Client Spotlight  

Golden Corral

The Golden Corral Corporation’s purchasing department was experiencing a problem when they turned to Smart Moms for a solution. “There was too much work and not enough hands”, says Mimi Suddath, Commodities Buyer at the company’s headquarters in Raleigh. Before turning to Smart Moms, the department attempted, unsuccessfully, to redistribute the workload to better manage projects. The company is in a hiring freeze, so a part-time temp became the best solution to obtaining extra help.

Our Smart Mom, Angel Best, assists the department by doing a variety of on-going projects, reports, charts and pitches in where needed. “She has become an integral part of our struggle to manage a changing marketing calendar as well as the rollout of a new restaurant design, while not falling short of our daily workload”, continues Suddath.

“Angel is terrific. She is very proactive, very detail oriented and an upbeat, positive person”, Suddath adds.

Angel tells us, Golden Corral is a “family friendly” company and she enjoys working there.

Golden Corral’s family style restaurants continue in its mission to “Make Pleasurable Dining Affordable”.

Balanced Scorecard Institute

In 2005 The Balanced Scorecard Institute faced a major decision.  The choices were- remain a small business, or move forward, and become a medium-sized business, growing in its strengths, and managing its weaknesses.  They wisely chose the latter.

After all, The Balanced Scorecard Institute provides training, consulting and guidance to  government agencies and companies. The balanced scorecard is a management system  that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results.

Facing time constraints of their own, lack of knowledge in specific fields and missed deadlines, The Balanced Scorecard Institute assessed itself. The result was a search for a bookkeeper to help with payroll, tax and employment laws as well as general duties.  Smart Moms provided the ideal candidate. A few months later when they realized the need for a graphic designer, they once again turned to Smart Moms. 

Having two sub contractors manage these key roles, “has freed up our time to do the things that we do well, while allowing us to manage the things that we don’t do well”, said Julie McMurray, Director of Contracts & Administration.

“Susan and April are consummate professionals.  They manage a home life as well as our business effectively.  Both are extremely knowledgeable in their respective fields.  We honestly can’t imagine what the workload would have been like without them.  They have both met every deadline and exceeded our expectations”. “Smart Moms found the perfect fit for our organizational needs”, continued Ms. McMurray.

The Balanced Scorecard Institute provides public and on-site courses, facilitation services, consulting, information and tools to executives, managers and analysts. http://balancedscorecard.org/

Minding Your Matters

When you are the owner of a rapidly growing professional organizing business with memberships in local organizations and a frequent presenter in the area you don’t have time to handle the bookkeeping and administrative tasks back in the office. 

Janice Russell, also known as The Overseer of Order, was about to hire an employee and she didn’t know how to do payroll.  She wanted to write a book and expand her marketing efforts but, “…most of my time outside of client work was consumed with admin work,” says Russell.  So, the organizer got organized and called Smart Moms.

Her Smart Mom does the bookkeeping, administrative tasks including research, generating documents and sending out mailings.  What has this extra help done for Russell?  “First, it has allowed me to focus on working with clients and completing tasks to make my business grow; writing a book and increasing marketing.  Second, it allowed me to hire another organizer knowing that I didn’t have to worry about all of the i’s to dot and t’s to cross when it comes to payroll and having appropriate state and federal forms filled out.  Third, I have been able to start new projects because I can delegate parts of both old and new projects to my Smart Mom”, Russell adds.

Minding Your Matters® Organizing helps people get organized in their home, business or with their time.  They help clients set up systems that match their personality, needs, and requirements.  The goal in getting organized is to reduce stress, increase efficiency and have time to pursue additional activities of interest.  www.mindingyourmatters.com

Tritest

Tritest is an environmental laboratory that conducts drinking water, waste water and soil analysis.  The 10 year-old company, based in Raleigh, NC provides services to towns, municipalities, industry, mobile home parks, churches even convenience stores.  “If the public drinks from a well the water has to be tested, “said the company’s president, William Sherman. 

Running a successful business that serves clients across North Carolina and Virginia takes a lot of his time.  He needs to have things operating smoothly in his office.  Yet, for a long time he and his office staff found it difficult to identify quality bookkeeping candidates. They found themselves training candidates that would then move on to full-time employment elsewhere. That is the issue most small business owners face when they have key positions that require only part-time work each week.  Finding skilled candidates with strong work ethics who don’t need to work full–time is not easy.

Mr.Sherman heard about Smart Moms from a colleague and contracted a bookkeeper. “We now have a qualified, trained, part-time employee who can get the job done in a reliable and competent manner. (She) has proven she can grow with the position”, Said Mr.Sherman.  Just over a year later Mr. Sherman hired a second Smart Mom to staff the front desk at Tritest’s office. 

Tritest is committed to being extremely customer friendly while providing timely and efficient services.  www.tritestinc.com