You’ve made the leap and started your own small business. You love what you do and you’re good at it, but running the business is hard. You have to manage every aspect from creating amazing products, to market research, social media, and website management, as well as marketing, admin, and invoicing. You barely have time to think.
Most people start their small business because of a dream or passion, and they’re usually really good at this aspect, but it doesn’t mean that the other crucial parts of the business come easily or without stress. It’s not at all uncommon for small business owners to feel extremely overwhelmed, stretched to their max, and exhausted. Not to mention managing everything on your own doesn’t leave you much time to nurture and grow your business, it can also lead to burnout. Luckily there is a solution! Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant (VA).
Here are 6 essential business tasks that can easily be outsourced to a trusted VA. Email Management Is your business inbox full of unread or unfiled messages? It might be time to have a VA take over the management of your inbox and help you with putting emails into appropriate folders, deleting spam and junk mail, and flagging important messages that need your attention.
You may have also noticed that the emails you receive from customers often ask similar questions regarding pricing, delivery timeframes, availability, etc. A VA could respond to these queries on your behalf and even provide links to help customers navigate their purchases.
Data Entry Is there any task more tedious and repetitive than data entry? And chances are, if you’re entrepreneurial enough to start your own business, you likely don’t get excited at the thought of punching away at the keyboard for hours on end. Just think how much time you could free up if you outsourced data entry to a VA who specialises in this particular task.
Not only that, but they could also help you to digitize your documents and file them away for when you need them next. Your own personal office assistant, just virtual.
Bookkeeping It’s unlikely that you’ll find a VA who is also an accountant, but they will be able to help you with many of your bookkeeping tasks such as processing invoices, following up on late payments, and managing cash flow. And if you have staff, a VA could manage payroll for you as well.
Nowadays most small businesses will already be set up with an accounting software system like Xero or MYOB, but if you haven’t made that switch yet, a VA can assist in transitioning your business over to cloud-based computing.
Social Media Management Having a social media presence these days is crucial, but it can be time-consuming and needs to be monitored every day. Depending on your marketing budget, social media might be the only way that your customers hear about your brand, so it’s important that any content is relevant, engaging, and timely.
From content creation to scheduling posts at optimal times, monthly analytics reports, and interacting with followers, finding yourself a VA who specialises in social media management will not only take the burden off your plate but will likely result in better brand awareness and higher engagement.
Client Relationship Management Business today is all about the personal touch. Clients want to feel like they are valued by you, not just a number. Simple things like sending birthday cards, celebrating anniversaries, adding thank you notes to orders, or other little gestures of appreciation all help to cultivate and foster good relationships with important clients or partners.
As well as keeping track of important dates and events, your VA can manage the logistics involved with your client relationship strategy and can actively be on the lookout for opportunities to grow your current relationships.
Graphic Design and Video Editing Your graphics and logo speak to who you are as a brand, so it’s a no-brainer that these need to align with your business and really pop! Everyone has an element of creativity in them, but honing these skills takes years of training and practice, even simple photo and video edits can take hours if you aren’t experienced.
A VA can help with all of your creative needs from social media content, editing YouTube videos, to designing flyers, marketing campaigns, newsletters, and any other print or email media you might need.
Are you ready to outsource some of your business tasks to a Virtual Assistant? Here at Virtual Assistants NZ, we have an amazing team of VA’s each with their own area of expertise, so we can pair you with just the person you need. Contact us about how we can help you and your small business today!