Every virtual assistant wants to create results for her client. Every client wants the same. But when the client’s budget is tight, what kind of outcomes can you realistically expect for only 5 or 10 hours a month?
This is where a lot of client-VA relationships go sour. Yet a lot of good things can come out of those hours if used the right way. Some tips for helping you leverage a limited virtual assistance budget:
Everyone is feeling the pinch. Even if you’re projecting more prosperous times, there remains a dilemma over how to sustain key operational and marketing activities when cash is tight. And if you have a virtual assistant or other contractor on the team, you’ve no doubt considered cutting them loose so you can breathe a little easier at month end.
This might seem like an obvious way to lighten your budgetary load, but what of those prosperous times you’re planning for? If you permit the fundamentals to deteriorate (marketing, operations, customer care, etc.), what will be left when opportunity comes knocking (and it will come knocking again)? Will you be ready? Will you be sane?
Hiring a virtual assistant can help your business succeed in so many ways it’s hard to imagine why anyone would not at least give outsourcing careful consideration. Then again, why take bold and strategic steps forward with your business when you’ve got things like status quo and been-there-done-that to keep you warm and comfy? Just in case you’re running out of excuses though, I’ve come up with a handy little list of trite excuses for not hiring your own VA today.
Print this list off and tape it to your desk. You just never know when you might have to turn down another opportunity to grow:
Last week the bloggers at oDesk brought some stats to the table that might surprise business owners who’ve long assumed offshoring is the only affordable option for business process outsourcing (BPO). Turns out homeshoring is not only making gains, but some skilled services are in fact commanding increasingly higher rates. Um, isn’t there a recession going on? An economic crisis in fact?
What’s going on here and why should you pay attention as a business owner?
Online collaboration software seems to be catching on amongst the virtual assistants I know, but especially those who have multiple projects on the go or work in a multi-VA/multi-contractor environment. Yet, despite the productivity benefits of using programs like Basecamp or ClientSpot, a lot of VAs are saying it remains a challenge to get their clients on board.
I posted some online marketing goodness over at Search Engine Guide yesterday and felt I should share, mainly because the strategies I wrote about are as much applicable to the B2B services web space as they are to ecommerce (the post was regarding etailer price wars specifically).
It should be a given that hiring a Virtual Assistant will make you and your business more productive, right? But what about being more accountable for the tasks necessary to achieve your long range business goals? An incredible spin off benefit of hiring a VA is that you suddenly have someone who is “checking in” regularly to see if you’ve crossed any of those pesky to-dos off your list. Because let’s face it, a Virtual Assistant can do a lot but she can’t do everything for you!
As an Internet marketing consultant I’ve had the opportunity to work with an array of talented individuals who assign themselves an array of titles, including “virtual assistant” and “freelancer.” Though I’ve never worked with a “freelance” admin assist, I have worked with VAs who proofread and copy edit AND freelancers who proofread and copy edit. I’ve had both good and bad results with each … uh … genre?
A lot of small business owners are no doubt feeling the pinch of looming recession. But apparently so is the demand for outsourced business assistance. Our very own VAinsider Club is proving that economic downturn is no match for a virtual empire of home office entrepreneurs. In just one year 100s of virtual assistants have signed on to an exclusive network of business experts, marketers, speakers and coaches. Not to mention a very active RFP forum.
In a recent press release, our VAnetworking.com founder, Tawnya Sutherland, said this:
