16May 18 17 Ways Virtual Assistants Can Transform Your Business in 2018 (Infographic)

“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”

 – John C. Maxwell

As an entrepreneur successfully navigates the first few months of his or her start-up phase, the focus typically shifts to a more exciting prospect.

“How to grow my business?”.

In this blog, we are going to discuss how virtual assistants can transform your business.

Despite every innovative and meticulous vision, it’s pretty normal for entrepreneurs to get bogged down by the plethora of mundane tasks involved in creating and expanding a successful venture.

Even after you have put in long hours, sacrificing your personal time and space, it might be too overwhelming to get everything done.

Some critical tasks will eventually pop up, distracting you from utilizing your full potential.

These situations are more prevalent in small companies, who are not ready to afford full-time support staff.

This is the point where you need to decide, if you will adapt to the situation and delegate your tasks effectively, or will you continue the one-man show and risk being burnt out? If you choose the former option, this is where a virtual assistant (VA) can come to your rescue.

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is an individual who performs tasks on your behalf, albeit from a remote location.

VA’s are equipped to take care of crucial but small-scale tasks, leaving you free to perform your specific job role that requires a delicate touch.

Now that I have got your attention, let’s delve further into the intricacies.

From answering emails to developing marketing strategies, a virtual assistant can administer near about everything. Here’s why it’s time to consider hiring one for yourself.

Here are 17 simple but vital tasks that you can assign to a virtual assistant:

1. Market Research

Whatever information that you may require, a VA can derive and present it in a way that won’t feel overwhelming.

Most VA’s start off there journey as recent graduates or undergraduates.

So, they are already adept at conducting research.

They have experience performing the same for university assignments and projects.

Therefore, what you have is –

An intelligent and reliant executive who excels at extracting information.

They can present it in a simple yet constructive way, that you, your clients or your colleagues will find easier to comprehend.

2. Social Media Management

Social media is a crucial platform when it comes to online marketing and customer interaction.

Here’s the inevitable.

The future success of your company is directly proportional to your social media strategy.

Be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat or Instagram, you will need to regularly maintain and update the social media accounts of your company.

The highly customizable nature of advertisements also makes social media management even more appealing. To succeed, you will need customers. To attract potential customers, you will need social media.

Now, an active social media presence will need a lot of time and persistence.

Do you have time for that?

Maybe not.

So, how to improve your social media engagement?

It’s simple. You delegate it to virtual assistants.

With all sorts of relevant expertise, they are the best bet to increase the frequency of your posts on social media.

3. Content Creation

Now that you are aware of the importance of social media, let’s focus on the material that you need to make your social presence attractive.

Content.

The best way to promote a website is through articles or blogs. Promotional content on the social media that will grasp the attention of your customers.

It’s simple. If your blogs lack the relevant information and substance to tempt a visitor, you can say goodbye to your expansion dreams.

Quality attracts quality. Everybody wants to be a part of it.

Quality content attracts customers.

You just need to provide the topics and direction.

A VA will create the blog or article along with relevant research that precedes it. Virtual Assistants skilled at writing and editing can definitely provide an edge to your business.

4. Build A Strategic Partnership.

It’s time to get rid of the myth- “Virtual Assistants are hired guns”. The idea that once they have completed your assignment, they will move on to the next one.

This is far from the truth.

Why?

Virtual assistants either work for an enterprise or act as free agents.

In both instances, the same rules apply. To flourish, they need to grow their reach. And to grow their reach, they need to retain customers.

Therefore, it’s in their best interest to continue to outperform all competitors.

They require you as much as you require them. Look at it as strategic partnerships.

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” – H.E. Luccock

Never underestimate the collaboration. When both parties are equally motivated to attain a common goal, spectacular results are inevitable.

5. Data Entry and Analysis

Ever faced a situation where you are stuck gathering data? Spending the bulk of your valuable hours in a repetitive job?

A VA is what you need.

The work may seem tedious, but it is meaningful.

As a task that doesn’t call for much skill, a VA can easily get it done and contribute to your business.

6. Translation

When you are entering a foreign market, you may need to translate documents. You may need them translated from a foreign language to English or vice versa.

Since VA’s are employed remotely, you can easily appoint a specialized VA who speaks the necessary languages to help you with the task.

7. Recruitment

You can also use a VA to help you with recruitment procedures.

Sounds too far-fetched?

If you meticulously provide your requirements, a VA can easily go through the applications and zero down on the relevant few that suit your specified requirements.

They can then conduct interviews on Skype or over the telephone, and then pass them on accordingly.

8. Transcription

When you are dealing with foreign clients, you may face difficulty translating an audio or video that may be important for your business.

The dialect may feel different, the accent may seem hard to comprehend.

Maybe you can perform it, but it surely is a time-consuming and delicate procedure.

So, your best bet is to appoint a virtual assistant who can perform it diligently and effectively.

9. Website Design

The primary requirement of your online presence is a website. It’s the gateway through which your customers will reach and communicate with you.

To maintain a quality website, you will need skilled developers.

There are many VA’s out there, freelancing or working for a firm, who are adept at website designing and coding.

Coding has turned up to be quite a common skill nowadays, along with a range of web design platforms that are relatively easy to use.

A VA can help set up your website. Maintain, revamp and upgrade it. Also, keep track of your web activity.

10. Organising Files

To keep your business running effectively, you will need an effective filing system. It’s vital to make sure your filing system is organized and cleaned regularly.

Here, let’s address the elephant in the room.

It’s not possible to be the jack of all trades!

But, if most of your files are stored in online storage drives, a VA can easily access them from a remote location.

A VA who pays attention to detail would be extremely useful to organise your files.

11. Answering Calls and Taking Messages

The primary job of any Virtual assistant includes recording and answering messages.

A VA can run your phone line through an online calling platform like Skype and easily document or respond to your messages.

Your VA can also do the following –

• obtain information
• fix appointments
• connect with the business partners or potential customers

They are also extremely useful in organising your calendar, scheduling appointments and similar tasks.

12. A Pool of Talent

The best virtual assistants come with varied skillsets. This allows you to pick and choose the best of the best.

They understand your enterprise and consequently, this is evident in the way they handle your tasks.

The best part is that geography is not a factor when you hire virtual assistants. You can look for, find and work with the best people from around the world.

Therefore, when you hire world class talent at the most reasonable costs, your business is sure to shine!

13. You Never Have to Pay Extra

The payment procedure for virtual assistants is pretty transparent. You only pay for what you get.

If this seems like a radical reassurance, it’s because it is!

Don’t pay for sick days, vacations or health insurance anymore; save up and reap the valuable benefits that these experts bring to your business.

Still trying to figure out how virtual assistants can transform your business?

Read on to the next point!

14. Operational Scalability

Have you noticed that the turnaround time of your processes is slowing down?

Do you know what this indicates? That the need for scaling up your business is now!

This means a greater man-power is required to deal with the rising demands, making this one of the key reasons to hire virtual assistants.

Since virtual assistants are known for their efficiency and flexibility, they are the right people to trust when your work volume is about to go up. You get more done and pay a lot less.

15. Execute the Smaller Secondaries

From step by step planning for a media campaign to writing a whitepaper or a script for a video, virtual assistants are creative in dealing with tasks of varying importance.

These can be professional writers who are adept with online tools and gifted with words or those who are great with numbers and as a result, efficient at keeping financial accounts.

So, the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant?

Virtual assistants are not people who are rigid at what they do, but whose scope goes above and beyond than that of the regular employee at your generic workplace.

16. Your Personal Manager

Your website will always require regular tweaks in order to run smoothly. This is particularly relevant if you maintain your personal blog.

Get a smart virtual assistant who will be able to manage plugins, redesign sections, or carry out text optimization.

Also, what about other outsourcers?

If you have to spend all your time trying to track each of those who work remotely for you, you are losing precious time that you sought to have!

Get a virtual assistant dedicated to handling and managing your outsourcers, who would send you regular reports of work progress to keep you in the loop. This is a really substantial way to grow your business with virtual assistants.

17. Addressing Comments

Finally, if you do write in a blog, you should know that commenting is an important way to promote yourself!

This is not an easy thing to do.

When you are piled up with work, and have numerous sites to maintain throughout the day, it becomes tedious to keep track of all comments.

This is where you should hire a virtual assistant who is aware of your niche and knows how to tackle customer comments. Just make sure that they know as much about your enterprise as you do, and they will take care of the rest!

Experience is not the most critical thing in carrying out your tasks, rather, it is the skill and fortitude that counts. Some tasks may not be the most important, but they are still relevant in the greater scheme of things. These are tasks that may take up a significant amount of your time.

 You need to be smart. Hire a virtual assistant to do these while you focus on the more demanding responsibilities. Remember that today, virtual assistance services are no longer limited to secretarial tasks. You can lower your costs and still generate the maximum amount of productivity required to take your business to new heights of excellence!