If you have all the time you need in a day to get everything done, with even a little to spare for what is known as ‘free time’ – we’re not entirely clear on what that is, by the way – then this article is decidedly not for you and we recommend that you keep on scrolling.
Now, for those of us who don’t enjoy the former and instead fall into the latter category of ‘too many things to do, too few hours in the day,’ this article – and a Virtual Assistant – are definitely for you.
What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?
Here are just a few things your Virtual Assistant can do for you.
- Bookkeeping
As we’ve discussed before, your Virtual Assistant can do your bookkeeping. Take a second with that – pretty amazing, right? We’re going to go out on a limb here and saying that there aren’t many small business owners who actually enjoy bookkeeping. But with a Virtual Assistant , you can outsource your bookkeeping to highly qualified Virtual Assistant s anywhere in the world – and at affordable rates.
- Research
Whether researching potential investors or competitors, locating event or office space, researching new products or services, gathering market information, or vetting a prospective employee or business contact, a Virtual Assistant can keep their fingers on the pulse of all things related to or potentially impacting your business – so you can focus on, well, your business.
- Content
This article? It could’ve been written for you by a Virtual Assistant . And not only does content help grow your overall business presence and position you as a thought leader in your industry, but it also helps with organic searches and SEO. Such a constant stream of content leads prospective customers to find your article in a sea of search engine results, get them to click on the link for valuable information, and convert them.
- Data Entry
All those business cards you collected at the last industry event – you know, the ones you have every good intention of saving but that you know, deep down, will die a slow, painful, landfill-destined death in the cupholders of your car? Your Virtual Assistant can take the time to enter each and every one into a database for you. And they can update existing business contact information while they’re at it, too.
- Managing Email
Show of hands: Who loves seeing an endless stream of emails pouring into their inbox every day and simply cannot wait to take the time to respond, delete and organize each one? No – no one? Anyone? Bueller? A Virtual Assistant can save you from your email inbox, even filtering your most important emails and responding to the rest for you.
- Social Media & Tasks
For any business – from solopreneur to Fortune 500 – having a social media presence is a non-negotiable. From scheduling posts on several outlets every day, to responding to comments and messages, to growing your following, a Virtual Assistant can help. And for more ‘classic’ social pursuits, like writing holiday cards or sending thank you notes, a Virtual Assistant can take care of that, too.
- Travel Research & Arrangements
Arranging travel – from researching, to comparing prices, to booking hotels, airfare, rental cars and more – Virtual Assistant s can be tasked with the soup-to-nuts of travel research and arrangements. They can take the time to compare travel research tools, review sites, and deal with the hassle of navigating time zones and language barriers when booking or researching international travel by phone.
- Scheduling
Right up there with managing and staying on top of email is managing and staying on top of scheduling. From business meetings to personal appointments, managing a calendar can be overwhelming. A Virtual Assistant can deal with everything on your behalf, from meeting invitations from others, to scheduling appointments with clients, updating appointments and even – get this – declining meetings and events for you.
- New Business
Much like managing business cards, Virtual Assistant s can help put action behind your best intentions with new business opportunities. Not only can they input new business opportunities into a CRM or similar database for you to manage and monitor, but they can help follow-up as needed and even uncover more opportunities while managing your email, calendar, social media and more.
- Current Industry News & Trends
You don’t know what you don’t know – but a Virtual Assistant can change that. With their fingers dabbling in everything – social media, research, emails and more – they can not only uncover but keep up with industry news and even inject interesting developments into conversation with customers and prospects, helping you shine as an in-the-know industry thought leader.
BONUS: Personal Tasks
When you actually stop and think about all the things you do personally on a daily basis, they add up – and quick. But you know the intense, full-body rush you feel when you cross something off your to-do list? A VA can give you the ability to start crossing more of these items off your personal to-do lists, one giddy pen stroke after another. Here are just a few personal assistant services your Virtual Assistant can handle for you.
Pretty impressive, huh? But get this: This is just the tip of the Virtual Assistant iceberg. In fact, we’d argue that hiring a Virtual Assistant is the next best thing to adding more hours to the day.
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