Business leaders are usually accustomed to the idea of working long hours and managing multiple tasks within their organisation. However, no matter how great you are at multi-tasking and organising your schedule, there’ll eventually come a time when you simply don’t have enough hours in the day.
When you try to pile too much on your plate at once, you end up missing important deadlines and opportunities, making unnecessary mistakes, and even losing money. That’s when a Virtual Assistant becomes a crucial tool for regaining control of your business.
Here are some of the key signs it’s time to bite the bullet, and find a VA.
1. You Have Too Many Emails
Managing an overflowing inbox is a pretty common task for a business leader. Even the average employee gets around 121 emails a day, so it’s easy to see how the inbox of a business leader can quickly become unmanageable. While emails are important, they’re also a distraction from the valuable work you could be doing to grow your business.
A VA can act as your inbox gatekeeper, ensuring you only need to read the most important messages. This frees you up to focus your time where it matters most.
2. You’re Constantly Managing Admin Tasks
All business owners need to get stuck into the admin side of their operations from time to time. However, if you’re spending more than half of your day sending invoices, managing bills, dealing with contracts, and setting up meetings, you’re not using your time wisely.
Experienced virtual assistants can take charge of the admin tasks which often consume your to-do list, so you can start searching for opportunities to expand your company.
3. Your Business Needs Streamlining
Countless business owners spend a significant amount of their time responding to issues as they occur and “putting out fires” throughout the company. A lack of streamlined processes and procedures can mean your reactive processes end up outweighing your proactive initiatives.
Virtual Assistants aren’t just administrative gurus, they can also help business leaders to develop new systems for running their organisation as efficiently as possible. Your VA can help with sorting out your filing systems, building business policies, and creating step-by-step guides for employees.
4. You’re Falling Behind on Invoices
Invoices might not be the most exciting part of running a business, but they’re something you need to keep on top of if you want to ensure you maintain a consistent cashflow. Forgetting to send invoices and follow up with people who haven’t paid can have a detrimental impact on your bottom line.
Your Virtual Assistant can help to ensure invoices are delivered to customers at the right time, along with any reminders that might be necessary to ensure rapid payment.
5. You’re Disorganised
Even if you consider yourself to be a relatively organised person, a lot of things can happen when you’re running your own business to throw you off track. With so many plates to juggle at once, it’s easy to make double bookings for meetings, miss deadlines, and overlook essential activities.
If you’re constantly relying on post-it notes to keep you on track, and finding things generally fall through the cracks, a VA could help. Your virtual assistant will can manage your schedule for you, ensuring you know exactly what to do each day, and when.
6. You Need a Specific Skill
No business owner is great at everything. You might be excellent at dealing with cashflow and preserving productivity among your team members, but you need help making sure you maintain constant correspondence with your clients. Virtual Assistants can bring a range of diverse skills to your company, from conducting research to bookkeeping, and accounting.
Finding the right VA will allow you to access the talent you need to overcome the roadblocks you’re already facing in specific areas of your business. This means you have more time to focus on what you do best.
7. You’re Working All Hours
Work-life balance doesn’t have to be a pipedream for business leaders. While you might be comfortable working more hours than the standard employee, it’s still important to devote some of your schedule to your life outside of work. If you’re working around the clock, you’re opening yourself up to an increased risk of mistakes, and burnout.
Virtual Assistants can give you back more of your crucial time, by handling a range of tasks on your behalf. With a VA to streamline your to-do list, you’ll be able to make the most of the time you spend at work, and the opportunities that emerge in your personal life.
8. Your Customer Service isn’t Perfect
These days, companies need to deliver phenomenal customer experiences at every stage of the buyer journey if they want any hope of competing in any industry. Unfortunately, as your business grows, you can struggle to manage the tasks associated with running your company and building meaningful relationships with clients at the same time.
A Virtual Assistant can respond to customer queries on your behalf, leveraging the latest software and tools to help you keep track of every connection. This boosts your chances of accessing better brand loyalty, retention, and growth.
9. You’re Missing Opportunities
Human beings are only capable of so much. No matter how passionate you are about your business, trying to tackle all the tasks of running your company yourself can end up losing you a lot of time, and money. Ultimately, you’ll end up missing out on time-sensitive opportunities because you simply don’t have the capacity to respond promptly.
Because a VA handles more of the tasks which don’t require your expertise on your behalf, they can ensure you commit more of your schedule to taking advantage of opportunities when they arise.
10. You Want to Scale
All business leaders dream of massive growth. However, actually scaling your company is often easier said than done. It requires the implementation of new processes and strategies, a proven customer service plan, and a phenomenal level of organisation.
A Virtual Assistant can help to ensure you have the foundations you need in place to enable rapid scaling and transformation. Whether it’s helping you to connect with new clients, or assisting you with researching a new target market, your VA can get you on the path to growth.
Do You Need a Virtual Assistant?
If you’re encountering any of the 10 issues mentioned above, this is a clear sign that it’s time to look for a virtual assistant who can help you to manage and optimise your business. Your VA will ensure you have more time to focus on achieving your goals, while helping you to avoid the mistakes which could hold your business back.
If you would like to chat through it, email me at [email protected].