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.
Contact us today to find out more about our services.
Susan Wilkin
Online Business Manager
View our range of packages here
