What would you do with an extra 10 to 20 hours a week? Spend more time getting in front of new clients or spend more time reviewing and building relationships with your existing clients? Whatever it is, hiring a personal assistant can help you work on your business rather than in your business, says Mark Mollenhauer, national accounts manager at Australis College.
Australis College is a leading registered training organisation that provides business administration courses. Mollenhauer told Australian Broker that hiring a fully trained and qualified PA can be a huge benefit for brokers.
“Brokers want to be spending more time on getting in front of new clients, reviewing existing clients, building relationships with referral partners and creating more business. Hiring a PA can help them spend more time working on their business and less time working in their business.
“Qualified PAs are equipped with all the skills needed to run an office. They can help with general administration duties, following up documentation, answering phone calls and scheduling meetings.”
Hiring a PA doesn’t have to be costly either, says Mollenhauer, nor does it have to be a lot of effort.
“Personal assistants aren’t just reserved for top executives or big businesses. They don’t have to be costly and you don’t have to spend hours training them and setting them up.
“At Australis, we have partnered with a recruitment agency called TactiCall to create an employment pathway for our Business Administration graduates. Brokers can come to us and we will sit down with them and discuss their requirements. If they don’t want a full-time PA, we can help them get a part-time PA or a temporary PA just to get them through their busiest period – we are completely flexible.
“It also doesn’t have to be a huge cost or effort either, which is often a misconception. Through our partnership with TactiCall, they will organise all the back-office payroll duties. All a broker has to do is pay the hourly rate to TactiCall. The hourly rate is generally around $30-$35, which means a broker could have a part-time PA for $500-$600 a week – giving them an extra 10 to 20 hours per week.”
Currently, the ‘Employment Advantage Program’ with TactiCall is only available in Queensland, with plans to expand this program once it gains momentum. However, Mollenhauer wants to highlight to brokers that the benefits to their business of hiring a PA are undeniable.
“Hiring a PA will help increase time and flexibility and reduce stress, so brokers can focus on growing their business. But the bottom line is, it can add value to their business and help increase settlements and profits,” he told Australian Broker.
Do you have a PA and see the benefits? Let us know in the comments below.
