What Can A Virtual Assistant Do For Your Business?

Virtual assistants are an increasingly invaluable part of today’s modern workforce because of all they can do to assist a business as it grows.

Cloud-based platforms and new technologies have changed the way we work - for the better. Portable, remote work is now more practical and possible than ever before. Fast and stable internet connectivity, video conferencing, and file-sharing applications allow nearly every industry to save on the hidden - and not-so-hidden - costs of hiring traditional employees.

Business owners and entrepreneurs utilize virtual assistants more and more every day, as they outsource daily, weekly or monthly tasks and responsibilities. For a relatively low investment, virtual assistants provide massive value in return.

A virtual assistant can do a massive variety of things for any business. Some tasks a company can outsource 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
• Customer Relations Management (CRM) / Database support

Business owners also utilize virtual assistants to help with niche-specific skills in specialized career fields like real estate transactions, medical coding or transcription, paralegal work, and accounting. All virtual assistants strive to complete their tasks efficiently to provide the ultimate value for business owners.

HOW VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS ADD VALUE

A few of the reasons virtual assistants are so valuable to businesses today is that they are: 

1. Cost-effective: Companies do not have to pay taxes or benefits. Virtual assistants train on their own time and provide their own equipment, and there are no or low turnover costs if the relationship ends.
   
   
2. Flexible: Companies can task a virtual assistant with a lot of tasks or just a few. Virtual assistants can fit any budget, no matter how big or how small.
   
   
3. Competent and experienced: Virtual assistants are talented in a wide range of skills, offering specialized abilities for every area that needs attending.

Virtual assistants are self-driven and independent. They adapt to various work environments and continually learn updated skills by training to new platforms and software offerings. They are skilled time managers who are motivated to be super productive during the hours they are working for their clients. 

WHAT ELSE CAN A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

In addition to tasks and responsibilities, virtual assistants can benefit a business or entrepreneur in less tangible but equally valuable ways. 

Virtual Assistants Solve Inefficiencies 

Many small businesses take off before processes are in place or wind up outgrowing their initial processes, creating a chaotic and inefficient operational environment. A business owner who types responses to all email inquiries, posts daily on social media, or manually creates invoices is spending valuable time and energy on systems that could become automated. Inefficiencies can cost a business as much as 30 percent of its yearly revenue!

Virtual assistants can integrate themselves into existing workflows or collaborate to redesign some operations to help small businesses run more smoothly. They can help set up and automate things like client intake and follow-up forms, scheduling systems, data entry, and project tracking.

Freedom Makers has virtual assistants who create or manage and assist business owners with workflows and operations. Many are trained and experienced on platforms and like:

• Google Suite
• Asana, Process Street, Trello, Clio, Microsoft Planner, etc.
• Zoho
• MailChimp
• Salesforce
• Streak
• Quickbooks

Virtual assistants can also work to organize and streamline a business’ existing files and systems. 

Allowing a virtual assistant to use their experience to establish or streamline a small business’s operations can increase efficiency and benefit everyone involved - even when the virtual assistant isn’t “on the clock.”

Virtual Assistants Free Up Time and Reduce Stress

Perhaps the most valuable thing a virtual assistant can do for any business is to alleviate stress and give entrepreneurs the renewed energy and innovative spark that leads to success.

New companies are often born from talented, passionate individuals who have a wide variety of talents. When starting their new business, website designers, artists, solo law practitioners, and software developers must also become bookkeepers, customer relations managers, marketing mavericks, and blog writers. Handling the support tasks needed to run a business leaves entrepreneurs feeling overwhelmed. The mental exhaustion and stress of wearing multiple hats can lead to burnout. Gone is the energy required to design websites, create art, help clients or develop software.

Virtual assistants free up time by taking care of essential, recurring, and tedious tasks. They can vastly improve any small business owner’s productivity. The relief, lowered stress, and renewed energy managers feel knowing the daily to-do list is being handled professionally brings a significant benefit to any business.

IN CONCLUSION

Virtual assistants are rapidly becoming a small business life-saver because of what they can do for any sized business. Virtual assistants offer specialized skill-sets, flexibility, and an inexpensive, value-added option to get the job - any job - done.

What a virtual assistant can do for a business is not just physical, tactical to-do list tasks. The inherent value of a virtual assistant lies in the intangible benefits they provide. By delegating specific tasks to virtual assistants, business owners have more time and energy to focus on the core mission of their business. Freed from the stress and exhaustion of executing daily, tedious tasks, entrepreneurs have the space to innovate and grow their businesses. That is the true essence of what a virtual assistant can do for your business!