Golden Horseshoe Virtual Assistants Group Articles

Does Networking Make You Nervous?

Angela Spisak — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 12:37:15 GMT

Me too. In fact, I avoided networking for a very long time. I only did it when it was absolutely necessary. As someone who works from home, it’s so easy to just stay home inside my shell so to speak.

The first group (and only group) I joined when I first started my business was a local group of Virtual Assistants – the Golden Horseshoe Virtual Assistants. I’m still a member of this group to this day and find these members to be a wonderful support system and sounding board for my business. And having such a variety of members who specialize in different areas is an added bonus when you have a project that is not something you do or particularly enjoy.

Continue reading here.

Five Popular Social Media Tools to Utilize This Year

Crystal Burkholder — Mon, 02 May 2016 20:23:51 GMT

Tool #1

Buffer App - This tool will help drive traffic, increase fan engagement and save time in social media. You can automate tweets, pins, Facebook posts, LinkedIn shares, and Google+ posts, as well as share images, video and GIFs. This is a social media scheduling tool where you can schedule from your IOS or Android device.

Tool #2

Quuu.co - This is a content curation marketplace where you can get hand curated content suggestions for social media. It will help you automate part of your social media marketing effort and send content to your Buffer queue. You can also promote your own content to influencers with Quuu Promote.

Tool #3

Followerwonk - Is a Twitter analytics tool helps you find, analyse and optimize for social growth. It helps you explore and grow your social graph. You can find and connect with new influencers in your niche and search Twitter bios.

Tool #4

Tagboard.com - Is a meta hashtag search engine. You can search for events, brands, and sports by searching hashtags. You can find if a hashtag is being used or is available for use.

Tool #5

Likealyzer.com - Will analyse and monitor your Facebook Pages. It helps you measure and analyse the potential and effectiveness of your Facebook pages.

Check out some of these and see if they might be a good fit for your social media efforts.

Three Social Media Trends to watch for in 2016

Crystal Burkholder — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 14:09:23 GMT

Trend #1

Facebook is going to ignite visibility. They are going to improve their relationship with business. Facebook realizes that businesses are driving their ad platform and they want to provide tools that enhance the relationship with business. To that end they are introducing Facebook Live Videos (this is video streaming). Live streaming in general is a major trend right now, and Facebook wants to take advantage of that.

Facebook is also introducing Instant Articles; an opportunity to create this fast digitally enhanced mobile newsletter that you can potentially create your own ads on and even sell ad space on your articles.

Trend #2

2016 will be the year of the Livestream. You have Periscope which got big last year, having only been launched in the middle of the year and then was bought out by Twitter. There is Meerkat where you can tweet live video. Then you have Facebook Live as well as Blab.

Trend #3

Online articles will take centre stage again. Repurpose your content in unique ways through other platforms that will give you visibility. By other platforms, we assume that your blog may be your primary platform. You can use Medium.com; Tumblr.com; LinkedIn Pulse; or Facebook's Instant Articles. Include lots of pictures, and even audio or video.

Best Practices for Small Business Bookkeeping

Janet Barclay — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 18:16:16 GMT

When you do your own bookkeeping, it’s hard to be confident that you’re doing everything correctly. Follow the advice of our three small business bookkeeping experts, and you’ll be on the right track!

Jenn Kubilis

Ready to try a bookkeeping program like Sage 50 or QuickBooks, or perhaps an online program such FreshBooks or Wave, but not sure how to get started? Consider hiring a bookkeeper to set up your Chart of Accounts and give you some training as to how the program works.
A set of books will provide you with financial statements. The most recognizable is the Profit & Loss statement, which shows your sales and expenses and whether you made or lost money.
Avoid penalties and late fees on remittances such as GST/HST, Payroll and Income Tax by keeping your paperwork organized.
Regular bookkeeping keeps your goals in sight and lets you know when you have financial resources available to accomplish other goals.
Your books are not only for the Government; ultimately they are for You, a tool to run your business successfully. Without records, you cannot see how well your business is doing and where it is going.

Cathy A. Snelling

The most important thing is to get a good accountant to do your taxes. Make sure they have a professional designation, meaning they carry liability insurance. It is very important!
In the beginning, recording your expenses and your revenue (invoices to clients) on an Excel spreadsheet may be sufficient, depending on how much expenses you have.
Even if you don’t make over $30K, you should charge HST. Always put away the HST you collect and 20% of the net for taxes.
Track your business use of your car (I keep a Excel spreadsheet on a clipboard in my car). At the start of the year enter the odometer reading, and then a form with “Start” “End” “# of KM’s” and “Date/Where”. Then, at the end of the year you have a mileage/travel log. You should claim anything to do with business.
Define the area of your home office. Some accountants calculate your home office expenses by dividing your utilities and other related bills by the number of rooms you have; others calculate it by square footage.

Jacquie Manore

Always speak to your accountant regarding incorporation to see if it makes sense for your business. There can be significant tax savings that will override the extra cost of incorporation, plus there’s additional protection for liability.
Keep your business activities separate from personal activities, i.e. have a separate bank account for the business, and have a separate credit card used solely for the business. It doesn’t need to be a “business” credit card per se, just a card that is only used for business.
It is very important to write the client name or business activity on any meal receipts that you are expensing. The CRA is very particular about meals and this is an easy and safe step to ensure that you don’t get meals disallowed in the future. It’s also good to do this for hotels and flights.
If you’re not keeping a mileage log, at least have beginning and ending odometer readings for your fiscal year.
Always consider the value of getting a bookkeeper. It can cost very little in the scheme of things, and will give you great peace of mind.

Post your bookkeeping questions in the comments, or contact one of the experts listed above.

Image courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Delegation, the Key to Small Business Growth

Janet Barclay — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 21:05:51 GMT

No matter what type of business you’re in, you’ve probably found yourself filling the role of salesperson, customer service rep, webmaster, office manager, and many others. When you’re just starting out and have time but not money to spare, this is often necessary. As your business grows, however, you’ll find it more and more difficult to efficiently manage all these different functions. If you don’t prepare for this day, you’ll be forced to put in longer and longer days in order to get all your work done.

In his bestselling book, “The E-Myth Revisited,” Michael Gerber suggests that you prepare an organizational chart for your business right from the get-go, complete with descriptions for each job you currently perform. This may seem unnecessary (after all, you know what you have to do!) but it will help you prepare for the time when you need to start delegating to employees or outside services. Having formal job descriptions in place will not only allow you to identify the work you can delegate as your business grows, but make the transition less disruptive and stressful.

Unfortunately, if you’re like most business owners, you haven’t taken these steps, and now that you’re overworked, you just don’t have the time to figure it all out. If you’re at that point, there are steps you can take to avoid putting your physical and mental health at risk.

Step 1: Identify how you are spending your working hours.

Most of your activities will probably fit into one of the following categories:

Key Tasks

As the business owner, your biggest priority should be the activities which contribute directly to your business goals. Unfortunately, when you are dealing with day-to-day concerns yourself, management functions are neglected.

Essential Tasks

Meetings, telephone calls, email, and report writing are all necessary, but not as important as planning and managing your business. Delegating one or more of these routine tasks will allow you to devote more time to your key tasks, and may even let you spend fewer hours working.

Useful Tasks

There is much value in purging outdated material from your files and other activities that make your work environment more efficient or more pleasant; however, as these tasks are not critical to your business, they should also be delegated.

Step 2: Review your activity logs.

You’ll probably be surprised to see how much time you waste shuffling papers, looking for misplaced items, dealing with interruptions, and performing other tasks that have no impact on your bottom line. By identifying these non-productive activities and developing strategies to eliminate them, you’ll be able to work more efficiently and have time to organize your work in a way that you can delegate more easily.

Begin by looking at the essential and useful tasks you listed in step 1, and identify those that you may be able to delegate. Consider what will have the biggest impact on your time and stress management if you were to remove it from your own to-do list: it may be those you dislike, those for which you lack skills, or those that will be least expensive for you to pay someone else to do.

Step 3: Get ready to begin delegating.

Once you’ve selected one or more tasks to delegate, you can begin to look at potential delegatees and any further steps that may be needed in order to transfer the work.

For many business owners, there is something even more challenging than the practical steps described above. If you’ve been doing everything yourself, you may find it hard to relinquish control and fear that no one will do things exactly the way you do.

For some business owners, outsourcing work for the first time can be as difficult to deal with as a parent leaving a child with a sitter for the first time. It’s important to remember that delegation is vital to the growth of your business, just as time away from you is essential to your child’s development. Once you accept this fact and begin to delegate, you will never look back. Many of my clients have expressed how liberated they felt after they started to use my virtual assistant services, and I experience the same thing when I decided to let a professional take over my bookkeeping.

Get ready to delegate – get ready to grow!

Photo: © iStockPhoto.com / Lisa F. Young

Virtual Assistants… Even Santa Needs One!

Janet Barclay — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:54:24 GMT

Trying to fit all the planning and preparing and celebrating of the holiday season into an already busy schedule can bring a lot of stress to a time of year that’s supposed to be full of peace. These days, even Santa needs help making his list and checking it twice!

Fortunately, help is available. Virtual Assistants, or VAs, offer a wide range of services designed to save you time and lighten your workload, which is more important than ever at this busy time of year.

Here are a few ways a VA can help make your Christmas merry:

Research gifts online
Plan work for the new year
Online Christmas shopping
Send e-greetings to your contacts
Make holiday travel arrangements
Plan your Christmas event or party
Add special holiday content to your website
Send out announcements of your holiday promotions
Send out “handwritten” Christmas or New Year cards
Handle some of your office staff’s regular work so you can give them some time off

You can even give a gift certificate for VA services to someone you know – you’ll both save valuable time!

Of course, Virtual Assistants can be an asset to your business any time of year. Many entrepreneurs, especially those working from home, find that business ownership is not as rewarding as they expected, either personally or financially, because administrative tasks are keeping them from the work they are truly passionate about. By using a VA for your word processing, spreadsheets, database development, mailing list management, research, or other administrative tasks, you’ll have more time for the work that you enjoy and which increases your bottom line – and isn’t that why you started your own business in the first place?

Working Effectively with Your Virtual Assistant

Janet Barclay — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 19:15:19 GMT

Good communication is the key to a successful relationship between a VA and his or her client.

Your virtual assistant may be highly skilled, but your needs and wants may be very different than those of their other clients. Building virtual relationships can be challenging, because you don’t have the same level or frequency of interaction as when you work in the same office. This is compounded by the fact that communication is more difficult without the verbal and non-verbal cues that exist when we interact in person.

Before you begin working together, it’s important to discuss expectations – both yours and your VA’s – including how work assignments will be handled, turnaround time, and communication during the assignment.

When you assign a task or project, be as specific as possible.

If you need it by a certain date, be sure to say so.
Do not assume that your work will be completed immediately, unless you have an agreement with your virtual assistant for a set number of hours per day, week, or month.
If you need it in three weeks, don’t say “it’s no rush;” say you need it in three weeks.
If you don’t have a specific deadline, feel free to ask your VA when you can expect the work to be completed.
If you want things done a specific way, say so. If you’ve already established and documented procedures, send a copy to your VA.

There will probably be times when your VA needs clarification or feedback from you while working on a task, especially when you first begin working together, or if it’s a new project, so you need to agree upon a system for dealing with this. Is email okay, or would you prefer a phone call, or instant message?

When you have someone working in your office with you, they can pop their head in, ask you a question or two, and continue working on the project, but when you’re working remotely, you do not have that luxury. If email is your primary method of communication, it is essential that you answer your VA’s emails as quickly as possible to avoid any delays in the completion of your project. Even if you don’t have time to provide a full answer, you should at least acknowledge that you received their inquiry and let them know when to expect your answer. If you don’t respond on a timely basis, your VA may have moved on to another project by the time he or she receives the information they requested.

If e-mail is not your preferred method of communication, it may be a good idea to schedule regular telephone meetings with your virtual assistant, keeping in mind that you will usually be billed for the time. You’ll probably be able to reduce the frequency of these meetings once a regular routine is established, except perhaps when a new project is underway.

It is especially important to establish an effective system for communication in the early stages of your working relationship, as your virtual assistant is getting to know you and your preferences. After you’ve been working together for a while and your VA has had an opportunity to gain a good understanding of your business and the way you like things done, these “check-ins” will become less frequent.

Making the time and effort to communicate clearly with your VA is an investment that will help you to build and benefit from your virtual relationship for years to come.

Photo: FreeImages.com/M Nota

You Must Have a Social Media Strategy

Crystal Burkholder — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 01:53:55 GMT

When we hear social media, social media marketing, or social media networking, we automatically think about LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and maybe YouTube. But there is so much more to social media such as blogging, niche specific social channels, audio, video, and others.

Companies are being pressured into the whole social media thing from lots of angles. They’re reading about it in the press, they’re seeing it everyday on TV, their PR agency is asking them about it.

What does it mean and where do you start?

One has a lot to consider once you seriously decide to enter social media and the social networks. There are many opportunities to slide off the rails or have your efforts fall apart.

The success of your social media efforts and plans rise and fall on your strategy. And without a clear and effective strategy in place, you are doomed to failure within social media marketing. It’s like a builder without a blueprint, not knowing where to lay the foundation.

First, know what the intent of your social media and the networks you join will be. Are you hoping to improve awareness and open communication about your brand, services or organization? Are you looking to increase your customer base? Are you looking to reach new markets and open new channels of customers for sales or memberships? Are you making informational products that you want to distribute?

Knowing your intent drives which path you take.

Strategy isn’t the goal; it’s the path you plan to take to get there; and should always precede activity. The social media strategy needs to be closely connected to a company’s marketing game plan and overall business objectives.

An effective social media assessment will help to identify the appropriate starting point and direction you need to take.

A social media specialist can work with you to perform an effective assessment.

Designing A Compelling Elevator Pitch

Crystal Burkholder — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:00:31 GMT

We have all attended a function or a meeting, where we know we are going to be introduced to new people. So how do we introduce ourselves quickly, clearly, and distinctly without losing the interest of our audience? A good pitch takes planning and practice, to deliver it quickly, on the spot, and under pressure.

There are 5 elements to a compelling intro:

Who is the target market? Know your target market and speak directly to them. “You know how [target market] are always overwhelmed with, or are always struggling with…”
What is a problem you can solve? What is their pain? What would they most prefer not to do themselves?
How can you solve the problem, or ease their pain? What can you do for them, your target market that would benefit them? How would you add value to your target market?
The WOW factor – what makes you unique? These are unique benefits that you and/or your company bring to the business that is different or better than others in the same industry.
Results and benefits. What results are you going to deliver? Every single word that you say must pass the “so what” factor. What’s in it for me?

Don’t say “I” more than “you”. This is all about your target market, and what you are going to do for them.

Don’t use industry jargon; they may not understand it, and you definitely don’t want them to feel inferior. Bring yourself to the audience level and use the words they need to hear.

Don’t talk about your education, certifications, awards, or years of experience. This is an introduction not a resume.

End with a call to action. Ask for the business, or the contact. The audience needs to be told what to do, and how to do it.

And of course, if you have a tag line, now is the time to use it. Leave your audience with an impression, and something to remember you by.

A potential client needs to hear your message at least 9 times in order to influence their buying decision. It needs to be the same message. You can refine the message, but don’t change it. It must be clear and understandable. Avoid jargon. And it must be memorable. Prepare and practice!

Time Management Tips for Busy Entrepreneurs

Janet Barclay — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 20:49:42 GMT

One of the biggest challenges for solo entrepreneurs is making time to work on your business.

If you have a full practice, marketing may not be your top priority, but it should never be neglected, as your situation may change with little or no warning. Tasks such as invoicing and bookkeeping not only must be performed on a regular basis, but generally become more time-consuming as your business grows. There’s no question that these things have to be looked after, and other business activities such as professional development must be considered as well.

So how can you get it all done?

When planning your activities, it helps if you have SMART objectives:

Specific: What are you going to accomplish? If you don’t decide this in advance, you may waste valuable time weighing your options instead of getting things done.

Measurable: How will you know when you’ve accomplished it? It’s difficult, if not impossible, to complete an entire project in one sitting, so instead of planning to write content for your website, plan to write one or two pages.

Attainable: Is it realistic? Do you have the resources you need? If you don’t have the necessary skills, consider delegating or outsourcing the work to someone who does.

Relevant: Does the task or tasks fit in with your short-term and long-term goals? If not, scratch it off your list or postpone it to a later date, and work on something that is a current priority.

Time-specific: When are you going to get it done?

The best way to make anything happen is to schedule it on your calendar. For you, the best time might be first thing in the morning, at the end of the day, or on the weekend. The important thing is to make a schedule and stick to it. If you wait until there’s a lull in your client work, you may fall behind on these other tasks that are critical to keeping your business functioning.

Self-discipline is definitely an asset!

Being accountable to someone else can also help. Several members of the Golden Horseshoe Virtual Assistants Group have teamed up to become accountability partners. Through this program, colleagues give and receive support to help one another other set and achieve their business goals. So far the results have been remarkable!

If you’re struggling to find the time to work on your business, consider the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant. Even if you’re a VA yourself, you may have a colleague with different skills and interests than your own.

Photo: © PhotoXpress / Adam Borkowski

Virtual Assistant Services You May Not Have Thought Of

Janet Barclay — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 19:17:08 GMT

With businesses of all sizes doing more online all the time, there is a growing need for more advanced technical services, such as:

Backing up websites
Updating website software, such as WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla
Securing WordPress sites
Creating systems and operating procedures
Enhanced help desk support

If you’re currently struggling with any of the above processes, or simply passing them over because you don’t have the technical expertise to carry them out, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that these tasks are within the realm of many virtual assistants. We’re not just about scheduling appointments and typing reports!

The virtual assistant industry has come a long way in the last few years, and many VAs possess a wealth of technical skills formerly associated only with website developers and IT professionals. Why spend your valuable time learning yet another software program when you can outsource the work to an expert?

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant?

Janet Barclay — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 16:50:50 GMT

As a business owner, it’s nearly impossible to do everything on your own. Whether you have a strictly online business, a direct sales business, or a traditional bricks-and-mortar business, it’s unlikely you have both the time and the skills to complete all of the necessary tasks.

Fortunately, current technology allows you to contract with an entire team of professionals, without hiring a single employee. Virtual assistants come in many forms, from administrative, to technical, to very niche-specific.

Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) lets you concentrate on profit-generating activities rather than the day-to-day tasks such as bookkeeping, customer service, updating your website, posting blog posts, article marketing and so on. You can actually be holding yourself back from having a successful business if you don’t let go of jobs that you find tedious, or that you don’t know how to do well.

When you work with a virtual assistant, you only pay for the actual time spent working on your business, not benefits, breaks, or extra taxes. In fact, everything you pay your VA is a deductible business expense. You don’t even have to pay for training, because a virtual assistant is an expert in his or her niche.

Virtual assistants can be terrific resources regarding technology and business organization, so take advantage of that fact by asking your VA for advice regarding various aspects of your business. A VA can even help you take your business to the next level!

The very best reason to hire a virtual assistant is the time savings and freedom that you will experience. Instead of working around the clock, you’ll have an assistant who cares about your return on investment because if you’re successful, they’re successful.

Hiring an experienced and dependable virtual assistant to help you run your business can pay off in many ways. You’ll have more time for your family, your spouse and your friends, and if you choose wisely, you’ll have one more expert at your fingertips to help make your business more successful than you ever dreamed possible.

How to Avoid Virtual Assistant/Client Mismatches

Janet Barclay — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 17:56:05 GMT

Over the years, many GHVA members have attended the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC), where we've had the opportunity to learn from professionals in the areas of business, technology, communication, coaching, marketing, and social media as well as commercial technology experts, VA coaches and trainers.

In one presentation, Letting Go of “D” (Difficult) Clients, OIVAC founder Sharon Williams described ten types of “bad” clients:

Free Samples Guy expects you to complete a project for free before he agrees to sign a contract.
Scope Creep Gal agrees to a set price for a small project, which gradually grows into a much larger one.
Vague Victor doesn’t really know what he wants.
Fannie Freebie can’t afford to pay you, but tries to tempt you with the “ideal” volunteer opportunity.
Mr. Unavailable doesn’t respond to your emails, then wonders why his work isn’t completed.
Clingy Sue wants constant progress reports and communicates with you multiple times each day.
Revisionist Ronnie never finds your work quite good enough.
Gossip Girl wants to discuss her personal life or previous VAs.
“The check is in the mail.” ‘Nuff said!
The Lowballer tries to negotiate a lower rate than you charge your other clients.

If you’re in the market for a virtual assistant, do you see yourself on the above list? Of course, you have every right to expect excellence from your VA, but mutual respect is the key to all successful relationships. You’re far more likely to form a thriving long-term partnership if you articulate your requirements clearly, respond to all your VA’s questions on a timely basis, and treat him or her with the same courtesy you would give to any other professional.

3 Ways to get the Most from Your Virtual Assistant

Sheila Penton — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 13:50:25 GMT

Are you thinking of hiring a Virtual Assistant or wonder if you are getting the most value out of the one you already have?

Here are three tips to help you work more efficiently with your Virtual Assistant:

When giving a new task be clear and concise. Think of the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How involved. By answering all these questions up front it will be less likely your assistant will need to interrupt you for clarification later.
Present one task at a time, making sure your assistant fully understands what is expected before you move on to the next item. As an assistant, I like to repeat back what I think is expected of me to my client to make sure we’re both on the same page.
If you need something in a hurry, make sure that it is clear that the task is high priority; ask for an estimated delivery time and regular progress updates if necessary. But try to resist the temptation to ask for status updates too frequently—interruptions will only make your task take longer.

Good communication is essential when working virtually. Find what works best for you and your Virtual Assistant and you’ll soon be wondering why you didn’t hire one earlier.

Photo courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Top 3 Reasons to use a Virtual Author’s Assistant to Promote Your Book

Jan Whiting — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:57:44 GMT

Congratulations! You have written a book. Or maybe you are only just thinking about it. Either way, you need to promote it or no one will know.

There is a lot of work involved in the promotion of a book.

book or author’s website
media kit
press release
book reviews
social media
virtual book tour

I am sure your head is swimming with the thought of it. And most of this needs to be done before you publish. You realize you need help.

Here are my top 3 reasons why you should consider using a VAA (Virtual Author’s Assistant) to promote your book.

5 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Support Your Business

Janet Barclay — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 19:40:22 GMT

Virtual assistants can add exponentially to your time each day. When your VA works on tasks that don’t generate income but are nonetheless necessary to your business, it allows you to focus on those that directly impact your earnings.

A VA can do the same type of work as an onsite assistant, as long as he or she has the right technology in place. Here is a list, not comprehensive by any means, of various activities that a VA can manage on your behalf, along with the technology that helps them perform these tasks.

Customer Service

Install a ticketing system for your clients to request information or assistance, and provide your VA with answers to the most frequently asked questions. She can then sign into the ticketing system and respond to most of the client concerns and questions on your behalf, sending you only the most serious issues to deal with. If you’re not ready for a ticketing system, you can give your VA access to your customer service emails. She can answer them for you, and pass on the serious ones to you to deal with personally. You can even grant your VA the authority to give refunds when needed.

Document Preparation

Whether editing, formatting, proofreading or creating the entire document, many VAs can do these tasks expertly. You can send rough handwritten or typed drafts with bullet points that you want to cover, or even create a digital recording for your VA to transcribe. Files may be transmitted by email, or by using collaboration tools such as Google Docs, Dropbox, or a project management system such as Central Desktop, Trello, or Basecamp.

Bookkeeping

Whether you hire an accounting professional or you assign your VA to bookkeeper duties entering data into a spreadsheet or an online system like QuickBooks online or waveaccounting.com, your VA can take these tasks off your hand. Simply scan receipts, checks, and expenditures and income, put into your Dropbox or send by email, and let your VA do the rest. If you hire a professional bookkeeper or accountant, they can even prepare your financial documents for you.

Article Marketing

If you are marketing your business online, you’re likely engaging in article marketing. Provide your VA with your articles, along with your article marketing directory accounts and password information. He or she can then post your articles on your behalf. Using Dropbox, a project management system, or email works great for these tasks.

Administrative Tasks

Virtual assistants can manage your calendar, appointments, contacts, travel meetings, data entry, research and more, depending on what technology you’ve invested in and the needs of your business.

While all of these tasks are necessary to keep your business running well, they are not the best use of your time.

Just think – instead of spending 10 to 20 hours a week on activities that don’t earn money for your business, if you assign them to a VA, you’ll have that much more time to focus on the tasks in your business that are money-makers. You’ll see a large return on your investment when you outsource these tasks to an experienced virtual assistant.