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Getting started with a Virtual Assistant ? Few tips on how to manage the work

The growth and development of a business or work lie in the capabilities of its team and their work. To create such a team, one must know how to work upon the things and make the best come out of your team. Each business needs some assistance in one or the other kind. In general most of the persons look for regular employees for their work. Some entrepreneurs look for help to manage a part of work and go for hiring a Virtual Assistant.
Small startups generally look for starting with Virtual Assistants. VAs can help businesses without hassles of paying them hefty perks on regular basis. This results in getting the work done by paying a reasonable amount for a specific time.
If you are assisted by a Virtual Assistant or planning to hire one, then the below pointers may help you to get the best outcome from them.

Working with a Virtual Assistant

Working with a Virtual Assistant has its own pros and cons. It can be difficult but you can break the ice by following some of the general guidelines.

The business owner may worry about the credibility and loyalty of the person hired as a Virtual Assistant. It may first put you into a state of the doubt but later the pros may outshine anything. Check the credibility and get to know about your Virtual Assistant’s past work is the best thing you can do here.

Building a bond of trust

This can be the first step in getting started with a Virtual Assistant. Have an informal talk with your Virtual Assistant. This can help in building trust on both sides.

You can ask about his experiences, work ethics, and beliefs. At the same time let him know about the quality of work you expect. Talking about some general topics in the start can help in building the required bond.

Give assurance and get assured

We all want to be assured of the people we hire or people we work for. Try to make your Virtual Assistant assured of your services and payment procedures. Also, proper guidance may not land him/her in a state of doubt.

The credibility of your work and services is important. So that he can proceed with the tasks assigned. An assured person generates better results. Ask for the assurance of things that matter for you. Meeting the deadlines of the work, quality of work etc. matters more than anything else and gets surety.

The guarantee is the key here. The Abroad Assistant team can help in providing assured services of a VA.

Do you need the help available at some specific time of the day? Let the VA know your expectation.

What type of work to give them?

Start with giving a small amount of work. Analyze their work; this will inform you about his strength and weaknesses. The small works will give them an idea upon the work culture you offer. On the other hand, this also prepares the VA to handle a big amount of work. A bond is developed here, which will bring out the best in your Virtual Assistant.

The Virtual Assistant work from a remote location, thus makes sure to give detailed instructions in writing. Guide them from time to time, and provide them suggestions on a regular basis. All these things will make them feel better as well as bring enhancements in their work.

Manage the deadlines and never mention the actual deadlines before him/her

Assume you want a work to be done in 2 days or you get work with the mentioned deadline of two days and you accept it. But, you already have a large amount of work to be done in these two days and think to hand over it to the Virtual Assistant. While doing this, never commit the mistake of telling him the actual deadline. If you tell the actual deadline, chances are you may get your work at the last moment and may not get the time to review it. This can lead to further problems.

Sometimes it really has a very short deadline. In that case, you should mention the deadline of a few hours before the actual deadline. This will get you a chance to review the work and it becomes possible to make the changes wherever necessary. In this way, you can expect timely completion of your project.

Offer a decent reward

In some cases, you may consider it as the offered amount. Offer them the amount they deserve for their work. This will let them perform excellently. Rewards can be added as a bonus to payments.  There can be other rewards as well.

Say thank you and appreciate the service of your Virtual Assistant if they have done good work. This makes the assistant more motivated and he/she puts in efforts to perform better.

One can also come up with a job offer and proceed with the satisfaction of both the parties with the offer. Getting rewards for their work will build their confidence in you as well as attract them to work more for you. In this manner, it can help you as well.

Most of the entrepreneurs are proceeding in the direction of hiring a Virtual Assistant for their short-term projects. A Mumbai based ‘Virtual Assistance team’ is up for the business solutions who have a huge database of VA. You can find one as per the choice of role to perform. Virtual help lets you enjoy your priorities and maintain the work-life balance. Check their services at https://www.abroadassistant.com//.

One can hope of having a wonderful experience working with a Virtual Assistant working on these points. These are the general pointers to consider and there can be a lot more. So, finally, it’s time to work upon the things and getting the best out of your work.

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The 4 hours workweek & Virtual Assistants

This articles will explain, you how you can use Tim Ferris 4-hour workweek principles’ with the help of Virtual Assistant & achieve Work Life Balance.

The urge to earn more amounts of profits has resulted in the growth of the competition level in business. Today business persons are implementing various methods to make their business grow. The virtual assistant is one such approach.

Some people tend to focus on work that hard that they don’t have time for self, they remain busy in making money. Some work day and night to make the best results come out. Yes, the best results are necessary but are of no use if compromised with life and living. As we all know well, there must be a balance between work and life, but this remains imaginary at times. We all should try to give time to some other things as well because they are the real treasures you are working for. Working for our own happiness and killing it at the same time by not being well-connected to life makes no sense.

New ways have emerged and are emerging to manage the work. Work smart without compromising with the quality and quantity of work as well as money. Recent trends show a great hike in the culture of Virtual Assistants. Hiring a Virtual Assistant has become a trend now.

Why is this necessary?

The best answer to this can be, of course, to work efficiently with enjoying life. Many entrepreneurs have witnessed the rise in their business to a such a level that it becomes difficult for them to handle all the tasks, even with the help of the team. Also, the job workers also face the same problem if given a lot amount of work. It becomes hard to find time for something else.

One more reason to look for a virtual assistant is that not everything is known to everyone. So, in such cases one can hire a virtual assistant to do the task he/ she is less aware of or doesn’t want to spend time on them.

How to make things work?

There may be several steps one can adopt if he/she owns the business. The ways to lessen the amount of work might be different and can be selected according to work. Even if someone is an employee, he/she can look for the ways to be more efficient in work.

The need is to analyze the type of work you want to be done, defining goals and then searching for someone who matches the requirements. Virtual Assistants are a good way to proceed. There are many companies in the required category that aim to provide the best Virtual Assistant services. Take a look at their Virtual Assistant services; may make your work easier.

Fruitful Results

Most of the times getting the tasks done with the help of a virtual assistant produce fruitful results. There are possibilities of some loss too because of an inefficient virtual assistant. Being cautious before assigning the works to avoid such issues.

 

People have talked about their experience with virtual assistants as one of the best ways to be balanced and do what you love. Also, there are virtual assistants who really serve as a great asset for the company by taking it to the highest levels. So, fruitful results can be assured while working with a virtual assistant. It is the kinds of relief from the load of a heavy amount of work. This indeed result in time saved for hobbies or personal commitments, priorities maintained, and benefits earned.

 

Tim Ferris 4-hour workweek principles-what does it mean?

The phrase means working 4 hours per day and make earnings. Most of the people might be wondering that what will be the benefit in working for just four hours. Having a virtual assistant can prove to be of great help here too. Long hours of work don’t matter instead it is the quality and timely completion of the work generates concerns. So, one can enjoy the four-hour principle if he plans to get work done with the help of a virtual assistant.

Thoughts of Tim Ferris will impress you

Tim Ferris, the author of 4 Hours Work Week, explains the whole concept and benefit of 4 hour work week in the book. It was one of the best-selling books related to virtual assistant services.

The book contains the real-life experiences of the author and is a must-read for business owners and entrepreneurs. The advantages of 4 hour work week are explained in an impressive way. After reading the narrative you too might want to enjoy the virtual assistant services

Ways to improve four hour work week

The best to start is to focus on priorities and cut what is unnecessary. After elimination, outsourcing is a good way to go. Outsource your extra work to the virtual assistants and let them handle the tasks for you. You can be now free from the less productive tasks like handling emails or answering calls. Now the focus on other works can earn good revenue while working even 4 hours.

Remember, less does not refer to laziness and working for fewer hours is not a bad thing. Instead, it holds some greatest benefits. Trying to do everything will not help as nobody is good at everything. Working with your strengths and outsourcing the tasks that include your weak spots to virtual assistants will help in completing all kinds of tasks.

The concept of $500 & $1500

If there are two persons, one earning $1500 per Week from a 9-5 job and the other one earning $500 from 4 hours work week and outsourcing then who is the one earning big? Everybody would say the first one. But, analyzing the things in depth might change the answers. Working 8 hours and earning $1500 weekly may seem good but there is less possibility of enjoying the work along with life. Whereas, working 4 hours weekly and getting all things sorted, getting time for near ones and for other works, is definitely a great deal. The outsourcing allows one to have time for him and can have the real feel of life along with this. So, never go on quantity and focus on quality.

Take a smart move and be a real businessman

A real businessman is one who is able to run the business efficiently and manage the work. He/she understands the importance of outsourcing and making a smart move.

The points explained above must have increased awareness about work with virtual assistants and developed an interest towards having one. So, make the move and enjoy doing your work while maintaining a balance in life.

Don’t hesitate to Contact Us for more details.

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Why should you Hire Virtual Assistant

Type
Advantage
Disadvantage
Employee / Contractor
Productivity, Expertise, Control, Growth HappinessHighest cost (Salary Training, Management, etc)
Freelancers
A Specialist (One Person) in the task you need, job-based (easy to let go)Higher cost ( in short term), Communication, deadline, management,( often remote worker)
Outsourcing
Expert company at the process you need (payroll, accounting, SEO, etc) Project-based easy to goYou’re on their terms, communication, high cost
Offshore
Low cost’ expert in whatever you need, full-time controlCommunication (languages), Quality, market perception

 

What can we outsource?

  • Pretty much anything online can be outsourced –Social media, Content Creation, which can be document & delegate as like machine based
  • Daily Repetitive & time-consuming task you can get it off from your plate
  • Understand your industry & what the important actions to acquire new & manage clients.
  • You need content for clients engaging content on FB or Instagram (fitness & fashion)
  • This works best for execution, not planning & strategy ( Doing vs. Thinking)

You have to think the way to grow business not spending most of the time doing all the things.

You should have your task clearly defined & built out; how?

  • A written guide in Google docs (SOP) complete with a screenshot, step by steps tutorial and logins
  • Screencast videos explaining the process in detail. We host all videos on a private YouTube channel.
  • A checklist in Google sheet, itemized by task so we can track progress and status of the of the job

Focus on the micro process ( Instagram Postings)

You have to take what’s in your head and build it into something so simple a 3rd grader

  • Remove all thinking and decision making from their jobs – that’s done on your end
  • Think about your process like you were building it for a machine – is it simple ? or is it scalable?
  • Give them images, filter, copy and has a tag (you can outsource this as well)

To Save money you need to spend time

  • You don’t need to be an expert but you need to communicate what you are hiring for figure it out. E.g. – you can hire SEO but you should know what they are doing
  • To do this right, you need to build out which you need, it takes work upfront but saves times in the long run E.g. – you need to post daily on Instagram or twitter about you products entire life which takes an hour from your daily schedule so it’s time to delegate other, in order to delegates you need to build a process it will take a long time but you will save some time.
  • The organization, communication, and process are the only way to make this work
  • Create a checklist for your Virtual Assistant, building a process to help you reduce time.

Case study – E-commerce store run on autopilot with the help of Virtual Assistant

Day to day management and marketing is handled by the single person in Abroad Assistant India including

  • Social media management
  • Research and building content
  • Produce page creation & optimization

Let take a look at the process we have built to allow this

The social + Content generation process

  1. Go to the top sneaker news sites and grabbing the top headline about sneakers release
    1. Create unique videos from images
  2. Save images to your desktops then upload them directly to the LO facebook page, creating a video slideshow from the images
    1. Schedule the post to go live on the FB page every 3 hours
    2. Copy the headline from the site and use it as the title of the post
  3. Automating Instagram accounts
    1. Download the video created by Facebook, upload it schedugram to push the LO Instagram account
    2. Schedule the post to go live twice a day.
  4. Creating a blog post framework based on content
    1. Title it “sneaker name” release date pricing info & where to buy
    2. Embedded the Facebook video into the blogs post
    3. Paste the link of where you found the headline into the body of the text for the writer
    4. Open the Photoshop templates and replace with the image of new sneakers – upload to WP as a blog image

Using multiple people for 1 task

  • We build a content calendar with the dates, types & posting times
  • The file gets passed to a graphics designer to create images and copywriter to write text for each post.
  • After these are completed our agency assistant scheduled the post via Facebook, buffer & hoot suite

Blogger outreach / PR

  • Our team locally comes up with the pitch/value proposition
  • Our team in the Abroad Assistant then combs Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest & Google search to find bloggers & journalist. They record them in a sheets file along with their contact info.
  • Our agency assistant email pitches ( based on templates) to reach the contact
  • The response is here manages by our local team (USA)

Advanced SEO  / Analytics

  • We built a checklist of the item to review on a website. each line item has a short video walking through exactly what to check
  • our technical specialist goes through each item and build out the file as pass/fail
  • We are able to deliver affordable, advanced work that other agencies charge tens of thousands for. plus our mark upon the labor is insane.

 

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How to Hire a Virtual Assistant? Know the Benefits of Virtual Assistant

If you need help to do your daily routine tasks you can hire the services of a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is a perfect partner who can help in your day-to-day work. They are trained professionals and offer quality service.

You can approach a virtual assistant company to hire a virtual assistant. The companies have different plans based on the number of hours of work required. There are plans like

    • 20 hours per month

This is best for busy professionals who need to outsource some work. You can go for this plan if you want to give tasks irregularly.

    • 40 hours per month

This plan is for business owners who have limited number of regular tasks. They can outsource the work which they do not have time for.

    • 80 hours per month

This plan is best for entrepreneurs and startups who are looking to reduce their load by delegating the tasks.

    • 160 hours per month

This plan is best for business owners with multiple directions of work and high production volume.

You should choose the plan you require. You should be clear about what type of services you need. The virtual assistants have typing skills and computer skills. They have fax machine, copier and multi line phone knowledge. They also have knowledge of computer software used in the office.

When you hire a virtual assistant you do not have to provide them with equipment, training or supplies. They work under the management of their own company. They are trained professionals. They communicate through email, internet, fax machine, phone conferences and online workspace. You do not have to give them extra space in the office.

Benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant
The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant are
As you delegate the routine tasks to the virtual assistant you do get time to focus on the key issues of your business. You can work towards your business growth.

  • The virtual assistants are professionals and you get skilled based service. They can do your work effortlessly.
  • You can achieve work life balance.
  • You can save your time and money.
  • You get time for personal commitments.

How to hire a virtual assistant?

  • You can approach a virtual assistant services company. You have to follow these steps to hire
  • Select the plan required
  • Meet your virtual assistant
  • Send the task list to the virtual assistant
  • Review the work and if satisfied hire

If you are not sure about hiring a virtual assistant then you can go for a trial run. The best virtual assistant services offer a trial run. This allows you to send a trial task to the virtual assistant. The virtual assistant will do the task. You can review the work and give the feedback to the virtual assistant company. You can hire the virtual assistant if you are happy with the work.

What the plans include
All the plans include trial run, phone, email and chat support. The unused hours roll over to the next month.

Dedicated personal virtual assistant

Multi task virtual assistant

Direct communication to virtual assistant

Back-up virtual assistant

Daily tasks log update

Weekly feedback

Weekend support if required

Review by operations head

No account set up fees

Data security

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