To my “Dream Team,”

Happy New Year, everyone! As we close the door of 2016 and welcome 2017, today is an excellent time for reflection. What did we accomplish as a team? What journey did we take to get to where we are at?What are our plans for an exciting and fruitful 2017?

I am thankful for everyone in our team. I appreciate each of you and everything you bring in. I know we would not be where we are without your contributions and hard work.

Last year was a year of challenges, transition, and growth. At the beginning of last year, we transitioned from Elance to Upwork. We were hesitant to move platforms, but we knew it was inevitable. We are still in the process of building our name in Upwork, but we are on the right track. Clients who moved with us from Elance are still with us. New clients outside Upwork were also added.

Kate who worked so hard for the last couple of years moved up to a new position as the Assistant Office Manager. Her management training had been slow because of all the unforeseen changes in the office, but we are hopeful that this year, with all the additional support we have, we would be able to fully train and transition her.

The year 2016 was a very challenging year (to say the least.)  With all the delays in construction, problems with the builder, turn- overs, hiring and termination of workers, setting up of the new office, ending years worth of project, losing customers, starting of new projects and relationships—we were still able to gracefully overcome the challenges that were thrown our way. From a small office that could only accommodate eight workers per shift, we were able to build a bigger one that now can accommodate up to thirty. With prayers, sacrifices, long hours of hard work, flexibility, patience, and resilience, we were able to put together our dream team and make our dream office a reality. We welcomed Jacky, Mari, Jeanette, Josef, Dona, Ryan, and Jordan under the administrative assistance team. Maria joined the management team and started assisting with recruitment and HR.  Philip’s expertise in bookkeeping and accounting helped our team handle more tasks from clients by providing us training and sharing his best practices.

With a more solid management team in place and with the help of our awesome VA team, we are ready to make bigger strides in improving our service offerings, growing our existing customers, and expanding our client and worker rosters.  We have earned an excellent reputation as a trusted partner to our clients. We want our reputation for excellence to extend to other areas within our customer community. In a nutshell, that is our goal for 2017.

Because of the efforts of our amazing team, we not only survived the challenges of 2016, we succeeded.  We want 2017 to be even more successful for the company and you.  It is an unbelievable feeling to know that when I talk to existing and potential clients, it is hard for me not to oversell the competency and commitment of my team.

The Help is committed to making its team members’ situation better. As our company continues to grow and flourish, we promise to provide you with more opportunities and benefits. You are the reason behind our success, thank you for all you do.

Sincerely,

Astrid 

P.S.

For those who work from home, here are photos of our new office. Visit us soon!