Documentation, Content Creation, and Executive Assistance: hmpsn studio Case Study
After more than a decade working in the events industry, 2020’s pandemic curveball opened up a new world of opportunity for Josh Hampson. He had already been building stunning websites as a side gig when his event sales and account management work dried up due to lockdowns and social distancing. Josh didn’t let that get him down.
Instead, he went all in on his side gig and launched hmspn studio, where he transformed his passion for creating extraordinary event experiences into empowering others to boost efficiency and profitability for their businesses by creating remarkable online experiences.
Challenges Abound
Josh’s vision for his web design and development studio’s growth was ambitious from the start. However, he also knew that to achieve his goals of serving his clients with high-touch communication, seamless efficiency, and smart strategies, he’d need to build the right team.
His past experience in leadership roles and his evident commitment to investing in and empowering others have contributed to his success in growing his team of freelance designers, developers, and content creators. However, almost two years into his entrepreneurial journey, he still wore many hats in his business. Workdays were getting longer, and he was handling too many tasks that he did not enjoy, which distracted him from his focus on impeccable client service.
Administrative tasks like invoicing, payroll, expense tracking, and calendar management were bogging him down, and occasionally, important tasks were falling through the cracks.
He had working processes in his business, but little was documented, so training new team members ate up too much of his time.
His clients also needed more help with social media strategy, content creation, and posting to social media, but his capacity was tapped.
I have been working with the Trusty Oak team since February 2022, and they have been instrumental in helping me grow and scale my business. I currently have three Trusty Oak VAs on my team, and they provide support on all sorts of internal and client-facing tasks.
Josh Hampson, Founder and Webflow Developer hmpsn studio, Austin, TX
An Executive Assistant to Save the Day
He knew he needed a special team member to pick up a wide range of tasks, but Josh had never hired a virtual assistant before he learned about Trusty Oak from Facebook. He spent a few days reviewing the Trusty Oak website and browsing the virtual assistant profiles before booking a call with Kristine Rego, one of Trusty Oak’s client success coordinators. Kristine talked with Josh to learn more about his business, goals, and biggest challenges. She answered his questions and shared how he could get started with Trusty Oak’s no-contract Growth Starter Pack as soon as he was ready.
A week later, he was meeting his new VA, Jennifer Szpak! Josh and Jennifer had several meetings in the first couple of weeks to get to know each other and strategize how Jennifer would partner with Josh, and he started handing things over right away. Once Jenn had access to the accounts and information she needed to help him, they were off and running.
Josh and Jennifer committed to a 30-minute weekly check-in Zoom meeting to stay connected and give Josh a regular opportunity to review his tasks for the week and delegate as much as possible.
Jennifer started taking care of expense tracking, accounts payable, accounts receivable, calendar management, and other miscellaneous administrative tasks.
Three months in, Jennifer was already giving Josh 15-20 hours of his time back each month!
Josh caught onto the delegation thing quickly. Jennifer was rocking on administrative support, and he was enjoying the benefits of working with his Trusty Oak VA, so he decided to take it up a notch. After another quick call with his CSC, Kristine, Josh was matched with Jorge Mata, a virtual assistant specializing in social media, and Thanh Thanh Truong, a positive force of a human who also happens to be obsessed with capturing the details. Both VAs began helping with client projects allowing Josh to elevate his client experience again and continue to scale his studio’s services.
Jorge collaborates on client strategy calls, conducts LinkedIn profile audits, and crafts engaging content for hmpsn studio’s clients.
Thanh Thanh handles website documentation for each new website created, empowering hmpsn studio clients with the knowledge to edit their new websites independently and keep their maintenance costs low.
Jennifer continues to handle more and more administrative tasks for the business and occasional personal assistant tasks – like scheduling a haircut! She also sends Josh a time report recapping the activities of all three VAs each week.
With three virtual assistants specializing in the areas he needs help with, Josh continues to grow his business, maintain a healthy life-work balance, and do the work for which he’s most passionate. His VAs give him 20-30 hours per month back, and he can confidently scale his support team up or down as his business needs evolve.
“If you’re finding that you don’t have enough time in the day or need support, reach out to Trusty Oak. They’ve got an amazing team that can help lessen the load of running a small business.”
Josh Hampson, Founder and Webflow Developer hmpsn studio, Austin, TX
Based in Austin, Texas, Josh Hampson created hmpsn studio combining his web designer and project management skills with a heart for seeing others succeed. This foundational idea is still at the core of who they are. Outside the rocket ship, Josh is a sweat enthusiast and pug dad who spends his off-time traveling and attending concerts. Visit hmpsn.studio to connect with Josh and explore website solutions for your business.
What could you do with an extra 20 hours per month? Book a call with a client success coordinator to learn more!
Amber Gray is the founder and CEO of Trusty Oak, an Austin-based virtual assistant company providing administrative and marketing support to small business leaders, authors, and creative teams. A people-first approach to hiring, along with a scalable growth model have positioned Trusty Oak as a flexible, dependable, and affordable alternative to hiring administrative and marketing employees. In 2021 and 2022, Trusty Oak was named Freelancer Hiring Platform of the Year, and in 2021 Amber was recognized as Austin Business Woman of the Year.
Before founding Trusty Oak, Amber spent five years at a rapidly growing digital agency based in Austin, TX. Four of those years, she was responsible for hiring and leading both local and virtual teams while working closely with clients ranging from CEOs to bestselling authors to build their brand online. As VP of Operations, Amber helped lead the company’s growth to #15 on Austin Business Journal’s Fast50 List in 2014.
As a female founder and leader of a company that has quickly established a recognizably special culture within a non-traditional workforce, Amber has energized and empowered women from diverse professional and personal backgrounds to go against the grain of historically standard female roles in business, technology, and leadership. Trusty Oak provides an opportunity for experienced admin and marketing professionals to work independently as freelancers, but with a supportive internal network consisting of other ambitious and resourceful remote workers.
