Are you an overwhelmed small business owner, working too many hours and laughing at the concept of a work-life balance? As your business expands, so do the demands on your time and if routine tasks consume a significant portion of your time, you probably need to consider whether your time could be utilised more effectively. An excellent solution is outsourcing, and depending on the nature of the tasks, hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) might be the answer. The next crucial step involves deciding whether a VA or a part-time employee is the better fit. Both options possess their advantages, but m ..read more

We live in a world where social media, chat apps, and instant messaging are dominating the digital landscape, so it might be tempting to dismiss email marketing as old-fashioned. After all, who even reads emails anymore, right? However, the reality is that email lists not only endure but also persist as a crucial instrument for businesses and individuals seeking to establish meaningful connections, engage effectively, and market successfully. In this blog post, we'll delve into why your email list is still relevant and I provide some content ideas that might add a bit of sparkle to your newsl ..read more

If you're looking to boost productivity and efficiency in your business, working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) and other freelancers can be an excellent solution. However, if you're new to the concept of working with a VA, it's essential to follow a few steps to establish a seamless and effective working relationship. In this blog post, I have outlined (from my own experience) the key measures you should take in order to prepare your business to work with a Virtual Assistant. Define your business goals Before hiring a virtual assistant, you should clearly define your business goals and the ta ..read more

Routine – I loathe this word. I still can’t quite shake the slightly rebellious nature that lies within me, despite two children, a dog and a mortgage (perhaps this is why I’m self-employed). However, through my own realisations and observations of my clients I have come to understand the importance that routine has in both personal and professional lives. So, I have waved a very small off-white flag in surrender to routine (which you could refer to as structure) and this blog post provides some reasons as to why you might do the same. Employed/Self-Employed I haven’t always been self-employed ..read more

We live in exciting and changing times when it comes to work, careers and business. Gone are the days when you joined an organisation and stayed there for 40 years wearing ties, tights and boring suits, working set hours and eating warm sandwiches during an unnecessary and excessively long lunch break! And heaven forbid, if as a working women you wanted to have a family, as that was just an inconvenience. As you can tell my experience with the world of work has not always been a positive one, hence my move into running my own business, as it suited the way we live our lives as a family. And t ..read more

Whether you're employed, a freelancer or run a small business, meetings both online and in person are a part of most people's professional lives. But let's be honest some meetings can be boring, stressful, time-consuming and worse still some don't serve biscuits! So how do you make sure that your next meeting is productive instead of painful? Read this blog post, where I provide my top tips from my years of attending, organising and running meetings. Make sure you have the right people in the room. Once you have established that you really need a meeting, the next step is make sure you have t ..read more

If you don’t have a single document template in sight, don’t worry, because most of the business I work with didn’t have templates either. Many businesses start off small, as a hobby or a side-hustle, but then they grow. Sometimes that growth can be quick and there isn’t time to sit down and write templates, or for some businesses they simply don’t know what templates are and how they can benefit a business. Fear not, my blog post can help. Keep reading to find out not only why document templates save you time, but also what to create and how. What are business document templates? There isn’t ..read more

Clairical has won an award - Prestige Awards: South West England Virtual Business Assistant of the Year. The awards, which are run by Corporate Livewire, recognise small and medium-sized businesses that have proven to be the best in their market over the past 12 months. All shortlisted companies put forward in the prestige awards are asked to support their nomination with evidence of their work, positive feedback from their clients, information on previous accreditation and recognition as well as highlighting the most outstanding parts of their businesses. Claire who runs Clairical added "Th ..read more

I had a notification pop up on my Facebook feed this week; “Congratulations! 15 years ago you joined Facebook”, or something like that. This got me thinking, it’s hard to imagine a time without social media and technology at our fingertips. But, of course, there was a time... I was 31 when I joined Facebook, with a newborn in tow, which means I happily spent my twenties without any of it being on social media. Most of us only accessed emails on a desktop and shock horror filters for photos didn't exist! Who would have thought 15 years ago that technology, social media and the internet would h ..read more

It doesn't matter if you are a small business or a large organisation - having a standout email signature has never been more important. Does your email signature currently consist of your name in Times New Roman (other standard fonts are available!) with no accompanying logo or links? Or are you just looking for ideas on how to make your email signature look more professional? Then keep reading, because in this blog post I explain why a great signature is so important, and how to create one in Outlook. What is an email signature? Quite simply, an email signature is a block of text at the bott ..read more