Let’s face it: It’s easy to miss things when you’re busy working, chauffeuring the kids around to school and practices, and – oh, yeah – surviving the holidays.
Sure, you could be thriving during the holidays but we’re in the business of full transparency, warts and all, and the reality is that as much as we love the holidays, there is a touch of white-knuckling the beautiful chaos otherwise known as the holiday season.
There’s a shortage of time while your list continues to grow. To help you stay on top of all of it, we’ve rounded up our top-5 best virtual assistant blogs of 2019 for your reading pleasure.
“These days, 70 percent of companies offer their workers options to telecommute. That’s according to a 2018 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey. This percentage has increased 11 points in four short years—only 59% of businesses offered remote working options in 2014.
“Clearly, telecommuting is reaching critical mass.
“But if that’s not enough to convince employers and managers that incorporating offsite workers in their organization is no longer an experiment, how about this? By Gallup’s estimates, more than one-third of all employees would quit their jobs and take their skills elsewhere if the new position allowed them to work from where they want at least part of the time.
“The onsite vs. offsite debate brings unique considerations when it comes to one role in particular – the administrative or executive assistant. Why? Because the concept of hiring a remote assistant who works offsite – known in the industry as a virtual assistant – is still newfangled territory for some businesses.”
Read more about reasons to hire a remote executive assistant here.
“Twenty-four hours. That’s it; that’s all we get in one day. And some days, you’d swear that you blinked and it’s already tomorrow. If you consider that, on average, you spend over an hour eating each day and nearly nine hours sleeping – insert the laughter of parents of small children here – that leaves roughly 14 hours for literally everything else.
“THINK: leisure, sports, domesticities, civic and religious activities, shopping, caring for loved ones, education, phone calls, mail, email … and more.
“And as a church leader for a small to mid-sized church, you likely know all-too-well how many directions you can be pulled. Your job is not to check email, update social media, write and send out newsletters, or proofread the program. Your job, at its absolute simplest, is to connect with people.
“But scope creep is real. Day-to-day administrative tasks shift church leaders’ focus from ministry to the menial because many budgets simply don’t allow for administrative support.
“Or do they?”
Read more about the benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant for your church here.
“After too many years of too-long commutes – her longest being 65 miles one way – Danielle Hogan found that starting her Third Option with BELAY in May 2018 to be a welcomed change after an unexpected health issue, working part-time virtual jobs and struggling to find ideal clients as a virtual assistant.
“And BONUS! It afforded her more time to shower her special-needs puppy with even more love and attention.
“‘I finally have that work-life balance!’ she shared. ‘The flexibility of being a VA has given me more time than I’ve ever had to enjoy holidays, birthdays, special occasions and events.
“‘It feels great to make plans without having to beg a boss for time out of the office or bid on holidays off or even just the little things – like being home for dinner before 7 p.m. I was rarely able to do that before.’
“So we sat down with Danielle recently to find out how the pendulum of balance in her life has finally swung back in the right direction.”
Read more about a day in the life of a VA here.
“Money, time and energy.
“All things business owners have far too much of, if we’re being honest. But seriously, if we have to hear one more entrepreneur complain about how they’re just rolling in it, our eyes will roll back so far into our heads they may never recover.
“We get it, alright? Enough already.
“You have too many hours in the day than you know what to do with, too many gold-plated Jet Skis to count, and the energy of twin toddlers after indulging in post-Halloween spoils.
“Sigh.
“Thankfully, we’re in the business of making the lives of our clients easier so here, we’ll give you a few ways you can ensure you don’t get any return on investment on your Virtual Assistant.
“What’s money well-spent, anyway?”
Read more about how to guarantee you get no ROI from your VA here.
*A roundup within a roundup. We’re so meta
“If you’ve ever considered hiring a Virtual Assistant but still need more reasons (we’ve provided a handful of convincing articles on the subject), we’ve compiled the ten biggest benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant.
“Google ‘reasons to hire a virtual assistant,’ and you’ll be inundated with other people, industries and businesses shouting their praises from the cyber rooftops.
“So here, we’ve rounded up some of the most compelling benefits of finally hiring a Virtual Assistant once and for all!”
Read more about the benefits of hiring a VA here.
So, we know we talked about ‘full transparency’ and all but … we lied. Kinda. We’ve actually rounded up – BONUS – six best blogs of 2019 for your reading pleasure.
“When you and your colleagues share one roof, it’s infinitely easier to create an atmosphere of trust and camaraderie. There’s just something about spending 40 (plus) hours with the same people day in and day out to help bring everyone closer together.
“But FAST FACT: Did you know that 65 percent of virtual employees surveyed reported that they have never had a team-building session?
“So what can you do when some – or all – of you work virtually and rarely – or never – see your coworkers IRL?
You just have to think outside the box a little to find a different approach to team building – and BONUS! Virtual team building doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive.”
Read more about team-building activities for remote teams here.
So, there you have it: A little BELAY secret Santa special delivery hand-picked just for you.
We have so loved the privilege of serving each and every one of our clients in 2019 and look forward to serving many of you in 2020.*
*Aside: 2020 isn’t actually a real year, right?
Can’t get enough of our blogs? We don’t blame you. So we rounded up the best bookkeeping blogs from 2019 here, too.