We’re not going to sugar coat it – being a business owner is tough. Yes, it’s also amazing and rewarding, but it’s definitely not all plain sailing. It’s a long slog, with a lot of ups and downs to ride out along the way. There’s always something else to do, and never enough time in the day to get it all done. This usually means you have to end up abandoning some of those essential tasks just so that you can get some sleep at night. Problem is, those tasks are usually the ones that really need to be done, and if they aren’t, you’re in for a world of trouble later on. But because they’ll take up so much time and energy, you just can’t face doing them. Believe me, we know the feeling.
But smart business owners don’t spend long in this state. After a month or two they realise they need some help, and instead of trying to plough ahead and keep going, they suck it up and get someone who can help. In most cases, that’s a VA. Someone who can take on the admin of the business and leave them free to do what they do best – deliver services and make money.
But what could you outsource to a VA? Well, we have just a few thoughts on that…
Managing Your Diary
Let’s face it, when you’re as busy as I know you are, you don’t have time to manage your own diary. Stuff falls through the cracks, things get double booked, or worse they don’t get booked at all – and none of that is good for business. And just like almost very other time-consuming business task, it can be outsourced. So rather than struggle along as you have been, make a change and get a VA to handle it for you. They can do anything from setting up a default diary, making appointments for you, create daily to-do lists from your diary bookings and even remind you when you have meetings coming up, so you have no excuses for missing or forgetting them. Doesn’t that sound more efficient?
Organising Your Paperwork
If you get distracted easily, then you might find it challenging to stay organised and on top of the duller elements of running a business, like your paperwork. But being organised in your business is just as important as being productive, so you need to work out a system that work for you and will keep you on top of things. Luckily, VA’s really enjoy doing things like organising filing cabinets, creating digital storage solutions and arranging everything you need in a simple and easy to use format. So instead of telling yourself you’ll get round to it next week, hire a VA to help you get your business paperwork systemised, organised and running smoothly, so you never have to go searching for another document again.
Repetitive Data Entry
Whether it’s a slew of new businesses cards you picked up at a conference or updating your databases to comply with the new GDPR legislation, it’s important that you keep your business database up to date. It’s also mindless repetitive work that can eat up an entire day if you’re not careful. And because your time is valuable, it’s probably better spent doing something else that could improve your business and earn you money. So if you outsource literally nothing else – outsource this to a VA, and sharpish.
Email Marketing
If there’s one thing VA’s are great at, it’s managing data and keeping to a schedule – both things you need when you’re doing email marketing. We all know how great email marketing can be for growing your network and selling your services (even if GDPR did shit on it a little bit), but be honest, how often do you actually have time to do it? Your virtual assistant can help you create a new email marketing list in programmes such as MailChimp, add or remove subscribers, create and schedule email marketing campaigns, edit and create auto-responders and handle any follow up from your marketing sends. So it all happens without you having to do a thing.
Travel Plans
For business owners who travel, making the arrangements for a trip can be a major time sink, and all too often it gets left to the last minute. That’s how you end up staying in a 2-star travel lodge miles away from your meetings and having to do 3 changeover flights to get there. But a virtual assistant can by doing the research to find you the best deals, hotel rates, airport transfers and other things related to your upcoming travel with plenty of time to spare. They can also book your flights and transport, and make all the arrangements on your behalf, so all you need to do is get in the taxi.
So where do you find a VA who can do all of these wonderful things, and keep you accountable to them in your business? Well you’re in the right place. At Your Admin Hub, we provide all the outsourced VA services you can think of, and probably a few more besides. With our help, you can outsource all of those niggly, time consuming tasks, leaving you free to focus on growing your business. So if you’d like to stop faffing about and start getting shit done, you know where to find us.