Can A Virtual Assistant Significantly Improve Your Business

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Let’s roll back to January 1st 2015.
You spent the previous month tactically ignoring Christmas; instead using your precious brain power to make big and exciting plans for your business in the New Year.
Three-Hundred-and-god-knows how many days later, a dismal reality has hit home, and hit hard.
Your year old list is staring right back at you, and asking you, “What happened?” because only half your goals have been met. You worked seriously hard, of course, and you’ve made some progress.
But it’s not enough.
So now, it’s Groundhog Day. 2016 is well underway, and as well as screaming internally at the horror of how fast last year went gone by, you’re grasping at ways to stop history from repeating  itself.
Your strategy is clear and concise.
Step 1: Increase your sales and client base. 
Step 2: Work out how to increase your sales and client base.
Step 3: Make more money and employ someone to help… you get the picture. 
You now have a headache, which is growing with furious determination once you realise that the answer is also your problem.
Time and Money. You need more, but there’s none left to give. 
Let’s look at a realistic solution that deals with your growing list of goals. You need an assistant, more help; someone to deal with the daily tasks to let you focus on making headway in your business.
However, the wall between you and progress remains steadfast.
Either you can’t afford to accommodate another yearly salary or you already have an assistant, but they’re far too swamped to take on more tasks.
It could even be that you don’t have enough leftover duties to justify another yearly wage, but you still need tasks dealing with that you have zero time for.
And this is why a Virtual Assistant can be a lifeline for your business. 
But what exactly is a VA? And why is that a better solution than hiring a full or part-time assistant in-house?
If you’re an entrepreneur with a tight budget and a colossal workload to boot, a VA can provide you with a service that is more flexible, affordable, and reliable in both the short and long run.
Of course you may be asking how can a virtual assistant be flexible when they’re not actually ‘here’? But honestly there’s only one restriction for a VA, and that’s their inability to run errands for you.
But at this point in your business, is that really a problem? Would you rather be concentrating on collecting your dry cleaning on time (sorry for the cliché) or emailing your clients back before the day runs out? Because honestly, there’s really nothing else your VA can’t virtually do.
Ultimately, this means that a virtual assistant has the potential to help you run your business.
Do you use the phone to call clients, make appointments, and take payments?
Are emails your main channel for connecting with other businesses, securing new leads, and advertising your company?
A VA can manage and handle any means of communication. Their flexibility reaches as far as the systems and technology you choose to use to run your business.
In certain ways, this actually makes a VA more flexible than if they were fixed to a desk in your office. For example, you can hire based purely on competency and skill, rather than from a pool of potentials restricted to your area.
Moreover, you can save money, leaving you with more to spend on the necessary steps to progress your business. Hiring a virtual assistant/service is cheaper than dishing out a yearly salary and this doesn’t mean that it’s a ‘cheap’ service.
Depending on the service you choose of course, the assistant/s that will become dedicated to you should be qualified and highly experienced.
For example, Mi PA’s team of virtual PAs and Call Answerers have degrees in Event Management, Business and English, as well as specialist training and years of experience working with different clients and organisations.
The affordability actually comes from you. You can choose exactly how many hours your assistant works per week, per month, per year, and on that basis, chose how much of your budget you need to spend on such services. You can also save money by prioritising tasks.
Decide on the work that absolutely needs doing, such as managing your dairy, dealing with outbound or inbound calls, or performing some research and allow your virtual assistant to handle these, rather than spending time and money on less important tasks.
Naturally, it’s understandable to be concerned about the security and reliability of a service that is ‘online’. You want to be confident that you’re making an investment on the future of your business.
This is down to research and recommendation. Check to see who’s being talked about. Look for recommendations from businesses similar to yours.
A company is as reliable as their customer’s opinion, and a VA is no different.
If you fit into the unhappy box of not-moving-forward-fast- enough, take stock of the fundamental issues that could be your core culprits.
If time and money are on top, hiring a virtual assistant may be the long awaited answer you’ve been looking for.
emma-mills