Most in the construction business are running their companies out of their trucks. They are turning off the bulldozer or standing on a roof to answer phone calls. They have copies of almost all of their paperwork in their trucks instead of at their desks. Instead of being able to relax once home, most construction company business owners are drawing up invoices or sending off emails to potential customers when they should be eating dinner.
S.R. Office Management in Spring, Texas has changed the way construction companies do business. S.R. Office Management is a remote office manager that handles services such as: accounting, virtual assistant secretaries, payroll specialist, document creation (contracts, invoices, etc), office manager, call center operations and more. All of this was created just for construction companies to better their businesses so that they don’t have to worry about office work and can focus on gaining new clients and servicing old clients more efficiently.
Sylvia Gail Ricketson, owner of S.R. Office Management, has more than five years of experience in providing topnotch strategic consulting, financial analysis, and good, fast customer service.
S.R. Office Management remotely manages an office staff that works for small construction/service businesses. S.R. clients receive a remote secretary, bookkeeper, payroll specialist, and an office manager as their new staff so they do not have to rent and manage an office space, pay for desks, computers, filing cabinets, internet, electricity, or manage the staff.
Because these expenses are shared between several clients, depending on the needs of the company, the cost can be half and sometimes a fourth of what running an office one’s self would be. S.R. is experienced in the industry, they know what construction/service businesses need. S.R. knows construction companies concerns. They know that the business owner may be the best roofer, grinder, dirt-panner, remodeler, etc., but lack the skill to be a secretary, a bookkeeper, a marketing specialist, and they are tired of being on the phone with vendors, sending invoices, contracts, and payment applications, to clients. The beauty of S.R. Office Management is that clients no longer have to worry about office work anymore and can focus on gaining new clients and servicing old clients more efficiently.
S.R. Office Management provides payroll processing and accounting services to assist small and medium businesses in preparing financial documents and tax forms. All staff is trained to use the latest versions of software for bookkeeping in order to prepare gross receipts, tax reports, Payroll, 1099 Forms, W-2 Forms and more. With the help of the Remote Assistance Services clients are reminded of business meetings as well as paying bills on time. The S.R. remote assistant helps clients organize their schedules, answer phone calls, and prepare documents as well as print and store files in the event of an emergency. Understanding that business owners work long hours, the remote assistant is available 13 hours a day with after hour perks.
We asked the owner of S.R. Office Management, Sylvia Ricketson, what people who don’t have anyone to cover their office load should do, she replied, “When doing it yourself, I strongly suggest employing a bookkeeper. You should still be doing your own document creation, web maintenance, client relations, and payroll. But you will pay your CPA a lot of money at the end of the year for something that a bookkeeper can help keep up with all year long. Also, when a lending company or client wants to see your financial statements, you can just call her and have her fax or email them to you. These statements are great for your own reviewing and can offer great insight as to where your money is going and where it should be going. If you insist on doing bookkeeping yourself (and please, please do some bookkeeping), use QBO- Quickbooks online and take a tutorial class. I also strongly suggest that you purchase templates for invoices, lien releases, etc. online. Making these professional documents yourself takes a lot of time and frustration. Finally, I will beg that you spend more time on bookkeeping than on building your website, logo, or wrap for your truck. While these things may seem to tell your customers so much about you and thus should be perfected, most of my clients get caught spending many many hours (and frustrating their designers) looking for perfection in something that their customers are merely going to glance at. Your logo or truck wrap is not on display in an art gallery and no one is going to stare at it for half an hour analyzing the meaning (think about how long you stared at the Pepsi logo trying to understand the company). Spend more time with your customers, perfecting your service, and what’s leftover, apply towards better bookkeeping and office organization. A good organizational system can be invaluable to the efficiency of your company. You may wonder how finding an old document easily really helps your customer, but after you spend several hours looking for it you’ll realize that that time could’ve been better spent. Look into cloud storage and become VERY friendly with your scanner.”
Sylvia Gail Ricketson says she didn’t mean to specialize in construction companies. It just happened. She fell in love with the type of people who run construction companies and began learning new ways to help them with the office work that they don’t have time for and usually don’t like. Ricketson got into business because she knew a General Contractor who was tired of making the profits for other people. He recruited and closed his clients, managed his projects, and then collected the checks and deposited them into his bosses’ account. In 2009, she convinced her friend that they could run the business themselves and their first business was born. Part of Ricketson’s responsibility was to handle client and vendor management, procuring permits, price shopping and closing insurances, payroll, invoices, reputation management, document creation and bookkeeping. At the end of 2009, Ricketson began a telemarketing center, that called residents in storm damaged areas and generate leads for themselves as well as clients.
After several years, she and her partner began to grow in separate directions and decided to dissolve the company. Deciding that she didn’t need a partner, Sylvia Ricketson moved to Houston, Texas where she began helping other small businesses reach their start up goals. She became a business office consultant reviewing or establishing bookkeeping, procedures, business documents, websites, sales, etc. Before she knew it, she had several people requesting her services and she had the idea to create S.R. Office Assistant.
Sylvia Ricketson’s career didn’t start with a decision to become an entrepreneur, it started when she decided to go into business. In fact, it happened rather quickly. She states, “There was a moment between ‘I’m thinking about starting a business’ to ‘I have a business.’ ” She began to realize she had great entrepreneurial skills when shortly after she started her first business, she recalls having friends and acquaintances who were starting companies of all kinds and everybody had questions about what they should do. She didn’t have to know what their industry was, but she knew where they needed to start their education on entering their businesses.
Rickets says that while she realizes she’s an expert entrepreneur she is always learning. When in the business of being an entrepreneur, she suggests having someone who knows the business better that you that is dependable. For Ricketson, it was her 26 year old self-made millionaire friend. He told her some secrets to building a hard-working loyal sales staff. For years she was picking through the industry like a “greenie.” Ricketson says she is lucky because most of S.R. Office Management’s clients are in construction and labor service end jobs (land clearing, general contracting, hauling, etc.) so the staff already knows the industry pretty well, however in the office management industry, they are always learning things from clients and other employees.
Sylvia Ricketson says it took years to earn the micro-specialized training in the construction/service industry. The services that S.R. Office Management offers saves clients time and creates efficiency in their business. It also protects the company with proper paper trails. What most people who aren’t in the office don’t understand is, the back of the company is just as important as the front. Every construction company needs a team that is working as hard in the office as they are working in the field. That’s why S.R. Office management is helping with the stress of the office work with the virtual assistant.
S.R. Management has changed the way construction businesses can operate, they are currently serving businesses within a 25-mile radius from Houston with a focus on Spring, Texas. For more information, please visit: http://www.srofficemgt.com.