Marc Ashton from ‘bundublog.com’ asked the question:
“Do you think a secretary in a small business needs to be more dynamic and flexible than one in a larger business?
We run a small business and a traditional ‘secretary’ would not work for us as they need to be able to think on their feet a little bit.”
What Marc has done here, is highlight a very important factor. Secretaries for small businesses need to bring to the business a wealth of experience, which can only be gained over time. The draw-back to this fact is the market related salary which needs to go with it. More often than not a small business can not afford it.
A secretary in a large organization has a support structure which she can call upon for the different areas. The secretary in the small business does not have the same luxury. Therefore it is imperative the secretary needs to be not only creative, but also have the skills to find the resources which she needs.
The economic trend over the last few years has been towards small businesses sprouting up like mushrooms after a first spring rain, which indicates that is where job opportunities will be coming from. However, unfortunately a lot of tertiary institutions’ modules do not have practical courses that deal with unique problems encountered in the running of a small business; which means the graduates are totally in the dark when starting with a small company.
At the moment in South Africa there is a wealth of experienced administration staff unemployed. Quite often they are overlooked because of their age. Yet, it is in their age where their vast experiences can be found.
Most younger people just graduating from secretarial colleges, et cetera, come with academic knowledge, most of it totally unsuited to a small business. Whereas an experienced secretary has already been there and done that, up to the point where it becomes like driving her car automatically.
Coupled to all this, most small business owners have never had a secretary, so they don’t really know what a secretary is supposed to do. And quite often the job descriptions are so vague, the secretary then doesn’t know what she is supposed to do.
As each small business is unique, so are the problems encountered by that small business unique. Yet, throughout all those uniqueness, the basic business practices need to be adhered to in order for the business to thrive.
Small business owners should look towards a secretarial service until they become medium sized businesses. The advantages of considering a secretarial service, are as follows:
- Having somebody to field calls professionally whilst they are busy
with clients. Clients of small businesses are also business people with
busy schedules. They get frustrated when having an appointment –
and paying for it – and the business owner is talking on his cell phone
the whole time.
- No need to worry about strikes, boycotts or any other union
problems.
- Select services needed from a package, e.g. set up appointments, correspondence, quotations, et cetera, at a price which will work out much cheaper than a full-time secretary.
- Several small businesses who normally operate together, e.g.
plumber, electrician, handyman, can use the same secretarial services which makes it a whole lot easier to correlate their related
transactions and appointments.
- The organization of functions, which an inexperienced secretary
would find daunting (anyone who has organized functions or
conferences will relate to that).
To answer Marc’s question: A secretary needs to be dynamic and flexible more so in a small business than anywhere else. “Dynamic” is a lot like charisma, it can not be bought, it can not even be given to you. It is something that comes from within PASSION! A secretary needs a passion for her work and who thrives on challenges - where the yard stick is not the bosses approval, but her own standards. And if it is a secretary with experience, these more often than not far exceed those standards set out by the boss.
For further information on secretarial services, leave a comment on the blog.
