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Emma Dzenis on the time to get Organised

By Emma Dzenis

Owner of Your Office Sidekick

Organised, reliable, and with a head for business influenced by her entrepreneurial parents, Emma Dzenis started her own business in 2019 offering admin services to small businesses.

Founded as ED Freelance Admin, Emma shortly found that she was able to make a meaningful difference to business owners by helping them with tasks so that they could make the best use of their time.

Newly rebranded as Your Office Sidekick, and with plans for growth, Emma is preparing for the next phase of her virtual assistant business.

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Can you talk us through the Your Office Sidekick concept and the clients that you work with?

We provide administrative support for businesses. A lot of my clients are solopreneurs, who sometimes have multiple businesses, and they’re trying to do it all on their own. We help them with their to-do list, which can be massively varied. The majority of what we do is diary management, inbox management, and PA support.
I enable business owners to focus their time when they’re getting overwhelmed. I can help with the tasks they don’t have the time to do and suggest processes and systems to help them organise themselves, so they are making the best use of their time.

And you also offer some social media services?

Social media management is something I’ve introduced because we get asked about it a lot. We offer a budget-friendly option to manage day-to-day social media, and administrative tasks relating to social media such as scheduling, and making sure businesses have a consistent social media presence.

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How do you balance working virtually with delivering personal service as a Virtual Assistant?

My services are slightly different from your average VA because I do a lot of visiting in person, so I’m not entirely virtual. Most of the people I work with are local, and I visit them and build a relationship in person with the clients as well as manage their needs virtually.

What do you find most rewarding about what you do?

I enjoy setting up processes for people that don’t have them. When I go in and look at a business, and they’ve handed over some tasks to me, I can then suggest software for them to consider using or processes that they could introduce. It’s rewarding when a company adopts those suggestions, and you see it making a difference.

How do you manage your own time to deliver multiple tasks for all your clients?

I track everything. I track all my time on time tracking software and I use a CRM to help with task management. I’ve recently introduced Notion, which is absolutely brilliant for day-to-day organisation.

"I enable business owners to focus their time when they’re getting overwhelmed. I can help with the tasks they don’t have the time to do and suggest processes and systems to help them organise themselves, so they are making the best use of their time."

Emma Dzenis, Owner of Your Office Sidekick

Do you have any top tips for managing tasks?

I always recommend implementing a CRM if you’re not already using one. Some sort of task management software like Trello or Asana is a big help in getting organised, keeping on top of things, and seeing where you’re at.

I also recommend that people track their time. It doesn’t mean you have to be tracking every single task that you do, but just track the time that you’re spending on separate projects and clients. Because you may be surprised when you come to analyse it to see if you are making a profit and if it’s worth your time. It’s interesting to look back and see how much time you’re spending with each client and how long things actually take you.

What are your plans and aspirations for the future?

Initially, when I started the business, I wanted to be really clear to my clients that it was just me and what you see is what you get. In the last year or so I’ve completely flipped that narrative on its head and the goal now is to grow and have a team to fill any gaps in support. I would also like to plug any skill gaps and take on people who are skilled in the things that I’m not an expert in such as certain software that I’m not trained in.

"I always recommend implementing a CRM if you’re not already using one. Some sort of task management software is a big help in getting organised, keeping on top of things, and seeing where you’re at."

Emma Dzenis, Owner of Your Office Sidekick

How do you switch off outside of work?

That’s a really difficult one, because I very rarely switch off. My husband is a motorsport photographer so through the summer months we go away quite a lot at the weekends to race circuits. Getting away is the best way for me to switch off.

What are three of your favourite apps for getting organised?

My number one is Notion. I use Loom for screen recording. And Toggl Track, which is my time tracker.

What are you currently listening to, reading, or watching?

I love a podcast; I listen to them while I’m working.

I listen to The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett and I enjoy comedy podcasts as well – there’s a funny business-related one called Business Anchors with Lloyd and Dan Knowlton.

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