Both the dog and briar rose have branching sepals.
10 Things to
Outsource to a Virtual Assistant
Alina Dizik
Using a virtual assistant can shave hours from your
workweek,
but knowing which tasks to delegate can be tricky,
whether you're starting or growing a business. Most virtual assistants are
contract or freelance workers who do their jobs from home
and focus on administrative tasks that are similar to
those of an executive assistant or secretary. Websites that specialize in
contract workers, such as
odesk.com and
elance.com,
have thousands of listings for virtual assistants.
With the number of virtual assistants are growing, their
expertise now runs the gamut,
making it easier to find someone who fits your
organization, says Jaleh Bisharat,
vice president of marketing at oDesk.com, which is based
in Redwood City, Calif.
In 2012, oDesk had 25,000 postings for virtual
assistant jobs, compared to about 2,500 in 2008.
Entrepreneurs can use virtual assistants for everything
from making vendor or customer service calls to sending out thank you cards to
prospective clients. It's important to build trust,
just as you would with a
permanent employee. "They become a team member
who just happens to work
remotely," Bisharat says. Not sure where to start?
Here are 10 ways you can use a virtual assistant to
improve your business.
Bookkeeping:
Keeping tabs on bills and other bookkeeping matters can
be one of the easiest things to assign
to a virtual assistant, says Kathy Colaiacovo, marketing
director for
the International Virtual Assistants Association, a
Henderson, Nev.-based trade group.
Many small businesses choose to share their bookkeeping
systems with their virtual assistants
who can then follow up on tasks such as outstanding
invoices or unpaid bills. "You will need to hand over some control
[including] passwords and access to accounts," Colaiacovo says.
Online
Research:
You can easily farm out Internet research to virtual
assistants.
Common requests include finding information on corporate
websites, exploring new products
and vetting potential employees or business contacts,
says Sue Kramer Harrawood,
president of Peace of Mind Virtual Assistance, an Orland
Park, Ill., firm that provides companies
with virtual assistants. Be sure to send clear
instructions, along with user names and passwords
so assistants can get access to specialty search tools or
paid websites.
Tristen O'Brien, an eBay marketing expert in Westfield,
Indiana, asks his assistant to help him
find blog topics, as well as occasionally proofread his
blog [link: www.theebayentrepreneur.com]
on eBay selling. "She researches what is trending
and reports back to me," O'Brien says.
Database entries:
Whether it's a slew of new business cards picked up at a
conference or updated information
for existing contacts, keeping databases current is a
suitable task for virtual assistants.
Be specific about your needs and expectations, and make
sure the virtual assistant
has done this type of work before so there's less room
for errors, Kramer Harrawood says.
"Follow up is a huge thing for business owners.
Sometimes clients will fax
or scan business cards to us, and [virtual assistants]
will plug them into the database."
Data
presentations:
Turning raw data into a clear PowerPoint presentation or
summarizing research findings
in a Word document can be a huge timesaver when prepping
for meetings, says Rich Pearson,
chief marketing officer at eLance.com, a jobs website for
freelancers in Mountain View, Calif.,
who uses a virtual assistant himself. The data
"comes back in a format I can share," he says.
Managing email:
To keep you from wasting time in your email inbox, some
virtual assistants will filter
your most important emails and respond to the rest on
your behalf, Colaiacovo says.
Such email management is easy to do remotely, but you
need to provide guidance
on how to pick out key emails and ask the assistant to
copy you
before sending out any responses to reduce the risk of
errors.
Social
tasks:
Virtual assistants can be a good bet to handle tasks such
as writing holiday cards or sending thank you notes, says Bisharat, who notes
that social chores have become a very common assignment. Such tasks can become
"all consuming" for business executives, she says,
"but a good virtual assistant can take care of all
of it."
Travel
Research:
Virtual assistants are a great resource for finding
hotels, booking airfares
and mapping out trip itineraries both for business and pleasure, Pearson
says.
The assistants can take advantage of the growing number
of travel research tools
and review sites on the Web. They can also deal with
the hassle of navigating time zones
when booking or researching international travel options
by phone.
Scheduling:
Because many scheduling tools are available online,
virtual assistants are
managing the calendars of many clients, says Kramer Harrawood. Tasks include
dealing with meeting invitations from others, scheduling appointments with
clients
and helping to plan events.
"It's about being comfortable and letting go of that calendar" to a non-staff
person
working remotely, Kramer Harrawood says.
Chasing
business:
Prioritizing potential business opportunities can be challenging,
but virtual assistants can help
with the process. When deciding what to sell on eBay, for
example,
O'Brien asks his virtual assistant to look around for products that
can be profitable to resell.
"I give them quite a few websites to visit,
and they take it from there," he says.
"They look for clearance items
and other types of products."
Industry knowledge prep: With limited time to keep
up with industry news, some small businesses have turned to virtual assistants
to keep tabs on the most important happenings.
Many executives then use the industry information to
update their Twitter feed
or bring up interesting developments in conversation with
customers and prospects.
This helps "executives appear to have timely
news," Pearson says.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225318
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