A Virtual Assistant may provide high-quality help at a fraction of the expense of employing a traditional staff, making them an attractive alternative.

You’ve put in a lot of effort to get to this point, but you’re quite sure no one warned you that the final result would be that you’d be working more hours than you ever have before in your life. Therefore, why should one engage a virtual assistant? To put it simply, so that you may take back control of your time and remember why you began this endeavor in the first place. …but without the bother of an employment contract, or the trouble of locating someone nearby to you….to get back to working on your company, rather than constantly working in it.

Employing a virtual assistant is a smart move for your company to make for a variety of reasons. Let’s get to know them better!

1. Stop Spending Time on Admin Tasks

In the broadest meaning of the term, a virtual assistant will naturally shine when it comes to doing administrative tasks.

If you hire a competent VA, they will be able to assist you with a broad variety of duties, freeing you up to focus on expanding your company rather than on data input. They will ensure that everything is taken care of, regardless of whether it is keeping your CRM up to date, arranging your trip, on-boarding customers, or something else.

Support provided by administrators could include the following:

• Updating a spreadsheet or database
• Tweaking a PowerPoint presentation
• Raising invoices
• Filing expenses
• Onboarding clients
• Logging enquiries

The truth of the matter is that “administrative” tasks constitute a significant portion of most positions, including yours!

All of this indicates that you should delegate the tasks that you are not good at and concentrate on doing the things that you like and are good at.

2. Keep Your Inbox In Check.

Daily, you are subjected to an average of 121 email messages. The process of sifting through them not only occupies a lot of your time but also reduces the amount of work you can get done. It doesn’t matter whether you spend all day attempting to get your inbox to zero or if you’re simply trying to keep up with the relentless bombardment; either way, it’s not helping your company’s bottom line.

A virtual assistant (VA) may filter your emails, manage spam, and handle other day-to-day administrative activities related to your mailbox on your behalf. This frees up your time to concentrate on the more essential things that you have to do each day.

3. Grow And Manage Your Virtual Team

The most fundamental HR demands squander 40 million hours every single month. Simple errands like organizing vacations, putting up company bills, or submitting a formal employment offer may throw a wrench into an otherwise productive workday.

This is something that will be especially obvious if your company is consistently expanding and, as a result, recruiting new employees.

4. Travel Like A Pro

It’s important to provide plenty of time for travel planning and booking. According to research conducted by Expedia Group, consumers who are interested in going on vacation visit a total of 38 different websites before they are ready to book their trip.

One of the most prevalent but easily avoidable time management challenges is the act of making travel plans. It will only take you one minute to book, but 45 days from now you will still be perusing vacation sites. Employ a Virtual Assistant to investigate available travel choices, organize necessary paperwork, and do cost calculations on your behalf.

5. Make Your Events Better Than Ever

Your company’s name should be brought to the forefront of attendees’ minds throughout a successful event, as should its offerings and skills. The productivity of businesses should not suffer as a result of this change.

You are putting an undue amount of burden on yourself in terms of time management if you do not have someone to organize the location, the guest lists, the food choices, the marketing presence, and the follow-up communication. If you hire a virtual assistant based in the UK, you won’t have to worry about any of this for very long.

6. Impress at Your Next Key Meeting

We are a society that values getting together. Unfortunately, our love of meetings is hurting our productivity, and that’s before taking into account all of the preparation that has to be done before they start on the day they’re scheduled to take place. A skilled virtual assistant may alleviate some of the burden you’re under by doing the following tasks:

• Arranging a date and venue
• Sending invitations
• Creating a meeting agenda
• Preparing drinks and food for external guests.
• Creating presentation decks

7. Research, Research, Research

Your sector is undergoing significant change. Not just on this day. It is continuously shifting, developing, and reinventing itself in new ways. You can’t expect to be relevant if you don’t make any changes. It is essential that you stay current with emerging tendencies and technological advances.

Asking your virtual assistant (VA) to keep up with the latest industry news, events, and rivals is, in our opinion here at VA FLIX, the most effective approach to maintaining a competitive advantage over other businesses in your field. Give them the responsibility of monitoring and reporting on the situation so that you won’t have to.

8. Finally Post Those Tweets

According to research conducted by marketers, proprietors of businesses spend an average of six hours each week on social media marketing activities.

To get the best results, you need to spend even more time reaching out to your audience, connecting with them, responding to their queries, promoting your company, and monitoring the trends and other companies in your field. Furthermore, this is not even touching on the topics of media development, content publishing, or network leverage.

But how much of your time are you really able to devote to managing your social media accounts? The hiring of a virtual assistant (VA) for your enterprise may be able to help ease some of the burden here.

9. And Get That Blog Up And Running!

Writing material that is fascinating and engaging might be difficult, but in the end, you can’t overlook how important it is to have a regular blog presence or to create valuable email content. It’s possible that, as the owner of a small company, you don’t have the time to devote to copywriting.

Investigating this time-saving technique is definitely something you should do if you struggle with writing or if you are never quite able to meet your deadlines.

10. Keep On Top of Your Website

Maintaining an up-to-date website is a must. It is sometimes the initial point of contact that clients have with you. However, it takes time and work to keep the material on your website current.

To save you the trouble, your virtual assistant can take care of the following for you:

• Updating your info in the CMS
• Uploading new content
• Creating and preparing visual media
• Adding seasonal pages and offers
• Editing errors

11. Send Out A Newsletter

Design, branding, and copywriting are the three aspects of email marketing that consume the most effort. Despite this, it is still possible for you to run successful email marketing campaigns for your company. Your Virtual Assistant is able to provide a wide range of services, including the generation of content and the establishment of an email list.

12. Supercharge Your Customer Service

The administration of customers may be a time-consuming process, and it does not always get the attention it requires.

You are in luck since you are able to delegate day-to-day tasks to a virtual assistant (VA), such as managing customers and taking care of direct calls.

13. And Boost Your Sales!

It is often believed that the key to successful selling is “90% preparation and 10% perspiration.”

How can you avoid wasting your time getting in touch with folks who aren’t interested in what you have to say? Your sales efforts may be made more efficient with some advanced planning on your part. Your sales efficiency may be increased with the help of a virtual assistant by doing preparatory tasks such as:

• Audience packs
• Lead research
• Targeting content
• Follow-up communication
• Help set up and monitor KPIs.
• Weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports

Hire A Virtual Assistant And Access An Enormous Talent Pool

There is an ever-increasing number of skilled individuals who just do not want to go into an office every day or who want some degree of flexibility in their working week. This group of people is called “teleworkers.” When you hire someone to work with you remotely, not only do you have access to that person and their abilities, but you also gain access to skills that may not be readily accessible in your immediate area.

It makes no difference to us where we get our virtual assistants—whether they live in London, Birmingham, or Cardiff. They are able to share their experience, knowledge, and skills from the comfort of their small home by the water in St. Ives or from the charming village townhouse on the Scottish coast where they now reside.

The fact that a virtual assistant may perform their duties from a distant location gives us (and you) access to a massive pool of available labor.

You may find yourself asking how your virtual assistant can possibly be as involved with you and your company as the people that actually come into the office every day. This is a reasonable question to ask since you may find yourself wondering how this is even possible. But a number of studies, like the one that we are now looking at, have shown that, in reality, people who work remotely have far greater levels of morale.

It’s the simple things, like being able to take a morning run instead of catching the Underground in the rain, or even just working at their own desk, that really add up when someone is able to work from home.

Plus, you’ll Get Long-Term Commitment

As a direct consequence of this, these individuals on the team have a propensity to remain for a longer period of time. Why? because they have higher levels of happiness, productivity, and engagement. They do not have to deal with office politics or rush hour traffic on their way home, and they have a flexible schedule that allows them to accommodate any other obligations they may have. For instance, picking up the children from school on a Friday morning before heading to work.

A significant number of our current virtual assistants have prior experience working in the city. They could have done a lot more useful things with their time than sit in traffic and listen to the radio for an hour. Plus, it’s pricey. According to research that was conducted in 2017, commuters in the United Kingdom spend an average of 14% of their salary simply traveling to work.

Because they are working from home, they are oblivious to the fact that the M25 is once again at a standstill. Additionally, they do not worry about the train drivers’ planned strike for the next week. Since they no longer need to do the commute, it is likely that they have already taken their dog for a walk or gone for a run before starting work. When it is finally time to get on, they go to their home office feeling refreshed, calm, and ready to concentrate on their work.

What on earth would possess them to depart?

It also makes no difference if their significant other was just informed that they had been given an incredible job on the other side of the nation. It used to be the case that this would result in them having to terminate their collaboration with you, but those days are long gone. Their dedication to you just follows them everywhere they go!

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant (Just Once).

It goes without saying that you will want to get it perfect, regardless of whether the person you recruit will be working remotely or not.

Our recommendation is to look for a candidate that has a significant amount of experience under their belt. When someone is just getting started in their professional life, it’s best not to micromanage them in a distant capacity. You need the assistance of a trained expert – someone who is willing to make the first move.

They need to have a strong appreciation for responsibility, along with independence, a focus on goals, and a determination to succeed. If you hire the appropriate people, you won’t have to micromanage their every move because they will get things done.

Investing the necessary time at the beginning of the process to ensure that this is done correctly will be time well spent. If you make the right hires, you may end up working with the virtual assistant of your dreams far into the foreseeable future. If you give in to your impatience and take a fast shortcut (which is partially why we don’t provide free trials at VA FLIX), you run the risk of regretting your choice when you realize that your virtual assistant isn’t contributing too much value to your business.

Before you give over your burden, you should first examine their profile, engage in a call with them, and validate that they are up to the task.

Digitalise Your Office.

As soon as you have your virtual assistant working for you, it is imperative that you provide them with all of the resources that will enable them to collaborate with you in the most productive and successful manner possible.

You may construct a digital office, a place where you and your team can connect and work together, with the assistance of a number of different solutions that are already on the market.

Those that are really excellent will also have facilities for scheduling and managing tasks.

You are able to exchange papers online by using services such as G Drive or Dropbox, and using messaging applications such as Slack is an excellent way to catch up in a hurry. To name just a few examples, there are Trello, Google Docs, and GoToMeeting. It is definitely worth your time to alter your working style; instead of using the shared server, sign in to Office 365 or Google’s G Suite. This will be a far more efficient use of your time.

Talk Regularly

Why spend money on a virtual assistant who has a plethora of expertise if you aren’t going to make use of that wellspring of information?

Establish lines of contact with them and check in with them on a regular basis, even if it’s only to inquire about how their weekends were. This will not only assist them in feeling more included, as if they are a member of the team and of your company, but it will also assist you in getting the most out of the connection. Your virtual assistant may have a few useful suggestions that might save your company a significant amount of time, money, and effort. Keep in mind that they have spent their whole career dealing with a huge variety of small companies, many of which are the same as yours.

Make Them Accountable, Then Trust Them!

It is important to be specific about the goals you have for your virtual assistant. Together, decide on some attainable objectives. But after that, try not to worry too much about how those objectives are being accomplished; rather, focus on the fact that they are being accomplished. In the end, what matters is the success of the endeavor rather than the method by which it was completed.

Just a moment while you think about it. What motivated you to seek the services of a virtual assistant? It was probably to give you some of your valuable time back, which is a priceless commodity. It is only natural that you will want to keep on top of things to make sure that they are doing what they should be doing, but continually checking in with them is only going to eat into the time that you’re desperately trying to claw back. If you want to make sure that they are doing what they should be doing, then it is only natural that you will want to keep on top of things.

It’s crucial to learn how to let go a little bit, especially if your virtual assistant already has the knowledge and expertise necessary to do a good job in the position you hired them for. Have faith in them to carry out the responsibilities you have assigned to them.

Have faith in the procedure. Believe that they are capable of properly managing their own time and to-do list, and realize that even if they approach a task differently than you would, all that is required of you is a little push in the right direction. If a virtual assistant takes up more of your time than they save you, there is no use in hiring them.

You’ll be able to soar to new heights in no time if you have well-defined objectives and a little trust in the process.