Hello Everyone, I hope your week has gotten off to a great start!
Today I am going to begin this blog slightly different and discuss a magazine article that I read that gives a wonderful example of the benefit of outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant.
It starts when my very thoughtful Grandmother ordered a magazine for me as a Christmas present entitled the "Home Business, Home-Based Business & Opportunity Magazine". In the February 2011 issue inside I find an article titled "Information Overload in your home office? Tame it and make more profit", written by Glory Borgeson.
This article was about a small business owner named Tom, who was very interested in news of all types from business related to government issues. When Tom stopped to think how much time a week he was spending going through all of this information that interested him, he was losing about 7 and half hours a week. The article went on to to say Tom decided he had to make changes, how was he going to be able to gain those hours back but at the same time still have time to get the information that he felt was important.
The answer was simple, Tom could outsource the tasks that pulled him away from his business to a Virtual Assistant or VA. (A Virtual Assistant is a remote administrative assistant, that works from their home office) The article listed; When delegating to a VA they will need the following; a clear description of what you are looking for, you can ask that your VA subscribe to the same e-zines or news outlets that arrive by email as well, you can forward your paid subscriptions to your VA to review , make a list of other online information sources that you would like checked daily, give your VA clear examples from your information sources of what you are looking for and how you would like it communicated back to you.
Now that Tom has outsourced "finding information nuggets" to a VA, he now spends roughly a little more than an hour a week, that is about 15 minutes a day reading just the information he wanted. This article was a perfect example of how something as simple as reading through emails, newsletters etc. can take away quite a bit of time from your business. Just a fraction of the profit made by gaining those hours back was spent on outsourcing those tasks.
Think about it...
"TMI = More Stress
Freed-up Time = More Profit
More Profit = Less Stress
Which do you prefer?"
The last line in the article reads, " What can you begin to do next week to get rid of too much information, and turn time savings into more profit?" ...need ideas? Here are a few other tasks that you can outsource to a VA; scheduling, sending of company newsletters, postcards, emails etc., ordering of weekly job materials, and payroll to name a few.
The list of administrative tasks that can be outsourced is endless, what do you find yourself doing that can be outsourced to a VA? How many hours can you gain by outsourcing these tasks? How much profit will your business make by outsourcing these tasks?
I hope this gave you a better idea of how a Virtual Assistant can benefit you and your business.
Have a Great Day! :0)
Sue B.
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