Small businesses often outsource key functions of their operations
to companies that are specialists in their field or niche market, like marketing for example. In this blog, I’ll take you through how you can let your Virtual Assistant help you with tasks that you would otherwise have outsourced and save money in the process. Let’s delve into the top 5 reasons:
#1 Delegation is key to business growth
Delegation is the absolute best way forward and I think it’s safe to assume that we all have an element fear and panic when we hear the word “delegate”, especially since the business we started is a generous accumulation of our blood, sweat and tears. Naturally the perfectionist emerges from the deepest pit of your being, wanting to do everything yourself. But the hard truth is, all business owners must learn to delegate in order to succeed in business and in life.
Running your own business is overwhelming. There is realistically no chance that handling everything yourself is healthy for the business and your personal wellbeing. A Virtual Assistant can come on-board and if trustworthy, can handle pretty much anything administrative and process related that needs taking care of. This in turn, will save you hours, that can be used to focus on your business growth and success and perhaps even a well deserved holiday. When was the last time you took a break and went away on holiday? And I mean a proper holiday where you left your laptop or iPad at home to soak up the sun ‘n rum? Jim Rohn once said “If you go to the beach, be at the beach. If you go to work, be at work. But don’t be at one place and dream of the other”.
#2 Social media marketing
If you’ve read my other blogs, you would have seen that I have mentioned before that many Virtual Assistants do not only possess the administrative and personal assistance capabilities. Many offer additional skills that may be very necessary to assist you in your business. One of these skills is social media marketing and management. It is now becoming crucial to the growth of a business to have social media accounts set up, active and have your audience constantly engaged into your business. A Virtual Assistant can handle this entire aspect on your behalf. From setting up your social media accounts on the various platforms, to creating social media content aimed at your specific target audience. Your VA can also take care of posting the content on your social media channels and engage with your target audience by addressing any queries. All these activities increases your audience engagement levels and increases your social media presence, therefore establishing your brand as trustworthy and customer centric, which will aid your business growth.
#3 Customer experience
A very time-consuming and ultra important aspect of your business, is taking care of your clients. It does take a lot of dedication, patience and energy. Your clients are key to the success of your business and as such, need to be provided with a world-class customer experience. A Virtual Assistant can do follow-ups with your clients, do regular check-ins to ensure that your customer satisfaction levels are high, ultimately increasing customer loyalty.
#4 Taking the load off your administration
I am sure everyone can agree, administration as a business owner is exceptionally tedious, as well as time-consuming. Administration can unfortunately not be overlooked. Daily admin tasks are as important to your business as long-term strategies to ensure sustainability. There are important administrative functions that need to take place, in order to keep the needle moving on your business. Administration includes a plethora of tasks such as: invoicing, debtors follow-ups, proofreading, creating presentations, managing stakeholder engagement to name only a few. These are all crucial tasks that need to be taken care of. As the business owner you have many more rigorous tasks to take care of and one of them is to make sure that the business is going in the direction you want it to go, while your Virtual Assistant handles the rest for you. This is probably one of the most used VA taglines out there, but just cant resist: “Do what you do best and outsource the rest”. Corny, I know, but l love it!
#5 Project management
No matter what business or industry you’re in, the way tasks and strategies are executed matters. Of course, admin and other tasks can be handled and taken care of, but there are some things that require a project management process in place. Tasks such as: recruiting or outsourcing a new team or launching a new exciting product. These processes can be project managed and broken down into manageable and actionable tasks. Your Virtual Assistant can assist you with this entire process from mapping out the project to following up on team members’ action points, to drawing up reports for you to review on how far the project is and what still needs to be actioned. This is a great way of keeping everyone accountable!
As you can see a VA can really partner with you on your business journey and help you to nurture and grow your business to ensure success. A bonus is that you maintain a normal work-life balance to spend more time with yourself and your loved ones, doing things you love to do! When last did you something that set your soul on fire? Take a look at my services page here, for more information on how a Virtual Assistant can help you grow your business.
