Why you should hire a virtual assistant Not all that long ago, every office had at least one assistant. These office assistants would type letters, file important papers, monitor the boss’s calendar, and take messages on the telephone. Today, however, the administrative tasks secretaries performed decades ago have all become digital and have been absorbed into the regular routine of staff members. In addition to their daily jobs, managers, accountants, medical personnel and small-business owners compose and print their own letters using a word processing program; they file their own important papers on hard drives or the cloud; they monitor their voice mail; and an online calendar provides automated meeting reminders.But the downside is that the technological revolution that upended the office workplace is increasingly dumping additional work on staffers that is not part of the basic work for which they are paid. Squeezed payrolls and a need to boost productivity is forcing workers to spend time and money on routine chores that are not part of their skill set.Welcome to the world of the virtual assistantIt does not have to be that way.The assistant is returning. But because we live in a digital age, today’s assistant is not a person sitting in a corner office handling several tasks at once. The additional costs of employing another person in an office will dent the bottom line.Enter the virtual assistant — today’s digital version of the administrative, executive and personal assistant.Every company, from small business entrepreneurs, contractors and physicians to non-profit organizations and large companies, can benefit from outsourcing their tasks to a virtual assistant, freeing them up to perform the aspects of their business on which their time and talent can be more efficiently spent. Men and women of all ages working anywhere in the world can benefit from a personal assistant that stands at their side — virtually, of course.Ways you can outsource tasksHere’s a look at the ways in which you could outsource tasks to a virtual assistant, freeing you up to perform the part of your business that demands your time and talent and that works more effectively toward producing profits, which, after all, is the main reason the company exists.• Daily administrative tasksPerhaps what bogs down small business owners, staff managers and office workers the most are those routine daily chores that always seem to chew up considerably more time than you had thought they would. On any one day you might find yourself needing to e-mail or fax quotes and contracts, answer and return telephone calls, respond to voicemail messages, and provide customer service. Even renewing a software, business or personal license can take longer than you think it will, not to speak of setting up meetings and handling e-mail messages.Nor, to be honest, do most small-business owners or office workers perform those tasks all that capably. They are easily distracted by more important issues and forget to respond to voice mails or to e-mail messages. Often they fail to act on them, too.In addition, not all the chores are routine. Your position might require you to monitor a telephone meeting. You could even be called upon to transcribe the minutes and notes you took at the meeting. All this while you could be performing the real work that you are in business to do.Then there is all that business correspondence that you need to handle. It might consist of memos, letters, reports or invoices.If you travel regularly you will need to book your seats and prepare your inventory. You might even want to make dinner reservations shortly after arriving at your destination.At many companies, there is inventory to manage, online ordering to conduct and vendors to contact.True, given enough time, you can — and do — handle those tasks yourself, but at what cost to your productivity? Suddenly there is no time to do the real work.It’s clear you need the helping hand that a virtual assistant can provide.• Specialized servicesClearly no two companies are exactly alike. Some need specialized services peculiar to their business in addition to basic services. It is a good idea to obtain a needs assessment to find out which customized services fit your business, leaving you free to concentrate on doing the work that you do best.Among those who would require specialized services are people in the medical services, such as doctors and those who run medical offices. A virtual assistant could even help in recruiting staff members by advertising, screening potential qualified candidates and arranging for interviews with top managers.• Marketing through social mediaIf you do not have the time to promote your business on social media, you might like to hire a social media virtual assistant to set up profiles on social networking sites and keep them up to date. Such sites need regular maintenance and a virtual assistant could perform such tasks as scheduling daily posts and managing a client’s reputation online.In addition, the assistant could upload new products or images, answer comments posted on the page, and spot opportunities to brand their company through research.• Planning and managing eventsNot only does it take a lot of time and work to plan and handle events, but it also requires special skills in order to do so. A virtual assistant can take the work off your hands and ensure that events that you stage, such as charity occasions, dinners and even board meetings can be organized to ensure that they run smoothly.A virtual assistant would direct the event from start to finish, including organizing the meetings, ensuring that deadlines are met, and seeing that staff and volunteers are given all the relevant information related to the event. Find your own virtual assistantWhen you are ready to hire your own virtual assistant contact Virtual Aligned Business Solutions, Yuba City, CA at info@virtuallyaligned.com or 530-812-7497. They will ascertain your needs and provide you with your own remote personal assistant who can undertake the tasks special to your business.
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