The process of recruiting somebody to help you in your business is one of the most difficult tasks that any business owner can face today. Even in a hiring environment that is so densely populated with people who find themselves to be newly unemployed, the task of finding somebody "good" is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
If you are a really focused individual, who knows exactly what he or she wants in life, is dynamic, proactive and driven, you represent gold to the business owner. It is truly quite amazing that the majority of people who are applying for these jobs just do not fall into this category.
When you are in business you have to surround yourself with people who are driven in this way. They may not share your entire vision in exactly the same way as you do, but they should nevertheless "buy into" what your company represents and must be able to contribute to its long-term viability and growth. It's a business owner's dream to be surrounded by people who are motivated, self-starters and who instinctively know exactly what to do in any given moment of crisis.
While finding staff at the executive level to help head various departments or roll out new ventures may be one thing, we should never underestimate the importance of finding staff that can help us with the day-to-day operation of each department within our business. While there may be less at stake here, these individuals nevertheless contribute to the greater good of the company. Without their focused and well delivered effort, the company is likely to flounder.
It's unfortunately true that many would-be employees still view their employment as a means to an end. They may be in fact relatively good at what they do, but they're not inspired and not likely to seize an initiative should it be needed. For example, if there were a better way of doing a particular task, a really good and forward thinking employee might suggest it and know how to implement it. Unfortunately, this kind of employee seems to be few and far between.
This is a good reason why business owners should consider outsourcing many of these positions to virtual assistants. You see, a virtual assistant is invariably a small business owner him or herself and knows full well what it takes to drive the business forward proactively. The virtual assistant can become not only someone who takes on, very cost-effectively and efficiently, many of those outsourced tasks, but could also become a valuable partner, advisor and someone who contributes in many more ways than one to the business growth.
Next time you complain about the lack of star quality among potential new recruits, consider outsourcing that particular position to a contributory virtual assistant. You will find that not only will the associated task be completed carefully, correctly, on time and within budget, but you may well be able to draw on the experience of the VA to help you further consolidate.
There are more and more small business owners that are aware of the concept associated with outsourcing. However, they might think that it is only applicable for things such as article writing or maybe some website work. These people tend to feel that they simply must keep on top of a lot of their routine, everyday work. If they don't, won't they lose control of the company? It can be difficult to let go, but in reality, someone like your virtual assistant is ideally placed to help with so many different elements of your daily schedule. Now, when we are all facing hard times, when we are all 6th week into lockdown, we are forced to stop work or implement a new way of working this might come in handy and show you ideas of your Daily Schedule you could outsource online.
1. Calendar Management.
If you feel that you are running around from pillar to post, always seem to be late for appointments (conference calls) and can never seem to fit in time for meetings with important prospects, then you should outsource your calendar management to a VA. When you're busy doing other things meetings can be scheduled and you can be given plenty of advanced notice so that you are in the right place at the right time without feeling flustered.
2. E-Mail Management.
Time management and efficiency experts tell us that one of the worst ways that we can waste our time is to constantly drop everything to deal with e-mails as and when they arrive. So many of these e-mails can be time-wasters. Other e-mails represent an attempt by the originator to control your time according to their schedule. By putting a virtual assistant at the gateway you know that you will only be prompted to deal with emergency situations and all other e-mail can be handled by the VA in the background.
3. Customer Support.
Now that you've got an increasing number of important clients "on the books" you will find that there will be an increasing number of customer service issues to deal with. This is something that you must prioritise as poor support in this area will quickly gain you a bad reputation, to say nothing of lost clients. A VA will ensure that everything is handled carefully, professionally and promptly, with your input only required in predetermined circumstances.
4. General Tasks.
As there are only so many hours in the day the small-business owner will invariably find that there will be many calls for their time that may not necessarily be related to business at all. For example, running errands, gift shopping, social event organisation. All of this can be handled by your VA.
5. Trip Planning.
I know it doesn’t seem to be relevant now, but I am sure it will be back soon. We all know how long it takes to try and plan a trip. Those airline travel consolidator sites may offer you many different choices but you've still got to try and sort out your hotel, car and do so within your budget. Before you know it you've spent hours trying to arrange just one trip. Outsource this to a virtual assistant. Once you have given them the appropriate parameters they'll do the rest with maximum efficiency.
Treat your virtual assistant as an extension of yourself. There's no need to feel as if you giving up control when you outsource all of those general administrative tasks that in truth are simply non-productive and holding you back from becoming successful.
In my previous articles, you can read about other outsourcing ideas like Admin tasks or Social media tasks. And soon I will cover more.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant – Why times have changed?
The business environment has changed a great deal in the last decade. We’ve seen amazing progress in the world of technology and communication. We’ve also seen the consequences of poor economic management and a lasting recession. These factors combined have led to a sea of change in the way that business owners run their operations and plan for future growth.
Today, it’s no longer necessary to maintain a costly office setup, with a variety of full or part-time staff dedicated to specific areas of expertise. Not only is it not necessary, but by doing so you can set yourself up at a competitive disadvantage, as rival organisations see the advantages of streamlining and outsourcing. (more…)
When you finally realise that you are wasting your time, what are you going to do?
We are seeing an explosive growth in the number of people who want to take their own future in their hands and set out on their own, to become an entrepreneur. Undoubtedly, this has been fueled in large part by the recent economic downturn and the huge number of layoffs in supposedly “cast-iron” industries. No longer could you rely on a job for life and the slow realisation that nobody’s job was secure anymore prompted many to sit up and take notice. (more…)
Calculating the true cost of hiring Virtual Assistant
Have you ever calculated what an hour of time is worth to you? As a small business owner can you put a value on every task that you perform on any given day? It’s surprising to learn that many entrepreneurs and successful business people still do not really understand what their time is worth. In business, time is probably the most valuable asset of all. It is fleeting, comes in an instant and goes and you can never get it back. Yet with each passing moment, an opportunity to be productive and to help you along the road to ultimate success may be squandered. (more…)
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Hiring a Virtual Assistant – Why times have changed?
When you finally realise that you are wasting your time, what are you going to do?
Calculating the true cost of hiring Virtual Assistant