Happy Holidays

 

I wish all my readers a Happy Holiday season !

Plan now for a more effective 2011: Outsource non-core tasks !

by Sarah Santacroce

As a small business owner you constantly have to wear different hats: the Marketing Hat, the Social Media Hat, the Administrative Hat and many other hats. Honestly, sometimes you forget what your actual core business is. When things get really out of control, you even trespass the sacred personal time: you skip your daughter’s ballet audition, postpone date night for the third time and cancel the gym membership – because who has time for that, right ?

But this was 2010 – let’s focus on 2011. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could outsource some of your tasks to a helping hand ? Someone who could wear some of those hats for you ? Guess what, that someone exists and is called a Virtual Assistant.

There are numerous benefits of working with a Virtual Assistant (short VA). Here are 5 of them:

• Benefit Nr. 1: with a Virtual Assistant you do not waste precious time on training. If you choose the right VA, she comes highly qualified, experienced and skilled in her field of expertise.
  
• Benefit Nr. 2: if you hire a Virtual Assistant you don't have to pay fees to a temp agency. Let's say your business goes through a tough time and you need immediate help with your administrative tasks. If you go through a temp agency, you always pay a certain fee to help you find an temporary help. Just hire a Virtual Assistant and you can save yourself that fee.
  
• Benefit Nr. 3: Have you ever had an assistant that serves the net all day and makes too many personal phone calls? If you work with a Virtual Assistant you only pay for the time she spends on your project!
  
• Benefit Nr. 4: Since VAs work in a virtual world, place and time no longer matter. You could work with a Virtual Assistant who lives thousands of miles away, even in a different time zone. In fact, different time zones can actually work to your advantage. Your VA works while you sleep!
  
• Benefit Nr. 2: a Virtual Assistant is not affected by bad weather conditions, traffic jams & public transportation strikes

Now that we know some of the benefits, let’s look at how a Virtual Assistant could help you with those hats:

The Marketing Hat:

1. Add a press page to the company website
   Every website should have a press page. A Virtual Assistant can create a press page, and add links to articles in which your company appears on a regular basis.

2. A VA can post your company videos on Youtube
   Youtube and video branding becomes more and more important. Did you know that Youtube reaches 1 Billion views per day? You will have to agree that it would make sense that your company’s videos get posted and marketed on Youtube. A VA can set up an account for you, post the videos, send out links on Facebook and Twitter or embed them on your website.
   

3. Help you distribute your press release and articles on various directories
   It’s very important to write regular articles and press releases. But it’s even more important to distribute them online so people actually read them. A VA can help you distribute them to various directories online.
   
   

The Social Media Hat:

1. Create a Social Media Strategy
   You have made the decision to give Social Media a try – but you don’t know where to start. A Virtual Assistant can help you with that too. Together you will define your business objective, target audience and from there she will create a tailor made Social Media Strategy for your business and will help you implement it.
   
2. Update your Linkedin Profile
   Did you know that your Linkedin Profile is like a mini website and should be treated as such ? Many business owners get new leads through Linkedin, but only because their Linkedin Profile is complete and updated with their product brochures, links to their websites, keywords and even videos.
   
3. Create a Facebook Page for your business
   In my opinion every business who has a website should also have a Facebook Page. A VA can help you take full advantage of this marketing channel, customize it and teach you how to use it.

The Administrative Hat:

1. Organize venue arrangements: seating, meals, beverages, flowers etc
   Next time you have to organize a big event, why don’t you hire a VA instead of trying to prepare your speeches and organize everything at the same time? A VA can get in touch with the venue provider and arrange seating, meals, beverages, podcasting etc.
   

2. Setup an online backup system for your computer
   Honestly, when was the last time you backed up the data on your computer? A Virtual Assistant can arrange an online backup system so that you’ll never have a nightmare about loosing all your files again!

3. Enter the business cards you collect into your contact management software or database
   Is your desk drowning in piles of collected business cards ? Your Virtual Assistant is equipped to scan those cards and easily import them in your customer database. You really don’t have time for that !

These are just a few ideas to show you how a Virtual Assistant could help you make 2011 more effective than ever. You can find a more complete list here.
Plan for your outsourcing needs now, you will not regret it.

Sarah Santacroce helps small business owners with their administrative tasks, Internet & Social Media Marketing. You can contact her by sending her an e-mail to sarah@simplicityadmins.com