If your business is going to be competitive in every respect, this means ensuring that you have the time to work on the most important tasks at any given time.
But this doesn’t always line up with reality. Minor problems that can’t be ignored will pop up from time to time. Small must-do errands will appear from nowhere when you have more significant things requiring your attention.
Don’t despair! There is an army of affordable, capable people on hand to tackle these tasks for you, and because most of them work online, they are far more affordable than hiring a new full-time employee.
These are virtual personal assistants, hired agents who act on your directions for a fee. Depending on how you “recruit” these people, they might charge by the hour or by the task, but the simple fact remains that they can function as extra sets of hands and brains on your behalf while you do the bigger, more important work.
For example, a virtual assistant might make travel arrangements and dinner reservations for a week-long trip while you put together a presentation that needs lots of attention. Generally speaking, these people should handle your less-desirable grunt work, not the important stuff that’s closer to your business function. That type of high-level work is better left to a full-time assistant that you can grow with and get to know. As these are virtual assistants, you’ll likely only ever interact with them via email.
Some tasks you can easily hand off to a virtual assistant:
- transcription
- data entry
- travel arrangements
- calendar management
- research
- making purchases
- and so on!
And when you need things done in the physical world, you still have options. Companies like TaskRabbit are all too glad to send someone out into the world on your behalf to do your shopping, pick up your laundry, make deliveries, and other tasks of that ilk.
Simply put, the nature of work and employment is changing. There’s a good chance that a virtual assistant is not right for you. These people certainly work for you, yes, but they might also be working for a number of other people at the same time. The con here is that you likely won’t build up much trust or familiarity with them. But the major pro is that they can take on some of your less-desirable tasks while you do the big work that matters.
Where to start looking:
