What Can a VA Do for Your Business?

I know that many people wonder what a virtual assistant could do for their business. It’s a question I’ve asked myself a million times as I mulled over starting this business. And after interviewing several entrepreneurs, the answer I came up with is so. many. things. For instance:

• Support with social media - A VA can schedule posts, respond to comments, source images, etc.

• Support with blogging - Even if you still want to write all the content, VAs can format, edit, and schedule your posts, create Pinterest-friendly images, and moderate comments.

• Email management - They don’t call them frequently asked questions for nothing! Your VA can easily respond to those for you (and create canned responses to make it less time-consuming for you to respond). She can also organize your inbox so you can easily find high priority items, ensuring important emails are addressed in a timely manner

• Research - We all do lots of research, whether it’s on marketing, a new platform you’re thinking of trying out, or the company you’re making a pitch to next week. A good VA can sieve through the masses of information online and present you with a consolidated report of just the info you need, without you having to spend hours falling down the rabbit hole.

• Supply ordering - If you provide a product, you need supplies. And if providing sustainably-sourced products is important to you, finding and ordering the supplies you need can take a serious amount of time. A VA could do all that legwork and only require a sign-off from you before getting products shipped to your door.

• Making travel arrangements - Some businesses require a lot of travel, which means you can spend hours every month booking flights, cars, and hotels. What if you could accomplish all of it with one quick email listing when, where and what the budget is?

• Support with podcasts and webinars - If you produce podcasts or webinars, your VA can write the show notes and type up the transcriptions. She can also troubleshoot and monitor the comments section for questions during any real-time events you do.

Once I decided that virtual assistance could definitely help business owners, the next question I asked myself was, “Do people actually need these services?” Starting a business of any sort requires intelligence and motivation, so couldn’t people just do tasks like this themselves? Of course! You are a totally capable person - that’s not at issue here. What is at issue is whether doing these tasks is the best use of your time. How much is it really costing you to do everything yourself?

I think about this all the time when it comes to random DIY projects (which I’m mildly obsessed with). Sure I could scour the thrift shops for the perfect funky dresser to refinish, then spend time going to the hardware store for everything I need, then actually do the refinishing work, which may end up being less expensive than the original dresser that I’m trying to imitate. But...if I factor in the cost of the time I spend doing all of that work, oftentimes it isn’t really any cheaper. This doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes still DIY it - but only when it’s something I enjoy doing. Because, the truth is, I’m not actually saving myself anything by doing it.

The same principle applies to business tasks. We are all capable of stumbling through something like Facebook marketing and coming up a decent campaign. However, at least for me, it would take forever and I would never get the results that an expert in Facebook marketing would get. And all the time I spend fiddling around with that is time that I can’t spend on client work or coming up with new offerings or, you know, sleeping and stuff.

I have a challenge for you.

This week, try keeping track of all the time you spend doing tasks like those above. Then take a look at your income statement and figure out what you’re making hourly. Include ALL the time you spend working - not just client time, but also those stolen minutes you spend checking your email in bed or responding to comments on social media while you stand in line at the grocery store. If you removed all the time spent on the tasks that don’t have to be done personally by you, how much of an impact would it have on your hourly rate? And don’t forget, all the time you free up could be used to take on more clients or produce more products/courses, increasing your sales and likely earning you even more than you would spend on a VA. Hiring a VA could even give you more of that most elusive entrepreneur perk, FREE TIME.

Hello!

Welcome to my little internet home! Come in, have a cup of coffee, and I'll tell you a little about myself.

I am a bit of a renaissance soul and have studied and worked in lots of different areas. I got my bachelors degree in International Affairs and French. While I was in school, I worked in a pizza joint, an Irish pub, and at a biotech firm that was doing R&D on a blood substitute for use in emergency situations. I started a graduate program in geography, with a focus on the post-socialist economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Then, halfway through my first year of graduate school, my little man came along and suddenly the life of a researcher traveling frequently to unstable portions of the world no longer seemed ideal.

I found myself in several jobs that left me feeling stymied. Either I was pigeon-holed into doing just a few tasks, or I felt that the work I was doing was not in line with my values. I worked for years in construction, which was interesting and full of new things for me to learn. BUT...as someone who values the environment and who has gotten on a path to try to consume less, this left me feeling conflicted. Did I really want to be working on building giant houses or new developments where previously there had been open spaces? Filling landfills with old things to make way for newer things? It left me feeling inauthentic, which made going to work every day into a struggle instead of a joy.

Eventually it became clear that, on my current trajectory, the next step was to go into sales. So. not. me. The idea of starting a business had been spinning around in my head for some time, and it seemed to be time to begin considering it more seriously...so here we are.

Best vacation ever.

Random facts about me:

• I have been a Harry Potter fan since I read the first book many years ago. I then read them to my son (I think it took us 4 years of bedtime readings to get through the whole series!), and it has since developed into a full-blown obsession. He loves the series as much as I do and we tend to fan each other’s mania. For his 11th birthday, I sent him his Hogwarts letter and the two of us took an epic trip to the Wizarding World in Orlando. We are currently daydreaming about a trip to the U.K. totally revolving around Harry Potter (did you hear they are opening a pseudo-Hogwarts in a British castle?!?). Pennies are being saved.

• I’m fueled by coffee and sunshine.

• My son will be turning into a teenager this year and I am scared to death.

• It's rare for me not to be reading several books at any given time. They fall into a few broad categories: 1) Actual physical books, usually related to work or self-improvement, or because I just couldn’t resist them when I was last at the library, 2) audiobooks that I listen to on my commute or while doing chores, and 3) books on my kindle that I read before bed or when I wake up in the middle of the night (since I don’t have to turn the lights on, you know?). 

• I am weirdly good at painting. Not, like, art...but walls and stuff. I almost never need to tape because I have such a steady hand.

• If you bring me peanut butter M&Ms, I will love you forever.

• Road trips are my favorite, even (especially?) when I’m alone. I like to switch off between listening to books or podcasts, and blasting music with the windows all the way down.

• Speaking of music, my road trip playlists have no discernible logic: lots of 80's rock, country, motown, pop, alternative, what my besty calls "angry chick rock," Tupac, and Taylor Swift. Don't judge.

• I've lived in or near the mountains my entire life and don't feel like myself without trees nearby (which is where the idea of naming my business came from).

Still reading? Want to know even more?