We shed light why women running a business or a scaling the career ladder should access virtual assistant support. Here we give you examples of the types of support you can explore - and guess what it's not all work related.
What is a virtual assistant? Think of a VA as an extension of your business or corporate team. They are on hand to assist with dedicated tasks to bring more ease to your personal and professional journey when you need them, bringing an unparalleled level of expertise to navigate the most intricate aspects of what you do.
Research
VA's aren't just for work tasks; they can work wonders in your personal life too. There is no judgment here. Last year, I hired a VA purely for the task of finding and booking our family holiday. She explored my family's requirements and gave me three viable options, then completed the booking process. But here's the kicker: she had done all this many times before and had a packing list for my family that I could work through, so packing for the holiday wasn't a complete nightmare. She also reminded me to renew my passport when I came back, as it was due to expire and I was traveling to the States shortly after. A lot of stress saved. It might sound indulgent, but the support left me free to fully focus on a busy season at work, which paid for the VA support and more. You can do it all, but you've got to be smart about how you get it done.
Labour intensive tasks
We had a client last year who had seven email inboxes with more than 8000 emails across them. If your email is piling up, sometimes bringing in support can help. Doing a task like this is a time zapper, so don't waste that time. I had an academic client who needed to organize a dissertation supervision list for over 300 students and allocate staffing. The VA was on hand to do the majority of the heavy lifting, leaving the academic time to have conversations with colleagues about allocations and work on promotion grade research. This made a huge impact for the academic, who recently stepped into a leadership role.
Specialist VA support to bolster your processes
From HR, to private office, startups, working mothers, business processes, and systems. Many VAs have specialist expertise, so it's about matching need to skill set. There is every type of VA out there, so look out for those that have specialist skills in the areas that you need. Remember, you can have multiple VAs, one for everyday tasks and others on demand for particular skill sets.
Providing expert knowledge in tools and systems:
VAs are masters of Outlook and key business systems. A task that might take you four hours to do, a VA may be able to do it in an hour and a half. Want to get your prospect management under control? Find a VA with expertise in HubSpot. They can get your customer relationship management sorted in no time.
Great VA's are worth their weight in gold. If you find a great one keep them. Retainers allow you to build in regular hours each month of support and allow your working relationship to develop over a prolonged period of time. Pay as you use options are great for time limited or specific tasks that have a finite end date.
Need some VA support? Get in touch, and we can recommend great VA partners to you.
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