Use your VA’s knowledge of IT to your advantage

Providing businesses with IT support can save them a lot of time, not to mention frustration and severe headaches. If you are struggling with something on your PC, ask your VA. He or she should be only too pleased to help. After all, it will not only strengthen your relationship but will also save you waiting for your IT guy to appear and no doubt, costly fees and lost time and therefore revenue. If you need help converting your contact list into a spreadsheet, upgrading your operating system to a more recent version, downloading the right protection or saving a Word template, remember that Virtual PAs are adept at these tasks and can often advise you how best to proceed, depending on the applications you have in place.

A little education …

You may have read or heard about Virtual PAs and how the industry is thriving in the USA, particularly now that headcount is significantly reducing but, in a lot of cases, work still needs to be completed, professionally.  Surprisingly I meet a lot of people who aren’t quite sure how the Virtual Assistant (or VA) can add value to businesses, maybe because they find it difficult to visualise how a remote business partnership can work.  I thought I’d enlighten those who aren’t in the know so that next time you meet someone who needs to delegate in order to gain more precious time, here are some examples of how a Virtual PA could help:

• Appointments can be made and travel booked using an electronic diary and online tools – you can still have access if you need to view and amend your appointments yourself
• Client contact can be maintained remotely, when consultants are travelling, on holiday or even with other clients (no-one likes having to leave voicemail messages when they could be speaking intelligently with someone who has necessary first hand business knowledge)
• Event management is easily organised remotely, once the venue has been chosen and agreed, by liaising with suppliers on the phone and by email
• PowerPoint presentations may have started life as basic hand-written notes, audio recordings, or even flip-chart pages – all these are easily sent by regular mail, electronic mail or bike
• Visa applications can be made online without having to stand in lengthy queues – all the lengthy preparation can be done prior to the documentation being signed
• Email marketing and newsletters don’t require face to face meetings, just  clear and concise instruction and perhaps some editorial to be emailed or faxed
• Article submission must be one of the fastest growing requests for a VA – it can be a time-consuming headache for authors, but just another task to check off the to do list for a Virtual PA
• We all know that in order to be paid on time, invoices need to be sent on time – whether by email or post, a Virtual PA can handle the whole process, even through to chasing for payment if necessary
• Logo design – a few ideas, your choice of colours and a conversation on the phone is all that’s required to get the ball rolling
• Research is much more quickly done online, summarised and sent back electronically

There are many other tasks which can very successfully be taken on by a Virtual Assistant but I hope you find the above a useful introduction.  To learn more about the benefits of working with a Virtual PA visit the Virtually 247 website.

It’s time for companies to wake up …

Judging by the number of people who have told me they are doing the jobs of more than two people in their office-based employment, we have a sorry state of affairs.  Having gone through the work/life balance scenario for the last few years, it seems that many people (usually gainfully employed) are sadly now either being pushed towards the edge as a result of too much work and therefore stress,  or they have no employment to go to.

If more companies would wake up to the fact that there is an abundance of intelligent resource available to them in home-workers, they would not only save themselves a fortune in headcount-associated costs and office space, but would do the planet a favour by reducing the number of single people sitting in queues in their cars on their way to work!  It would also boost their image by reducing their carbon footprint.

Keep up the good work virtual workers – between us we have a lot of educating to do!
http://www.virtually247.com

Virtual PAs take over when support staff are redundant

Businesses large and small now have a virtual solution to their staffing needs. Whether they’re part-time administrators, occasional IT talent or fully-fledged marketeers, Virtual PAs save their clients not only time and money but create that professional (and sometimes international) image.

When you consider the cost of employing a full-time PA and compare it to what you pay to a virtual PA this has to be the way forward for forward-thinkers.

Businesses are facing a tough choice in the current economic climate. For one-person businesses or city offices, an online solution to the inevitability of down-sizing and reducing their overheads is the Virtual PA or VA (Virtual Assistant).

Virtual PAs are independent freelancers who provide PA and specialised business services from a distance, through the internet, phone and e-mail. They help companies and individuals who still require work to be carried out to meet customer demands, despite the climate which surrounds them. Virtual PAs provide unique skills for special projects or step in to meet the demands of seasonal business growth, locally or globally.

As businesses grow, they all too often find themselves spending as much time on their diary management and admin as concentrating on their clients and the tasks which drive their bottom line.

Businesses can benefit from the help of Virtual PAs without having to compensate them with benefits and other associated costs which full or part-timers (and even sometimes temps) require. Neither do they have to find enough work to keep an additional person busy.

An employee can come and go and you may have them in situ for longer than you need them. Temps provided by third parties, are also transitory and, assuming you don’t always get the same person, they need to be trained, over and over again. Virtual PAs usually enter into an ongoing business relationship with a client and can work on an as required, project or long-term basis.

Services provided include database management, travel arranging & venue sourcing, online calendar management, securing meetings, database design & management, PowerPoint presentations, transcriptions, event management and more.

Sara’s e-mail: sara@virtually247.co.uk

Virtually 24/7 website: www.virtually247.co.uk

How to get the most from your Virtual PA

Working with a Virtual Assistant requires three major commitments:

• Having the necessary software and tools in place in order for data to be successfully transferred between you and your PA. For example; anti-virus protection, firewalls and for goodness sake, ensure your e-mail provider offers sufficient capacity to be able to send files back and forth.  If not, and you don’t want to increase it, ask your VA how best to utilise an online facility.  You don’t want to experience delays and to be paying someone to sort out your IT problems – ask your VA which tools will be required in order to complete projects before you start – most of us are IT-savvy and can give you tips on what will work best for you.

• Being prepared to delegate.  If you are a control freak, you need to learn to let go if you want to get the best out of the relationship.  Most VAs will tell you if there is something you are asking for which they are not qualified or prepared to do, and, the more you delegate the more motivated they will feel to do a great job for you.  Remember, although your VA will communicate with your clients and contacts on your behalf, a professional virtual PA is not a call-answering service – there are call centres who offer this service.
  

  Make that call

• Being ready to communicate openly and on a regular basis.  The virtual relationship will only work successfully if you are clear when giving instructions and feedback – this is crucial.

Finally, be prepared, keep in touch and good luck!

For more top tips, visit:

http://www.virtually247.co.uk

How businesses can help themselves to survive the crunch

As the “R” word has now officially been mentioned in the media, any business with a full staff-capacity is bound to be looking at ways to cut budgets.  Anyone who has worked in a corporate office will know that to significantly reduce overheads, headcount and executive travel are the two items which must take a hit.

We need to get the word out there that there are Virtual workers fully set up for remote-working who are only too happy to forgo company politics, low morale and the sandwich lady to provide a support service from the comfort of their own offices.  UK businesses have been too slow to realise the benefits provided by virtual assistants – a fast-growing industry which is saving companies millions in the USA.  By utilising the services provided by virtual PAs, businesses could save themselves from becoming victims of the crunch and benefit not only from savings but from decreasing  their carbon footprint and gaining a professional image to boot.

There are considerable savings to be made by outsourcing tasks such as calendar management, meeting arranging, database design, PowerPoint, e-mail marketing campaigns and research (in fact anything a PA does in a corporate office, save making the coffee:)  These are usually available on an ad hoc, project or ongoing basis and charges are by the hour or monthly retainer.

For more on how to get the best from a VA

visit my website : http://www.virtually247.co.uk

Sara