Barbara, Founder, ALO Solutions
Founded in 2014 by Barbara Bray, a highly qualified food supplier auditor, ALO Solutions is a B2B food and nutrition consultancy offering food safety, supply chain integrity and nutrition advice to growers, food producers and food service providers.
What We Delivered:
- Highly efficient VA with 30 years’ experience
- Improved invoicing practices
- Delivered prompter payments from clients
- Significantly reduced admin burden
- Enabled founder to focus on growth
With Virtalent I know that if there was a problem, they’d find me someone else to get me out of a sticky situation.
The Struggle
Despite running a thriving consultancy, for Barbara time was definitely at a premium. As the majority of her work is conducted off-site, she either spends her days with clients or traveling to and from meetings and workshops.
As a result, all of the administration work needed to keep her business on an even keel – including returning client messages and following up new business calls – was either delayed or conducted in her increasingly precious free time.
Her main pain points were chasing late payments and ensuring her accountant had all the information he needed to hand, like receipts. All of this additional work was keeping her from spending time on business growth. Every effort was directed at keeping her head above water.
As she put it: “I was busy for all the wrong reasons. Busy with things that didn’t generate an income.”
The Decision
Barbara had previously used an independent VA, but knew that hiring someone in this way was risky – given that they were flying solo and had no sickness or holiday cover.
She needed someone who could cover a broad range of tasks – predominantly relating to number crunching, but would be able to turn their hand to a variety of admin duties as well.
The fact that Virtalent offered a complete support service was reassuring to her. Our scalable plans and the fact additional hours were charged at a flat hourly rate made a difference too.
But it wasn’t until she started working with her dedicated VA, Clare, that she and the team at ALO Solutions truly began to realise the true value in working with Virtalent.
BARBARA BRAY
FOUNDER, ALO SOLUTIONS
My VA, Clare, had been with me four weeks. I had a late paying client who my accountant said I needed to write off. Clare spoke to them once and the bill was paid!
The Work
Clare has covered pretty much every area you’d expect a VA with 30 years’ experience to have: everything from recruitment support to record keeping.
Applying this diverse expertise at ALO Solutions has meant she’s been able to take charge of invoicing and payment chasing from the very start.
While her workload varies each week, she’s not one to rest on her laurels and can turn her hand to a variety of other tasks, including:
- Filing receipts and making payments
- Creating timesheets
- Chasing nutrition information
- Carrying out various admin tasks
The Result
Invoicing has become so much slicker and more professional since Clare began. She’s become the go-to person for any financial admin query.
Barbara’s mastered the art of delegation and trusts Clare to just get on with tasks assigned to her each week, keeping Barbara in the loop to reassure her that things are being worked on.
With so much less to contend with, Barbara’s been able to focus her attention on revenue generation and business growth. Everything else now just falls into place thanks to Clare.
- Improved invoicing practices
- Delivered prompter payments from clients
- Significantly reduced admin burden
- Enabled founder to focus on growth
Help Your Business Thrive. – Not Just Survive
.Enjoyed reading ALO Solutions’ story? A dedicated VA could help you generate even more revenue too!
More Success Stories
Learn how Virtalent VAs are helping businesses grow.
Karina, Founder, Artful Eating
Artful Eating is an online coaching platform (supported by a book) aimed at helping women to lose weight more effectively. Karina Melvin, Founder of Artful Eating, also runs her own clinic in Dublin, Sandymount Psychotherapy Clinic, which specialises in weight-loss therapy, and lectures at University College Dublin.
With Virtalent, it just clicked. They were so helpful, so supportive. Time is at a premium, so having them ready and able to help with my knowledge deficit was incredible.
Jennie, Independent Social Innovation Expert
Living in both Copenhagen and London, social innovation design consultant, Jennie, found it a challenge to balance travel, a varied workload for partners and speaking engagements, alongside. She signed up to Virtalent to work with a specialist Virtual Assistant, Anne. In her VA, she found a talented professional who could help her balance her busy professional life and yet still achieve a sound work-life balance.
Anne helps me in all aspects of my business and personal life, including invoicing and accounting, scheduling meetings, appointments and interviews, booking transport and accommodation, and assisting with research projects.
Neil, Founder, Fast-Break Consulting
Neil’s charity consulting company supports well-known third sector companies such as Oxfam and World Vision. His challenge wasn’t in finding clients; his expertise meant he was drowning in work from day one. The real battle was in managing such a busy schedule alongside raising a young family. Virtalent matched him with Liz, a Virtual Assistant with heaps of experience and the tenacity needed to help streamline his working day. Three years on, Neil continues to reap the rewards of working a little smarter.
I didn’t want a commodity provider, I wanted a service I could tailor to add value to our organisation. Virtalent were the most flexible and open minded. They’re lovely people offering a fantastic service.
Martin, Co-Founder, Cosmic Kids
Martin’s hugely successful kids yoga business was a handful to manage. From keeping their 250,000 YouTube subscribers engaged, to answering hundreds of new enquiries from yoga instructors looking to learn the Cosmic Kids method, Martin’s working day was demanding. Frances - Martin’s dedicated VA - took a proactive sales approach to take care of their customers and gave him some much needed space to think.
Virtalent clears space in our day and in our heads so we can focus on making Cosmic Kids even more amazing! Frances, our UK Virtual Assistant, is utterly reliable – full of initiative and an excellent communicator. I'm very happy we've found her. She's absolutely part of our team!
Barbara, Founder, ALO Solutions
As an expert food and nutrition consultant with big ambitions, Barbara’s client-oriented schedule meant it was difficult to stay on top of crucial admin. Clare - a Virtual PA with 30 year’s experience - took charge and got ALO Solutions’ operations back on track. Today, Barbara can focus on winning and working with more clients, safe in the knowledge that her VA is taking care of the rest.
Before hiring Virtalent, I was busy for all the wrong reasons. Busy with things that didn’t generate an income.
