Summer has come to an end, school is in full swing, and the holiday season is right around the corner! As an entrepreneur, the month of October is a time to wrap up planning and start implementation, Productivity is the new focus as the days (literally) become shorter and shorter.
There are few better ways to boost your productivity than to add valuable team members, but before you place a local ad for seasonal help, think about researching how a virtual assistant can help you through the crazy months ahead instead.
Hiring a skilled virtual assistant as an independent contractor – rather than hiring a temporary employee – is one of the easiest ways to add more able bodies to your team. For some, the initial hourly rate of a virtual assistant sends them running the opposite direction, but what you must realize is that the right virtual assistant will end up saving you money in the long run.
Since a virtual assistant has experience working with small businesses online all day, every day, some tasks are simply “in their wheelhouse.” This means they can tackle tasks quicker than you can most of the time, and the bonus part is that, with the exception of learning your company specifics, there is zero training required. Additionally, the right VA may even have some suggestions which could improve your systems and save your company money going forward.
For the upcoming holidays, virtual assistants are wonderful at helping you get organized and stay organized before the holiday rush. But, it doesn’t stop there.
Help Keep Your Customers Happy
During the holiday seasons, it is easy to become overwhelmed with a barrage of emails and customer service requests. And, as a growing business, this is one area where you certainly don’t want to drop the ball.
Is your email overflowing? A virtual assistant can help answer those emails and keep you alerted when problems arise.
Is your phone ringing off the hook? Your VA can help field those calls for you. There are virtual assistant services such as Ruby Receptionist, for instance, that work around the clock to take personal messages for you and provide top quality customer service.
Need help keeping track of all of your appointments? A virtual assistant can help manage your appointments so that you’re never overbooked or late to an appointment.
Help Reach your Marketing Goals
We always have big goals for the holiday months, but without the right help in place, sometimes things can fall through the cracks. If there is one thing that virtual assistants are typically good at, it’s helping you keep your marketing plans on track.
Need another set of eyes for researching your competition and reviewing your plans? Since your virtual assistant works with other companies, they are going to have fresh and innovative ideas that you could potentially easily incorporate into your marketing plan. They can also research what is working for other similar companies and suggest (and setup!) tools to help you keep on track. The most beautiful thing is when your virtual assistant injects systems of automation to ease your load and keep you accountable.
No time for social media engagement? Of course, your virtual assistant can schedule all of your posts for you in your scheduling tool of choice, but even more exciting is that they can moderate and interact on your behalf inside your social media accounts as well. This means comments and questions posted on your accounts get quicker attention, and you can spend more time focusing on the bigger picture.
Spending too much time managing your holiday ads? Hand that time-consuming task over to your VA because they know what to look for and can give you a value-filled summary of what you need to know without any extra time spent out of your busy schedule.
Help with Your Personal Life, Too!
Sometimes it just makes sense to have your virtual assistant help with tackling your own personal to-do list, as well, reducing your overall stress level and allowing you to experience a healthier work/life balance.
Gift-giving can be heavy. You can send your virtual assistant on an online hunt for gifts for all of your family, friends – and colleagues, for that matter. Hand over your shopping list, with a few notes about each person’s likes, hobbies and personality, and your VA can pull together some great gift ideas for you to purchase online with ease.
Who has time to design and send holiday cards when you’re running a business? That’s another really great task to assign to your VA. Since they are probably performing this task for several other business owners, they will likely already have systems in place to make this super simple and quick.
Ask for help with your travel planning and party planning, too! Hand over to-do lists to the right VA, and save money with their ability to quickly research and share excellent deals that you may not even know about!
Holidays don’t have to be filled with stress as a business owner. Adding a virtual assistant to your team may just be the answer you and your employees are looking for as you approach the busy season. Take the leap to hire the right virtual assistant, and you will find that you can boost your productivity and your overall profitability while allowing yourself – and your team – to carry a lighter load, meet your goals, and have a truly joy-filled holiday season this year.
About the Author
Mary Barbee
Custom VA Solutions
Systems and Project Management, Virtual Assistants
As the founder of Custom VA Solutions, Mary Barbee specializes in providing online business support and strategy, helping small businesses reach big goals. With over 15 years experience as a business owner in both product and service based businesses, Mary has built, systemized and sold successful companies of her own, but she has found her happy place providing her entrepreneurial knowledge and expertise to online businesses as a virtual assistant, starting in 2013. Since then, Mary has developed and organized a stellar team of experts inside Custom VA Solutions, providing services that start with strategy and include task implementation of all levels. According to Mary, the best part of owning and managing a virtual assistant service is the constant opportunity to learn, do and teach. When one client reaches success, there are always tricks to learn and apply to another business, and taking notes of success has always been one of Mary’s strengths.
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