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In the last post we defined a virtual assistant and asked the question “Could you be growing your business with a virtual assistant?”. Entrepreneurs’ understand the value and importance of working on growing their business but sometimes the day to day tasks involved in running a business get in the way. Also, small business owners feel like they must handle it “ALL” themselves, when an expert could complete the project more efficiently and with advanced skill and knowledge.
Let’s talk about exactly what a virtual assistant can do for you. What can you delegate to someone else? The tasks that are most often delegated are:
- Tasks that do not require a lot of thought involvement
- Repetitive Tasks
- Tasks that do NOT require your Expertise to complete
- Tasks you may not like to do
- Scheduled items
As you can see, a Virtual Assistant can help you with just about any aspect of your daily business process.
Virtual Assistants usually choose an area of focus, such as:
- Customer Support
- Reception
- Marketing
- Topic/Information Research
- Cold Calling
- Warm Calling
- Writing
- Bookkeeping
- Accounting
- Web Design
- Graphic Design
- General Administrative Assistant
- Executive Administrative Assistant
- Real Estate Administrative Assistant
- Medical Administrative Assistant
- Legal Administrative Assistant
- Administrative Assistant for Authors
- Administrative Assistant for Coaches
So, what do you do that could be delegated to an assistant. Here are a few suggestions of items your virtual assistant could be doing for you:
- General word processing and transcription, including mail merges from printing and mailing to dictation, meeting minutes, agendas, proofreading and business correspondence, proposals, manuscripts, manuals, catalogues, forms, speeches, handouts, surveys
- Create, proof & prepare documents, manuals and employee handbooks
- Create PowerPoint presentations
- Convert PDF documents to Word version
- Coordinate and facilitate logistics for travel & teleconferences, including agendas, handouts, and presentation materials
- Creating electronic v-cards from hard copy business cards
- Filing labels, binder cover/spine labels, etc.
- Scan printed and color documents into PDF, Word or picture-supported formats
- Web Research and internet data collection, including marketing research
- Calendar management; appointment scheduling, set up conference calls
- Updating Contact Databases
- Email Management
- Customer Service/Order Processing
Financial
- Provide QuickBooks data entries for bills, invoices, etc.
- Process all international and domestic expense reports
- Build efficient and effective spreadsheets
- Excel data entry
- Financial Report Generation
- Bank Reconciliation
- Notary Public in Oregon
Desktop Publishing
- Desktop publishing (newsletters, flyers, brochures, business cards, coupons)
- Create visually-friendly restaurant menus and flyers
- Produce eye-catching salon coupons and brochures to attract clients
- Personalized CD/DVD labels
- Business card design and creation
Online Presence
- Keyword Research
- Online Ad Posting
- Website Maintenance
- Blog Posting & Maintenance
- Set Up, Customization and Maintenance of Social Media Networking Profiles
- Recommendations for use of Social Media for Marketing
- MySpace
- YouTube
- Flickr
- Biznik
- Delicious
- Stumbleupon
- Set Up and maintain a presence on Industry Specific Forums
The next question is, of course, do I have the budget for an assistant?
When hiring a Virtual Assistant there is no such thing as down time because a virtual assistant only bills for the exact time spent working on your project. You don’t pay for lunch hours, sick leave, or vacation. There’s no need to supply a virtual assistant with a computer or other expensive office equipment because a professional virtual assistant operates a fully functional home office. As an independent contractor, a virtual assistant handles their own taxes and benefits. There is no additional cost to you beyond the actual rate at which you contract your virtual service provider.
When you partner with a virtual assistant, you’re cutting overhead and increasing productivity because a VA works for you only if and when you require it. And, because a virtual assistant is skilled in providing virtual administrative services there is no training period, so you have more time for your own clients
In most cases, the real question is Can you afford Not to partner with a Virtual Assistant?
The next step is finding a virtual assistant that matches your style, understands your requirements and has the skills to fulfill your needs. As your relationship with any virtual assistant will be “virtual” by definition, it is important to have a phone conversation to discuss your styles, your needs and for your to find out how the virtual typically works. This discussion should include:
How you like to communicate – email, phone, instant message, Skype, text
- When is a good time to communicate?
- How often you desire communication?
- Do you want daily reports?
- What a report should include.
Making the decision to partner with a virtual assistant is an efficient use of your dollar. A virtual assistant can help you get back to doing what you got into business to do in the first place. The goal is to catapult your business to the next level.
Please let Smart Virtual Assistant for You help you get back to doing what you love. If you have questions about our services and pricing, please see our Services page.
Smart Virtual Assistant for You
1278 Mayanna Drive
Woodburn, OR 97071
email: jodicrosby@smartvaforu.com
Phone: 503-597-VA4U (8248)
http://companies.to/smartvaforuv
