Episode Summary

Have you ever wished you could get a behind-the-scenes look at another business’ balance sheet? 

In today’s podcast episode, you’re going to get a breakdown of expenses! Melissa Swink shares how much it costs to run her virtual assistant services company, Melissa Swink & Co. She discusses the labor costs, merchant fees, and various software expenses, plus client and team gifts, bonuses, and business insurance. Gain insights into the investments required to scale a business and apply what you learn to your own operations!

Key Highlights:

• Running a virtual assistant company involves a range of expenses, including labor costs, merchant fees, and software expenses.
• Understanding the costs involved in scaling a business can help entrepreneurs make informed decisions.

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone. Welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink. And in today's episode, I am excited to do something a little bit different and peel back the curtain and give you a glimpse behind the scenes of how much I spend to run my business every month. And the idea from this episode came from a conversation that I had with one of my team members earlier this week.

she had approached me with the idea of adding TikTok to our social media strategy. And probably like you, as a business owner, there's just so many things that we could be pouring our time and energy and money into. And I just wanted to hear from her, love the suggestion that she had, but hear from her more specifically, what do you see are our opportunities on TikTok? Who would we be able to reach on TikTok? What's the time commitment? And all these different questions that I had.

And during our conversation, she had mentioned that she has a client who's in the photography world and she did a video on I'm a photographer and this is how much I spend to run my business every month. And she said this was a trend that was going on and tick tock. I'm not personally on tick tock, so I certainly have seen tick tock videos and things like that, but I'm not on there all the time. And so this was a trend that was going on and I thought it was really interesting.

and thought I would share today of how much it does cost to run my virtual assistant services company. But it's something that I'd be curious about also with, you know, even different industries that we work with. Like I think about our brick and mortar clients who have building costs and employees and, their inventory, their products, their services, all these things. It's always interesting to think about, you know, how much does it cost to run this thing? Because sometimes we see

where somebody is in terms of their journey and their success. you know, sometimes it's not always apparent of how much work it has taken to get to that point or how much work it takes to run something or certainly how much money it takes to run something. So all of that being said, I thought I would piggyback on this TikTok trend and give you a glimpse behind the scenes of what it actually costs to run a company like mine. So first things first, this will not come as a shock to any of you probably.

But being a virtual assistant services company, our number one cost is labor. We have a wonderful team of about 20 people as I'm recording this episode and I pay my team right off the top. Basically, we take in the payments from our clients. I turn around and I distribute that to our team and that is about 60 to 65 % of our sales on any given month.

That is at the top. Also something that I consider off the top is our merchant fees. So that is our credit card processing fees. The way that we work it in our business is that we send an invoice for our clients. We work on monthly retainer primarily. 95 % of our work is ongoing on a month to month basis. And so about five days before a

monthly retainer is set to renew, we send them an invoice reminding them that this payment is going to process. And then when that payment processes, it automatically goes through and it's hands off. It's all automated, which is really, really slick. It's a way that we've streamlined everything. And it's a way that we are able to receive those funds right away and distribute them accordingly. And clients don't have to think about it. There's no action required on their part in order to keep the work going with us.

And that being said, there's a cost involved. So I would say that on average it varies a little bit from month to month. Our merchant service fees are about two to two and a half percent. That might sound pretty low to you because I know Stripe and Square, those are all, you know, a good three, three and a half, maybe even four percent. But fortunately, because a lot of our clients are paying with business cards, there is a lower rate available to us.

I am certainly not an expert in merchant services. I have a dear friend who works in that space. She is our provider for these services. Reach out to me if you are curious to learn more about this and I can refer you to her and she can take a look at what you've got going on and let you know if she would be able to help you out in any way and lower those costs. Because I know that credit cards are kind of an expectation in today's business world and it can be really, really costly.

And if it doesn't need to be that costly, why not take advantage of it? So all that being said, right off the top are our labor costs and the cost of receiving those payments from our clients in the first place. So from there, we have a couple of different, I would say, categories of expenses. First thing that I'll mention is coaching fees, as I have mentioned.

I work with some wonderful business coaches. I think that it's really important to have that mentorship and also just that connection with others in my business mastermind group that's part of that. So we have our coaching fees. That is something that I have invested in and it has paid back dividends in terms of, I should say,

It has paid back exponentially in terms of our business growth. And when I take a look at where we were and the level of growth that we experienced before working with coaches and after has been a night and day difference. So this is an investment that is always on my radar and it's something that I prioritize. And I think that our whole team and many of our clients have benefited from this as well. It's just a cascading effect as I am able

get that coaching for my leadership and our business growth, that just has a ripple effect on everybody that we work with. So after coaching fees, we have our software costs. And so I'm going to walk through each of these because I think it's really interesting to hear exactly what people use for different things. So in no particular order, we first of all have our G Suite expenses.

We do use the Google platform for our email, for our calendars, for our shared drive and things like that. Every once in a while we'll use Google Meet with a client if that's their preference in terms of video conferencing for meetings. But G Suite is one of our can't live without systems that we use to run our company. And we do use, of course, our custom domain, melissaswink .com. all of our client, or I should say all of our team members

are set up with a Melissa Swink and Co. email account, and that is how they're able to access all of our shared folders and things. When I think about it, I think at the time that I'm recording this podcast, I want to say it's between $7 and $8 per month per user. when I take a look at all the advantages that we receive from having that software, it is definitely a no -brainer for us. I also have some Dropbox expenses that I have as well.

Some of our clients, depending on what industry that they're in, use Dropbox for some of their files that they need our team to be able to access. And so we have some Dropbox expenses as well. I have been a Dropbox user personally and really through my company since almost the very beginning. And there's so much that I have on Dropbox that the idea of navigating away from it right now just kind of gives me anxiety.

So I still maintain my own Dropbox subscription and pay for it for our team members when it makes sense and when clients need them to have that access. Another software expense that we have on a monthly basis is Squarespace. So my website is built on Squarespace and that of course includes the hosting and all of that. And so that is something that we pay for every month as well. I know that there's a monthly subscription.

or excuse me, a yearly subscription for Squarespace as well. QuickBooks Online is the accounting software that we use and that is used in a couple different capacities. Of course, we have all of our client contact information in there. have our, we use that to raise invoices every month and as needed for one -off projects and things like that. But then also that is synced with our bank feeds so

we're able to automatically pull in transactions, categorize them, and have in real time reports at our fingertips of exactly what's coming in, what's going out. I remember way back in the day when I first started my business, and for the first several years to be honest, I was just using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all of our ongoing expenses. And you know what, if that's where you're at, I think it makes perfect sense if you're starting out. But when it gets to the point where maintaining that spreadsheet

is just getting to be very time consuming, it's probably time to take a look at upgrading to QuickBooks or something like that. So we have our QuickBooks Online. The other piece of that is we use Biller Genie for our credit card processing itself. I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail on that because I mentioned that a little bit earlier in the episode, but that is the system that syncs with QuickBooks Online. So QuickBooks Online, we create the invoices.

And in Billergenie, that is what processes those payments and they sync seamlessly together. Another software expense that we have is Calendly. So I have Calendly set up for a variety of things and it's automatically connected to my calendar. So potential clients can of course book, excuse me, can book consultations with me and...

I also have an option in there to schedule virtual coffee meetings with me if we met in a networking capacity or would just like to connect and things like that. I also use Calendly for growth mapping calls with our clients. Every six months we gift our clients a free growth mapping session just to take a look at what are their goals that they're working on in the upcoming, you know, six to 12 months.

what are some of the things that our team can do to support them and just make sure that the services that we're providing to them are in alignment with where they're headed. Because what I've found is that oftentimes clients will start working with us and they have like a quote unquote punch list of here's all the things that I need help with. Here's what's slipping through the cracks. Here's what I'd like to do. And we start tackling those things and then we just kind of are on autopilot and we're just doing those things and that's great. But it doesn't necessarily reflect

where they are headed. We always want to be recalibrating to make sure that we are all aligned with the services that we're providing and where they're headed. So growth mapping calls are great for that. I use Calendly for one -to -ones with my team. I use it for interviews with potential team members. There's just so many different meeting types that I have set up in Calendly that it really streamlines the manual time that it would take for

me or my assistant to be emailing back and forth with people to schedule those calls. So the other thing that's really helpful with Calendly are the intake forms that we can build in. So when somebody requests a consultation with me, I can learn a little bit more about their business. What does their team look like? What are some of the things that are stressing them out and keeping them up at night? What are some of the things they'd like to hand off? I can find out this information prior to our call, and that just helps us be more efficient with our time together.

all of those things. So, and I certainly, we have the same types of intake forms for potential team member interviews, things like that, Calendly is a breeze. Okay. Another one is Zoom. Zoom is by far the most popular video conferencing software that we use as a team and with our clients internally. So that is an expense as well. Flowdesk is what we use for our email newsletters.

and some of our drip campaigns and things like that. We originally were on Mailchimp when I first started my company, and I think that's a great place to start. It's free or low cost. don't know if they still have a free version, but they certainly did back in the day, and that worked great. I've just found that Flowdesk is a little bit more visually appealing than some of the other platforms that are out there. So that's what we use for our email marketing. Single point.

is a new system for us. That's something that we are implementing behind the scenes. That is for automated payments to our team members. So that is something where we can automatically basically direct deposit team payments into their accounts and using one system. So that is something that's new and that we're investing in as well. Another software that we use is Loom. You've probably heard me talk about this before.

But Loom is something that I use to record voiceovers and when I'm giving feedback, like maybe somebody sends me a graphic or they send me an email draft and I can just kind of talk through, let's move this here, let's bold that there and offer that feedback while I'm recording my screen. I also use it for trainings for our team. If I'm just showing somebody how to do something, I walk through it, complete the task and then send that Loom video their way.

Another thing that I use for Loom, or I use Loom for is sending a video overview of proposals to our potential clients. So all of our proposals are fully customized based on the needs of the client. And then what I like to do before sending those out, because nobody likes to take the time to read pages and pages of information, I will go through and record a voiceover video of.

Here's a recap of what we talked about. Here's our recommendations. Here's some things you should know about our working agreement and people love them. So Loom is a big one. Slack is not something that we use as a team as a whole, but we do have clients who prefer to use Slack to communicate or maybe they have a team that our team also needs to be able to be integrated with. We do invest in Slack in those cases as well. Canva Pro.

is another one that I pay for each month, great for sharing graphics and there's just so many benefits and so many great templates and stock photos that we can use to create beautiful visual content for not only our company in general, but also to our clients as well. HelloSign is a software that we use for signing legal documents, so certainly sending out.

proposals and working agreements to our clients, but then also sometimes from time to time team members. If we have a new team member coming on board, having them sign independent contractor agreements, things like that. Hello sign, think it's being rebranded to Dropbox sign, but that is something that we use as well. Clockify. Clockify is a tool that we use to keep track of all of our team's time.

both internally if we have different meetings and one -to -ones, or if I have team members who are doing work for Melissa Swink and Co. That's all kept track of internally, but then also for clients as well. And then we're able to pull reports every month to make sure that number one, clients are using the hours that they are purchasing from our team, and also taking a look at, know, do we need to make some adjustments in terms of, you know, maybe we have clients who

you know, growing and they need to add some more to support from our team, things like that. So we're pulling those reports as well. Clockify is a great tool for keeping track of all of that. Agora Pulse is a system that we use for managing all of our clients' social media platforms. So it is in one space where we're able to connect to say like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all the different social media platforms that our clients are on.

and use that system to schedule their social media content for the upcoming month. But then also we're able to review and see comments and messages that come in. And it just streamlines all of that rather than having our social media managers logging into, you know, dozens of different social media accounts every day. It's all in one place. Asana, I'm not going to get too deep into this one because I know I've talked about it a lot on

the podcast, but Asana is the project management tool that we use to keep track of all of our internal and client tasks and projects. We also have lots of ongoing templates in there for when we onboard a new client or we onboard a new team member, or if we have an online event, we have those templates built out. So all we have to do is duplicate those, update them accordingly.

and move on from there. So Asana is great. That's what we use to ultimately run our company in terms of the actual work that we're doing and the deliverables that we're providing for our clients. The last two pieces of software, I realize that this is getting lengthy, but I hope that it's interesting for you. I always like to know like specifically, tell me what are you using for this or how are you keeping track of that? Our last two pieces of software related to the podcast,

Captivate is what we use to broadcast the podcast out to all the different platform center out there like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, things like that. And Riverside FM is what I use to record these episodes. And the cool thing is, is that we're also able to generate a lot of show notes through AI, which is a helpful tool. But then from there, our content writer,

Basically, she polishes them and takes a look at everything and just makes sure that she kind of humanizes them, if you will. AI is pretty specific and direct and can be very detailed. She goes in and just warms it all up, polishes it to make sure that it is reader friendly and more personalized for all of you who ultimately take a look at them. So those are our software costs.

I've just got a couple more expenses that I can walk through here for you and then give you a grand total at the end, which you're probably curious about, because I'm naming off dozens of things that we're investing in on a monthly basis. So the next thing that we do is client and team gifts and some bonuses as well. So I think that recognition is really important and rewarding our team members for a job well done and also acknowledging and appreciating our clients as well.

So for clients, we send out anniversary gifts of when is their anniversary with getting started with working with us. And then we also do a seasonal gift for everybody, usually around Thanksgiving is when I like to get that sent out. And then for our team, we do birthday gifts for our team and those seasonal gifts as well. But then we also make sure that we reserve some funds each month for team recognition gifts. And really what this is, is it gives us the opportunity

to reward and shout out members of our team who have really gone above and beyond during the previous month to support one another or clients or had an innovative idea, things like that. So those are some of the things that I think are really, really important and go a long way in terms of showing gratitude and encouraging our team members. Lastly, insurance, business insurance is something that I think is really important for anybody who's in business.

But that is something that we pay for every month as well. So all of that being said, grand total for things like the merchant fees, coaching fees, software costs, team and client gifts, bonuses, recognition gifts, insurance, and all of that is about between $3 ,000 and $3 ,500 each month. And that does not include our team costs. So that is above and beyond. But these are our actual month to month expenses that are fixed.

whether we have business or not, these things are going out. So that is the grand total for the expense side of things, not the labor side of things. That varies quite a bit just based on what we've got coming in every month. But all of that being said, if you know a business owner who is contemplating their next move to scale their business and is taking a look at the investments that are required in order to do so, would you please share this episode with them?

I always think that it's comforting to know that you're not alone no matter where you're at in business. I feel like that next step always comes with some type of a cost or investment. And so it's just always nice to kind of hear like, this is something that they're investing in or, you know, if that's something that they can take a step and implement, maybe I can do that too. So as the old saying goes, it takes money to make money. So thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. I hope that you found this information.

interesting and certainly reach out to me if you have any questions about some of the tools that we use or anything like that. I will see you in the next episode to continue growing and scaling your business beyond you. Have a great day.