Business Support Archives | Online Business Manager

Why Hiring a Virtual Assistant is Good for Business

13 Jun, 2017

Many businesses hire employees to perform various functions within a company. Secretaries and administration assistants manage front office tasks which may include answering phones and offering customer support. Personal Assistants offer diary, meeting and office support to executives. The marketing department oversees advertising, social media and public relations. Bookkeepers or accountants take care of the finances, and so on.

Many small, solopreneurs and home-based businesses don’t have the luxury of being able to hire a staff of employees. There are many reasons for this, it could be cashflow, office space or requirements. However, that doesn’t mean you have to manage your business alone. By outsourcing to a virtual assistant or Online Business Manager, you can have specialised help when you need it and for a fraction of the cost of hiring full-time employees.

What does working with a Virtual Assistant mean?

Focus on your speciality instead: While understanding the basic concepts of what needs to occur in your business is great, there is no need to learn everything and this could include graphic design, marketing, website creation, etc. Hiring assistants who specialise in these areas will save you loads of time and frustration and this way you can focus on your speciality instead.

Balanced Home and Business Life: Business is important, but so is spending time with family and friends. Maintaining a healthy balance reduces stress, increases productivity and ensures everyone is happy.

Increased Productivity & Profits: Knowing your assistant is taking care of the time consuming tasks allows you to stay focused on more profit-producing business activities.

In a nut shell, outsourcing to a virtual assistant really does make good business sense.

Do you really need a Virtual Assistant?

Whether you are just starting your business or have been at it for several years, you will reach a point when you cannot, or do not want to do everything yourself. This is the time to outsource to a virtual assistant. Outsourcing does not mean you are giving up control. It simply means that you value your time and want to use it in the most productive way.

Signs that you need a virtual assistant:

You feel overwhelmed: Are you working long hours in order to get things done? Maybe you feel exhausted by the long list of tasks you need to complete. Feeling overwhelmed at times is natural, but if it happens often, it’s time to take action and hire a virtual assistant.

You dislike the work: Everyone is good at something, but nobody is good at everything. If you have tasks that you simply dread doing, perhaps you always put them off until the last minute; consider hiring an assistant to do them for you.

It takes you forever to…. If you burn up many hours trying to draft your weekly newsletter because you struggle with the design, stop! It is not worth it when you can outsource the task and have it completed quickly.

You don’t know how to do something. One great thing about virtual assistants is that many have knowledge in a lot of areas. If you’ve been doing without something because you can’t do it yourself,outsourcing it to a specialist is the best answer. This means that it will be completed quickly and efficiently.

Tasks are getting pushed aside. If emails and phone calls are going unanswered, then your customer service may be suffering. Poor customer service can lead to lost sales. Regardless of the task, if you do not have time to do it, hire someone to take care of it for you.

The family is unhappy. Take your queues from family and friends. When family members start migrating to your office, rather than you to the family room, chances are, you’re working too much.

You are tired of doing it alone. It’s tough operating a one person business. You have to be the creative thinker, implementer, follow-up person and more. While doing everything is great for the ego, it’s not always great for business. When you tire of doing it alone, call a VA. Remember, even superheroes call in reinforcements when they need it.

You need to take a holiday. As a business owner, when was the last time you took a holiday? Wouldn’t it be wonderful knowing that everything was taken care of while you take that much needed break from your business. Once a virtual assistant gets to know your business they can cover off most items while you are away.

When you work with a virtual assistant, you can still do the tasks that you enjoy most, but you also have a support system in place for things that cause you stress or take up too much of your time. Hiring a virtual assistant allows you to reach your goals more quickly, obtain skills that you may not have, take your business to the next level, and even enjoy some free time.

Susan Wilkin
Online Business Manager

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Why Hire an Online Business Manager

7 Jun, 2016

The role of an Online Business Manager is quite different from a Virtual Assistant and you can have both work in your business. It is important to understand the differences between a Virtual Assistant and Online Business Manager. In Australia, most Virtual Assistants are Virtual Industry Professionals or Online Business Managers for the following reasons:

they are often proactive rather than reactive and accomplish tasks without you asking.
they develop an understanding of your business and keep the cogs turning
they understand the bigger picture of your business growth and development
they think outside the box
they give you ideas for growth and strategy in your business and quite often manage those ideas from start to finish

When you hire a Online Business Manager you get…

MORE TIME: Who doesn’t need more time?

The main goal of an online business manager is to free up your time so that you can work on the things that only you can do or the things that you enjoy most about your business. Now a virtual assistant can free up your time, however you may need to do some further checking and ensure that you have all of the processes in place first, some virtual assistants require an i’s dotted and t’s crossed approach. It depends on the type of fit that you are after for your business and if you really do want to step away from the day-to-day operations and release yourself from having to oversee every piece of every project.

A TRUSTED PARTNER: Essential to the relationship

Online business managers truly care about their client’s businesses. They normally only work with 3-5 businesses to ensure that they develop the relationship with you as their client. They understand the overall business vision, are excited by the things to come, thrive on the day-to-day operations, they are comfortable with outsourcing and delegating and strive to make the business succeed. They treat the client’s business as if it were their own. In a sense, hiring a good Online Business Manager is like having a trusted partner invested in your business.

A DECISION MAKER: Making all the decisions is exhausting!

Operating a successful business requires a lot of day-to-day decisions and projects are often delayed because business owners don’t have time to handle them all. Fortunately, most decisions don’t have to be made by the business owner. A good online business manager will be willing to make decisions on their client’s behalf. This doesn’t mean they will be making all of the decisions; however, after establishing a guideline with the client, they can certainly handle many issues that arise throughout the day.

COMPLETED PROJECTS: A key component to bigger profits

Aside from the business owner, the Online Business Manager is the workhorse of the business. They spend most of their time planning, organising, and managing the tools, resources and staff within the business. Their focus is to ensure that things are running smoothly and efficiently; answering questions, dealing with unexpected issues in a timely manner, and keeping projects on track so that business goals are met. The seamless transition from one project to the next allows the business owner to stay focused and the business to grow.

Are you considering hiring an Online Business Manager? Download the full Online Business Manager Guide and give us a call today!

Technology and your client

27 Apr, 2016

Making a decision regarding the types of technology and software you will be using in your business is an important decision that much thought must go into. There are hundreds or thousands of different software programs out there and many aspects of each to consider based on what the software is, what you need it to do, and what features it has to offer.

I recently held a webinar for 1-2-1 Temps (Virtual Assistant network) discussing many types of technology that a Virtual Assistant can use to help a client in their business. Here is a replay of the webinar and some of my favourite that I use and recommend to help build a virtual relationship with a client.

In this webinar, I take you through all the different types of technology including Skype, Dropbox, File sharing, basic computer maintenance and a few other technical tips and tricks. If you are a client, looking at working with a VA (virtual assistant) these are the types of technology that you can use to build your team and work with a virtual assistant. They are also some of the technology that you can expect that a Virtual Assistant should know about and can use. If you are working with an Online Business Manager, the OBM will be able to advise you on the types of technology as well as show you how to set some of these up, depending of course on their expertise.

The software discussed during the webinar normally has a fantastic help section, videos or you can find a host of tutorials on YouTube that discuss in depth how to use the specific technology. We hope that you enjoy the webinar as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

Software links and references from the video

Use this Dropbox link for extra space
Technology Toolkit
Skype Guide
Survey link to obtain a copy of the slides

If you would like to attend a future webinar, sign up here for further information

10 Tips For Customer Service Excellence

18 Jan, 2016

Customer service excellence always benefits a business and is a subject that comes with a number of short-term and long-term benefits. By providing outstanding customer service you will not only boost your business but will also boost your retention as well. Do you believe you’re achieving excellence with your customer service? Does it tick all the boxes?

Why? Why not?

When it comes to your business, the following is more likely true than not: Gaining new customers can prove to be incredibly difficult, even with the best of plans in place. On the flip side of that thought, losing them is considerably easier.

How to boost customer retention

Customer service excellence is a cornerstone of customer retention. You can have some of the greatest products or services in the world. However, if the path to those products is not filled with elements that make customers feel respected and valued, you’re going to lose more than you keep.

Here are ten tips for customer service excellence that will boost customer retention:

Do some surveys: Things like Net Promoter Score Surveys can help you get a sense of customer service satisfaction.
Be proactive: Don’t wait for customers to complain. Connect to them, and make it clear that you are available for any questions or concerns they might have.
Surprise them: Customer service can be a service that surprises. Thank-you notes or even small gifts can go a long way.
Accentuate your value: Look for ways within the customer service process that can highlight the value that you bring to the table. Obviously, you want to look for things that won’t be too obvious.
Reduce customer effort: An essential to customer service excellence involves making it as easy as possible for customers to get in touch with you, and making it as easy as possible for customers to find the solution they are looking for.
Reduce problem areas: The more guidance you offer with your services as a standard, the smaller your field of potential complaints will become.
Give them options: A vital component to customer service involves offering several different avenues for contact and communication.
Offer advice and education in a larger sense: Don’t just address specific problems. Create a situation in which you can become an advisor and educator to your customers.
Leave them with the feeling of a relationship: Your customers should feel as though they can come to you anytime.
Accept mistakes: Don’t make excuses. If you make a mistake, embrace it, and then deal with it. Chances are, your customers will respect you for that. Make your customers feel as though you’re actually listening.

Susan Wilkin; SASI award winner for 2014

25 May, 2014

Congratulations to Susan Wilkin our CEO for winning the 2014 SASI Award

The SASI award has always been a huge honour when it comes to the virtual industry in Australia. It always goes to people who are able to successfully help the virtual industry in worthwhile ways. Consequently, the SASI award is often known as the virtual industry award. Announced every year, the award is a means of thanking the individuals who have worked so hard to help the digital world. Most of the recipients of the SASI awards are people who work tirelessly behind the scenes and the award is a way of giving these worthy recipients some acknowledgement.

Although the recipients prefer to work behind-the-scenes, their main aim is to simply help the industry as a whole. Consequently, they don’t tend to get much appreciation for the incredible work that they do.

The award was specifically created by Digital Divas and this year, they have dedicated the award to Susan Wilkin from adminaholics.com – the Virtual Assistant who has been so influential with her performance behind-the-scenes.

Susan Wilkin first took on the role of Executive Officer of AAVIP (Australian Association of Virtual Industry Professionals) in 2012 and has been unstoppable ever since. She has worked very hard to make sure that AAVIP was able to achieve its goals in 2013 and that it is able to reach the levels of success it has now. She has shown unflinching support to the board and volunteered her time for the benefit of all members and virtual assistants.

Susan Wilkin
CEO ADMINaholics