POSITION SUMMARY:
This is a new position to our businesses, and you’ll be a key part of this small team as we grow into the next chapter. You’ll be working in our office located near Royal Athletic Park on Vancouver Street and focusing on managing the office space, implementing organizational systems for filing, managing client databases, accounts receivable and assisting the IRRIGO and MicroBrand teams to provide great service in everything we do.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Including, but not limited to:
Maintaining clean client records in our cloud-based system (Podio) for both businesses.
Handling incoming emails and phone calls for both businesses.
Assisting to coordinate irrigation field services with IRRIGO team.
Managing Accounts Receivable, sending invoices and communicating with clients to ensure invoices are paid in a timely fashion.
Assisting the owners to implement systems for both businesses.
General office administration and assistant duties and activities.

SKILLS & REQUIREMENTS:
A zest for small, diverse businesses and teams.
Able to add value to a team by thinking creatively.
Previous experience with bookkeeping, A/R and invoicing.
Familiar with Windows and Mac, MS Office at minimum.
Previous experience in scheduling for field services.
Able to interface with clients, homeowners, contractors and co-workers in a respectful and effective fashion
Knowledge of landscaping, gardening, plant material and landscape maintenance all strong assets
Previous experience in landscape irrigation a strong asset
Previous experience in similar service business a strong asset
Able to effectively track time, take notes and work independently are all essential to this position

Compensation to be determined during interview process and based on experience. Please send your compensation expectations when applying.

Candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. To everyone else we thank you for your interest!

EMAIL US TO APPLY

The post 1/2 or 3/4 TIME OFFICE MANAGER EXTRAORDINAIRE NEEDED appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

We worked with the owners to arrive at a custom WordPress solution that is streamlined, easy to maintain by in-house staff, and communicates their unique store, people and passion for the Vancouver Island equestrian community.

Check out the new site.

Thank you for a great project Greenhawk Vancouver Island!

The post Greenhawk Vancouver Island’s new website! appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

We’ve been using Podio to run our business around here for many years, and we love everything about it. It allows us to maintain some level of order amongst the chaos, track of all our clients, projects, relationships, service history, and much, much more.

We are really pleased to be working with the Podio team as an Authorized Partner, and look forward to helping our clients implement Podio for their workflows by providing consulting services for Podio setup and onboarding.

Some of the many things we love about Podio include:

• Beautiful, uncluttered interface from any Internet-connected computer
• Slick, awesome intuitive apps for iOS and Android
• Having our data with us wherever we are
• Keeping all project communication tied to the project
• Getting away from emails for project management
• Extensive customization, reporting, and completely open approach to creating workflows

To learn more about how we can help your business or association, have a look at our Podio page, and get in touch to setup a demo at any time. To learn more about Podio, have a look at their website here.

The post We are an Authorized Podio Partner! appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

http://www.herowork.com/community-hero-reuben-butterfield

The post Initial launch of the HeroWork directory! appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

It’s brutally honest, and cuts out all the junk and fluff we’re so used to receiving from companies these days. If more businesses took this approach to client engagement and customer service, I assert that the world would be a better place. Everything is summed up perfectly. We’re left knowing everything we need to know from his reply:

1. They are aware of the issue and actively working on it. The solution is coming. 
2. They are progressive and active in their approach and focused more on getting the issue fixed than making excuses or protecting someone’s pride. 
3. This is the Chief Technical Officer of the company typing those words, not a first tier support person. He was likely elbows deep in the solution and doing everything he could to solve the issue.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we all integrate profanity or short one liners into our approach to client engagement, and the situation was everything in this case, (a closed circuit community of committed professional users and partners of an online software application, not an open customer service desk) but it’s a perfect and refreshing response in that specific scenario, and one worth taking a moment to appreciate in an industry that is shielded by multi-tiered support departments, automated hold systems and service status pages that tell us nothing.

Trust is a wonderful thing in client/business relationships. Trust that clients have more interest in knowing that action is happening than smoke and mirrors, and trust that businesses actually care and are working on the solution for their clients.

While we might skip the F-Bomb, we strive to have honest, to-the-point communication like this at MicroBrand, and hope to build great relationships and partnerships as a result. Just like these guys have done with us.

The post A beautifully honest approach. appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

Now, the idea here isn’t to suggest that you do a PDF portfolio instead of updating your website or anything, but to add this great tool to your workflow when introducing a new client to your business or discussing specific scenarios. It should also be noted that we’re not huge fans of cheesy flip books, or most other online PDF viewers, and that we’re talking about nice clean PDF files, designed for your business with a professional look and feel, and consistent branding and messaging.

If your business is mobile and you visit clients at their businesses or meet at coffee shops, this is a great way to present your work in a really organized and professional way, while reinforcing your brand at every step of the way. Even if you’re not in a “creative business” (though we’d argue that ALL businesses should consider themselves as such, but that’s a rant for another time) these have application, and you could craft a little journey to take people on, introducing them to the services you provide, and walking them through the experience of working with your business.

Here’s a few examples of what we’re talking about:

• Design One Stevens Interiors
• Integral Design Lighting Portfolio
• Our Portfolio

Admittedly, we’re a little geeky about these things, and get fired up at the prospect of setting a client up with a slick portfolio layout to express the great crafts, products and services, but give this some consideration as you’re thinking about how you introduce new prospective clients to your business. We’re pretty sure you’ll find some great value in having this in your tackle box indeed.

Want to see more examples? Get in touch!

The post A fresh look at PDF portfolios appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

Let’s meet at your office or ours, online or anywhere in between and see how we can help you position your small or medium-sized business or organization.

Give Reuben a call or email today to get in touch:

• 250.857.4746
• [email protected]

The post Coffee’s on MicroBrand appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

Most of the rules surrounding anti-spam legislation are fairly straightforward, very reasonable, and are designed to ensure that you have permission to send commercial or promotional messages to the recipient.

As a small-scale web host, and also as a small business that uses email to market and communicate from time to time, the important items for us really boil down to:

1. WHO YOU’RE SENDING TO -Who you’re sending the message to is critical from the anti-spam compliance perspective, but also from a marketing angle. Nothing will kill your reputation faster than being pegged as a spammer.
2. HOW YOU GOT THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS -This is significant, and often very misunderstood. Certain requirements apply here, and things like buying contact lists are typically NOT in compliance. Overall, you need to have an existing relationship with the recipient from the past two years, or have a very clean and clear opt-in record where they authorized you to contact them by email.
3. WHAT YOU NEED TO INCLUDE -When you send an email for commercial or promotional purposes, you need to be sure your message includes key components, such as:
   1. Identifying yourself, your business and anyone else on whose behalf you are sending the message.
   2. Clear UNSUBSCRIBE directions. This is perhaps the most important aspect from the recipient’s perspective. Keep it dead simple to get off your list, and make it very clear that when a recipient unsubscribes, that you will honour that immediately and forever. 

In general, what we typically recommend to our clients is that they look to third party solutions rather than managing and sending their own campaigns. This approach simplifies compliance in a big way, and generally results in a much better campaign overall, including analytics, full reports, and details that you just can’t get if you’re emailing on your own. MailChimp is a great example, and one that we use here at MicroBrand, but there are quite a few others, and they all offer exceptional services at reasonable rates. Some include different tiers, some even have free introductory tiers that work really well for small businesses with small lists and light campaign requirements.

The beautiful thing about these services is that they explain the requirements and ensure you’re compliant by default, in a way that makes it simple to follow as you enter your information and setup your account. Additionally, you’re able to setup stunning email campaigns using their templates, or you can engage a designer to help do something really customized to your business and brand. (We’d love to help you with this)

For more information, there is a great website here with specific details and information for the Canadian audience: www.fightspam.gc.ca or there is a great webinar here, directly from the source.

We all get enough spam – Know your requirements, stay in compliance.

The post Email Marketing & Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

The post Fun little video project for itgroove appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.

We were recently contacted by Rogers Childcare in Victoria to help cleanup their WordPress website and get it back online and removed from multiple blacklists and Google’s  Over a weekend they were notified that their out of school care website was infected with multiple instances of malware, and it had been forced off the web by an internet security agency working on behalf of a bank in South America. The website was being used for phishing, sending thousands of spam messages every day, and had dozens of SQL injections that were being indexed in Google with some pretty horrible results given the intended nature of their website.

Their web hosting provider took the website offline, temporarily halting the issue over the weekend, and on Monday, Rogers’ staff began the cleanup process…

Long story short, their webmaster at the time was not able to get the issues sorted out, and after a while they called us to help out.

These things take time, but we were able to get the site fully cleaned up, patched and secure within about 24 hours. The real work though is in getting these kinds of issues delisted when it comes to Google Safe Browsing listings, blacklisting sites, etc. etc.

We’re happy to report that now Rogers Childcare is hosting with MicroBrand and their WordPress website is fully healed and being actively monitored as we go.

The post Childcare website hacked! appeared first on MicroBrand Agency.