Archive for the ‘Virtual Assistance Tips’ Category

I have just been reading a great article about why someone would possibly want a virtual assistant, I have quoted an excerpt but the whole article is a good read…

1) First and foremost, determine why you want a virtual assistant (VA). It is important to think through your goal in hiring a VA so that you can determine if it is a good fit for you. If your answer is to have more time, think about how you would use that extra time. If your answer is to get more done, think about your top priorities to make sure you are getting the “right” things done.

2) Answer the question: What should I use a virtual assistant for? Combine your busy work and home schedules with the annual holiday rush, and this question seems to answer itself. However, it can be daunting to define, exactly, what you’d have a personal assistant do for you. Here are a few ideas for both personal and work-related tasks:

* Travel Plans—Have your VA create the ideal itinerary for your next business trip or family vacation.
* Transcription—Record a business meeting or classroom lecture and have it transcribed by your VA.
* Event Planning—Have your VA research the perfect restaurant, resort or conference room and manage all the logistics for your parents anniversary, a company off site or a romantic evening out.
* Presentations—Use a VA that has PowerPoint skills to make your presentations look more polished and professional.
* Update Address/Contact List—Make a New Year’s resolution to stay in better touch with your family and important business contacts. Have your VA update your address list, contact information and even create labels and reminders in advance.
* Birthday/holiday gift buying—Never miss another birthday. Set a budget, give a few guidelines and let your VA track down the perfect gifts or online cards for everyone on your list.
* Market research – Identify and research local businesses you could partner with to reach new customers, or create a list of tradeshows and industry events you should attend.
* Online marketing – Research blogs and websites for potential advertising opportunities and get pricing.

The list could go on and on, but this should give you a few ideas. Now that you have the Why and the What, let’s talk about the How. There are a few easy-to-follow tips that will help you get the most out of your virtual assistant.

3) Clearly define the task you want your VA to accomplish. This will help you determine the qualifications your VA should have. For example, if you want your VA to plan your upcoming office party, this requires a different skill set than if you had requested a VA for a transcription job.

See a sample VA request from Elance below. This will help you format your project.

4) Provide specific guidelines and time lines for the project. Write down exactly what you want your VA to accomplish. Then, think through the steps that you would take to accomplish the task. Write those down as well. For example, if you want your VA to update your address list, you should outline the task step-by-step:

* Step one: Review list and determine what information is missing.
* Step two: If an address is missing or labeled “old” but there is an email listed, send an email requesting an address update. An email template will be provided.
* Step three: Update the book based on email responses.

Another important element is a time line. Since most VAs work on an hourly basis, it is important for you to think about the task in terms of hours. Determine the amount of time the task should take and communicate that to the VA. For the first few projects, set multiple milestones to make sure the project is heading in the right direction.

5) Remember the “Why.” Realize you have more time! You hired a VA to give yourself more time with your family and friends or to focus on growing your business or to take that weekend away. It is easy to replace “stuff to do” with more “stuff to do.” Check in to make sure you are spending your additional time as you had hoped.

Courtesy of Zen Habits, go and check it out – it is a very good read.

If you are having more work than hours  than what there are, then give me a call – lets see how we can make it easier for you to be more productive!

Romany

Email Management Tip

For better management of your emails get into the habit of inputting a topic in the subject box that is related to the email.

When you reply or forward an email, again think about the topic or remove the RE: and FW:

Using this method helps tremendously when you are searching for info and saves you time.

One solution could lie in virtual working also known as remote working, outsourcing and flexible working. Every bit of technology and software being developed today is all being geared for this new way of working.

New World of Work by Microsoft.com

While many companies have welcomed flexible working and it has also only been open for some there are a lot of people who find it difficult to understand the concept or even not willing to embrace the concept. However, in this difficult time it could be that people would need to seriously re think their position, re think their ways of doing things and maybe embracing a change of mindset in order to have a positive impact on what is going on. Whilst chatting to an associate of mine today he sent me this really good tool that one can use to show business owners and an employers a way to cut costs and perhaps when you are forced into the position of having to make staff redundant, you could look into this as an alternative option and work together with your staff to come up with a solution.