You’ll have access to about 8 email accounts and will be filtering, unsubscribing, and replying to some emails on my behalf
Using pre-written responses for about 25% of the emails
Condensing questions or outstanding emails to a daily(ish) email to me
Skills needed: must have good business acumen, excellent grammar, and spelling, keep inbox zero in my inbox and your new business email address, and have the gift of doing your best to figure out a problem on your own
Time expectations: this is a task that may need to be done throughout the day for short intervals. Probably 25% of your job.
Social media message inbox management
Using Facebook Beta’s system or another software to oversee and reply to messages, tags, and comments on multiple business social pages. Similar to email skills and time expectations.
Communication on my behalf
Occasional communication with retail store vendors (130+), staff (~10), tenants (50+), and clients (30+), mostly email
Schedule meetings with these folks
Skills needed: same as email above
Time expectations: 10% of your time
Simple WordPress Updates
This can be taught if the right person doesn’t know how, but if you have experience already it’s a huge plus. I have multiple client sites where simple updates are needed which may be about 10% of my inbox requests.
Skills needed: at a minimum, the willingness to learn a tech skill if you don’t know how to yet, or if you already know the basics I can teach you how to update each site.
Time expectations depend on how many requests we get but approximately 2x per week for 30 mins in front of a computer (not phone).
Learn the basics of several softwares to help with ongoing tasks:
Appfolio Property Management: submit maintenance requests and communicate to tenants
FreshBooks: Send invoices to clients once per month (will take about an hour)
Hootsuite: in case I need extra help scheduling social posts but currently already have someone for this.
Skills needed: general tech savviness, willingness to learn on your own or googling something before you ask
Documentation
Everything you learn how to do will be documented! There are a lot of details and moving parts so you’ll keep your own organized documentation for when you forget how to do something or need a reference. I’ve always done these tasks myself so there will be a learning curve for both of us for figuring out a way to document how you do things.
The right person for this job:
Loves the details and isn’t bored by general maintenance
Doesn’t get easily flustered by not knowing how to do something
An independent personality that enjoys learning new things and then taking the ball and running with it, but also isn’t afraid to ask for help if it becomes too much
Doesn’t complain much and keeps things generally positive
A fast communicator (you text or email back fairly quickly)
Has a smartphone (preferably iPhone), and usually has it close
Takes direction easily and doesn’t get offended if corrected
Enjoys online researching
Is generally available throughout the day for communication from me (so if you have just a short block of time you can do these tasks, that isn’t ideal). Some days might be a few hours, some days might be 5 minutes.
As you can see, I’m an over-explainer, so at the beginning, there will be long emails and texts and videos together as I teach you, so the right person won’t get too overwhelmed by that.
Doesn’t require this job to make a living. This is a definite side job that is super part-time so having another job to pay your bills will help.
Ideally, you’d live in Dickson County but this is not necessary if you’re comfortable with video conferencing and using apps such as Marco Polo or Zoom.
Dealbreaker requirements:
You’ll use FreshBooks to keep track of your time down to the minute if possible. Up-charging your time absolutely cannot happen. However, if you know you spent about x time doing x task earlier in the day and forgot or didn’t have time to clock in, you can log that time later. Honesty and integrity are my number 1 requirement over everything. I don’t care if you make mistakes but I do care if there’s an integrity problem.
Since you’ll represent me and my businesses, keeping your cool, being kind, and being professional is paramount.
You see yourself doing this for the long haul.
About Me:
Marketing Business: I started my career in graphic design which led to social media, web maintenance, web design, and now all the things you see under the Services tab above! I spent about 10 years in the corporate environment before going out on my own. In my marketing business, I’m spending too much time doing admin work rather than focusing on progressing my clients forward.
Dickson Businesses: Through a business partnership, I now have the privilege of owning a retail store called High Cotton with 130+ vendors and 7 employees. I own a Coworking space with about 20+ tenants, an event space with 1 employee, and about to open a commercial rental kitchen. Those are all located in Mulberry Mill, a 100K sf building that I manage and help develop that has about 40 tenants. I also spend too much time doing admin work rather than focusing on the progress of these businesses and taking care of the tenants/vendors/employees.
Personality: On the Enneagram, I’m a solid 4w3 (but these days a 3w4). In the Strengthsfinder, I’m 1. Futuristic, 2. Intellection, 3. Individualization, 4. Relator, 5. Focus. I’ve trained myself to be very detail-oriented throughout my career through web design and project management, but I am naturally highly creative and love big-picture strategy. I work hard and I love my job! Some think I can be intimidating in person but I’m usually just focused.
Why this is important: I used to take jobs that required things of me that weren’t true to myself and my core, like web maintenance jobs doing the same tasks over and over every week, following a set of instructions to do it perfectly… and I continually felt stupid because that’s now how I’m built. So if you’re more of a creative, big-picture person, and don’t love details and maintenance, don’t take this job. I need someone opposite to me!
