Thousands of great entrepreneurs are where they are because they once picked up a copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Without question, this single book has had a greater influence on the lives, accomplishments, and fortunes of more people than any other work of its kind.
Now you are probably asking yourself, what does Think and Grow Rich have to do with a virtual assistant? My answer is everything!
The title says it all, THINK and grow RICH.
It’s a fact majority of entrepreneurs fail within the first couple years. Starting a new business, money is tight and you stretch yourself out thin, but this goes against the principles taught by Hill in Think and Grow Rich. You end up working IN your business than working ON your business.
Time is your best friend and most important factor. Time to think, envision, and manifest. Now you’re probably asking, how do I get more time when I’m so busy doing all these tasks, fulfilling orders, replying to customers, logistics, accounting, finding suppliers, quality control, marketing, business development and the list goes on and on.
You are absolutely exceptional but you’re not a super robot, you can’t do everything on your own! The key is to delegate mundane tasks to free your mind for what you and only you can do best!
Outsourcing is not the future it’s the now!
Create a “3 Lists to Freedom”
These three things help you delegate your time more effectively and boost productivity.
Here are the three things you should write down:
- Things you hate doing.
- Things you can’t do yourself.
- Things you shouldn’t be doing, because it can easily be handled by anyone else.
What is a Virtual Assistant (VA)?
A virtual assistant (VA) is a person who provides remote help or support services to a business. Administrative tasks are most common for virtual assistants, but they may also assist with any other elements required by the business. Who knows you may find someone better than you who can create those IG posts and boost your social media presence?
A virtual assistant (VA) or going through a Virtual Assistant Agency is often the first hire for most entrepreneurs. Virtual assistants (VAs) come from all over the world with different skills and knowledge ranging from customer service reps for your business to realtor assistants booking clients for appointments and paper work prep to social media marketers to build brand awareness. Different virtual assistant agencies work different. You may have virtual assistant agency that is strictly national while others recruit and find individuals with top skills anywhere in the world.
A virtual assistant (VA) won’t build your entire website and build your business for you, but can help manage certain tasks and parts of the business such as, doing research for content articles or designing social media posts.
They shouldn't take on an entire function of your business, but rather own a specific process or part.
Giving up control can be hard for entrepreneurs, so taking on a virtual assistant is the perfect way to hone the foundational skills of a great leader; managing, delegated and hiring.
Considering the important role they play, it’s crucial to select wisely when hiring a virtual assistant.
So, what does a virtual assistant do?
Executive Virtual Assistants:
- Email management
- Calendar management
- Scheduling and attending meetings (via Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts)
- Taking and distributing meeting minutes
- Travel arrangements
- Event planning
- Personal banking
- Client facing communication
- Creating Excel sheets & PowerPoint presentations
- Copywriting
Data Entry
It’s 2021 and the world is not slowing down! Becoming ever-increasingly dependent on digital technology, you need to keep up. Record keeping, the need for consistent, accurate and dependable data entry has become obvious. If you’ve ever run a business from the ground up you will know how time and energy consuming it can be. The last thing a business owner needs to be investing their time in are the mundane tasks that don’t grow their business. Why not hand it off to your dependable virtual assistant who can likely do the task faster than you can. Why not focus on the growth of your company instead?
Email Management
If you looked at your email inbox right now, how many unread emails would you see? If you’re like most people it is likely a number that might make you embarrassed. Then there is the matter of actually finding the emails you need NOW. The email vortex has taken more than one business leader to the edge of insanity and what makes it more frustrating is that it is all so unnecessary.
Calendar Management
Have you ever been on the receiving end of a double-booked calendar? If yes, then you know how frustrating it can be from the client/customer side to take time out of your day for an appointment only to have it not be there waiting for you at the scheduled time. And it is worse if you have had to travel for the appointment, isn’t it? If booking appointments is a big part of your business you can’t afford to risk these double bookings and a lack of time buffers that can potentially upset a prospect or client. Your remote worker can ensure that your calendar never causes wires to get crossed and your prospects, customers and clients stay happy.
Marketing virtual assistants can help with:
- Lead generation
- Lead management
- Lead follow up
- Lead nurturing
- Email Marketing
- Monitoring engagement, analytics
- Content development/content marketing
- Proposal development (Powerpoint, InDesign, Word)
- Copywriting/editing content
- Prospecting
- Scheduling meetings
- Email management
- Designing marketing materials (print, web sales support collateral, web design and updates)
Marketing
Finding it hard to juggle it all; prospect follow ups, client follow ups, generating new leads, managing your Google Ads account, writing article content, improving your web design, keeping up to date on the latest social trends? We know, it can be total mind chaos.
Social media virtual assistants can help with:
- Managing accounts across multiple platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc)
- Creating content, web design, graphic design
- Deploying content through management software (Canva, Hootsuite etc)
- Adjusting content based on analytics
- Engaging with users as required
- Improving engagement
- Conducting industry/competitive research as required
- Posting paid social media ads
- Monitoring analytics and metrics
- Designing ad content
Social Media Experts
These days if you don’t have a social media presence, it can be as if you or business doesn’t even exist. Is this a real company? It’s become one of the first ways prospects can learn, engage and connect with your company. Also, with everything being online and consumers are more open to online spending, engaging with a known and present business gives the user’s comfort in spending. If social media isn’t your ‘thing,’ it quickly becomes a daunting and unenjoyable task. This is where our Virtual Assistants come in.
Want an industry specific VA? Real Estate Virtual Assistant
Career as a realtor is a real hustlers job. From posting ads on Craigslist to following up with prospective renters to buyers. Open houses, drawing up contracts, calling prospects, it is an incredibly involved career. Need more time?
As seen on REALTORMag, Top real estate leaders hire real estate virtual assistants.
So, what is a real estate virtual assistant and what does a real estate virtual assistant do?
“Real estate virtual assistants are remote workers who can complete a wide variety of real estate tasks, such as preparing & filing paperwork, responding to email inquiries, setting up meetings, etc.”
Here is a list of important tasks that you can assign to your real estate virtual assistant:
- Real estate data scraping with the help of classifieds software from different websites, such as Craigslist, Backpage, Oodle, and eBay
- Posting ads on Craigslist, Zumper, Postlets, RentLinx, Zillow and others
- Sending introductory messages to potential renters along with appropriate listings based on what they require
- Compiling morning reports with information received from MLS
- Managing your calendar
- Responding to email inquiries
- Setting up your meetings
- Following up with prospective renters and buyers
- Social media campaigns for your real estate website
- Writing blogs and articles for content marketing
- Database management
- Email campaigns
- Doing property research and creating property report
- Following up over phone and email with parties involved in the closing process like a home inspector and home appraiser
eCommerce Virtual Assistant
eCommerce businesses are booming like any anything. Thanks to COVID and a global shut down, business need to continue to thrive in this new world. With everything moving online and the growth of businesses has increased the workload of eCommerces businessmen as well. Now, they need to be more aggressive in their efforts to outgrow their competitors.
eCommerce virtual assistants can ease out the burden.
Here is a list of important tasks that you can delegate to your eCommerce virtual assistant:
- eCommerce product data entry
- Handling transaction in a seamless way
- Managing inventory on a daily basis
- Writing SEO-friendly product descriptions
- Conducting your competitors’ analysis
- Providing 24/7 email and chat supports to your customers
- Taking care of order processing
- Editing product images
- Product category management
- Coupon data entry
- Product classification & taxonomy development
- Handling return and exchange of products
eCommerce virtual assistants are adept at working with Shopify, Magento, or any other platform. So, you won’t have to worry about anything.
Selling products on your website or you are selling them on a marketplace, an eCommerce virtual assistant can help you run your business smoothly.
Let us see how an eCommerce virtual assistant has increased the sale of your products on the marketplaces.
You maybe sell your products on Amazon, Esty, Walmart or eBay. Before hiring an eCommerce virtual assistant, you did everything from inventory management to handling return & exchange of products. Does the workload overwhelm you? Hard time, focusing on your competitors due to excessive workload.
You read this article, decided to hire an ecommerce virtual assistant, Jenny. Jeny took over inventory management, product fulfillment, and product data entry in her hands. This eased your workload. Now, you have more time for the promotion of your products. And you have been able to execute aggressive marketing strategies for your products. This has doubled your sales.
Aren’t you happy you hired your first virtual assistant.
From the uses cases above, you can already see how much time a VA can potentially save you if you were to incorporate one into your day.
Next Steps to Get a Virtual Assistant
Identify the tasks in your business that would be best to outsource. Hint: Focus on tasks that do not require your expertise. Ask yourself if the task is the best use of your time or would be better done by someone else?
Where to Find a Virtual Assistant?
If you search the web you will find a plethora of virtual assistant companies ready to provide you with immediate help.
Speak with us to identify virtual assistants that fit your needs.
Whether you want to scale your business, stop doing tasks that annoy you, improve on your web design or just want more free time, a VA is a game changer. I think you can see hiring a virtual assistant could be key to your success.
Hope this helps you decide whether a VA is right for you and your business.
