Do you feel like you have too much to do and not enough time to get everything done? As a business owner, we understand that you have a zillion things to do. You’ve strived to keep up with the demands of growing your business, from developing a marketing strategy to answering emails.
But how many of your tasks are productive? As the visionary in your business, you have to find ways to step away and figure out how to scale your business to new heights. So, if you want to get more things done, it’s time to start thinking about hiring a virtual assistant.
In the same way that every Batman needs an Alfred, every business owner needs a virtual assistant. Seriously, hiring a virtual assistant is one of the best things you can ever do because they will work alongside you and take all non-critical tasks off your plate.
The Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant
At Business Blueprint, we have a dedicated team here in Sydney and one in the Philippines. These dedicated staff members have enabled us to grow our business, help more people and expand our team even further. They are multi-talented, responsive and incredibly reliable.
The reason we look to the Philippines for virtual staff is for a few reasons:
- They speak excellent English
- They have reliable internet and are easy to connect with online
- The time difference is easy to accommodate
- They are cost-effective
What Virtual Assistants Can Do
Depending on your needs, you can find a virtual assistant to help with almost anything. Things they can take care of include the following:
- Responding to emails and managing your diary
- Website updates
- Graphic design
- Social media management
- Data entry
- Website analysis and data reporting
- Customer service
- Accounting and invoicing
- And so much more
When you search for a virtual assistant, you can request specific skills and provide an outline of what will generally be expected of them. After a trial period, you can both agree on whether to continue the relationship.
The Ultimate VA Task Checklist
It’s a special document and it goes through 160 different things that you can outsource. Most business owners, once they go through and complete this document, they find at least 20, if not 30 or 40 different things that they can be outsourcing immediately for less than 5 dollars an hour. There are so many things, it’s really only limited by your imagination. This list will save you hundreds of hours, so be sure to download your free copy.
Once you’ve completed this special document, it’s time to move on to the next step, finding the right virtual assistant for you.
How to Find Virtual Assistants
There are many virtual assistant services in Australia, which can be helpful if you need a great deal of written content that must suit an Australian audience.
On the other hand, many business owners are incredibly pleased with their Philippine-based VA, having found them through a specialist online service.
You can advertise for a VA the same way you would for any job, by outlining the job description and selection criteria. Sort through your applications before interviewing candidates via video call.
How to Manage Your Virtual Assistants
Once you have recruited your virtual assistant, it is important to provide the necessary training. By creating policies, procedures and systems, you will be able to show them once how to do something, share a document with the instructions and then hand over the responsibility.
At Business Blueprint, we take care to treat our virtual staff as valued team members. This includes regular performance reviews, great working incentives and a little bit of fun! We have gotten to know them personally and love having them on board.
By hiring a virtual assistant, you can hand over those time-consuming jobs which do not require your expertise to be completed. This frees you up to devote yourself to bringing in more business or providing the specialist service which generates money for your business.
