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About the Company
b.box is an international kids' lunch and hydration brand sold in over 65 countries. Their U.S. division operates as a startup, but with the expectations of a global company. When Valerie joined as General Manager and VP of Sales, she was brought on to build and scale the U.S. operation from the ground up with a lean team of three.
The Business Challenge
Running at startup speed with enterprise-level expectations left Valerie and her two-person team stretched across every function in operations, sales, marketing and HR simultaneously. With no capacity to hire additional full-time staff and no documented systems to lean on, the team was doing the work of ten. There weren't enough hours in the day to do the strategic work required to grow the business at the rate they envisioned.
A dedicated virtual assistant wasn't something Valerie had considered before; she believed that level of control needed to stay in-house. Hiring full-time employees was the plan, but the budget made it impossible.
We were gifted with quite a bit more time than expected; they took away the need to document processes, write SOPs, manuals, and set up software systems. That really catapulted us forward in our growth objectives.
The Solution
YSO not only placed a virtual assistant, but also conducted process mapping sessions to map out their existing business processes and make a plan to improve them. YSO integrated into b.box's systems to learn their unique processes and identify areas for improvement. The project covered five key areas:
ClickUp organization and management: Restructuring the team's workspace and training Valerie on a cleaner, zero-inbox system so tasks and priorities stayed visible and actionable.
Email inbox management: Taking ownership of multiple Outlook accounts and organizing correspondence by business function, keeping communication flowing across sales, operations, finance, and marketing.
SOP development and process documentation: Turning undocumented tribal knowledge into repeatable, transferable workflows that anyone on the team could follow.
Software system setup and optimization: Building structured tools for managing contractors and day-to-day operations, creating consistency where there was none before.
Sales prospecting and lead generation: Building programs the team could execute on immediately to actively drive pipeline and support growth goals.
By absorbing execution-level work and systematizing what had never been documented, the VA gave Valerie and her team back the time and structure needed to operate strategically.
The Results
What started as a way to offload tasks became a foundational shift in how the entire U.S. division operates:
30+ hours per week freed up: With an estimated 2 to 3x return in effective output due to the systems built and documented alongside the daily work.
SOPs and process manuals built from scratch: Giving the team repeatable workflows that anyone can manage, regardless of who is in the seat.
Structured software systems implemented: For contractor management, marketing content, and daily operations, replacing ad hoc processes with reliable structure.
Sales prospecting and lead generation programs launched: Creating an executable, scalable path to pipeline growth the team can build on.
Output equivalent to two additional full-time hires: Delivered without the cost or complexity of adding headcount.
With systems in place and execution off her plate, Valerie shifted her focus to closing sales, managing her team, and driving growth rather than maintaining the status quo. And her family noticed the difference too!
I didn't realize the true value of outsourcing... We were contracted for about 20 to 30 hours per week, and I would say we got back probably 2 to 3x that. The systems, the SOPs, the software setup, that piece alone catapulted us into where we needed to go to reach our growth goals. Also, every single time a question came up, YSO met it, exceeded it, and if something wasn't working, they fixed it immediately.You're wasting time by not making the decision. I probably would have saved myself a couple of months if I'd moved forward sooner.
- Valerie, General Manager & VP of Sales, b.box for Kids USA