How can a virtual assistant become a start-up's office manager?

Context

Addingwell is a fast-growing digital marketing company, founded three years ago. From four co-founders to 15 full-time employees, the company now supports over 1,000 customers. For Julien Decroix, President of Addingwell, TheAssistant has been an essential ally in this expansion phase.

Missions

Initially, Addingwell entrusted TheAssistant with simple administrative tasks, but very quickly the solution established itself as a versatile ally, known to the entire in-house team.

"I've been surprised at how easily TheAssistant haskept up with our growth. It absorbs more of the load than I originally imagined."

Administrative assistant

TheAssistant has enabled the Addingwell team to structure administrative processes such as :

• Pre-accounting: invoice management, bank reconciliations on Pennylane, and weekly checks.
• monthly reminders: follow-up of unpaid invoices and quarterly update of partners.
• handling day-to-day requests: switchboard to answer marketing or prospect requests, and transmission of leads to the sales manager.

Iterative management 

Julien sometimes opted for a gradual implementation of certain procedures. Rather than waiting until the process was complete, he defined a way of iterating dynamically with his assistant on the procedure. This enabled him to gain in fluidity and reduce the time needed to write them. 

HR Assistant

As new employees joined the company, Julien also integrated TheAssistant on repetitive and time-consuming processes related to HR management:

• Onboarding of new employees: handling administrative matters such as health insurance, luncheon vouchers and transport passes.
• HR document processing: tracking files, managing payroll-related invoices using tools such as Silae and Alan.

This enabled managers to concentrate on the strategic aspects of integrating new recruits.

"At our company, everyone knows our assistant Camille. For newcomers, it's often their first contact and they think it's someone in-house, whereas it's TheAssistant."

Specialized assistant

The Addingwell team has also entrusted TheAssistant with specific technical assignments for one-off or recurring needs:

• Competitive intelligence: monitoring new partners and sending monthly reports to the team.
• Management of business tools: updating databases in Airtable and Qonto.

• Organizing a move: finding service providers and managing formalities.
• Family planning: make an appointment for your children.

"One of the tasks that really saved me time was calling all the sports clubs around my home to organize my children's Wednesdays."

Results

In just one year, TheAssistant has enabled Addingwell:

• save internal resources: the recruitment of an office manager was postponed thanks to outsourcing.
• structure its processes: procedures are automated and run smoothly, even during peak periods. 
• greater peace of mind: Julien and his team know that critical tasks are always handled on time, thanks to the human-IA complementarity.
• to concentrate on the strategic tasks necessary for Addingwell's development. 

TheAssistant 's agility has enabled Addingwell to outsource smoothly and adapt to the company's tools (Airtable, Alan, DocuSign, Hiscox, Pennylane, Qonto, RH Silae, Stape, Stripe, Swile, etc.). 

"The cost is ultra-competitive. The solution earns me far more than it costs me. What's more, what impressed me is that there are real people behind it. When I have a subject, it's easy to contact them, and that's reassuring."

Next steps 

To reduce interruptions and concentrate on product development. Julien plans to centralize internal requests via a Notion or Trello form, managed by TheAssistant. This approach would enable him to structure tasks and gradually create adapted procedures, thus optimizing his organization and productivity.

Today, Addingwell wants to extend the use of TheAssistant to its entire team.

Conclusion

More than just an assistant, TheAssistant has taken on the role of true office manager and played a strategic role in Addingwell's growth. Thanks to TheAssistant, Addingwell has gone from an ambitious start-up to a structured company with over 1,000 customers - without the administrative hassle.