We’re making some changes around here! Our mission for the last decade and more has been to give Kiwi businesses the support they need to grow and evolve. Now it’s our turn.
No need to worry if you’re working with Released; it’s nothing that affects our clients or the services we provide. Names and messaging might look different in the future, but the comprehensive support we provide the trades and service businesses on our books remains the same.
Released and FreeUp: One team, one name
You may have heard of our sister company FreeUp, the software consultancy for trades businesses. Since buying the business in 2023, director Kellie has operated both in tandem, drawing on expertise and talent from the Released team to offer FreeUp’s services which include:
Tech strategies, helping businesses that are either starting from scratch or looking for a change from their current set-up to find and implement the right tech tools.
Software audits, helping businesses that are happy with their software or app stack to make sure they’re getting the most value from it.
Ask us anything sessions, during which clients can ask all the questions they have and receive informed answers and advice from the experts in a range of software products.
Both companies work to help Kiwi trades business owners to free up their time, release their administrative burden, improve their systems, and grow in a variety of ways. The software expertise that drives FreeUp is intertwined in the day-to-day or Released’s business support.
A move to unite both under the same banner, then, is no big shift. Released will become the name that incorporates our administrative support, our software support, and all the areas in which the two merge.
From virtual assistants to growth partners
In for a penny, in for a pound, right? While we’re bringing FreeUp under the Released banner, we also took some time to think about how we describe our team and what we provide. For many years we’ve advertised ourselves as virtual assistants, and that’s not inaccurate. We certainly assist businesses, and do so virtually.
Outgrowing the “VA” label
Calling ourselves virtual assistants was never a lie, and it’s still not untrue. We started by simply taking simple administration off the plates of busy business owners: emails, invoices, quotes, and scheduling. Solid, definable tasks that were a very practical help! However, as our team grew to include a huge array of expertise, and the outlines of what we did for our clients got fuzzier, we found the term “VA” to be a little lacking.
As it turns out, there are limitations to the term “virtual assistant". Many people consider hiring a virtual assistant to be simply outsourcing basic administrative tasks, often to an offshore service. We can take admin off your hands, for sure, but we can do so much more, too. Calling ourselves a virtual assistance agency was putting us in a box we were too big for, and aligning us with valid but very different offerings like those offshore agencies.
Released offers access to a wide variety of business support services as part of a comprehensive whole. You don’t need a full-time marketing person, bookkeeper, payroll practitioner, and administrator, but you might need those areas of expertise in small amounts here and there. Once you’re working with our team, it’s easy to add on services or scale back according to how and what you’re doing business-wise. You'll get specialised, focused expertise in the right areas, paying only for what you use.
As FreeUp moves entirely under the Released banner, our in-house software expertise is a fantastic resource for small business owners and one that can be seamlessly woven into other types of business support. Our team can schedule yours easily and troubleshoot any issues that arise when they’re already very familiar with the job management software that you use. We can suggest a new software, train your team in using it to full effect, and then wield it like an administrative time-saving weapon to cut down the number of admin hours you’re paying for significantly.
We’ve got your back
Perhaps the best way to get across what we do for Kiwi businesses is not with a label, but with a description of the relationship. Our new messaging leads with what we do for our clients: we have their back, in a whole variety of ways. More than just completing assigned tasks, we adopt your success as a common goal and commit to becoming part of the team. This means answering phones when you can’t, putting in the work to chase payments and balance the books, looking for ways to make your operations more efficient, picking up slack, and generally caring more than a virtual assistant should.
Our clients told us the real value we provide wasn't the tasks. It was knowing someone had them covered. Our branding wasn’t capturing the real-life impact that was being reported back to us: businesses taking on more staff, adding vans, winning bigger contracts, and using the reporting and feedback we provide to make decisions about growth.
Partnering in your growth
So, what is it exactly that we do that goes above and beyond your typical VA? Plenty:
Communicate with your customers with no “lost in translation” moments thanks to local and industry knowledge and a fully NZ-based team. We make a better answering machine than your voicemail.
Take on more complex or dynamic tasks like bookkeeping, payroll, marketing, and training that require critical thinking and specialised knowledge.
Offer careful oversight of your processes, picking up issues before they become bigger ones and making suggestions to streamline them.
Bring any road blocks or problems (with permission) to the Released group chat, a magical place where many decades of varied experience in all aspects of business is accessed.
Provide quality software advice and guidance, whether you’re deciding which tech tools to use or trying to get the most value from the one you’ve got. In fact, our POD system is based largely around job management software types, so you’ll get assigned a point person who’s familiar with your digital toolbelt.
We can take on more responsibility and offer more insight than a barebones virtual assistant. With over a decade supporting Kiwi trades and service businesses behind us we have it down to a fine art, and are able to make suggestions for improvement, efficiency, and growth.
“Growth partner” better describes the full spectrum of services that Released brings to the table. We’ll help you grow, whatever that might mean. For previous clients, it has looked a variety of different ways:
Giving time back that business owners can spend on leadership, training, planning, or just taking a family holiday.
Creating new leads and jobs through personalised digital marketing strategy and execution.
Creating more efficient and streamlined systems, both human and digital, that allow scaling and growth with less stress.
All of this to say that we’re changing the way we talk about ourselves and our offering to be a little bit more accurate, but we’re not changing anything else! You can expect the same comprehensive, effective, and forward-thinking business support from the Released team.
Want to know more about what we do, or have a discussion about how you can use our services to supercharge your business? Book a 15-minute chat and let’s get down to it.
