Outsourcing is hard right? When you do everything in your business, you often are the business. Trying to give that to someone else to manage can feel like almost too much effort.
Yet we work with hundreds of entrepreneurs who have opened up the stress valve by delegating a series of marketing, business and personal tasks to a virtual personal assistant. That sigh of relief? That’s all of the mundane, repetitive or non-essential tasks leaving their brain while they focus on the 20% that actually moves the bottom line.
You know who else could do that? You.
Take a scan down our list of tasks that your next virtual personal assistant could take off your hands and then get delegating!
Virtual assistant business tasks
1. Email management
Did you know that the average person is distracted every 40 seconds when working in front of a computer? If you think about your units of time, how often do you stop what you’re working on to check email? One of the huge benefits of outsourcing email management to a personal assistant is that you get an intelligent filter so the only emails you see are the ones that matter.
2. Calendar organisation
We’re firm believers that time is money and making the most of your calendar is essential. Having a personal assistant organise meetings, personal appointments and space to work will make a huge difference to how much time is available. Have you really got time to sit and plan all of your meetings in the same area, for the same day? If not, it’s time to let your virtual PA take this task off your hands.
3. Client liaison
Once you have built a level of trust with your virtual PA, client liaison is one of the areas where they can really help. Our ibLE PAs will often to speak to clients on behalf of the person they are supporting, whether this is to arrange lunch, provide a project update or just generally build the relationship. This allows you to build strong relationships and project management with clients, while still being able to work on other tasks.
4. Transcribing meetings notes or interviews
Perhaps a virtual personal assistant can’t attend all of your important calls and meetings but they can certainly transcribe them. Whether it’s action points from a board meeting that need to be assigned and organised, or a transcript from an interview with a new research subject, emailing an audio file to be transcribed is simple. Just make sure you’re telling whoever you’re recording to check they’re okay with it first!
5. Recruitment
The task of hiring new team members can be arduous and time-consuming. But when you really think about it, how many of the stages need to be managed solely by you? Creating job ads, managing applications and organising interviews can all be arranged by a virtual personal assistant, so that you only have to show up for the key moment.
Virtual assistant marketing tasks
6. Blogpost uploads
As you’ll have seen if you’ve read our insight into how millionaires make the most of their time, writing blogposts is a multi-step process. Other than the actual writing, your personal virtual assistant can take care of 90% of the other tasks. From proofreading, to editing, uploading posts to a CMS like WordPress and even sourcing images, blog management is one task to permanently remove from your list.
7. Social media monitoring
Social media has become a common marketing strategy for most brands and it’s thought that 65 million local businesses have a Facebook page, and 5 million an Instagram profile. You know who else is often good at social? Virtual PAs. Whether it’s scheduling and uploading your posts, monitoring comments or reminding you when you’re about to lose momentum, outsourcing some of your early social media tasks could save a huge amount of time.
8. Market research
In the early days of a business, market research and prospecting potential clients is an essential yet often time-consuming role. VAs often have experience is discretely tracking down potential clients and can even connect with them on social media on your behalf.
9. Email marketing
Isn’t email marketing the thing that just always falls by the wayside when things get busy? Personal assistants are able to manage your email calendar, ensuring that the right communications go out to the right people at the right time. Whether it’s onboarding email trails, monthly newsletters or automated responses, why not hand them over to someone who has the time?
10. Graphic design
Not all personal assistants will have design skills, but many will be able to use a tool such as Canva or Picmonkey to create social media items and promotional graphics. Many design tools now offer templates for more complex items like email campaigns and infographics, so this could be one marketing task you no longer have to struggle to complete.
Virtual assistant personal tasks
11. Healthcare
Do you regularly miss doctor’s appointments? Forget to have your annual dentist visit? Personal assistants are well versed at keeping you on track with all of your healthcare needs, from regular appointments to vaccinations and ensuring your prescriptions are ready when you need them.
12. Appointment management
Often it can seem like we need a whole day each week just to deal with life admin and our personal appointments. A personal assistant can manage your personal calendar alongside your business one, coordinating appointments in each. In our experience, they’ll also crosscheck with other family members and shared calendars so that double booking becomes a faux-pas of the past.
13. Gift sourcing
Christmas, birthdays, Easter, Mother’s day – the list of holidays only grows each year. Often you’ll be the best person to think up the perfect gift idea, but those hours trawling the internet searching for what’s in your mind’s eye? That’s best done by someone else. Corporate gifts too, can become the job of a virtual assistant to help research and arrange.
14. Research
Wish you could find a new hot yoga class? Or a hip new restaurant to impress friends with? These eclectic experiences often lie at the bottom of an internet rabbit hole, one which could take hours to navigate. To free you up to concentrate on the business tasks at hand, a virtual assistant can help research almost anything on your to do list.
15. Travel planning
Not only are virtual personal assistants great at organising travel, locating the best flights and planning logistics for your family, but they’re often well-travelled themselves. This means extra tips on where to eat, or which car service to book that will ensure you have a hassle-free travel experience. So that when it’s time to relax, you actually do.
Are you planning on outsourcing some (or all!) of the above tasks to a trusted personal assistant? For help finding the right one, learn more about our pay-as-you-go virtual PAs.
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