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And so it should be. If we don’t manage our business finances correctly, then chances are we may not have a business in a year’s time. So any expenditure should be considered carefully.
Hiring a virtual assistant is expenditure; there is no getting away from it. There are, of course, costs involved in hiring a virtual assistant; nobody is going to work for free (and honestly would you trust anyone who did?!). However, it all depends on how you use your virtual assistant that will determine whether or not it is a successful and profitable expenditure or not. And working with a virtual assistant can represent either expenditure, or a way to make your business more profitable.
So here are my top 5 tips on how to ensure that you get the most out of your virtual assistant.
Top Tip 1: Take the time to explain your business to your virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is not just a secretary or personal assistant - chances are they are a small business owner too. This means they also have a good understanding of your needs. And the more they know about your business, its products, services and processes etc, they better they will be able to support you in running it.
Top Tip 2: Many virtual assistants simply offer a job-by-job or hour-by-hour service. This is great if you have a lot of work that is production oriented, such as audio transcription. This kind of work needs no real understanding of your business - just fast and accurate typing. However, if you really want to get the most out of your virtual assistant, you will want to consider handing over more than this. Look for a virtual assistant that promotes their offering as a partnership service. As in Top Tip 1, teach them about your business, let them take some of the responsibility and burden of working IN your business off you. This leaves you free to concentrate on working ON your business - getting more sales, increasing your revenue, growing your business, being more successful.
Top Tip 3: Look at ways that you can get your virtual assistant to help create revenue for your business. Not as a sales person or service, but, for example, find a virtual assistant who offers creative writing and editing services. You can get your creative virtual assistant to write articles, (such as this one!), for you. All you need to do is brief them on a topic and they will do the rest. You can then submit this article to the many article sites that are out there or get your virtual assistant to do it for you.
If you write an article in the right way and submit it to the right places online, then you will generate more visitors to your website: each one a potential client. And when they visit your website, you could also invite them to sign-up for your free newsletter, which your virtual assistant can also write and distribute for you! Now you have opted-in, interested, potential clients who you can develop a relationship with so that they become actual clients.
Top Tip 4: Following on from Top Tip 3, you can get your virtual assistant involved with securing additional revenue streams for you. For example, if you are a business coach or consultant and you hold teleclasses, you can get your virtual assistant to transcribe the class and produce a workbook based upon it, and add it to your other information tools. And there you go - you have an instant product kit based on one teleclass that you can sell to your customers online, again and again and again.
You can even go one step further and get your virtual assistant to administer the bookings for the class, manage the email responses and actually help you to research, prepare and format your class. All you have to do is review what’s produced, provide feedback and final decisions and voila: you have a fully booked teleclass, ready to be presented by you, with additional, follow-on products ready to offer your customers; - all extra sources of revenue for your business.
Top Tip 5: To really get the most out of your virtual assistant, you want them to care and participate fully in the growth and success of your business. With this in mind, ensure that you develop and maintain a good relationship with your virtual assistant. And by good, I mean a friendly, honest, communicative and professional relationship filled with mutual respect. So having a good relationship with your virtual assistant will ensure that you are both working for the same goal, the growth and success of your business, in the same way.
Honesty in your communication is crucial. If your virtual assistant hasn’t done something quite the way you like it to be done, then you need to communicate this: candidly and respectfully. By the same token, any professional virtual assistant worth her (or his) salt, will welcome that honest feedback, take it on board and incorporate it into their knowledge of you and your business, helping you to get the most out of their service.
So these are my top tips for getting the most out of your VA. From working with my own clients, I know that creating a true partnership with them, in the ways outlined here, ensures that they get a return on their investment. For them, working with a VA represents an opportunity, both to increase their business revenue and to build a business they love!
This article was written by Alex Stone
Founder & Managing Director, Just Too Busy
If you would like to reproduce this article, please feel free, but please ensure that you include the above by-line and contact information.
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