Nonprofits

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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Marketing is the sign of our times

Marketing is an essential part of running a business in today’s world. As a business owner, you need to ensure your company has a solid presence in and around Augusta. “The sign says,” outdoor marketing is one of the most effective ways to raise awareness of your business and increase brand visibility. It is important to create a consistent brand identity that is eye-catching and visually appealing.

Here are a few outdoor marketing tips to boost business and brand visibility in the CSRA:

  1. Use window graphics and displays to boost walk-in traffic. A customer is more likely going to pass by a blank window, and it also makes your business harder to find. Having a graphic or display will help attract those walk-in customers.
  1. Park A-frame signs outside your doors. A-frame signs are a great way to promote specials for your business. Giving customers a visual of what you can offer, can help increase their chances of visiting your business.
  2. Stand out at community events with banners, booth displays, and table throws. Local community events such as Golf Tournaments, Chamber events, and Conferences, are a perfect way to meet potential clients who may have never heard about your business. Making sure you stand out with your tabling displays strengthens your brand. Just like your brick-and-mortar, is important to maximize the space you are given and give people a reason to stop and see what you have to offer.
  3. Give them something to remember you by. You always want to make a lasting impression, whether a customer is visiting your store or interacting with you at a local event. High-quality business cards and promotional items are two ways to help keep your business and brand top of your mind.
  1. Leveraging local billboards to keep your brand top of mind. In an era of “cutting the cord,” streaming content, and having the power to skip ads, billboards are something consumers can’t “skip”. Keeping your brand in front of your community is imperative so that when it is time for consumers to make a purchase decision, you are the brand that they think of first, not your competitor.

Outdoor marketing plays a pivotal role in boosting your brand. The more you do, the more likely a customer will see you, remember you, and not pass you by the next time they are passing your business.

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 you like building your business, continuing their education, traveling, or spending time with family.  

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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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Amy Richardson’s Got Your Back for Business

BY MITZI OXFORD, PHOTOS BY MELISSA GORDON

Are you the owner of one of the thousands of businesses in the CSRA? Do you have time for bookkeeping, IT, marketing, recruitment, project, or event management?

If not, maybe it’s time to call for backup. Amy Richardson created Richardson Professional Solutions to help solve the issues most business owners may not have time to address when their time can be better spent building a successful company. In other words, she has created a one-stop shop for all those backend jobs.

Her company provides a balance for business owners. Initially, she started it to create her own balance.

When her son was born in November 2019, she launched her company two months later.

“It started as a side hustle with a baby on my hip,” Richardson explained. “When COVID hit, we were bombarded. The company I started allowed me to work from home, focus on building the business and be a mom.”

The business has changed dramatically post-COVID. While some companies used to offer the ability to work from home as a perk, it has now become the norm for many businesses. By 2025, an estimated 70 percent of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month, according to Forbes.

Richardson has a head start in the remote workforce world. She and her team of seven, deliver a support system for more than 25 clients. Their services include everything from website design and management to employee scheduling and paying bills.

“Still, there is a stigma about working remotely but we are a legitimate business offering our team members health insurance, maternity leave, and a 401k,” Richardson said.

Richardson has a great support system in her professional and personal life. Her husband, Ben, who works remotely for a bank in Ohio, does double duty by providing IT support for Richardson Professional Solution clients and, of course, as husband and dad.

“Since I work from home, my lunch hour is spent with my toddler and if I see my work calendar is getting too fat, I put on the brakes,” she said.

The challenge of owning and running a business is real, especially for a woman.

“Women are the default caregivers,” Richardson said. “We automatically have to make sure everyone is covered.”

Even when she’s away from her home office engaging with the community, Richardson seems to be making the delicate balance of being a business owner, wife, and mom work.

Her clients describe her as smart, honest, energetic, thorough, and creative. Richardson attributes that to her core values, including integrity, being accountable, thinking outside the box, and being a lifelong learner.

At the heart of it all is compassion for her clients and her family.

“I was laying here after putting my toddler back to sleep, staring at his sweet, peaceful face, and I am reminded of a quote I heard some time ago about raising children: ‘The days are long, but the years are short,’” Richardson said. “I think of it often and it grounds me to realize how fast time is passing and that I won’t get these years back. I want to spend as much time as possible with him, and the rest of my family, while still being able to provide us with a beautiful life. My business gives me that freedom.”

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Increasing Engagement + Social Media

One of the perks of digital marketing is its ease of being shared. Video is a powerful tool to see its shared content. I want to tell you the benefits of having Video in your Digital Marketing Strategy and what metrics brands are tracking.

According to Hubspot, video boosts conversion rates. Including on a landing page, video can increase conversion by 80%. Search engines love video. They are searching for content that engages viewers. Nothing lures longer page views quite like a video. Video can help build trust among your customers. Sight plus sound plus motion equals an emotion. Videos make people feel connected with the brand. People love to share videos more than other content. Think back on the things you enjoy sharing on Facebook, what percent of the shared content is the video? Studies show that videos are shared 1200% more times than links and text combined. Video can also gain access to the C-Suite. It is a fantastic medium that will get your content in front of the eyes of real decision-makers. 75 percent of business executives watch work-related videos weekly. 59 percent of senior executives prefer to watch a video over reading text. And 54 percent of senior executives regularly share work-related video content with coworkers.

Earlier this year Hubspot also surveyed over 500 global video marketers to find out what metrics they think are the more important for measuring the success of a video. Engagement, conversion rate, and view count were the top three metrics tracked in a video marketing campaign.

Engagement with your content can increase customer loyalty, build deeper relationships, drive sales, and improve brand awareness. Engagement rates track how actively involved your audience is with your content through likes, comments, and sharing. Conversion rates are the percentage of viewers who clicked a post that led to your website to make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, or reach out via your contact page. Each conversion will vary depending on the goals of your company. View count is also known as impressions, which means the number of times a viewer has watched or engaged with your content. View counts can differ between each social platform, so make sure to be aware of the differences when collecting your metric data each month.

As you can tell video is a visually rich communication tool that can be tailored to suit any audience and share any message, no matter your end goal. Our team would be happy to connect, talk through things, and help you to decide if incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy is the best fit. Do you think we can help? If so, we would love to become an extension of your team and take that to-do off of your plate.

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