Social media statistics from 2019 indicate that there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, and this number is only growing. Overall, this represents 45% of the entire world’s population!  So, saying that the world is increasingly “socially connected” is a gross understatement.

A key factor in the high usage of social media is that the platforms are increasingly “mobile-friendly”. Consequently, with social media channels available as mobile apps, this allows users connectivity wherever and whenever desired.  For example, Facebook is the most widely used social media platform (with 68% of all US adults as users) and is the fourth most popular Internet site in the world.

Simply put, social media is everywhere, it’s unavoidable, it’s powerful, and it’s here to stay. Therefore your business needs to invest in social media marketing and in no way can it be ignored.

1 – Social Media Virtual Assistant Services Strategy Planning

As a starting point, social media virtual assistant services help your business SM strategy planning efforts.   While a business may already have a social media presence, hiring a social media VA is the opportunity to reevaluate. Specifically, to refocus and re-prioritize where you want the business to move forward. Before investing additional time and resources in social media activities, it is time to review the “SM plan.”

Your business social media strategy defines your brand’s goals and helps focus your SM virtual assistant’s priorities and activities.  Following are social media marketing goals that you should consider.

Goals | Research | Metrics

Set Goals That Are Realistic And Make Sense For Your Business – Basically, what does your business want from its social media investment? For example, increase brand awareness, increase website traffic, lead generation and sales, grow your brand audience, etc.

Research Your Business Target Audience – Although your business likely has a good profile of its target audience, your social media virtual assistant can identify which SM channel and type of message will be most effective.

Determine Your Business Social Media Performance Metrics – Your business social media metrics should be based on data results. Simply put, this can be Reach (number of unique visitors that saw your post), Clicks (the number of clicks to your content), Engagement (number of interactions versus content impressions), and Hashtag Performance (which are most related to your brand).

Competition | Content | Timing

Evaluate Your Business Competition – Your social media virtual assistant can review your competitor’s social media channels to determine what is working for them. Then conclusions can be drawn that will influence your business SM campaigns.

Create Content Specific To Your Brand Audience – Social media is all about content. Consequently, your social media virtual assistant will be challenged to create content consistent with your brand themes and message.

Timing In Social Media And Life is EVERYTHING – Posting content should be based on the best times to engage your audience. So, each social media channel has its behavior that your social media VA will need to take into consideration.

Review | Communication

Review, Adjust And Improve – Your business needs to review and adapt your social media campaigns based on what is and what is not working. So, your social media virtual assistant can use analytic data to offer recommended adjustments as your plan develops.

Communication Is A Two Party Exchange – Your social media activities is a sizeable business investment. So, your social media virtual assistant can help the communications with all vested interested parties, for example your boss.

2 – Social Media Channel Preparation

Next as part of social media virtual assistant services is preparing your business channels according to your social media marketing plan. Basically the time for talking is at end and now is the time to begin implementing the “Plan”. Following are basic steps prior to the formal launch of your business social media channels:

Set-Up

Set Up Of Social Media Channels – Whether it is just a new SM channel or several in parallel, the setup process takes time and attention to detail. While each channel has different specifications, all share similar concepts of precise text usage and high-quality graphic content. Consequently, your Social Media Virtual Assistant provides your business a clean, professional-looking channel with a “front face” that grabs people’s attention, creates a good first impression and a reason for a second look.

Channels

Research Of Social Media Channel Content – Your Social Media Virtual Assistant will need to research the right content to connect to the right audience. Then this converts “followers” into loyal customers, and potentially a sizeable following creates a boost to your brand. Of course, the “right audience” should correspond to your target audience, otherwise, you are not aligned with your SM marketing plan.

Calendar

Social Media Content Calendar – A Social Media Virtual Assistant is responsible for organizing and managing a social media content calendar. Basically, this is to make content easier for companies to plan and schedule across the accounts they manage. Furthermore, there will be a different calendar for each different social media channel since each is a little bit different in its needs. Finally, the goal is to consistently post great content, consistent with your business themes, while allowing flexibility for adjustments.

3 – Social Media Virtual Assistant Services Publication

Now comes one of the fun parts of social media virtual assistant services which is developing the content. Overall, content is the currency of the social web, since it eventually pays the bills. Correspondingly your Social Media Virtual Assistant is the key component in creating content to feed the insatiable appetite of your business social media channels. So, let’s discuss the content development process in more detail.

IDEA | VISUAL | CURATION

Creating Content Always Starts With An Idea – The idea should be relevant to your target audience, should interest them, should educate them, and should engage them with your brand. Then it is finding the materials, selecting the type of package, and delivering them in both written and visual form like a birthday cake with flaming candles. Lastly, your desire is a positive emotional response that leads the reader to take the desired action.

Social Media Is A Visual Medium – The majority of interactions using social media channels are via mobile telephones. Hence the importance of eye-catching visual images to complement copy and stimulate a click to your business website or blog post. So, your Social Media Virtual Assistant should have a keen eye for the visual, basic skills for editing (each SM channel has different needs), experience with graphic design templates, and where to source stock photographs for the economy.

Content Curation Passes The Good Stuff To Your Business Network – Your Social Media Virtual Assistant scoured the Internet for sources of relevant information, organizes it, and shares the best to your social media channels. Basically, your SM virtual assistant does the searching, sifting, selecting, and organizing of “good stuff” that your business network of connections and followers will appreciate. Consequently, the benefit to your business network is that you become the “go-to expert”, establishing more credibility and worth for your brand.

COPY | SCHEDULING

Copy For Social Media Posts – Effective copy for a social media post has to cut through the noise, stimulate conversation, and create an emotional connection behind the post. Accordingly, your Social Media Virtual Assistant has the skills and understanding of the differences between the different social media channels. Also, it helps to have a keen sense of human behavior and humor.

Scheduling of Social Media Posts – Your Social Media Virtual Assistant has a publishing calendar to follow for posting content. However, with multiple channels and volume, it increasingly becomes very time-consuming. So, there are various automation tools (e.g., Hootsuite) that help automate this process across multiple channels that should be considered to better maximize the productivity of your social media VA.

DISCLOSURE: Nexus Teleservices is a Nearshore Virtual Assistant Services business provider.

4 – Website Blog Publication

Social media virtual assistant services may also involve publication activities for your business website blog. Since a blog is very different from a social media channel, it is important understand their differences. Also, a business needs to evaluate its priorities and available resources required to support blogging as well. So here are some factors to consider about blog publication in more detail.

Your Exclusive Domain – Your business blog provides content that does not share space with others. Rather, once a reader visits your blog, it is one post followed by a series of other blog posts. Since you exclusively control the content, your business doesn’t compete for the reader’s attention, allowing you to develop a stronger community. Conversely, because the timeline keeps on updating, social media is constantly filled with competition.

Blog Content Differences – As mentioned, your business blog is dedicated to a more specific audience than social media. As such your blog audience has a higher expectation for article style, detail, and depth. Additionally, the reader will be investing more time reading your business blog article versus a brief social media post. Basically, it is a difference between quality (blog) versus quantity (social media).

The skillset of Virtual Assistant – While your Social Media Virtual Assistant will be very familiar with your brand, products, and services, this may/may not extend to creating original, detailed blog content. Often this responsibility falls to the business marketing “expert”, which creates the preliminary materials, references, and notes.  Later the social media VA repackages the business blog post in style and format  Additionally, the research (e.g., keywords, SEO), the software tools, and maintenance support are different from social media. Finally, not all social media VA’s have the experience.

5 – Social Media Virtual Assistant Services Performance Evaluation

At the end of the day you have to answer a fundamental question: Is your social media business investment achieving the goals and results desired? Accordingly, social media virtual assistant services provide the business management the data and analysis to reach an answer. So, let’s review the factors that will help you make an informed decision in greater detail.

Data | Analytics

It All Starts With The Data – Social data is generated anytime anyone post information on social media. For example, this data is created by consumers such as comments, likes, shares, retweets, etc.  These reflect the content published by social media publishers like your business.

Social Media Analytics – This is all about the measurement of social media data. For example, this would include the performance of your social media channels, your marketing campaigns, your competitors, and other brands. Unquestionably social media analytics provides access to the world’s largest focus group. This is where consumers discuss and critique products, services, brands, quality of customer service, your competitors, and of course, politics.

Why | Reporting

Why Use Social Media Analytics – It is all about understanding your audience. Specifically, what social media channels does your audience use? When should you post? What type of content is most effective? What does your competition do well? So, you can replicate their successes and avoid their failures. Obviously, the result is that you can make more informed business decisions.

Social Media Analytics Reporting – Time to present raw data into a usable form.  Basically it is converted into a visual form with graphs and pie charts. So, this is where your Social Media Virtual Assistant helps management evaluate their investment and make adjustments. Each social media channel provides their own unique data analytics. The social media VA “maps” the different data sets to the business goals (new customers, sales, website visits, etc.) Finally, It is important to not confuse data with information, where the latter allows a business to make informed decisions.

Before starting we need to review some basics about virtual assistant services.  Firstly, a virtual assistant (VA) is often an independent contractor who provides services to one or more business clients from a remote location.  Secondly, real estate virtual assistant services are remarkably broad but can be categorized as administrative, creative and technical in nature and offer a variety of potential benefits for a business owner.

For a real estate professional your most important asset is time. Since there are so many different things to do daily, leveraging real estate virtual assistant services is a must to consider.

1 – Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services – Administration

One of the primary goals of using real estate virtual assistant services is to organize your time and that of other personnel in the real estate agency. As a result, this allows greater focus on the more important functions that will contribute to the success of the business.

Follow are various real estate VA administrative activities:

2 – Real Estate VA Services – Operations

A real estate agency requires a multitude of different functions to operate successfully. Therefore, employing real estate virtual assistant services can significantly help you successfully manage these operational business challenges.

Operational functions can generally be categorized into data entry and transaction management. Generally, a busy real estate agency is buried in both, with the administration and sales personnel always behind, never catching up.

Data And Lists

Keeping the real estate business databases (sales and property management) up to date is essential. Consequently, the mundane activity of data entry of incoming information and updating systems is a standard component of real estate virtual assistant services.

In like manner, each document, offer, evaluation, permit, applications, listing, inquiry, etc. is a distinct transaction that needs to be managed, tracked, and entered into the real estate business systems. So, that’s a lot of data and a lot of lists.

Listed below are various real estate VA operational functions:

3 – Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services – Marketing

A real estate business and its personnel are ALWAYS involved in marketing activities. In this case, marketing refers to activities the business undertakes to promote the buying or selling of real estate products and related services.

Real estate marketing involves all the activities a company undertakes to draw in customers and maintain relationships with them. Also, this includes networking with potential or past clients to seek new business. As a result, real estate virtual assistant services particularly lend themselves to helping manage the scope of activities and time required to implement.

Here are various real estate VA marketing activities;

4 – Real Estate VA Services – Sales

The real estate business is all about sales, sales and more sales. So, how does real estate virtual assistant services fit in? Specifically, it is related to lead generation, lead follow up and supporting you and the agency sales agents close qualified prospects.

Lead generation for a real estate business comes in a variety of forms, takes time, and requires lots of effort. For example, real estate leads can result from cold calling, website inquiry form, inbound telephone calls, social media, events, and more.

However, these leads lose their value if they are not converted to sales. So, the real estate Virtual Assistant helps in the lead follow up process to move them through the sales funnel, to get closed by the agency sales agents

Following are various real estate VA sales functions:

DISCLOSURE: Nexus Teleservices is a Nearshore Virtual Assistant Services business provider.

5 – Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services – Market Research

You have heard the phrase before: “Location, location, location”. Another is “It’s a buyer’s market”. Unquestionably, understanding the local market is important to the success of a real estate business.

Whether you focus on residential, commercial, and/or property management, real estate virtual assistant services can help your understanding of local market trends by market research. Especially when your business focus is selling to potential property investors.

Real estate market analysis is a time consuming and detailed process that your sales agents need to have done but are not necessarily the best at doing so. Basically, real estate market analysis is the gathering of data for an investment property, analyzing it, to get a detailed overview of the property, its location, and its surroundings. So this is where the market research Virtual Assistant plays his/her role.

Listed below are a variety of real estate VA market research functions:

6 – Real Estate VA Services – Business Development

Business development is a catch all term for the ideas, initiatives and activities to make your real estate business better. Correspondingly, real estate virtual assistant services are ultimately focused in helping your business improve its productivity, profitability and growth.

A real estate VA contributes to business development across a variety of areas including sales, marketing, finance, project, and vendor management. Basically, you define the business development direction and goals, and your real estate Virtual Assistant acts as a doer to achieve them.

Following are various real estate VA business development functions:

1 – Define Business VA Outsourcing Functions

The basic credo of how to hire a virtual assistant is to start at the beginning and defining the WHAT. Basically what are the business goals, what are the means, what are the expectations, what are the concerns, what are the risks, what is the time-frame, etc. Because answering this most basic question will help you decide whether using virtual assistant outsourcing services is aligned and fits WHAT your business needs.

If virtual assistant outsourcing fits the WHAT, you then need to define the scope and functional role of the VA. Firstly it starts with a clear functional description of the role, relationship with internal staff, requirements, skills and work experience, etc. Secondly, define the specific VA role responsibilities and means of evaluating. Thirdly, define stages of VA role transition based on accumulated experience, short and long-term. Fourthly, this serves to provide transparency in your communication with a VA, setting the proper expectations in the future.

Let’s consider a simple business example.

WHAT

FUNCTIONAL ROLE (Short-Term)

FUNCTIONAL ROLE (Long-Term)

EXPECTATIONS

2 – Determine Management VA Relationship

A factor related to how you hire a virtual assistant is determining WHO is responsible for the success in the VA business relationship. Generally, the WHO is the direct manager tasked with supervising the virtual assistant.

In the case of a small business, the direct manager is often the owner or senior manager. However, this may not be the case in larger companies. Consequently, the dynamics in the VA business relationship will be different due to the distance between WHO made the decision, and WHO has the responsibility for its success.

Why does this matter? Because, whether a local direct employee or remote virtual assistant, management responsibility requires time, dedication, communication, and a healthy dose of patience. So, the direct manager needs to weigh the resources invested in the VA relationship versus the expected business returns to be gained, short and long-term.

Some factors the Virtual Assistant direct manager should consider.

Control | Micromanaging | Hands-Off

Loss Of Control – Outsourcing of responsibilities to a Virtual Assistant implies a loss of control because the business process is now performed remotely and personal supervision is more difficult.  Correspondingly, is the direct manager experienced and prepared for this transition?

Micromanaging – Does the direct manager have a tendency to micromanage delegated responsibilities (particularly remotely performed)? In effect the direct manager becomes a bottleneck in the process, reducing productivity and potential benefits of the VA’s activities.

Hands-Off Management – Once the Virtual Assistant relationship is initially “set up”, does the direct manager have more of an absent, hands-off, let me know when you have issues, management style? In that case, the out of sight, out of mind limited communication and feedback hinders the development of the VA to better serve the business needs

Trust | ROI

Develop Trust – How does the direct manager develop trust with a remote, sight-unseen Virtual Assistant? While trust is obviously a two-way street, the direct manager needs to be the initiator to foster its development.  Hence achieving better communication, teamwork, and performance of the VA toward the business goals.

Cost Versus Investment – A Virtual Assistant has a defined role, with responsibilities and tasks to be performed. Equally, the VA is a PERSON with a mind who can think for himself or herself. Furthermore, if nurtured through constructive feedback and positive encouragement, the VA can evolve and grow to be a significant contributor to the success of the company. Consequently, does the direct manager view the VA as a business COST (a numbers person) or a business INVESTMENT (a people person)?

3 – How To Hire A Virtual Assistant –  Selection

As you would expect it all starts with how you hire a virtual assistant. Basically, you have to decide whether you Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or whether you use a third-party Virtual Assistant Services provider. In either case, like any business decision, there are pros and cons.

Let’s discuss each below in greater detail.

Do-It-Yourself Hire A Virtual Assistant Selection

DIY PROS

DIY CONS

Third-Party Provider Hire A Virtual Assistant Selection

THIRD-PARTY PROS

THIRD-PARTY CONS

4 – How To Hire A Virtual Assistant – Location Selection

The selection of the Virtual Assistant inherently includes the selection of the physical LOCATION of the VA. While the Internet, broad array of technologies, and online tools provide a high degree of transparency of location, there are differences in service delivery that should be noted. In brief the VA location may be inshore (in country), nearshore (close to country) and offshore (long distant from country).

Let’s discuss the different location options in greater detail.

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant – Inshore Location

The first selection option is an inshore (in-country) Virtual Assistant location that is straightforward for a business. Being that there are no issues related to language, cultural affinity, and time zone difference.  However, the business is not likely to gain VA labor cost savings as the following alternatives.

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant – Nearshore Location

Moving further away, the second selection option is a nearshore (close to country) Virtual Assistant location. For example, locations such as Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Because of potential issues related to language and degree of difference in cultural affinity, a business will require further investigation and considerations.

As an example, if the VA function requires high-level verbal contact with a company’s clients, cultural affinity is important.  While time zone differences are a neutral factor in service delivery.

Conversely, if the VA function is off-line social media, the location choice may be perfect. In that case, the business does gain VA labor cost savings.

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant – Offshore Location

The third selection option is an offshore (far from the country) Virtual Assistant location. For example, India, the Philippians, and Eastern Europe. Similarly to the above, with greater distance from the business location, there are potential issues related to language, differences in cultural affinity, and time zone differences.

Correspondingly a business will require its investigation and due diligence. Finally, an offshore location offers VA labor costs savings similar to a nearshore location.

Finally, there are other factors to be taken into consideration including political stability, environmental risks, availability of labor force, etc.

DISCLOSURE: Nexus Teleservices is a Nearshore Virtual Assistant Services business provider.

5 – Short-Term Virtual Assistant Transition Guide

How to hire a Virtual Assistant really takes solid form during the the first six months of the business relationship. Basically, this transition period is when the direct manager and the VA experience, learn and evolve in the cold, real world of business. All things considered, the business relationship will either reach its potential rewards or alternatively crash and burn with frustration and disappointment by both parties.

As has been noted, the direct manager is chartered with the success of the VA business relationship. So, as a former president once succinctly stated:  “the buck stops here”.

The following transition guide offers you recommendations on how to reach the potential rewards of your VA relationship.

DEVELOP A SIX MONTH PLAN

As the direct manager, you probably have had several years to learn your business and what the Virtual Assistant needs to accomplish. So, develop a written plan (1, 2, 3, and 6 months) that phases in performance expectations so that both of you can succeed. Basically, what is critical for the VA to accomplish in 30 days that will then serve as a foundation to build upon moving forward?

CREATE A VA SYSTEM MANUAL

All Virtual Assistant repetitive processes need to be documented for future reference. Basically, you can do the draft or provide verbal guidelines that the VA can transcribe and execute in the process. For example, document all provider credential information, appointment setting guidelines, procedures to upload files and correspondence, etc. Alternatively, you can use online videos to coordinate training with the VA.

What are the benefits of creating a VA system manual? Chiefly it serves as an evolving information library for any future Virtual Assistant, facilitating easy transition and avoiding reinventing the wheel. Also, this allows you and the business functions to be more productive since this leverages the VA’s talents and creativity, enabling the VA to succeed.

As the direct manager, you should define the tools to be used in developing the VA system manual. For example, you might want to consider Evernote and Trello.

STANDARDIZE ON THE VA TOOLS

As has been noted, using the right tools can improve the process of communicating and training a new Virtual Assistant. Accordingly, the direct manager should standardize the toolset. Additionally, these tools should also encompass the broadest scope of business personnel that might communicate with the VA.

Examples include Dropbox or Evernote for easy access to files and information, Jing or Screenr to create online training video tutorials, and Trello or Asana for managing and staying up to date with tasks and tracking workgroup progress. Here is an extended list of tools by category that a Virtual Assistant can use to improve communications and productivity.

DELEGATE REPETITIVE TASKS

You need to honestly assess what should be delegated to the Virtual Assistant. As has been noted, most business tasks that are repetitive and routine in nature should be assigned to the VA. Consequently, this frees up more of your time to focus on more urgent and important business tasks.

Remember that each delegated activity should be documented by the VA in the system manual. In a word, when in doubt, prioritize and delegate to the Virtual Assistant.

COMMUNICATE AND ENCOURAGE QUESTIONS

Clear and consistent communications can resolve many issues in business as well as one’s personal life. Consequently, for the direct manager, the challenge lies in determining the proper balance of frequency, honesty, constructive feedback, transparency, and directed questions to the VA.

Additionally, you need to encourage the Virtual Assistant to proactively ask questions of you, without fear of being judged stupid or incapable of meeting expectations. For these reasons, this will save time for everyone long term and minimize the tasks that need to be redone.

BE KIND | BE PATIENT | USE THE TELEPHONE

Virtual Assistants are people. Accordingly, treat the VA with respect and be gracious in their contributions to inspire improvement, loyalty, and long-term growth. Really, this is basic Management 101, just from a remote distance.

There is no substitute for the human voice. Before there were email and chat, there was the sound of the telephone ringing signaling something important in the business day. So, use it when a new task is to be assigned to the VA, provide a five-minute overview, and allow for questions. Later follow up with the VA in written form with the details.

6 – How To Hire A Virtual Assistant – Considerations

This business owner guide on how to hire a virtual assistant provides an overview for managing a successful VA business relationship.  However, there are a variety of Virtual Assistant services considerations that don’t conveniently lend themselves to simple pat answers.

Let’s review each in greater detail.

How Much Time And Resources Should The Manager Dedicate To Managing The Virtual Assistant?

The simple answer is no more than is necessary to allow the Virtual Assistant to achieve the defined business goals.  Certainly, this response can be viewed as short-sighted, since no provision is made for investing more to develop a stronger VA that can evolve and contribute toward higher business goals.

However, personnel development is rarely the justification to use VA outsourcing services since it is invariably related to either labor cost savings or filling a skill need vacancy.

What Is Level Of Confidentiality And Risk To Be Assumed In A VA Relationship?

Less is better, from a business risk perspective.  Whether it is credit card information, client lists, key vendor contacts, future business plans, new products, marketing and service development, intellectual property, etc. it is preferable to keep it in a limited number of hands as close to the home office as possible.

How Close Should A VA Have In The Client Relationship?

This is a challenge since there is a legitimate need for the VA to foster a good business relationship with an existing client.  However, too close a relationship places the company at risk when the client does not distinguish the company from the VA relationship.

In this instance, it is probably preferable to rotate VA client responsibilities to re-enforce the business relationship with the client.

What If The VA Relationship Blows Up?

Some marriages end in horrible divorces with children scattered as casualties.  Unfortunately the same can apply to a Virtual Assistant business relationship.

In this instance, move the business relationship back inside as quickly as possible, pick up the pieces in the relationship and look forward to a new day to start over.

1 – Save Time

One of the key virtual assistant services benefits is that it helps save time for a business.  Time is a business asset that is always limited, cannot be purchased, is often wasted, and critical to the success of any business.  In simple terms, proper time management is crucial to business success, whether it is the owner, a manager, or a member of the workgroup.

Successful time management for your business is all about self-control and the ability to assess and justify how your time is being invested.   Accordingly, what is critically important to the business should be prioritized, and the remainder should be delegated to a third-party like a virtual assistant.

Administrative Tasks

Here are a variety of administrative tasks that need to be performed, are not critical, and likely should be delegated.  Consequently, additional time can be then be dedicated to more critical matters that will affect the success of the business.

Successful business owners can take advantage of one of the key virtual assistant services benefits by maximizing their productive use of time.  Specifically, they prioritize and focus on what is important to the success of the business and delegate the rest.

2 – Reduce Labor Costs

Among the virtual assistant services benefits is the potential reduction in labor costs for a business.  In effect, this should be a fundamental expectation for the business owner since these services are small business outsourcing.

A business owner almost needs to consider virtual assistant services since governmental regulations incentivize business owners to NOT hire permanent employees.  Rather, this is a compelling business benefit considering the permanent employee costs, compliance risk, salary/benefits inflation, plus related costs of office space, support infrastructure, and training.

Hiring Options

Consequently a business owner has a range of hiring options to consider based on desired levels of cost, service quality, scaling and management supervision:

All of the above options will eliminate the associated costs of office space and support infrastructure.

The first two domestic outsourcing options will not add costs related to language, culture and time-zone communications.  Also, the latter two international outsourcing options will normally have significant lower costs per service hour due to labor arbitrage savings.  Finally, the quality of service delivery should be independent of service location if the business owner has done proper due diligence in the selection process.

3 – Simplify Scaling

When your small business enters the second phase of its business cycle, the growth phase, it is time to scale up. That is, you need to make decisions to grow and expand your business in a profitable way. Accordingly, the variety of virtual assistant services benefits allows you to manage this growth phase.

Scaling Challenges

What types of growth challenges will your business likely as you scale up? Following are challenges most businesses experience:

Scaling Solutions

Using virtual assistant services allows you to deal with the above business challenges in a variety of ways. For example these include:

As the owner, you need to enable and support the growth of the business.  This requires planning, funding, systems, staffing, processes and technology.  Virtual assistant services provides you options to help scale up your business for these growth challenges.

4 – Increase Flexibility

For a business to be successful in this changing world, it must be flexible. Specifically the business environment constantly experiences rapid changes in technology, economy, client behavior and governmental legislation. Consequently, only businesses that are flexible so that they can adapt to these changes will succeed. Conversely, more rigid businesses will fail to adapt and not survive.

To improve the flexibility of your business, you should be willing to try new methods and processes, regardless of the old processes seem to work just fine. Rather, you need to instill a culture where your personnel looks for ways to find something that works more efficiently than what you already have.

Flexibility Options

Virtual assistant services benefit your business by allowing a range of options to increase flexibility and adaptability to the changing world. Consequently, here are some ideas for you to consider as you evaluate your business flexibility:

A business that is flexible responds to change by evolving. Consequently the most flexible businesses don’t not fight change but rather accept and adapt as a normal aspect of the changing business environment. As a result, you business takes advantage the opportunities whenever change comes along.

5 – Increase Efficiency

Among the virtual assistant services benefits is that it helps increase the efficiency of a business. Efficiency measures how well a business converts inputs like capital, labor and materials into outputs like revenue, products and services.

There are three main areas of business efficiency that greatly benefit from using virtual assistant services: financial, labor, and operations. Let’s discuss each in greater detail.

Financial Efficiency

Your business’s financial efficiency is measured as expenses as a percentage of revenue. Consequently, virtual assistant services save time, reduce labor costs, simplify business scaling, and increase flexibility. So, this reduces a business’ expenses and increases its revenue.

Labor Efficiency

The labor efficiency of a business is the measure of employee output in an hour of work. As shown above, redistributing labor activities based on priority, value, skillset, and cost improves the total level of workgroup output. Additionally, adapting technology improvements to a distributed workgroup allows for increased productivity and flexibility.

Operations Efficiency

Operations efficiency is related to the core business processes such as manufacturing and services delivery, since this is where the majority of business costs occur. Because virtual assistant services save time, lower labor costs, and strengthen adaptability to changes in processes and procedures. As a result, the whole area of operations is streamlined over time.

1 – Administrative Virtual Assistant Services

An administrative virtual assistant provides general business administrative services from a remote location (next town, state, nearshore, offshore) to business owners in the Americas. Basically, the administrative virtual assistant is a generalist and does a little bit of everything in the office. Consequently, this helps lighten your activity load and run your business more efficiently.

Here are a variety of tasks an administrative virtual assistant can perform for your business.  Obviously, as the business owner, you will need to define the priorities of what will provide the greatest reward (bang for the buck) for your business:

ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS

Owner Perspective

A business owner understands that general administrative tasks take a lot of time from his/her schedule. Hence, reducing these tasks allows you to focus your limited time on your primary work activities. As a result, you can increase your business growth and revenue.

The smaller the business, the more likely this should initially be your top virtual assistant services to consider. Because of your limited ability to delegate, your productivity, skills, and focus are of critical importance to the success of your business development and growth.

Successful business owners save their limited time by outsourcing less important tasks to administrative virtual assistants. Obviously it is just a smart business decision.

2 – Research Virtual Assistant Services

A research virtual assistant also provides investigative online services from a remote location to business owners in the Americas. Basically, the research virtual assistant is a specialist, not a generalist.  He/she provides online information investigation, mining and analysis services to supplement your business development. Consequently this helps improve the productivity of your management, and personnel with the responsibility of the growth and development of your company.

Here are a variety of tasks a research virtual assistant can perform for your business.  Accordingly the business owner will need to define the priorities of research that will provide the greatest reward for the business:

RESEARCH TASKS

Research Tasks Owner Perspective

A business owner understands that investigative tasks related to markets, competition, and business prospects takes a lot of time from his/her internal staff. Hence, reducing these investigative tasks allows them to focus on converting information to new business opportunities. As a result, you can increase your new sales conversions resulting in business growth and revenue.

Successful business owners can use their more experienced and expensive sales personnel for sales opportunities, by outsourcing investigative and data mining activities to research virtual assistants. However, the associated costs of a research virtual assistant need to be offset by the increased productivity and revenue generated by the business development staff of the company.

3 – Lead Generation Virtual Assistant Services

A lead generation virtual assistant provides sales prospecting services from a remote location to business owners in the Americas. Basically, the lead generation virtual assistant provides the “front-end” sales prospecting to supplement and streamline your business sales development. Consequently this helps improve the productivity of your internal sales personnel, allowing them to increase new client sales conversions.

Here are a variety of tasks a lead generation virtual assistant can perform for your business.  Of course, the business owner will need to define the priorities of lead generation that will provide the greatest reward for the business:

LEAD GENERATION TASKS

Lead Generation Owner Perspective

A business owner understands that sales prospecting tasks take a lot of time from his/her internal sales staff. Hence, reducing these sales prospecting tasks allows them to focus on pre-qualified sales opportunities. As a result, you can increase your sales conversions resulting in more sales and revenue.

Successful business owners focus their more experienced and expensive sales personnel (the “closers”) on pre-qualified sales opportunities to maximize their return on investment.  Consequently, by outsourcing preliminary sales prospecting to lead generation virtual assistants (the “fronters”), the business owner leverages that investment.

So, since business growth is all about new and existing sales, this should be a straightforward business decision.  Also,  this is a type of investment usually easy to measure and justify by evaluating the increase in sales conversions and additional revenue.

4 – Social Media Virtual Assistant Services

A social media virtual assistant provides administrative social media services from a remote location to business owners in the Americas. Basically, the social media virtual assistant provides the maintenance, monitoring and communication of the business’ online social media platforms.

Here are a variety of tasks a social media virtual assistant can perform for your business.  Of course the business owner will need to define the priorities of social media activities that will provide the greatest reward for the business:

SOCIAL MEDIA TASKS

Social Media Owner Perspective

Since social media platforms are notoriously time and labor-intensive, a business owner can delegate routine tasks and save significant time to focus on more important matters. Furthermore, social media platforms are difficult to quantify in terms of business return on investment. Finally, a social media virtual assistant helps a business track its “social media plan” which requires structure, commitment, and analytics to evaluate results.

A business owner understands that social media tasks take a lot of time from someone’s activities on his/her staff. Hence, outsourcing these tasks allows greater focus on the results of social media that can produce new sales opportunities. Consequently, you can justify your investment in social media resulting in business growth and revenue.

However, not all businesses view social media as a key marketing activity for their success, and is difficult to measure the return on investment for the resources invested.  Notwithstanding, if the business does view social media as important, then it should use outsourcing to a social media virtual assistant to allow their more expensive personnel to focus on more productive business opportunities. In summary, if it needs to be done, and done well, then definitely use a social media virtual assistant.