How Can A Virtual Assistant Help My Business?

Is this something you’ve ever wondered or asked yourself? If it is, then I’m going to make some assumptions about you. You’re a small business owner, you’re working alone, you’ve reached your maximum work load and you’re looking for a way to grow your business, whilst doing less (or at least no more!) yourself. If any or all of these assumptions are correct, then you could be really pleasantly surprised by what a virtual assistant can do for a solopreneur or small business owner.

Your right hand person

A good virtual assistant is a small business owner’s best resource. If you get a quality Virtual Assistant, then they should become your right hand person. Someone who can take the troublesome tasks away and return having taken action, not just on the task itself, but also on moving your business forward. They become your sounding board, your ears and eyes, your business buddy and in some cases a business coach or critical friend. VAs work in many areas, are passionate business people in their own rights and often come from corporate backgrounds. Their wealth of knowledge can be astonishing.

Avoid burnout

Small business owners are often overworked. You reach capacity. This causes two problems – exhaustion or burn out and a capped income. When you’re flying solo in your business, it’s impossible to move forward at this point without increasing people power. After all, you only have so many hours in a day. Taking on staff can seem daunting. That’s why Virtual Assistants are a popular choice for solopreneurs. VAs can help your business move forward, grow, and develop, without needing to be taken on as an employee. One of the biggest advantages to hiring a Virtual Assistant is that they work freelance. Therefore, you can take them on without needing to look at employee law. Increasing your people power quickly and easily.

Skilled where you are not

Often, small business owners struggle with the fact that they have to be an expert at everything. And let’s face it, solopreneurs rarely know how to do it all. The learning, research and training can be expensive, and is something you don’t have time for. Virtual Assistants are flexible, multi-skilled, run business of their own and in many cases specialise in particular areas. Perfect if you have an area of business you don’t feel confident in, or don’t enjoy, there’s nothing better than being able to outsource the tasks that don’t bring you joy. Virtual Assistants allow you to stay in your zone of genius, working on the thing you’re amazing at, growing your client-facing elements, whilst getting the other bits done in the background. This maximises your business growth and capacity, whilst keeping you in love with what you do! 

Expand your growth

When you’re at capacity, it’s impossible to take on more, therefore you can’t take on new orders, new clients or new work. So your business growth stops. You’ve reached your ceiling. But by adding in a Virtual Assistant to take some of the work from you, you will have hours spare and can once again grow, making more income and more profit. Yes, you will need to factor in the cost of the VA, but the return on investment (ROI) will be well worth it! With their knowledge on funnels, lead magnets, content creation, blog writing and more, Virtual Assistants can also grow your audience and customer base. Many are also adept at business planning and content strategy, maximising your business growth through and through.

Allowing you a better work-life balance

Adding a virtual assistant to your small business will really open up your options. You want a holiday, but leaving your business on its own, ignoring emails and not fulfilling orders is impossible. Enter your VA! You’re missing out on family time because there’s too much to do. The admin and emails are piling up, you’re behind with the bookkeeping and there are reels to post. Enter your VA! You need some time for you, so you can breathe, but you can’t drop any of the balls. Enter your VA! You get the idea…opening yourself up to having a Virtual Assistant, can really give you the work life balance you crave.

Virtual Assistant Services

Of course these vary from VA to VA, and some will be very specialist. Here’s a general list of things you can outsource to a Virtual Assistant:

• Editing
• Proofreading
• Content Creation
• General Admin
• Blog Writing
• Strategy
• Email management
• Organisation
• Podcast Support
• Website Support
• Bookkeeping
• Email Marketing
• MORE!

How can a Virtual Assistant help your business?

Well as seen above, in a variety of ways. I wonder if this has surprised you? I hope that it puts your mind at rest about hiring a VA. Many will work on low retainers or ad-hoc, so the risk is low too. If you’ve been debating your need for a Virtual Assistant or thinking about expanding your team, then you probably have a need for it. Don’t slow your business growth, burn out or hold yourself back. Hire a VA!