All businesses begin as an idea. Some never become much more than that, while others snowball into something much larger than expected.
The latter forms the foundation of The Edwards Company – an idea that turned into a one-woman-band business, that turned into a small team and a slightly bigger business, right the way up to where we are now. As I write this, I’m sitting in The Edwards Company office, cooled by the air-conditioning on one of the hottest days of the year. The room is more than vast enough to house our team of eight Virtual Assistants (and our company mascot and much-loved office pup, Dobby), phones are ringing, we’re typing, business is booming.
It’s hard to believe this all began with Lisa, our Managing Director, and a single laptop.
Once Upon a Time
Eight years ago, Lisa had an idea. She’d spent 20+ years helping businesses in various roles with accounts and with this experience behind her, decided it was time to give it a go on her own. Starting any business is daunting but doing so when there’s only you and your laptop to rely on tends to feel like teetering on the edge of a cliff, trying to decide if you’ll fall or fly if you dare step over the edge. Luckily for us, Lisa is phased by very little and took a leap of faith. Enter, LB Office Solutions.
Lisa knew that she wanted to use her expertise and experience to continue to support other businesses – whether that be with credit control, content creation, general admin or data entry. She set up LB Office Solutions and thus set about making contacts, onboarding clients and offering support where she could.
This is where the snowballing bit comes in.
As Lisa’s work began to be recognised for its outstanding quality, demand grew, which meant the team also had to. With new staff members and a new office, it was time to push the business to the next level. Due to the success of the business overall, Lisa felt there was scope for further opportunity.
LB Office Solutions was split down the middle into The Edwards Company – a Virtual Assistant company specialising in credit control, general admin and data entry – and its sister company, The Edwards Copywriting Company, dedicated to crafting compelling copy for clients. This split enabled the team to focus on their different areas of expertise and brought about plenty of opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients.
It also gave our team members the opportunity to really excel. Take Liz, for example. Liz began working at The Edwards Company in 2017 as Accounts Admin before progressing through the ranks, first to Office Manager and then to Director. Similarly, Sarah began in the same year as Liz, again as Accounts Admin and has recently been promoted to Office Manager.
Isn’t it funny how one idea has given so many people fantastic opportunities for growth?
Happily Ever After
Fast forward a few years to 2021 and The Edwards Company has just celebrated its eight birthday. The two sides of our business are merged once again, creating the ultimate Virtual Assistant service. Our office is filled with our strongest team yet, we’ve successfully navigated the business through a global pandemic, we’re finalists in the West Midlands PA Awards, our brand-new website has just launched – we may be biased, but we think it’s going pretty well!
But why are we telling you this? It’s all well and good reading someone else’s business story, but how does it impact yours?
The answer is simple. Here at The Edwards Company, we work with a lot of start-up businesses who may be finding starting from the bottom quite challenging. What we wanted to achieve by sharing our business story is to help our clients and other start-up businesses out there understand that, despite the title of this blog post, your business journey is highly unlikely to be a fairy tale.
There will be bumps in the road aplenty, wicked witches coming along to shake things up (hello, Coronavirus), evil creatures lurking behind every corner (disguised as piles of admin you keep running out of time for and built-up aged debt that keeps coming back to haunt you), and you may at times feel like it’s impossible to progress. We’ve been there!
We hope that by sharing our business story, you’ll be motivated to continue on your quest to build your business into something far bigger than the idea you first had – it is 100% possible!
Start-up Support
Motivational speeches disguised as blog posts are one thing, but if you need actual support to get your start-up business off the ground, we’ve got that covered too! The following Virtual Assistant services are designed to provide you with the support you need, as and when you need it:
Credit Control
When you’re just starting out on your business journey, it can be tempting to handle your accounts yourself. You may feel that you can’t yet justify spending money on enlisting support. However, having an effectively managed credit control system right from the word ‘go’ is essential for avoiding late payments and built-up aged debt (yes, this can still happen even if your business is a start-up!).
Here at The Edwards Company, we have a range of flexible, affordable credit control packages available. Our Credit Control experts will step in to send out payment reminders, chase late payments and reduce aged debt.
Content Creation
Content is one of the most powerful forms of marketing available to you, especially if you’re just starting out on your business journey. You’ll want to give your business as much exposure as possible through your website copy, social media content, newsletters, emails – the list goes on.
Constantly creating valuable content, however, can be incredibly time-consuming and you may not be able to commit to doing so.
Instead, our team of content creators are on hand to craft compelling copy that will give your business the exposure it deserves.
Data Entry
Data entry is a meticulous process that can take time away from other important aspects of your business if you’re taking on all data entry tasks yourself. On the flip side, rushing to complete such tasks can lead to errors that could cause larger issues later on down the line.
Our data entry experts can dedicate time and focus to your data entry tasks, working to deadlines and ensuring mistakes are avoided entirely. Our flexible, affordable data entry packages make this this perfection solution for your start-up.
General Admin
Let’s face it – no one likes admin. Except, we kind of do! We pride ourselves on our organisational skills and love nothing more than ploughing through piles of admin for our clients.
As a start-up business, you’re likely already feeling the pressure of those few admin jobs piling up – we’d be more than happy to step in and take them off your hands.
As Virtual Assistants, it’s our job to support businesses like yours. If you think you’d benefit from the support of one of our services, please do not hesitate to get in touch.