Confessions Of A Small Business Owner - This Is Why I Crave A Virtual Assistants…

The time I spend on answering emails, which I do appreciate, and the time I spend in bookkeeping, sending out bulk correspondence and scheduling appointments could easily eat up 65% of my day. Time that I would rather spend sourcing new business and strengthening my small business’s position in this very competitive market place. Yes, at some point in our start-up adventure we believe in our ability to succeed. We take on mammoth challenges and work 18 hours a day in order to get off the ground and begin climbing upwards gaining new heights of continuity and success.

When the time is right to get a helping hand, somehow we become reluctant to think about hiring a more efficient hand. Maybe it is because we feel that we need to always be in control of every aspect of our business, which is not a foreign concept, but also, we are challenged to think big, to think expansion.

Delegating tasks, and especially administrative tasks is both a sign of maturity and the eagerness to grow. There are all sorts of realities that you will facewhen thinking about hiring admin people. You have to employa full-time administrator, maybe you can afford to do so, or you simply cannot afford to employ a full time helping hand. Labour proceedures, conducting interviews and such is something that we would rather not do as a small business’ time is always precious, and should be spent wisely because we shall never get it back once spent.

Here’s why I say you should consider a virtual assistant:

1.    Recover your social life – Delegating administrative tasks may just inject some life back into your living. We all know that in the first two to three years of starting a business, we work while others are asleep and we rarely see daylight. Wouldn’t it be nice to finally be able to go out after a day’s work and enjoy a few drinks with your peers?

2.    Recover your family life – Business is a real sacrifice, but it should not be like that forever. Get a part-time assistant in South Africa and free upmore time for family.

3.    Recover your health – Making money is great, but if you cannot spend any of it on your own health, then it’s all pointless. Your health comes first, and so when thinking about finding part-time assistants, you are doing the right thing!

4.    Work less – By hiring a virtual assistant in Pretoria, you will be able to work the hours that you should really be working per day. I want to imagine that you did not quit your job of 8 hours a day in order to work 18 hours a day!

Going forward with my business adventure as a start-up, I cannot deny the need for a virtual assistant. Getting professional virtual assistance means growth and freedom.

Admin For Success – It’s Your Turn To Succeed!

It is that time of the year when you have to get your hustle on. Meetings here, and conferences there. These are elements of running a business that you simply cannot do without. As you know this by now, networking equal leads, and leads equal sales. That’s how we keep going.

Following a healthy business model, your business activities will include market research. This is something that you would have spent a lot of time doing prior to launching your business, but also, now that you are in it with both feet, you constantly have to monitor the reception of your products and services. How has the market reacted? Am I getting a piece of the pie? Taking time to measure your performance demands time away from the driving wheel.

Competitive analysis. Apart from running your own business, you probably have to also keep an eye on what your peers are doing, and how you can make your products and services stand out from the rest. Sending out quotes and later discussing them with your prospective clients as they make their decisions is a process that might take you away from your work.

Networking events. Would it not be nice to come back to an office where no work has piled up in your absence, and where your inbox has ‘magically’ cleared itself out and automatically responded to your clients? This is why most of us tend to stay away from events, to our detriment, because we fear the backlog.

What if I told you that one does not have to worry about this anymore? That you have an admin assistant in Pretoria that is ready to take on the administration and time consuming bits for you. Yes, outsource, get capable hands to help you.

Just listening to some successful enterprises talk about what makes a good part time assistant, the following qualities became a feature in their testimonies:

    An organized approach
    Good communication skills
    An acceptabletelephone manner
    Initiative
    PC literacy
    Honesty and discretion
    Good time management
    Team ethic
    Ability to cope with pressure
    Professionalism, an absolute must

The admin assistant role is a demanding one and requires a diversification of skills, from organization, customer service and right down to typing an acceptable number of words per minute as to save time and avoid a backlog. When looking for a virtual assistant you should make sure that the service that you are sourcing is from a stable company, a service provider that has a vibrant relationship with its clients. Good admin is key for success. Don’t let things get out of hand at the office, it’s your turn to enjoy the services of a competent virtual assistant.