31 Jan 10 Tasks You Can Outsource To a Virtual Assistant
You’ve got a lot of tasks that you need to finish, but you just don’t have the time to do it all by yourself. When it comes to running your business, you are probably trying very hard to race ahead of your competitors, boost your sales, marketing your brand, stay on top of your taxes, making your internal processes more efficient – the list of ‘things to do’ is endless… If you are thinking that the weight is all on your shoulders, think again.
Using a Virtual Assistant can shave hours off your workweek. If you still feel a little hesitant to delegate parts of your business to someone you’ve never met, you are not alone. The idea of hiring a Virtual Assistant can feel strange at first, but what you’ll soon realize is that it’s all about selecting the right tasks for them to handle.
There are a lot of misconceptions in the marketplace surrounding the concept of virtual assistants and their role in assisting organizations. The reason these misconceptions exist is that businesses often hire virtual assistants, spend zero minutes training them and then end up being disappointed and confused when things don’t work out as they expected. The issue isn’t necessarily in the quality of the virtual assistant’s work, but rather in the choice of the tasks that were assigned to her.
Online Research
Get the help of a VA to conduct any time-consuming internet research, and receive the best information on any topic, product or competitor in a timeframe that suits you.
Social Media Marketing
A Virtual Assistant can post on your social media channels on your behalf and market your SEO content, increasing the visibility of your brand, products, and services. VA skilled in Social Media can help you create a social media strategy, integrating it with the rest of your marketing strategy.
Data Presentation
You have an important meeting with a new client and you want to make a smashing impression? A Virtual Assistant can make a stunning PowerPoint presentation as per your specifications so that you can make the most of your productive time.
Blog Ghostwriting
Content marketing is the name of the game today. Your blog will fetch you an incredible amount of traffic, if done correctly. A VA can help you write some quality fresh content for your blog. Your Virtual Assistant can also post on Medium or Pulse for you. This is essential to add fuel to your content’s reach and drive direct traffic to your website.
Schedule Management
Every entrepreneur needs a secretary. A secretary answers calls and keeps an eye on your schedule. If there are places you need to go to and people that you need to call, it’s best if someone reminds you to do it. Sure, you can download some software that does it for you, but procrastination can still keep you stuck. You’ll complete your chores much faster if you let your Virtual Assistant manage your diary you.
Clients and Partners Management
It’s always a good idea to send a gift card to your clients on holidays and anniversaries. These are pretty easy but quite time-consuming tasks that require a creative effort. You could even get your VA to congratulate a partner or a client on a new job or deal, especially if your client or partner uses social media.
Website Maintenance & E-commerce
Websites require constant maintenance and updating. Many Virtual Assistants are familiar with WordPress but also with other website builders such as 1&1. A VA can give you a real hand when it comes to managing your e-commerce site. Writing compelling product descriptions, editing lists of products or images, updating prices and online inventory or processing orders are all task a skilled VA can do for you.
Internal Training
Training your employees on how to use a new software or service can take up a good chunk of your productive time. Why don’t leave this job to a Virtual Assistant? She could even train your staff remotely, using Skype for example, saving on costs.
Spreadsheet Management
As a business owner, you probably have to deal with a plethora of reports that have to be completed on a regular basis, from staff timesheets to expenses or clients lists. The natural idea is to let your VA do all this. A Virtual Assistant can import, export and sort any kind of data while she can also handle spreadsheet design and general maintenance.
Customer Service Support
A Virtual Assistant can reply to your queries within a stipulated timeline. A business query can be anything, from an unsatisfied customer to a potential customer. A VA can help you stay on top of your customer service tasks, creating new business opportunities, resolving and escalating cases, replying to complains in a proper manner.
Whichever tasks you decide to outsource to a Virtual Assistant, what is most important is to build trust and bring her to really understand your business – this will take up some time at the beginning of the relationship but it will pay off going forward.
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