As a Small Business Owner, you know that time is money. Just think about your time on those pesky administrative tasks, holding you back from the heart of your business. You know – email and calendar management, the interruption of phone calls, social media posting…all of the daily things that need to be attended to but take you away from your core business.
If this sounds all too familiar, it may be time to explore how Virtual Assistant services could be of benefit to you, your business, and often your staff or family.
Here is some food for thought, or what we like to call the “Virtual Assistant Services Benefit”:
- Focus on your daily business, not the daily grind.
VEA’s Virtual Assistants go through a rigorous interview process to ensure they have the administrative skills they need to hit the ground running. Not only do they have fulsome experience working in the Executive Assistant field, but they are also conversant in many of the software programs your company has come to rely on: the MS Office Suite; social media tools such as Buffer, Hootsuite and Canva; and a whole host of project management applications.
As a small business owner, the inherit value is evident. Without having to invest training time for a new employee, you can begin to delegate your non-preferred administrative tasks to your new Virtual Assistant as soon as you are matched, freeing you up to invest your time and energy in your business. Immediate help = immediate relief.
- No project too large or too small.
Our Virtual Assistants are known for the ‘flex’ in their schedule. From the smallest detail to full-scale, time-consuming tasks, VEA’s experts can accommodate your administrative requirements in their daily schedules. Because they work flexible hours from their home offices, they are not bound by the 9 to 5 mentality. And because our Assistants live in various time zones across Canada, you will be matched with someone whose working hours are best suited for you and your business.
- Pay as you go.
Because you are not hiring a full-time permanent staff member, you have the advantage of our pay-as-you-go Virtual Assistant Service. This means that you pay for the time you use, without any idle hours wasted. With convenient monthly invoices and no hidden costs, you will know what your administrative expenses will be for budgeting purposes.
And best of all, no time spent on payroll, benefits, or remitting source deductions. We also cross-train our Virtual Executive Assistants. If your Virtual EA goes on holidays or moves on from VEA you will have someone trained to take over, saving you valuable hours training someone new.
- We keep you out of the weeds.
Ever have that kind of day where you need to dive deep into your business to get things done, but you face constant interruptions by notifications, live chat, or phone calls? Our talented Virtual Assistants can help you rise above the weeds by working in the background to man interruptions while you attend to core business.
- Better, faster, smoother.
Sometimes, it just takes a fresh perspective – that new-to-the-company kind of perspective that doesn’t carry the baggage of how things have always been done – to streamline your administrative processes. Our experienced administrators can review your current processes and can offer suggestions for improvement. They can also create new processes where none have existed before, helping you cover blind spots that might leave your business otherwise exposed.
- Bottleneck be gone.
Are there are things that have remained on your To-Do list for far too long? Consider delegating them to a Virtual Assistant – then sit back and watch the magic! By offloading your time-consuming administrative tasks, you remove that stubborn bottleneck that stops you from getting things done. These tasks usually become a bottleneck for the obvious reason that they take your time and energy, but realistically, you don’t really want to do them in the first place.
- Let’s get personal.
Do you have less-than-zero time to plan or schedule things for yourself – personally or professionally? A Virtual Assistant can also wear the hat of a Virtual Personal Assistant to help book personal appointments, make restaurant reservations, or plan that long-overdue weekend getaway. Not only are Virtual Assistant Services of value to your business, but they are also of high value to you!
Many of our clients start shifting their Virtual Assistant to a hybrid of a VA and virtual Personal Assistant once they realize that is an option. If a task takes you away from doing the important things, hand it off, whether that is business related or personal.
- Make your social media…social again.
Let’s face it – social media is time-consuming, often dropping to the bottom of your ever-growing to-do list. While our Virtual Assistants are not marketing experts, they can help you create a marketing plan using information from your past social posts, newsletters and your website. They can also assist in the active maintenance of your social media by creating posts and monitoring feedback and comments, so you can use social media as a powerful tool to connect with potential and existing customers.
Conclusion
If any one of these considerations twigged an “Aha!” moment for you or more importantly an “I need this!” It’s time to think about scaling up to include a Virtual Executive Assistant in your business game plan. Getting help will save you time and money, and reduce that all-too-familiar small business owner burnout. As we always tell business owners we talk to “if you are needing a Virtual Executive Assistant now, you should have hired one months ago.” Let’s get those tasks off your plate to move you back into these key pieces that need your attention.
Interested? Drop us a line to learn more about how VEA and our team of Virtual Executive Assistants can help you and your small business reach even greater heights.
Derek Burbidge
Manager of Sales & Marketing
