We recently had the privilege of interviewing Arpita Kaul, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Easy Assist. A passionate business owner, Arpita Kaul has been associated with Business Partner roles for over a decade, and with her expertise, she built Easy Assist, offering administrative support solutions in a range of services, extending from virtual assistants to the recruitment of full-time resources and even the outsourcing of administrative support staff for offices and large corporations.
In this insightful session, Arpita Kaul shared about her advent in this field and her plans for the expansion of her business.
The Beginning
We were interested to learn about the advent of Arpita Kaul ‘s professional endeavors. So, we asked, “What ignited your passion and led you to embark on your professional journey in this particular field?”
Arpita Kaul shared, “I would say that what initially drew me to my field was a personal need to find work that would allow me the space and comfort to balance family and career. I was clear that I did not want to be in a full-time job while raising two young kids, and I did not want to lose my financial independence. Having worked in HR Business Partner roles for over a decade, I was confident of the value I could bring to the administrative function space.
Covid taught the world many lessons, one of the biggest being the switch from in-office to working from home. As I started thinking more about it and understanding its impact on businesses, I realized the high costs of maintaining full-time employees in certain regions. Small businesses would benefit from affordable access to competent administrative support.
Additionally, I recognized that this flexibility allows workers to have greater control over their schedules. We are very thankful to the government of Dubai for opening avenues for remote work, part-time work, and working with multiple employers through freelance visas.”
Setting Up Easy Assist
To learn more about the factors that inspired Arpita Kaul to the advent in this field and how she set her business apart from the competition, we asked, “Share more about your background and the unique story behind the inception of your business. What sets it apart in the market?”
Arpita Kaul replied, “Easy Assist is an administrative support solution provider offering a range of services. These services include highly qualified part-time remote working virtual assistants who take over your administrative woes while maintaining the quality of work that the high standards set by clients. The offerings extend from virtual assistants to the recruitment of full-time resources and even the outsourcing of administrative support staff for offices and large corporations.
I believe strong administrative support is an essential housekeeping that every business needs. Although administrative functions are usually back-end aspects of a business, their success or failure is almost always apparent on the front end. Efficiently handling client proposals, emails, meetings, and executives’ to-do lists is vital for a successful and growing business. Easy Assist supports senior executives and business owners throughout their journey, ensuring their back end keeps up as they focus on the front end. It maintains cost control and smooth work progress.”
Impact Of Core Values On Easy Assist
To understand how Arpita Kaul ‘s values influenced her business operations, we inquired, “How have your values influenced the way you conduct business?”
Arpita Kaul shared, “Clarity, honesty, and simplicity are my values, and these values have been extensively translated into my work. All current and past clients of Easy Assist will vouch for the fact they have complete autonomy on who they work with, the amount of work the VA has done for them, and what to expect as billing cost for the month.
Our Virtual Assistants diligently track their hours and tasks onto a system that helps generate reports. Our clients greatly appreciate the ease of onboarding and the speed at which contracts are signed, making the entire process of taking on a virtual assistant on board, quick and effortless.”
Overcoming Major Adversities
Every business goes through inevitable challenging phases at certain points. To learn how Arpita Kaul overcame the same for his business, we inquired, “What has been the most challenging project or period in your career, and what did you learn from it?”
“I do not think any of the projects or the clients we have onboarded or the business changes that we have made have been specifically challenging, they have been exciting for the most of it. However, I would say as a small business owner myself the most challenging element of the business always remains to be the retention of old clients and generating new sales.
Without extensive PR and marketing budgets, new businesses find it difficult to raise awareness and gain prospective clients. Our main goal in the upcoming years is to educate about the benefits of Easy Assist services for all types of businesses. Our dedicated team relentlessly works towards achieving this objective.” She added.
Staying Ahead Of The Curve
We were interested to learn how Arpita Kaul incorporates emerging technologies in her business practices. So, we asked, “How do you integrate new technologies or innovative practices into your business operations?”
Arpita Kaul replied, “As is the case for any business operations in today’s time, technology is central to our operations. We take great pride in using cutting-edge AI tools to simplify workloads, making our virtual assistants more effective, and providing businesses with access to these tools and research.
We utilize software to track and record time, generate reports, and regularly educate our virtual assistants on new tools that help their clients progress faster in their respective lines of work. We use AI with a human touch.”
Pivoting Strategic Approaches
We further asked, “Could you share an experience where you had to pivot your business strategy dramatically?”
Arpita Kaul shared, “Evolution is the name of the game. Every business must evolve, especially new businesses. After launching our product, receiving feedback from clients and prospective clients is essential for fine-tuning. Easy Assist initially offered high-end executive assistance, making it unaffordable for many. The pricing was higher than hiring a full-time junior admin. However, feedback revealed a market for simpler and more economical administrative support. Ultimately, our final product will continually evolve to meet the changing needs of our clients.”
“Hence the first strategy change came to us fairly quickly, within the first year of operation; was to not just provide high-end resources that were priced on the higher end of the scale, but also economical resources and as it has turned out three plus years later that our economic resources generate the most amount of business and revenue. So that was the first change in strategy that we had to undertake.
The second change in strategy was after three years of being a virtual assistance provider and gaining some traction, building a name, and gaining some amount of popularity, we wanted to expand our range of services and hence we upgraded our company license to be able to offer additional services like recruitment, leave cover, short term hires, and outsourcing of administrative support and executive assistance. All this while maintaining our specialty and our expertise in being UAE’s only (entirely) homegrown virtual assistance agency.” Arpita added.
Instilling Values Throughout The Journey
The crucial role of mentorship is prevalent in every field. Having a good mentor and being a guide in one’s journey can be life-changing. We asked, “What role has mentorship played in your career, both as a mentor and a mentee?”
Arpita Kaul shared, “I don’t think I would be anywhere in my journey as an entrepreneur without the support and encouragement of the various mentors I have had over the years. My former bosses mentored me in HR and emphasized the importance of being a well-rounded professional. They taught me to recognize the true value in going beyond basic tasks and incorporating thoughtful approaches into my work, rather than simply producing reports and paperwork.
I am very aware that if I were to start my entrepreneurship journey, I would need guidance from a business coach/mentor to help me navigate the uncharted seas of entrepreneurship. I would like to shout out to Sridhar Venkatraman, who has played that role over the last few years for me.”
Arpita Kaul added, “Other than that, I have a solid accountability team that guides me and helps me through my complex decision-making and brings their views to scenarios and helps me have a whole rounded approach to matters of expansion, growth, and business concerns and issues. I am most thankful to each of you – Manazir Abbas (Infobahn Consultancy), Dr. Vida Moradi (Volonte Business Management), Hiteash Miglani (CoTask IT Solutions), Nowsheen Yaqoob (Auracious Global Consulting).
Adding value is an important part of my being. I do believe that everyone, every person, and everything you meet either brings value to you or takes value from you. I have received immense value, knowledge, and experience from my mentors, inspiring me to share this with others in both my professional and personal life. I am readily available to provide support to my clients, virtual assistants, employees, and accountability team, leveraging my HR expertise to assist them in overcoming obstacles.”
Expansion Plans For Easy Assist
To have a glimpse of Arpita Kaul ‘s plans for the future of her business, we asked, “Tell us more about your future business plans.”
Arpita Kaul replied, “Definitely, there are things that are in the pipeline for the future, for the later part of 2024 and early 2025. These changes have the potential to change the way part-time workers operate entirely. Hopefully, the impact shall be felt country-wide, and eventually regionally.”
Message To Aspiring Beginners
Lastly, addressing the aspiring professionals in this field, we asked, “What is one piece of advice you would give to someone starting in your industry today?”
Arpita Kaul concluded, “I wouldn’t consider myself the wisest or the most experienced entrepreneur or business owner of UAE but I have learned a few things having had this experience for over three years now. Market knowledge is very important. It is critical to know who your potential clients are, where your potential clients are, how much education is required for people to understand your services and of course how much of that can you offer right from the beginning.
It’s ok to build up on your product base and your services but you must train yourself appropriately along the way to stay up to date with business news and trends you never know what might add benefit to your industry and of course always remain focused on what is it that you set out to do and learn different ways to achieve your ultimate goal.”
Follow Arpita Kaul on LinkedIn.
Find Easy Assist on LinkedIn and visit their website http://www.easyassist.ae/
