Top 3 Ways A Virtual Assistant Boosts Productivity

Virtual assistants are your path to a higher rate of productivity in your work and personal life.

Though it is a high-frequency term in business environments, productivity is not just a buzzword. 

Defined as the ratio of output to the amount of time devoted to creating that output, productivity is the rate at which a person does useful work. 

The simple math of productivity is the faster a person can create the output, the more productive they are.

The same is true for a company. The more productive the members of a business are, the faster goods and services can be delivered to clients and customers. Increasing the output rate allows a company to grow its revenue and, eventually, scale the business.   

Increasing productivity is also critical when trying to obtain an advantage over competitors.

But increasing productivity should never be done at the expense of quality, especially in a small business environment. Instead of cutting corners, small businesses need to become more efficient to increase their productivity rate.

Virtual assistants lead to efficiency – and efficiency leads to higher productivity.

According to Small Business Trends and a study by The Alternative Board, 72% of small business owners feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities and the amount of work they have to do. 64% of those same surveyed business owners believe they need to delegate more duties to feel less stressed.

Sound familiar?

Delegate tasks for better efficiency to increase productivity.

As a business owner, you can easily delegate administrative and support work to a professional virtual assistant so you can focus on the tasks that directly affect your business’s growth. A virtual assistant is a cost-effective way to get specialized support in areas you most need help. By helping you run the nitty-gritty areas of your business, virtual assistants can become trusted partners in the overall growth of your business.

Let’s break down three ways delegating tasks to a virtual assistant can increase your (and your business’s) productivity.

1) VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS DO NOT GET DISTRACTED

Snack breaks, gossip, long lunches to celebrate birthdays, scrolling social media, and shopping online. Careerbuilder lists these as some of the most common workplace distractions that hinder productivity. Some workplace distractions are apparent. But workplace distractions can snowball. The Association for Psychological Science explains that being distracted by workplace interruptions can degrade the quality of the work done, even when the task gets resumed. In other words, once distracted, it is hard to get back to work, and additionally, the quality of the work can suffer due to the “restart”/”where was I?” factor.

You probably know this all too well. Rushing from task to task, putting out fires, and responding to incoming inquiries… it can often seem like you are continuously reacting to the events in your day. Instead of setting your hours and structuring your day as you would like, you find yourself going from one email to the next, pulled into last-minute meetings, and addressing every urgent or non-essential thing that falls in your path. Hours go by as you work in your business, leaving little time to work on your business.

Freedom Maker virtual assistants get the job done efficiently.

Virtual assistants are not distractable because they focus solely on the tasks. Freedom Maker virtual assistants can get more work done each hour by working from their home office environment. They are equipped with the skills that make them proficient at time blocking. They can prioritize doing the task or task they have been assigned and work solely on that effort. They clock in to do a job and work determinedly and continuously on that one thing until complete. Without a noisy office environment, Freedom Makers can increase your company’s productivity.

Focusing on completing tasks one-by-one over a dedicated period of time is scientifically proven to increase productivity.   

2) A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT IS SPECIALIZED AND EFFICIENT

Once your business is operational, many tasks must be done daily to keep the business running. Many of these tasks are administrative in nature: answering calls, responding to emails, creating spreadsheets, designing graphics in Canva, posting on social media and managing comments, writing blog content, formatting newsletters, bookkeeping entries, etc. 

Do you find these tasks vexing?

You started your business with talent and passion. Your area of expertise – whether as a website designer, craftsman, law practitioner, software developer, or florist – is unique to you and dominates your skillset. It is what you care about! 

But a small business software developer must also rapidly become a talented bookkeeper, customer relations manager, marketing maverick, and blog writer. 

Exhausting.

The churn associated with becoming good at things outside your wheelhouse can lead to lowered productivity levels.

Freedom Maker virtual assistants specialize in the exact same tasks you find tedious and time-consuming. 

Tasks typically outsourced to a virtual assistant include, but are not limited to:

Daily office functions like:

• making/receiving phone calls
  
• Appointment scheduling
• Calendar management
• Making travel arrangements
• Managing email accounts
• Blog writing
• Bookkeeping
• Social media engagement and scheduling
• Graphic design
• Website content management and design services
• Marketing services
• Research
• Project coordination
• Event management
• Operations management
• Customer Relations Management (CRM) / Database support

With a wide variety of professional backgrounds and areas of focus, Freedom Maker virtual assistants are skilled and talented at the exact things you do not enjoy doing. Many specialize in the areas that tax your passion and eat your time. Virtual assistants execute the tasks you choose to delegate more quickly because of their “time in rank” and extensive knowledge. 

Familiarity leads to speed. Speed increases productivity.

3) A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT FREES UP YOUR TIME

Bringing on a virtual assistant gives you back your valuable time to reinvest in other areas of your business.

This makes YOU more productive.

Regardless of what your business provides or sells, time is your most valuable resource. When you try to do all the things, all the time, all by yourself, you quickly realize that hours in each day, the days in each week, all slip by super fast.

Have you ever looked up at the end of a long day, knowing you were super busy all day but can’t point to any specific progress made? You’re exhausted but don’t feel like you have been particularly productive.

A virtual assistant can handle the tasks that steal your time so you can invest your energy into the things that add value to your business. Delegating administrative tasks, social media management, and database maintenance to a virtual assistant will make you exponentially more productive in the areas of innovation and growth. 

Need more proof?

If you were to run the numbers and analyze your day-to-day schedule, you’d discover you are spending too much time on maintenance-focused tasks as opposed to growth-focused ones. According to one Harvard study, nearly 24% of a CEO’s time is spent reading, responding, and managing their email inbox. 

Important, yes. Productive? Not really.

The data indicates that a typical small business spends an average of 120 working days per year on administrative tasks… which equates to a nearly 5% decrease in productivity.

That decrease in productivity can also lead to restricted business growth. 

Suppose too much of your time is spent on administrative tasks, and your energy is wasted on maintenance-focused operations. In that case, you aren’t working ON your business in areas like:

• Strategic planning
• Innovation within your business landscape
• Leadership growth and mentorship
• Internal culture building

Those critical, foundational touchpoints must be reinforced while building your organization. If administrative processes are inhibiting your leadership productivity, your business will suffer in the long term.

Contact Freedom Makers Virtual Services to learn how a virtual assistant will increase your - and your businesses’ - productivity.