"A true visionary mindset and a very great asset to Hartman Industries.” Jacob Hartmann on his virtual executive assistant."
The Company: Hartmann Industries LLC
Global solutions provider Hartmann Industries is committed to delivering effective resolutions to all business challenges. Hartmann Industries have been supporting business owners, managers, and staff from North America, Europe, and Asia.
The Challenge
A professional service provider like Hartmann Industries deals with clients in several different nations, adding complexity to a hectic and fast paced company. To give its clients the best service in real-time, CEO Jacob Hartmann must stay on top of everything – from industry trends, generating reports and digestible analysis, keeping in touch with clients, researching new vendors, and maintaining organization in the company.
“I’m an expat, and living, and still, still having issues. So it’s a very difficult kind of position to fill a niche.” Hartmann said.
With the demand for more focus and energy to run the company more effectively, Jacob needed the right team member to help him, someone who has a specific skill set and at the same time willing to help with the piling general administrative tasks.
Things were seeping between the cracks. A major challenge for Jacob is keeping track of his schedule and being in touch with his VIP clients scattered in different locations and time zones.
“There’s always the need for an extra pair of hands. I’ve tried everything from Fiverr, but I’ve worked in the past, none of it, really, really worked out. I even tried hiring locally here in
Romania,” Jacob shares.
The challenge now is to free CEO Jacob from administrative tasks to spend more time on profit generating work and relationship building with global clients.
The Solution
Hartmann Industries needed a skilled and reliable virtual assistant with an understanding of calendar management and project management. Jacob needed someone who is proactive and takes the initiative where it is necessary. Jacob has experienced working with individual virtual assistants but it never worked for him.
The timing of VALUE Virtual Assistants was perfect. He had never worked with an agency before but decided to schedule an appointment with VALUE because he desperately needs a set of helping hands.
"Coming into the position of actually sitting down with VALUE VA and saying, this is what we need. This is who we need in terms of personality and mindset. A lot of those concerns kind of went away,” Jacob reveals.
Coordinating schedules was one of the biggest challenges Hartmann faced before VA Karina. VALUE VA’s could not be more perfect as Jacob is barely holding on as he was overwhelmed by tiny but numerous routine tasks.
“In the beginning, for example, I was struggling a lot with managing my calendar, things were slipping through the cracks in regards to following up with clients and vendors.”
VALUE Virtual Assistants knows Jacob’s time is his most valuable resource and it is limited. Jacob detailed the processes of working with VALUE and virtual assistants in general. “I would say that having VALUE there to kind of guide us through the process, was a big help and answer a lot of those questions before we even ask them, which is great. It’s great to be transparent and makes our lives a lot easier as well,” Jacob says.
"What really kind of kept us drawn to VALUE as we went through the process, I think, was professionalism,” Jacob shared.
Jacob and VA Karina is a match made in heaven.
The Result
With Valuate Karina on Jacob’s team, the administration backlog quickly gained ground and sped up activities within Hartmann Industries. Karina also helps Jacob with calendar management, such as scheduling and coordinating the schedules with clients across the globe.
“Just based on my previous experience with, you know, people that are calling themselves VA’s and are advertising themselves as VA’s. I won’t lie, my expectations were low going into it,” Jacob honest But his experience with VALUE Virtual Assistants turned differently. “As I said, I’ve been down this road many times and even trying to find people locally here, it was always a challenge.
There were always struggles, people management etc.”
“There was a lot of mess that had to be cleaned up, right? And she [VA Karina] really kind of got the hang of what I was looking for as a manager, as an executive and how the rest of the team and the company worked and how we communicate internally. She was able to pick all that up very quickly with very little guidance, which is great to say.”
As a result of their excellent work dynamics, VA Karina is now in charge of duties other than managing Jacob’s schedule and email. At present, Jacob adjusted more hours for Karina and gave her more tasks like project management. Jacob is all praises for Karina, “She has been great without a doubt.”
“I have very high expectations and I would not hesitate to refer VALUE out to anyone that I felt might need similar services.”
Looking for a reliable virtual assistant? Request a consultation with us to find out more about how we can assist your business.
