Have you ever looked at a business’s processes and thought “What are they thinking?!” As you can imagine, I’ve heard some doozies over the years. Here are a few examples (business names withheld for confidentiality):
At a nonprofit organization, when cash is paid, the receipt and cash are both photocopied. The receipt is then given to the payor, the cash is stapled to the photocopy and given to the organization’s treasurer, who happens to be in her late 80s and doesn’t drive, so the cash is driven to her house at the end of the day. The organization pays the administrative assistant 57.5 cents a mile for the drive, costing the organization approximately $100 weekly.
An entertainment company holds a team meeting every Wednesday at noon, and on a good day, ends before five. The minutes from the previous meeting are read at each meeting, and then everyone enjoys refreshments (paid for by the company) and rehashes the minutes. Hours later, new business is discussed. After the meeting ends, the office staff stays late (and gets paid their regular hourly rate) to wash the dishes.
A company located in an old resort-turned-office-building had an old and outdated apartment on the property that wasn’t in use. Since the business was short on funds, the apartment was leased to the first person who came along. No background check was done and that person was later found to have served several years in prison for rape. Upon receipt of this information, the business owner wanted to evict the tenant but couldn’t because of discrimination laws. So the office staff locked the doors and now in-office visits are “by appointment only.”
The executive director of another nonprofit organization had a bad drinking problem. One day he stopped showing up for work, and as it turns out, it was because he had gotten a DWI and could no longer drive. His assistant had been covering for him for so long that she just took over his job.
The building a business was located in was formerly a hotel, built in the 1800s. Part of the main floor was occupied by the office staff (two part-time employees), but the rest of the 5000-square foot building was empty. Cost to heat and cool the building? Over $500 monthly! (PS – a virtual assistant doesn’t need office space!)
An entrepreneur had terrible personal credit, but by some act of grace from the Credit Gods, the business credit was good. However, she started using business credit for her personal purchases, and eventually both the credit reporting agencies and the IRS figured out that Nordstrom didn’t sell that many office supplies.
This is just the beginning of a long list of business blunders. One of the services we provide here at AngCo is process and systems creation. In every single case, a virtual assistant could have created a process or system and given suggestions to eliminate negative outcomes and costly mistakes. Hopefully your business snafus don’t include these situations, but we all make mistakes. Give me a call so we can talk about how a virtual assistant can minimize yours!
Thanks for reading.
Until next time,
Angie
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