There’s a good chance that your business has been run solely by you since it began. Looking to grow your team can be a big step for them and all the options can be a little baffling. Knowing when to make the commitment and expand doesn’t have to be difficult, especially if your first team member is a Virtual Assistant. Here’s all you need to know about, what a Virtual Assistant is and what they do.
What is a Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual Assistant is a remote team worker who is employed on a contracted or freelance basis. They work with several clients at any time, providing them all with the services they need, to run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. Each client will usually have a contract that stipulates the set amount of hours they’re hiring the Virtual Assistant for – so they’re only paying for the hours needed and used.
As a small business owner themselves, they understand how you may be feeling about getting your business organised and on a path for growth. More importantly, they can help you with both of these tasks!
What does a Virtual Assistant do?
This is one of the most commonly asked questions by businesses looking to hire a Virtual Assistant. That’s understandable as, how can you know how much time you need to hire your Virtual Assistant for if you don’t know what they can do for you.
A Virtual Assistant can provide a vast range of different services. There are many Virtual Assistants that specialise in specific areas – such as websites or using a particular software platform. This impacts on the type of service they can provide. Some Virtual Assistants offer a more general service, however, here’s a breakdown of some of the more common tasks a Virtual Assistant can provide.
Administrative tasks
General tasks such as filing, answering the phone(if this is a service they offer), data entry and managing your to-do list.
Digital marketing tasks and Social media management
Content creation, website management, email and sales funnel set up and management, and editing videos. Social media management can include anything from engagement, right through to analysing reports and implementing ad campaigns.
Event organisation and management
Events take time to organise and run. A Virtual Assistant can liaise with attendees and suppliers, take notes at meetings, research suitable venues and even follow up with attendees after the event.
Email and calendar management
Ensuring your appointments and meetings are scheduled, updating your contacts, filtering, and replying to emails and tidying your inbox are tasks commonly outsourced to a Virtual Assistant.
Customer relationship
A Virtual Assistant can take on a large chunk of your customer relationship and retention tasks. Tasks like sales and call management, dealing with queries and competitor research, for example.
Personal tasks
Virtual Assistants aren’t limited to helping you with your business life – they’re great for personal tasks too! Tasks such as organising the family holiday, gift sourcing and purchasing, as well as calendar management for the family, to ensure you’re all where you need to be, with time to spare!
Travel arrangements
Itineraries, tickets, and hotels, as well as handling your expense and travel claims are great jobs for your Virtual Assistant to handle. Paying them for a few hours research can save clients hundreds of pounds.
Research
Competitors, blog post ideas, keyword research and even candidate selection are commonly and easily outsourced to Virtual Assistants.
eCommerce Assistant
A Virtual Assistant can deal with eCommerce tasks, such as chat and email queries, customer support, order processing, product descriptions, stock monitoring etc.
As you can see from the above, a Virtual Assistant can be a huge asset to your business. Not only will they help you get more organised, but they’ll also free up your time and take control of your to-do list so you can focus on what you do best. And the next time you want to expand your team even further, you can even outsource that process to your Virtual Assistant too!