Small business? Save money with a virtual assistant
Do you run a small business? If so, do you spend most of your time running to catch up, firefighting, answering the phone and tackling everyday admin? Or do you have plenty time to focus on the important stuff like growing your business, staying ahead of your competitors, innovating and creating?
If you’re anything like most small business owners, you set up on your own because you’re passionate about your products or services. Just because you’re in business, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re automatically a top class administrator, credit controller or database manager. If that’s you, and you find the bog standard, humdrum aspects of running your business a terrible bore, it might be time to bring the fine art of delegation into play and employ a good, reliable, professional virtual assistant. Why? Because getting someone in to help with the boring bits leaves you more time and energy to concentrate on growing your business, having great ideas, marketing your output and, of course, actually selling stuff!
These days there are countless virtual assistance providers online. The cheapest tend to work out of countries with a lower costs of living than the UK, for example the Philippines. Some employ graduates only, so you can choose a VA who writes and speaks perfect English and has a good brain behind them. But you might need someone who can pop into your office every now and again, to de-clutter the place or organise your filing or sort out your computer system. In which case it’s best to source a local VA who offers in-person and remote assistance.
How to find the best VA for the job? You can’t beat good, solid research. Try asking your Twitter community for recommendations. Ask around your business networks to see if anyone can recommend a great VA. Or quiz your local trade bodies, associations and business clubs. There’s nothing better than a recent word of mouth recommendation. Otherwise, you can trial several VA services to see which suits you best.
(Thanks to http://www.sxc.hu/profile/zeusmedia for the free image)
Published February 28, 2012 & Filed in Business
Tags: VA, virtual assistance, virtual assistant