continues to pick up in light of the country’s transition to a K-12 system, such factors will support the country’s recent implementation of the Free College Education Law which is said to benefit 800,000 students enrolling in state universities and colleges this year. The rating upgrade can help in expanding the benefits of the law and capacitating a large labor force that’s capable of meeting global outsourcing standards.

 

 

The demand for office space remains robust, especially in the BPO sector where there is a dearth in local commercial real estate inventories. The government has already drafted plans for designated economic zones in strategic areas outside of Metro Manila. Iloilo City, for instance, has been earmarked for public projects to improve the area’s business attractiveness, with homegrown companies such as OneVirtual Solutions already feeling the effects of positive economic growth at the local level.

 

As the current business landscape continues to improve, BPO companies will become better equipped in delivering quality services to clients and maintaining the country’s current position as a sought-after market for outsourced services.

If you’re looking to expand your business, look for a Filipino company that offers not just contact center services but also virtual assistant services that cater to your specific needs. Start here.

Using cleaning business platforms is the best investment you can make this year. There is a good reason for this.

A press release by Allied Market Research expects the demand for cleaning solutions to grow rapidly. By 2022, the global cleaning industry will have grown by $74 million. This will be due to attributed to growing household incomes and a rise in new building constructions.

In keeping up with this ever-expanding sector, businesses will have to focus more on increasing their productivity. For that, they will need to use the right tools for managing cleaning schedules, promoting their services, and keeping customers satisfied.

Here are the top five cleaning business platforms to use this year? 

Our List of the Best Cleaning Business Platforms

Launch27

Image source: www. launch27.com

You don’t have to develop and manage your own booking system. With Launch27, you can give your website visitors a simple and convenient way to schedule and pay for one-time and recurring cleanups. It includes a smart calendar that sends out auto-reminders and shows real-time availability. In addition, the platform integrates seamlessly with your website so you don’t have to spend a lot of time getting it ready.

 

ZenMaid

Image source: Zenmaid (www.vimeo.com)

As the name implies, this platform is ideal for achieving a more relaxed and less hectic way of running a cleaning business. Described as a cloud-based scheduling platform, ZenMaid enables you to manage every aspect of your operations, from managing work orders and customer follow-ups to scheduling appointments through a simple booking form. All in all, it’s a great tool for getting plenty of work done without running into any costly errors.

 

Jobber

Image source: www.getapp.com

When setting up a self-service platform, convenience has to be the most important benefit you can give your potential clients. Jobber has the right features for your cleaning business. It allows you to easily prepare cleaning quotes, track invoices, assign tasks, and prepare schedules based on your clients’ needs. Simply put, Jobber is a valuable all-in-one tool for improving the efficiency and profitability of your cleaning business.

 

Hubstaff

Image source: www.hubstaff.com

Managing your cleaners is tough work, but it’s also something that Hubstaff does so well. The platform has an online time-tracking system that lets you see the hours your employees put in. For better transparency, a geofencing feature allows you to automatically count the hours your cleaners spend on site. There’s also an online scheduling system that lets you assign teams to available slots so you can reduce cases of overlaps, making for a systematic and error-free way of managing your cleaning business.

 

Responsibid

Image source: www.capterra.com

To get quality sales for your services, you need a platform that gives customers numerous options for making a purchase. Responsibid optimizes your sales cycle by helping you generate accurate quotes online and offline. Its biggest selling point is its ability to engage customers who want a specific service. Aside from being a great tool for upselling, Responsibid can also send you automatic follow-ups to people who requested a quote but were unable to schedule a cleaning.

 

There are many more platforms worth mentioning, but the ones listed above have worked so well for many of our clients in the commercial and residential cleaning industry.

If you’re interested, we can help you set up the apps and integrations you need to support your cleaning business. Contact us today and see how our virtual assistants can help you realize the growth of your cleaning business.

There are currently 875,000 registered cleaning companies in the United States alone. If your business is among them, competing for a better position in the market should be your main objective. It can get difficult unless you use the right strategies for getting more bookings.

Here’s a quick rundown of the things you should be doing to market your offers and generate more clients.

 

Nothing adds legitimacy to your business quite like a short positive review from an existing client. You may need to list down the names of your long-time clients and send emails asking for their feedback about your services. Pick the best of these reviews and display them on your site. Indeed, adding social proof will improve your brand’s presence and get more people to sign up for your services.

 

According to Social Media Today, marketers who use videos grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. Moreover, at least 52% of marketing professionals are leveraging video’s potential for providing high ROI. Your cleaning company shouldn’t get left behind. You can produce informative videos to enhance your credibility and influence. You can also talk about tips and other helpful topics about cleaning to draw in potential clients. 

 

What’s another way to reel in new clients for your cleaning business? From a homeowner’s point of view, a discount or a freebie can easily get you hooked. Special promotions are a surefire approach to attracting the right customers, although you need to ensure your business is in the right position to make such offers. If it is, then you may need to highlight these offers on your website and through traditional means such as flyers and radio ads.

 

The market for cleaning services is very broad, meaning that your closest competitors may have missed a few high-opportunity niches. You can take this opportunity to aggressively push products and services that other cleaning companies have yet to offer. For instance, if you’re living in a neighborhood where there’s a high concentration of environmentally conscious homeowners and entrepreneurs, you should focus more on promoting your green cleaning service. Better act fast before your competitors corner this niche.

 

The lack of resources and skill are undoubtedly the most critical issues many cleaning companies face. These will make it hard to build a marketing campaign from the ground up, let alone form a marketing team from the ground up. But did you know you can still market your services without the need of an in-house marketing department? Hiring a capable service provider is one way you can improve the efficiency of your core marketing tasks, including website maintenance, blogging, social media marketing, among others.

Need help putting your commercial or residential cleaning business front and center? OneVirtual Solutions has worked with many companies in the industry, making it a reliable partner for growth. Contact us today!

What makes a successful website?

Is it the colors? The easily navigable interface? The graphics that comprise the background?

For sure, a compelling design is not the only element of building a successful website for your business. It’s like baking a cake. You can’t have icing without making the layers first. That’s why at OneVirtual Solutions, the leading provider of virtual assistant services, we make sure that you’re equipped with a fully developed website that fits the needs of your business.

We’re not only focused on great web design as we also handle backend tasks using a refined process that adds value to your business.

Here’s how we do it:

Whether you want to have your website reworked or you want to build one from scratch, we always start by presenting a project proposal based on your needs. This is so you have a full understanding of the tasks that are involved. Once you approve the proposal, we can set up a timetable and organize the project into achievable goals.

Our web development team specializes in using WordPress for building websites, although you can recommend a different platform for us to use such as Wix or Shopify. We can then prepare a sitemap and a mock-up to form the basis for the website’s pages and sections.

Once everything else is set, it’s only a matter of gathering the tools and materials needed to start putting the website together. This will also mean infusing the design with your brand’s identity and maintaining brand consistency throughout your website. In this stage, you retain overall creative control so you can suggest improvements as you see fit. For instance, if you want to include a fill form for your mailing list, we can hook you up with the right tools. Also involved in this phase is the application of an SSL certificate and the installation of plugins such as Yoast.

A website without content is like a ship without any navigational controls. There’s no way you can steer it toward better conversions. After all, content informs your audience about what you do and what you offer. That said, we make sure that your site pages are populated with carefully written content either supplied by you or crafted by our in-house copywriters. Aside from webpages, we can also create blogs specific to the needs of your business.

Search engine optimization or SEO is a crucial element of success for any commercial website. Without a proper SEO strategy, a business won’t compete with other businesses selling the same products and services online. Through our web development team, we can help improve your search engine ranking and make your business more visible to your target audience. At this stage of the project, we conduct keyword research to generate a list of words and phrases your audience search for the most so we can help you rank for these high-opportunity search terms.

Our work isn’t over even after the website is rolled out. Ongoing maintenance is crucial to ensure your website is consistently producing the results you expect. Our web development team will monitor your site’s performance by focusing on the most crucial numbers. A sharp drop in visitors, for instance, means that you will have to recalibrate your site and keep it functional and responsive.

Start building the right website.

Choose OneVirtual Solutions, your reliable partner for quality web development and virtual assistant services. Contact us today!

The outsourcing world is divided into different service sectors. Two of these sectors are the most crucial to success: call center services and virtual assistant services.

If you’re starting a career as an outsource service provider, you will have to know which of these options best fit your desire for personal and professional growth.

Let’s look at what each sector can offer along these lines:

Probably the most basic function of call centers is to engage clients. This includes various tasks, from providing technical assistance to handling complaints about a product or service. All you need in handling these tasks is to have a thorough background in customer service as well as a compelling ability to understand clients and influence the decisions they make.

Virtual assistants, on the other hand, are also capable of handling calling tasks, but across a broader spectrum. Unlike call center jobs, virtual assistant jobs allow you to handle a greater variety of related tasks. You can be making cold calls one minute and setting up sales appointments the next.

 

Call centers can help you nurture the skills you need to get ahead in your career. Aside from people skills, a call center is also a great place to sharpen your problem-solving skills and become an expert negotiator. This is also the reason why call centers remain a critical touch point for businesses.

You can acquire the very same skills as a virtual assistant, the only difference is that there’s a greater selection of competencies you can acquire. These include creative skills through tasks such as graphic design, video editing, and content writing, as well as administrative skills such as database management, budgeting, and documentation.

 

Call centers are known for their fast-paced environments. As you receive a larger call quota, you also improve your chances of quickly securing senior-level positions within the company. The work can get monotonous, but so long as you keep producing stellar results, you will be able to reap better benefits and opportunities for growth.

The same can be said about virtual assistants, although the range of activities they handle is not all that repetitive compared to what call center agents deal with every day. Career growth is also fast-paced, but it’s the fact that you get to learn new skills and hone them which makes a virtual assistant career highly advantageous to you in terms of career growth.

Sure enough, you will have to choose the path that offers the most advantages. Become a virtual assistant and do more than just make or receive calls. Send your resume to careers@onevirtualsolutions.

This March 4th, we celebrate National Grammar Day. Established in 2008 by members of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, this annual affair is all about proper language usage.

It may seem silly at best until you read a letter from then-President George W. Bush praising National Grammar Day as an “opportunity to recognize how communication skills can help more Americans prepare for the challenges ahead and compete for the jobs of the 21st century.”

On the other hand, businesses also need to observe good grammar in order to stay relevant and competitive. According to this article from Grammarly, grammatical and even typographical errors can have adverse effects on a business. Poorly written marketing copy creates ambiguity and distracts audiences from the main message. More importantly, bad grammar makes a business seem less credible. Homebuyers, for instance, want realtors that are detail-oriented, so they won’t trust a real estate company that has too many spelling errors on its website.

 

Then again, it’s not always good grammar that marketers should aim for. Substance and form go side by side, so it’s crucial to write marketing copy that’s well-crafted, readable, and perfect – at least to the eyes of a certified Grammar Nazi!

Let’s look at a few tips that should help you with writing crisp, engaging, and effective marketing copy.

You don’t have to sound profound or use technical terms to impress your audience. In fact, potential customers would appreciate it more if you are able to communicate with them as succinctly as possible. In other words, reserve your complex sentences and industry jargon for technical papers and case studies. If you’re out looking for new clients, keep your writing simple and straightforward.

 

One crucial challenge when it comes to writing newsletters for email campaigns is knowing which version is able to generate the most clicks. In that case, it helps to compare different versions together through A/B testing. This method allows you to experiment with words and identify copy that’s bound to generate more business.

 

Thanks to the world of app development, marketers can use a variety of tools that can help them improve their writing. Grammarly, for one, is a useful tool for finding and correcting grammatical errors, especially the more common and frequently overlooked ones such as wrong verb forms and spelling mistakes. You can install this tool as an extension for Chrome. Once installed, Grammarly can help you with editing your emails or documents before you send or publish them. This would help you write error-free messages and spare you from humiliation caused by bad grammar.

 

If you’re writing blogs or text ads by yourself, chances are you aren’t able to provide quality content on a consistent basis. In order to drive engagements, it’s important that you publish unique content every now and then. Hiring a professional marketing writer can do wonders by ensuring your business’ website offers fresh content that also uses correct grammar.

Need help writing blogs, e-books, newsletters, Facebook ads, and everything in between? Get a virtual assistant who’s skilled in both form and substance.

Employees are the lifeblood of any business. They work in both the frontlines and behind the scenes to manufacture and deliver products and services, generate clients, and maintain a constant revenue stream that’s vital to growth.

It’s only proper that employees get the recognition they deserve. After all, a highly motivated workforce is essential to improving your business’ productivity. Glassdoor says that satisfied employees drive tangible business results, so it pays to give your workers a reason to stay.  

As we celebrate Employee Appreciation Day this March 1st, here are some tips on how you can give back to your hardworking employees.

 

It’s important to mention that your employees’ lives don’t just revolve around the entire 9 hours they spend at the office. They need quality time for themselves and their families, so a healthy work-life balance is always essential.

In this infographic from Entrepreneur, at least  69% of employees say they prefer flexible schedules. This gives your employees the impression that they are in control of their time, which motivates them to work even harder. You can also offer other arrangements such as part-time and home-based work.

 

Office politics is toxic and, for sure, bad blood among your employees can potentially ruin your business’ momentum. That being said, you should let your employees know you are promoting healthy professional relationships by setting up an open-door policy.  

Encouraging your employees to speak up about issues in the workplace gives them the assurance that the company is looking out for their best interests. Aside from that, having an HR department with an open-door policy enables you to identify problems straight from the source, allowing you to come up with long-term solutions.

 

Alongside competition in the workplace, cooperation also thrives. Your employees are just as eager to have a good time with their colleagues, so an out-of-town company retreat is a great way to loosen up a few screws and get your employees to warm up to each other.

Team-building exercises should be designed for the purpose of developing a healthy culture of communication. They should also be anchored in effective problem solving, which is a key ingredient of a successful business enterprise. Writing for Medium.com, Alison Beacham says that, aside from giving employees a much needed mental break, company outings can also be a fun way to develop rapport starting with games like a scavenger hunt and a murder mystery game.

 

Though putting in a number of hours may look impressive on an employee’s record, it still won’t impact your ROI just as much as it should. Indeed, it’s always important to balance quality with quantity, in which case, rewarding best-performing employees is always a great idea.

Quantifying the work of your employees affects their capacity to meet quality standards. To fix this problem, you can implement policies that incentivize quality work. For this, have your supervisors assess the outputs of their staff.

Rewards should be based not only on the number of timeline deliverables but also in terms of quality.

 

Successful organizations know the value of keeping employees happy. That’s why they apply the right strategies that ensure workforce retention and prevent burnout.

One effective approach is to delegate repetitive and time-consuming tasks to a capable virtual assistant. That way, you can let your employees focus more on activities that add value to your business.

 

Contact us today so we can start helping your in-house staff with their assigned tasks.

Running a country requires patience and hard work. While it’s true that anyone can become President, it takes exceptional qualities to leave a lasting legacy from which business leaders can learn.

For Presidents’ Day, let’s take this time to read about wisdom in leadership, perseverance, and commitment to a higher ideal from ten consequential US Presidents.

 

Take it from the man who risked his political career in uniting the country during the Reconstruction Era. Hayes’ presidency proves that you can’t always please everyone. What matters is that you’re able to get out of your comfort zone and be able to learn new things.

 

Once the supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War, Eisenhower’s decision-making liberated France and the Low Countries from Axis control. No doubt he did not waste a single moment worrying throughout the campaign.

 

You might not be a Fortune 500 company today, but the possibility of becoming one is always there. You just have to go the extra mile no matter how difficult it gets like what Obama did when he entered politics and became the 44th President of the United States.

 

Many business empires started out small. It took blood, sweat, and tears for them to build their brands and nurture a loyal customer base. Taft was right. Even today with all the apps and tools at our disposal, one still has to go the extra mile to create a truly successful business.

 

Running a business is not without any risk. Though, at times, we often overestimate the challenges that are coming our way. For Coolidge, the ability of foresight is something that many business leaders should nurture amid a highly volatile economy.

 

To be a great leader means being able to create plans based on rational long-term goals. Indeed, without a sense of purpose, JFK would have handled the Cuban Missile Crisis recklessly and the world would have become a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

 

People tend to compare negotiating with combat sports, but what many don’t consider is the range of emotions that are involved. Ford was on point about making compromises and avoiding disadvantageous deals that could lead to more serious issues later on.

 

If there’s one thing that fuels a business leader, it’s passion. After all, you won’t be in business in the first place if you lack a prime motive or reason. Taking cues from Trump, use your passion to create something worthwhile and useful that will make use of your time.

 

Perspectives matter in your capacity as a leader. In this sense, adopting a mindset that’s focused on success gives you a better chance at accomplishing your goals. Jefferson says to think positively and stop yourself from creating negative scenarios that can only stall you.

 

Finally, leadership is all about making an impact in the lives of your employees, and not just on the bottom line. Empathy fuels productivity, so a leader should do whatever they can to help their employees grow meaningfully.

Which president has the best quote that applies to you and your business? Tell us in the comment section below.

For sure, being president is very much a demanding job, which explains why the Commander-in-Chief has a corps of assistants ready to provide support.

 

If you think you’re handling too much yourself, you might want to increase your productivity by hiring a virtual assistant today!

Valentines Day has always been a lucrative holiday for the greeting card and cut-flower industries. Indeed, businesses will have to focus on creating related content. Aside from giving their audiences some love, businesses will also need to embrace newer and better ways of ensuring profitability and reaching out to as many followers as possible.

If you haven’t built a relationship with outsourcing just yet, here are five reasons why you should start loving it!

 

Effective cost control is valuable when it comes to maintaining a healthy bottom line. By hiring the right outsourcing firm, you acquire better control over your expenses’ financial resources. Rightly so, the main reason why businesses outsource in the first place is to cut costs and, from there, leverage other valuable benefits that outsourcing entails.

 

When it comes to workforce productivity, quality is everything. You will need to look for people who can add value to your business. However, this would be a challenge for businesses based in areas that suffer from a dearth of talent pools. By outsourcing a part of your operations, you are able to access the technical skills you’re looking for. This saves you time and resources in trying to find potential employees locally.

Presently, the Philippines remains to be a robust market for outsourced services. With a relatively high literacy rate and an affinity to the English language, the country remains to be a great source for globally-competitive talents.

 

With cloud computing, big data, and marketing automation becoming more prevalent, your business shouldn’t waste time training people when you can hire outsourcers that are already capable of using these technologies.

 

Spending on outsourced services will rise in the coming years and it will be driven by the need for companies to adopt new tools. Against this background, top outsourcing destinations such as India and the Philippines are expected to grow, especially along the lines of customer relations, IT, and virtual assistant services.

 

This year will see marketing budgets rise as businesses channel more resources toward their digital marketing campaigns. Thought leadership remains an important dimension in digital marketing, so let’s expect more businesses to intensify their blogging and newsletter campaigns and finally set up their own podcast series.

 

To bring out the most value from your marketing campaigns, you can always find freelance digital marketing professionals or partner up with a company that provides virtual assistants.

What’s not to love about outsourcing? Considering your business’ need to scale this year, you will have to improve your operational capacity by having someone else handle the most crucial tasks on your behalf.

Begin your journey through outsourcing with us! Set an appointment today so we can discuss your most urgent needs.

Real estate professionals know exactly how difficult it is to handle client transactions. From marketing using social media to conducting due diligence, realtors will have to spend precious time handling such tasks for their clients.  

While it’s important that you handle these processes more thoroughly, you still need to focus on growing your real estate business. You can’t juggle the two simultaneously, but you can at least outsource some of the grunt work to a real estate virtual assistant.

Increase the time you spend scaling your business by letting a VA handle these processes:

Any experienced realtor worth his salt knows the importance of comparative market analysis or CMA. If you’re helping a seller determine the best listing price for a property, you will have to go through the tedious process of assessing the neighborhood. Using the MLS and sites like Zillow and Realtor.com, you can search for similar properties, make comparisons, and determine a good listing price. It can take a while, but why run a CMA yourself when you can have a real estate virtual assistant do it for you?

 

You don’t want a property to remain in the market for too long, so you will need effective advertising to attract interested buyers. In this case, coming up with a marketing strategy requires expert knowledge of multiple channels, including social media, blogs, e-newsletters, and online advertising platforms such as Craigslist. You can’t expect to learn everything there is to know about digital marketing overnight. Fortunately, you can always outsource your marketing tasks to individuals who are already experienced in the field.

 

Keeping tabs on your listings through the MLS is crucial, whether you’re helping a buyer find the right property or setting a home up for sale. However, preparing your entries to the MLS can get a bit tedious at times, considering the repetitive nature of the task itself. That being said, you can let someone handle your MLS inputs and ensure that the information for each home is accurate.

 

Before listing a property, you will have to hire contractors to make it look more presentable to potential buyers. However, delays and other issues on the contractor’s side can disrupt your timeline, so it helps to have someone monitor your home improvement projects and see to it that you list your home according to schedule.  

 

During the due diligence stage, you will need to set up appointments for home inspections and price negotiations on behalf of your client. In some cases, you won’t be available to make arrangements. A real estate virtual assistant might come in handy in setting up important meetings based on your schedule.

 

Surely, there’s a lot more a real estate virtual assistant is capable of handling. The bottom line is that you can increase your business’ productivity when you have someone with the right skills and know-how. Hire a VA today by giving us a call or filling up this questionnaire.