Larry Supon is the owner and president of Automated Lifestyles LLC, a company providing smart home and commercial security, automation and entertainment systems.
Automated Lifestyles LLC was founded in 2000 in northeast Pennsylvania and creates smart home technology for both commercial and residential buildings.
The Challenge
Larry initially reached out to BELAY seven years ago when he needed someone to help with consolidating credit card expenses, creating electronic manuals for customers, ordering holiday gifts, and sending out emails.
Now, he has a dream team of three BELAY contractors — BELAY Virtual Assistant Abby Crangle, BELAY Bookkeeper Travis Wallace, BELAY Virtual Assistant Kristin Hannah – and one former BELAY VA turned full-time employee, Rachel Socha.
“Once I explained my problems, I almost felt like instantly it was an, ‘OK, we got it. We know what you’re looking for,’” Larry remembers.
“The candidates were always topnotch. I didn’t have a lot of training time invested – which was my fear that that part was going to take a ton of time. [But] the onboarding experience went very well. The support calls in between were great.”
“[BELAY] gave a step-by-step on how to make [this] successful.”
The Solution
“I’m in the technical world, and I’m very impressed with the technical expertise of all the assistants that I’ve had,” Larry says. “They know tons more than I’ll ever know about social media — things like Jotform, Google forms.”
“[They think of] creative ways to save everybody time, and I’ve been impressed with that across the board.”
And things are no different for Larry’s BELAY Bookkeeper, Travis.
“He’s been amazing,” Larry says. “He’s evolved in detailed reports monthly and what we should be doing.”
“He’s also a good sounding board on some of the things like inventory. We’ve been implementing an inventory tracking system and he joins in on the meetings to give his input.”
The Result
Larry has learned that the best way to accomplish goals as a team with his contractors is to listen to them and trust them to do the things they are experts at doing.
“There are so many things they know better than you if you just listen to them and don’t get in their way,” Larry laughs. “They’re set up with their own background and what they bring to the table, which makes them a better resource.”
“When you surround yourself with great people, you get a great team.”
“I believe in empowering people to let them do their best. So if you give them the information they need to be successful, answer their questions, and then let them take it from there.”
Larry has hit the jackpot with all of his contractors fitting in well with the culture of Automated Lifestyles LLC.
“Everyone’s been professional, kind and sincere,” Larry adds. “They’re part of the team.”
Through getting the right support with accounting and virtual assistance, Larry has gotten more time back to work on the business as opposed to in the business.
“I was just so inundated, but now I could have one-on-one conversations, focus on being a better employer and be more accessible by having more sidebar conversations versus running out the door.”
Larry has also gained confidence in knowing the job is going to get done – and get done well.
“When something is done, it’s done right and that’s been a huge win for me,” Larry says.
“When I have had other help, I still had to oversee it. Now, I have such a high level of confidence that when it’s delegated, there’s very little supervision because it’s done well.”
“And that’s a huge win for me.”
“[BELAY] has been really one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in the business.”
Meet the Specialists
ABBY CRANGLE
Virtual Assistant
TRAVIS WALLACE
Virtual CFO