First off what is a Virtual Assistant (VA)? A VA is a business professional who works primarily online and is hired to manage certain tasks and/or responsibilities. In recent times many businesses are hiring the services of a VA because they can streamline costs while improving the quality of work.
Here are telling signs that you may need to hire a VA for your business:
- Administrative Tasks taking up too much time
Do you find that you are spending more time filtering your emails? How many appointments have you booked for this week? And How many were accidently double booked?
If your daily schedule is jam-packed with these types of tasks, you need a VA. Administrative tasks are important because they help keep your business organized. However, doing too many administrative tasks can be unproductive. They are more supportive in function and do not generate revenue for your business.
A VA is experienced when it comes to managing administrative tasks. In fact, that is the primary reason why businesses hire virtual assistants. They are highly efficient in handling tasks such as time management, email filtering, and calendar management.
- Obligations are Left Unattended
The last thing you would want is to be in the middle of completing an email or a video conference call with a client and your Internet service is not working. You call the internet service provider in frustration only to find out you missed paying last month’s bill. This is just one example of an outside obligation being forgotten.
And there are other signs your obligations are left unattended:
- Several emails remain unanswered.
- Customers are complaining of poor service.
- Clients are asking for specific documents – and you can’t find them.
These incidents are bad for your business. They can cost you money and damage your reputation. While it is normal to forget things, the consequences are too high to simply credit mistakes to human error.
A VA will help to take the guesswork away for you. They can keep track of all of your obligations so that you won’t have to. The VA can send you a reminder before a due date and/or any important meeting to make sure you won’t forget and find the time to adequately prepare. Or more importantly set you up with a scheduling tool that will manage your time, appointments and reminders more efficiently.
- No Time to Create New Projects or Business Ideas
How much time do you dedicate to projects? How long do you spend working on new ideas that could help your business grow? If you frequently find yourself with no time left to work on projects or business ideas, you could use a VA.
Working on projects for other clients? Your clients will trust that you can get them done and on time without compromising the quality of work. In business, time is money. Like you, your clients also have deadlines to meet. If you can’t complete the project on time, you may be negatively costing your client.
And what about new ideas? If you don’t work on them, someone else will. Your loss will be somebody else’s gain.
If your time is constrained attending to administrative tasks or non-core functions, you will not be able to capitalize on these opportunities. By hiring a VA, you can be assured of having enough time to attend to matters that add dollars and cents to your bottom-line.
- Always Stressed Out
Many people decide to become an entrepreneur because they want to have their own hours and be their own boss. “Now that I have my own business, I can work whenever I want!” They are correct. However, they will soon realize that they cannot run a business completely on their own. And they may realize that their services may market better during “regular” business hours.
Stress is a major contributor to a number of life-threatening illnesses and conditions such as cancer, high blood pressure, type2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. So hiring a VA to eliminate some of your stress is in the best interest of keeping a healthier you!
It is perfectly fine to take a short holiday so you can recharge and maintain your productivity. Regular exercise is also an effective way to stay healthy. With virtual assistants on your team, you can no longer use the excuse “I have no time”.
- Feeling Less-Accomplished
Productivity is not about how much you accomplished. The question is, “What have you done for the day to get you closer to where you want to be?” An accomplishment refers to the act of completing a task whereby the result leads to a reward, benefit or growth.
Let’s say you completed 13 out of the 15 things on your to-do list. Would you feel accomplished if all 13 of those tasks were administrative in nature or not directly related to your goals?
How would clearing out your Inbox contribute to your success? What if the few things you left unattended on your to-do list were actually core functions of your business?
- Not successful with business growth
You’re tired. You lack sleep. You’re stressed out. You’re taking on more projects than ever before. Yet, when you look at your bank statements, one thing is clear.
Your business has stopped growing.
You’ve put in all this time for work, made all the sacrifices and you have nothing to show for it. Over time you start to question your ability to make it as an solo entrepreneur.
When you start thinking that way, you need a VA. All you need to do is manage your time more effectively and a VA is an expert with time management.
Will getting a VA make your business profitable right away? No, but it will open up opportunities for you to turn things around simply by affording you more time to focus on activities that will make your business grow.
- You’re Unhappy and feel Miserable
It’s great to have your own business. As a paid employee, your only measure of productivity is your salary.
For sure there have been times when you felt your total pay did not equate to your overall contributions to the company’s success. As an entrepreneur, your efforts are rewarded by your productivity. Put simply, you get out what you put in.
However, at what cost? How many birthday parties did you miss? How many milestones or kids sporting events did your work prevent you from experiencing? How many nights did your spouse or family spend having dinner alone?
Entrepreneurship may have given you financial independence but it also gave you some unwanted time away from your family and loved ones. This time lost can never be regained.
When you have a VA, you never have to worry about missing out on family time. You can be assured the VA will take care of the business while you are away.
- Quality of Work is Lower
An entrepreneur likes to be in control and be the leader of their designs. Every task, function, and responsibility must have your input. Accountability is an admirable quality. However, there are some skills that cannot be learned on the job.
Here is a short list of technical skills that need the knowledge and experience of a VA:
- Accounting
- Website Development and Management
- Digital Marketing
- Graphic Design
- Transcription
- Content Writing
- Social Media Marketing
Most of these are skills that you cannot learn even if you spend countless hours on YouTube or by enrolling in online classes. For this reason the quality of the finished work will be less than the quality standard you have set for your business.
Even if you do have the requisite skills and training, it would be a better idea to outsource these types of tasks to a VA. Productivity is all about managing your time more efficiently and effectively. You want to spend more time handling the tasks that will contribute to the growth of your business.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant will boost your productivity and help you take your business to the next level. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help your business succeed Contact Us today!
