Giving Back Is Our Passion

Social Impact Business

The foundation of my small business is support. In my career I have always viewed my role as one of service rather I was in a traditionally supportive role as an admin or when I was in management. When I created this company it was clear that I wanted it to serve a higher purpose than 'just' making money. I wanted to help my clients succeed, that really matters to me, and I wanted to help others who are beset by their struggles, much as I once was in my early growth days.

So, I give to my clients in several ways, I offer a 50% discount on their first four hours of service, referral bonuses and I give 10% of every dollar they pay to a charitable cause (partial list is below) and send them a quarterly refund of the total 10% to save them from the paperwork tax time but still allow them to be partners in the giving.

Charitable Causes- partial list (full list is located in the Dropbox link 2015 Charitable Giving Options ).

Dress for Success- Dress for Success Austin addresses the dilemma low income women face while trying to gain employment without enough finances to dress for the interview.

Austin Leap To Success- To promote the professional talents of the members of Launch Pad Job Club via short-term, pro-bono project work for Austin and Central Texas nonprofit organizations, thus allowing prospective employers to see pro-active professionals who are keeping their skills sharp while volunteering for worthy organizations –- a true win-win for all involved.

Launchpad Job Club- Launch Pad Job Club is a networking, support, and job lead sharing organization in Austin, TX that aids and supports job seekers in their search for The Perfect Job. A federally recognized nonprofit organization, LPJC presents free weekly meetings that provide programs, motivation, and job search information, presented by Launch Pad organizers and guest speakers, These meetings are a great place to network, learn successful job search tactics, and a great way to find motivation and get out of the house.

Small Business flexibility, why it actually works.

What's the Story (the personal one)?

Like many of you reading this, I watched my fathers career and took cues for my own growth from what I saw. It's natural. Without being too mushy, I'll say that I truly admired his example. When he started his own company I  keyed in to the relentless energy to survive and succeed in those first few years where most small businesses fail.

What I learned drove me as I developed professionally. I began to see the wear and tear of 60+ hour weeks, months of both famine and drought with incoming work and the strain on personal life. This observation was the seed of an idea that grew to become my own small business, iAdmin4You.

Initially, I wanted the business to provide affordable administrative help to small businesses (1-5 people), I wanted to use my talents to help business succeed and I envisioned doing this as WFH online support. I built a very basic website that was meant to provide a small online presence and then concentrated all of my marketing efforts on social media and face-to-face interaction.

It did not begin producing the highest results that I knew it could have within the measure of time I had given it. So, I began looking at how flexible I needed to become. Why stay stuck? If it doesn't work-CHANGE!

The Story continues (becoming a business yogi)

For those who aren't familiar, a yogi is a practitioner of yoga, it entails a great deal of both physical and mental concentration to expand oneself and alleviate stressors, improve health etc. The routines of meditation and physical discipline are not for everyone but the idea translates very well into business thinking. Why not be as healthy in your business thinking as possible? Stretch your imagination, find a way to strengthen and broaden your services and finally reach a place of calm so that working through challenges doesn't eat up all of your energy!

I found that leaving my 'comfort zone' of preconceived business plan ideas, and venturing into somewhat unfamiliar territories was invigorating! Not only did my clients begin to respond with more work as I offered more flexibility in what I can provide but I was challenged to grow outside of what my expertise had been. And isn't THAT what professional growth is in a nut shell?

So, these days, I am not stuck on my pricing list, everything is negotiable.  I also now offer web design & maintenance services. And I've started creating and producing marketing materials like business cards, letterhead & trifolds for one client in particular.

There's literally no telling what I may need to offer next. Knowing that keeps me focused on disciplining my business thinking to be very adaptable.With each request I grow more flexible, test my limits and find ways to exceed them and am one happy small and growing business owner!

I am sharing this in hopes that anyone struggling with starting their small business will be encouraged to look outside of the box, grab a mental exercise mat and get started on a whole new way of working today!

The Client Who Wished For A Great Site

The Story Begins

Once upon a time,... actually pretty recently, a client reached out to me with the request to help him build a website that he had wanted to launch for several years but with the pace of his business and a lack of certainty about the total vision of it, he had basically just never got around to it. Sound familiar?

At one point he had hired someone to begin creating it for him but with very little direction on content and what the site should show, this contractor was unable to accomplish much and the site never was completed. When he began talking to me about the idea he seemed to be dispassionate about it, in large because he no longer was even sure that it could happen. Again, sound familiar?

In my experience, clients often don't know exactly what they want, this is normal and doesn't indicate anything negative about their person or business. The day-to-day operation of a company and the myriad of responsibilities that come along with it take priority and often times dreams, such as having a great website to promote the company, just fall into the category of 'someday'. That is the pain point.

The happy ending to a persistent problem

I am a huge enthusiast when it comes to challenges, in some odd way I enjoy the painful process of solving complex problems. Yep, I am strange like that! But it is what makes me really good at what I do. There's a process to the madness of solving unsolvable problems, it starts with listening and observing. So, with this client I began a short but intensive behind-the-scenes process of evaluating him and his business to the core.

Everything was important, personality type, industry, years of experience, target market, manner of speaking (your small business reflects this, think of the name you chose-that's YOUR words, you speaking!) Within a few short conversations and emails I had discerned what his dream was, even though he had not yet realized it in it's entirety. That's just what I do :) Starting with that I began planning content for his site. See my article- Helpful Tips To Get Started Building A Website
After I felt that I had reached a good level to begin with on content I started searching for the perfect theme (a theme is sort of a 'skin' that your website wears. It's what it looks like to viewers). After sorting through 5 or 6 themes I found the one that could be molded to represent his company perfectly. Then came the plug-ins and analytic tools. Finally, I was down to  the presentation stage and just needed to create a great logo for him. Done and Done!

Presentation went great, he was passionate again about the possibilities and after a few edits to content we completed the project! You don't have to know exactly what you want in order to get started. Dreams often start off in a fuzzy kind of way. Your iAdmin is here to learn what you want and get it done.

Sub Note:

Logos are absolutely important! People remember in images and attached ideas. You DO WANT an outstanding logo, even if it is just for business cards & letterhead & not your site. Here is the one I created for my company:

 

Disclaimer-I have permission from my client in this case to share his story

Helpful Tips To Get Started Building A Website

This is a process that you, as the client, can be as involved in, or not, as you like.

1. Web Hosting- in simple terms web hosting is the 'place' where your website resides and the server that supports it online. My personal favorite for being user friendly and affordable is HostGator.com
2. Domain Name- This is what your website will be called in the address bar and how people will find you. Example-my Domain name is iadmin4youandmore.com , you will want this to be easy to remember and as short as possible. There are steps to make sure that the domain name you want is available and once you own it, no one can use the same one. Read more on owning domain names here The Power Of Owning Your Own Domain
3. Content Planning- This is the stage that many people get stuck on. What do you want to say to your customers/clients? How much or little do they need to be entertained? Yes, really. Do you want everything to be public or should some of it be only accessible to registered users? NOTE-if you are already getting a headache thinking about this STOP and contact me now, I can handle everything!
4. Choosing a theme- this is fairly simple yet extremely important! The right theme gives the correct message, the wrong one and you end up looking junky or geared towards the wrong market.
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimizer)- in simple English an SEO works (or doesn't) according to how you use it. The biggest one out there is Google but you want to be found in all search engines like Bing, Yahoo and others too. Keywords are KEY! Without keywords in your site you could search until the sun turns gray and never find yourself online. Let me help with this! There are multiple ways to insert keywords in your site using categories, keywords, tags, slugs and, of course, plug-ins.
6. Customize Your theme- I actually do this as I go and not as a last step but if you are building a site by yourself this can be viewed as icing on the cake. Customizing is basically tweaking anything that you would like to appear differently and adding little changes that make the site speak more to your business. This can be adding a logo, changing menus, inserting images, etc.

Finally, Rather you choose to do this alone or with the expert help of your iadmin (ME!) try to keep in mind that this is an exciting adventure into a new territory, filled with possibility for growth and sustenance of your business. Have fun with it!