At Pepper, we really do want to be your BFFs. We want to know how you take your coffee (even if we can’t physically make it for you because we are miles apart), we want to celebrate your successes, and dust you off if you stumble.
When you become a part of the Pepper family, we sincerely want the best for you. Our team works so hard to pull on each other’s strengths and make sure that your experience having a virtual assistant is the most amazing it can be. As your badass business BFFs, we have some great tips for having the most successful relationship with us. These will help you feel confident in our abilities, will get work done efficiently, and will leave you feeling like your BS is being handled exactly how you imagined so you can keep creating.
Hours we work
When you sign up for a package, those are your hours for the entire month so we want to work with you to ensure that you get the most out of them! That said, this means that we will only be able to communicate with you within our working hours, which you’ll know right off the hop! That way we have a set schedule from the very beginning where you’ll know exactly when you can get a hold of your Project Manager. We are big believers in a 10-minute weekly phone call too, so we can set those up to be recurring. The quick pow-wow to chat weekly tasks has proven to be so beneficial. Knowing our working hours really is going to help you fall into the routine right alongside us, where you know exactly when you’ll hear back about everything. And let’s be honest….you don’t want your badass BFF replying one-eyed to emails at 2:00 am!
Communication
There are about 100 ways out there to communicate with any person, at any time. This can naturally make things confusing and nobody wants that! If you prefer email, we are happy to do that. Or maybe a program like Slack is more your jam and that’s awesome too! If you prefer a quick phone call or video chat, that can absolutely be arranged. Whatever is easiest for you, we can definitely accommodate. All forms of communication are counted as your task hours. However you feel best communicating with your Pepper team, it is going to set you up for success when it’s open and honest. Like any relationship, talking helps avoid any confusion and ensures that everybody is on the same page. And we want that page to be the best damn one in the whole book! Naturally, we do our absolute best to be available to you within our work hours, but sometimes we are elbow-deep in a task for another amazing creative so please be patient, we hear you and we’re on our way!
Task Delegation Requirements
We require a minimum of 3 days notice when receiving your delegated tasks. The reason for this is because Pepper prides itself on good quality work and that can’t be done when rushed! If we have notice of each task, it ensures that we are prepared with all of the information we need to do the task completely, send it back to you, and make any edits necessary. Then we can get everything done by its due date and virtually high-five because it’s more BS that has been taken care of! We will do our absolute best to help out if a task is urgent, but the 3-day rule really sets us all up for success. And when you think about it, it eases your mind too because you know that each task is looked through thoroughly, prioritized appropriately, and done with laser-focus.
Work/life balance
As you know, this is Pepper’s main philosophy. In a world where hustling 24/7 has become the norm and the expected, we are loudly preaching our way while also practicing it! We are here to take some of the work off your shoulders so that you can not only create your art and your work, but also so you can rock the most badass work/life balance too. Having this balance used to be a dream, but with your business BFF on board, it’s a reality! And we will be enjoying it too when we aren’t crushing your work! We are a dynamic team who has a wide variety of hobbies and they all play into our health and happiness. We are incredibly passionate about mental health awareness and we want to support yours, while also nurturing ours. If that isn’t winning, what is?! So lean on us with your business stuff. It has to get done and that is exactly what we are here for! And then rest easy knowing that your team is also the best versions of themselves because we are using our non-work hours to lead fulfilling and happy personal lives!
How to set up for success
In order for your dedicated Pepper team to complete your tasks, there are a few simple things you can do to help us help you. When you delegate a task, get us as many details as possible! Bullet-points are great or tell us verbally during our weekly 10-minute phone chat and we can take notes! This will ensure that our team has everything we need to bang out the best quality work. This means access to all images (whether they are somewhere like Pic-Time or DropBox), content ideas for blog copy, some pointers for publications you’d like to submit to, or your ideal vision for the organized inbox of your dreams! And when it comes to the 2-factor verification, all we can say is that we highly recommend turning it off. We’d rather have Paul Blart mall cop security in this regard than the guards at the White House gates. We completely understand privacy and security and we all sign Non-Disclosure Agreements at Pepper, but it can make it difficult to complete your work on social media platforms or in the back-end of a website if there are multiple steps for each password. And also, we don’t want your phone blowing up to let us into something when you’re supposed to be taking epic photos or relaxing on your first vacation in 3 years!
We hope reading some of these tips have shown you how privileged we feel to work with you and to make sure your experience with Pepper is the absolute best. As always, we are just a click away if you ever have any questions, want more support, or just need a sounding board during a hectic time. Hey…what are BFFs for!
Kelsey Munson
Badass Assistant to the CEO
Pepper – Your Badass Business BFF Inc.
