How a Virtual Assistant Can Help You Save Time and Money!

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1 How a Virtual Assistant Can Help You Save Time and Money! Get the Support you Deserve! Free up Time and Increase Revenues! VA-a-GoGo Where you go to get things done!

2 2 What you can expect from this report: Outsourcing is the biggest tool you can have in your entrepreneurial Tool Box! There is no reason to do it all yourself. Leverage time and resources to increase your profits. This report will introduce you to OUTSOURCING tasks, share how VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS can help, along with tools and tricks for making the best of your budget while outsourcing. What this report covers: What is Outsourcing? How Can a Virtual Assistant Help You Finding a Virtual Assistant and Working on a Budget Tips & Advice for Working With a Virtual Assistant As a Virtual Assistant who loves her career, I am so excited to share what I have learned through experience and teachings. Virtual Assistants have created environments for business owners to grow larger than they expected to be able to just by offering much needed support in time sucking tasks. I look forward to seeing more business owners finding the right VA for them as well as seeing more VA s finding the right client! Wishing You The Best, Christina Littrell-Williams (818) Vaagogo.com

3 3 Outsourcing, What is it Really? Outsourcing is simply handing tasks to be completed to a person or group of people that are outside of your office. It is a simple concept. Corporations and larger businesses have been using this concept for ages. Some companies outsource their payroll, their phone systems, their file archives and even production of some products. In this age of the small business boom, why should small business owners not benefit from outsourcing too? The internet has opened the playing field for small business owners to be able to hire a support team and outsource tasks that take their time away from working on their business. Small business owners no longer have to do it all themselves. Working with Virtual Assistants can bring: Levels of Balance between Home and Business Lives: While entrepreneurs take their businesses and the success of it very serious the amount of details that need to be covered can take a lot of time away from the family or personal time. Having support for the time consuming details helps free up time and allows for a balance between the time spent in/on the business and home life. No Need to Learn it All: With a support team in place to handle specific programs or tasks that take specialized training to run or complete there is no need for the business owner to learn them all. There are Virtual Assistants that specialize in niche areas such as website design, graphic design, ghost writing, newsletter management, management and so on ~ By hiring the right person/team to assist in such tasks time and nerves will be saved! Increased Revenues: With the day to day time sucking tasks being outsourced to a Virtual Assistant/Assistant Team the business owner can focus on revenue generating activities.

4 4 What Do Virtual Assistants Do? Virtual Assistants come with a wide variety of specialties some have honed down their duties to a niche market and some offer several types of tasks. Support can come in the following areas: Project Management Team Management Calendar Management/Appointment Scheduling o (this will include reminder calls to patients / clients) Formatting Documents o ebooks, Workshops, Order forms, PDF Docs etc. Editing & Proofreading Organizing Your Contacts & Keeping Them Updated Managing Marketing Campaigns o Autoresponders, SendOutCards, Newsletters Online Research Excel Spreadsheets Maintain Account Numbers, Log Ins and Passwords Accounting/Bookkeeping Invoicing and possible Bill Paying Customer Service Duties o Via phone or Managing the Affiliate Products/Events You Belong To Graphic Design & Website Design & Maintenance Blog Site Management Article Submission & Management, Press Releases CRM & Shopping Cart Management o Sales reports, product management Travel / Event Planning Product Fulfillment Manage Your Company Affiliate Programs Depending on your direct needs you can find VA s that specialize in one or more of these areas and then that is all they focus on while working with you. You can find VA s that are trained and handle several of these areas. Working with them would allow you to delegate tasks in more than one or two areas and they tend to be more of a complete assistant. By working with one or two Virtual Assistants at first allows you to build your relationship and grow working together.

5 5 Finding Virtual Assistant and Working on a Budget Finding a Virtual Assistant is not that hard these days. You can Google, you can go to VA Membership Sites and even Tweet about what you are searching for. You will have several responses, now comes the hard part. You have to do an interview to find out if it is a right fit for the both of you. Here are some suggested questions you should ask when interviewing: What are your favorite tasks to handle for clients? What do you say your strengths are? Do you have time/space in your business for another client? What is your cost of services? Do you have specific work/office hours? How do you structure your working time for your clients? What is your expected turnaround time for a task? What is your work history & experience? Do you have references I may speak with? When you go through these key questions you will begin to be directed to more specific questions. It is important not only to ask questions about the tasks and experience but to at the same time get an emotional feel for that person s personality. When you work with a VA personality connection is just as vital as experience. Be sure to interview more than one potential VA so you have something to compare to when you are making your decision. Budget is the other concern how much are you going to pay your new assistant? When you are doing your interview process you will get the numbers and you will get the details. While deciding on who, should you make your choice based on cost alone NO! Most Virtual Assistants price their services based on what they feel their competency is, their experience is and how well they work with clients. It is like buying a cheap pair of walking shoes sure you can use them for walking anywhere BUT are they the best support no way! Take money out of the decision when hiring and focus on the amount and type of support you are looking to get. With the right support your business will grow and so will your income!

6 6 Tips & Advice for Working With a Virtual Assistant It is important to work SMART with your Virtual Assistant. You want to start off on the right foot. Here are some Tips and Advice: Be Clear from the start on why you want to work with a Virtual Assistant. By having clarity on your why it will be easy to share that with them and get them on board from the beginning with your vision. Define what tasks you will delegate from the beginning. Know what tasks you will hand over and have them prepped have the log in and password information at hand and a process list also prepared. Make sure that in your process explanation your expectations are clearly spelled out. This allows a task to be started correctly, done how you like to do it along with when you would like it done by. Communication is a MAJOR key to this relationship. Being clear at all times and welcome questions about tasks/expectations allows for a safe environment and a place for a good relationship to be built. Use an Instant Messaging Program I prefer to use Skype with my clients. This allows my clients to reach me any time, as well as I can reach them without adding to the inbox overload! Skype has the ability to save the conversations forever and you can do a search in the conversation for key words. Awesome! Schedule production meetings regularly You and your Assistant should have a meeting once a week, twice a week or even daily. The timing will be based on the tasks they are responsible for. This will give you both guaranteed time to ask questions and to be updated! Keep Your Assistant Informed It is important to keep your assistant updated to new offers, changes on your website, travel plans, and how your programs work. If they are handling s they will be coming across questions about these areas, if they are handling phone calls and messages they will come across questions about these areas and should never feel lost. Remember the more they know the better support they can be!

7 7 Time to Take Action! We all agree having a support system in place is the way to grow your business! So what do you do next? Ask yourself If I had support right now, what would I hand off? What tasks seem to slow you down or keep you off focus? What revenue generating opportunities are you missing because you do not have the time to get to everything? What is holding you back from getting a support team? Take Charge! Contact me for a free 30 min discovery consultation to see where a support team can help you. Christina Littrell-Williams [email protected]