A Virtual Assistant’s Perspective When people start a new business, they want to be present and active in every aspect of their business. Trying to do everything on their own, even when they’re not qualified enough to do so; many ambitious entrepreneurs end up smothering their own enterprise. Avoid the same mistake while setting up your own business. Take the safer route and outsource those tasks to your business, where your presence is not mandatory, to professionally experienced personnel or firms. Listed in this article are some of the unavoidable, time-consuming tasks you can outsource: SEM Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in the result pages of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. SEM involves paid as well as unpaid search results. The most popular paid tools are Google Adwords and Bing Ads. SEM also covers Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEM is a crucial but time-consuming aspect of any online business or start-up. Instead of spending your time in this pursuit, you may outsource the SEM of your organization to a third party, usually an experienced VA. DATABASE MANAGEMENT Probably one of the most underrated functions of an organization, database management is a part and parcel of every business. Database management encompasses everything from maintaining a record of an organization’s data to backup and recovery of that data. Transferring this responsibility to someone who is better suited to handle it will provide you with more time and peace of mind to focus on the scaling of your business. BLOGGING No website in today’s age is complete without its own blog. The websites of most businesses use blogs as a means to educate potential clients about what their company does and how it would be beneficial for them. It is one way to attract more customers. However, writing informative articles on a daily basis might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Besides, it takes up too much of your precious time. Therefore, you must not hesitate before hiring someone else to handle this aspect of your business to someone who is more wired to excel at it. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING It refers to the promotion of goods and services on social media platforms and websites. Social Media Marketing is a communications tool that makes companies accessible to those interested in them and visible to those who have no knowledge of them. It increases the audience reach of an organization. To this end, you can hire Online Community Managers to promote your business on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram. Without spending hours on generating a target number of likes, you will be able to see your business grow due to its promotion on social media. CUSTOMER SUPPORT Customer satisfaction is an important milestone on the road to establishing a successful business. Happy customers translate to business growth, which is why providing customer support 24x7 should be taken very seriously. While establishing your business, you may outsource customer support services to independent VAs or firms which are experienced in this area. This would prevent you from overlooking other important responsibilities while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. LOGISTICS Logistics is a broad field, including procurement, production, distribution, and disposal activities. It is the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. The resources managed in logistics may include everything from physical items like food, equipment and materials for abstract items like time and information. A new trend in the industry is the 4PL, or fourth-party logistics, firms, consulting companies offering logistics services. Delegating this responsibility to trained individuals will allow you to pay more attention to the departments where you are needed more. HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT HR Management is perhaps the most tedious task involved in the running of a business. Taking care of the needs of your employees is as necessary as taking care of your clients. HR Management includes making an employee policy with care, in a manner that would neither harm you nor your employees; one must be familiar with the right procedures of hiring and terminating in order to avoid damaged relationships and costly lawsuits. Handing over this task to qualified personnel in this field will reduce a lot of your workload as well as save you from unwarranted trouble along the way. PAYROLL DISTRIBUTION The payroll department of a company is critical because employees are sensitive to payroll errors and irregularities. Payroll must be paid timely and accurately, with correct with holdings and deductions as well as their timely remittance. You may outsource the payroll functions of your business to an outsourcing service like a Payroll service bureau or a fully managed payroll service. Doing so will reduce the cost of hiring trained employees in-house as well as the costs of software and systems needed to process a payroll. ACCOUNTING Accounting or accountancy is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial information about businesses. In matters of bookkeeping, it is important to be accurate with the numbers. One needs to be familiar with taxation policies and financial laws and regulations as well. Outsourcing the accounting of your company to a professional accountant or accounting firm will help you in the long run. You will no longer have to spend sleepless nights wracking your brains over the bookkeeping of your company. Now arises the million dollar question: Where should you go in search of the VA who will change your life? Although many VA’s operate independently, there are many platformswhich can connect clients to VAs. Some of your best options are listed below: If you are looking for highly experienced virtual assistants, is the place for you. WISHUP Wishup Their VA’s are graduates and passionate professionals committed to making the life of their clients easier. They offer a host of services like social media marketing, email management, book-keeping and travel planning. Zirtual is a Virtual Assistant company which provides reliable and personable VAs. ZIRTUAL They pride themselves on their attention to detail. In their own words, they promise each client “a smart, highly-trained US-based point person who works remotely as your right hand and left the brain.” It is the UK and US-based company and claims to have completed more than 1,000,000 tasks in the US market so far. TIME ETC Their VAs are college-educated and highly experienced graduates. In fact, they do hire only those VAs who have at least five years of experience under their belt. Clients also have the option of choosing the VA best suited for their requirements, from among Time Etc’s team of VAs. Concluding Thoughts Outsourcing these tasks will allow you to concentrate on more pressing matters of running your business. Your productivity will increase when you will employ the help you need to look at the tedious tasks of your business. You are the leader of your company; your job is to delegate tasks, not do them yourself. Do not take everything upon yourself. You do not need to scrutinize each and every detail. Get help from those who can give efficient help to you. Focus only on what you need to: the scaling and growth of your business.
