Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
 Knowing the tricks of effective delegating will make your life easier. As a virtual assistant, I’ve talked to dozens of employers, clients and fellow VA’s and have heard some unpleasant stories from both parties about their experiences in working together.
Learning from their stories, I found that the same issues emerge over and over again. Given the diversity of tasks that virtual assistants are assigned with, it is quite common for a VA to under deliver if not given proper instructions.
If it’s necessary for you or your business to outsource, your delegating skills will be essential to make or break your virtual assistant experience.
Here are some delegating tactics that can help: 1. Clearly define your expectations.
Knowing what results you expect will greatly affect the outcome of any task you delegate to your virtual assistant. Your expected results will serve as a guide while doing the project. This ensures that your VA will work towards meeting the same goals that you have.
2. Be specific.
When giving instructions or requirements, be as specific as you can. Vague instructions can lead to several back and forth emails between you and your VA, causing delays and affecting project costs.
For tasks that are complicated or need to be repeated (especially if you’re not using dedicated assistance), it would help to prepare instructional guides. 3. Prepare a timeline.
A timeline with scheduled milestones will give you realistic expectations on the time required to complete a project. Your VA can also work around that timeline and provide you with updates when necessary.
Having a timeline eliminates several issues, especially for big projects. If it’s met, you can be assured that your VA is in fact working on your project. It allows you to check the progress of your project regularly. This way, you can spot errors early on and have them revised before they affect the next phase of the project. 4. Be reasonable.
When presenting a project, be realistic with your expected results and with your deadline. A virtual assistant should not have to choose between quantity and quality. Unrealistic expectations will most likely produce inferior work. A good VA will strive hard to over deliver and to please their clients as long as they are reasonable with their requests.
5. Communicate.
VA’s like to hear from their clients. We normally improve through constant communication with you. Even if you’re criticizing our work, we will appreciate it because it gives us an opportunity to get better.
Communication helps us understand you and your business more, ultimately leading to an effective and harmonious working relationship.
Outsourcing should make your life easier. If it doesn’t, apply these simple tips and start getting the most out of it.
A virtual assistant is a great ally to your business, but your delegating skills will ultimately be the key for your VA to fulfill your business needs.
Tags: delegation tips, effective delegating, how to outsource, virtual assistants
Posted in Outsourcing | No Comments »
Monday, March 30th, 2009
 Don't stress about time-consuming paperwork. Hire somebody else to do it for you While growing up, I always thought of my parents as “workaholics”. They would normally get up very early to start working and turn in really late every night. They would spend the whole day juggling business and personal chores, which leaves them too worn out to do anything pleasurable (besides sleeping!) at the end of the day.
Looking back now, I realized that they just didn’t have the resources to get an affordable personal assistant. Having a personal assistant then was just too costly that I would probably have to drop out of private school for them to afford it.
Luckily for us, those primitive days are long gone.
Today’s technology allows us easy access to affordable virtual assistants, making it possible for anyone to achieve a good balance between work and personal life.
Having a virtual assistant is so practical that it has helped boost the outsourcing industry.
If you’re in need of a virtual assistant, but unsure what to delegate, here are some ideas: 1. Email Management
A former colleague used to complain that emails take up half of her workday. She just couldn’t accomplish anything beyond checking and replying to emails every morning.
If you have the same problem, a virtual assistant can sort your emails. This way you would only need to handle emails that require your personal attention. Given the proper instructions, your VA can deal with the rest of your emails. 2. Customer Support
Everyone in business knows that keeping customers happy is vital to a company’s success. However, maintaining great customer relations entails more work than we have time for.
A virtual assistant can provide customer support. They can call customers for follow-ups or provide customer assistance when needed. 3. Calendar Management
Keeping track of meetings and scheduling appointments can be stressful. Wouldn’t you rather use your time in something more productive, like developing moneymaking ideas?
A virtual assistant can manage your calendar for you. They can schedule your business or personal appointments. Through the use of shared calendars, you can check your schedule anytime. VAs usually send reminders for your appointments the day before. And if you require, they can give you wakeup calls too. 4. Travel Arrangements
Whether it’s a business or leisure trip, booking for the most economical flights and looking for suitable accommodations can be very time consuming.
Guess what? A virtual assistant can take care of this for you. 5. List Building, Research & Data Mining
Building a list, researching and data mining are very tedious work. The legwork involved can last for weeks or even months.
Why not pass it on to a virtual assistant?
These are basic services a VA can provide.
Just imagine how much freedom you can have simply by ridding your daily schedule of such mundane tasks. You’ll have more time to spend on more important matters.
Given the choice I’m pretty sure my parents would have hired a virtual assistant then.
Tags: delegating tasks, Outsourcing, tasks to delegate, virtual assistant, virtual assistant services
Posted in Outsourcing | No Comments »
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
 Successful outsourcing is about finding the right people. Outsourcing is a great way to cut back on business expenses and help a company stay above water in these tough economic times.
Since the most affordable online assistant services are normally offered from distant geographical locations, most companies or entrepreneurs turn to offshore outsourcing for their employment needs.
Sadly though, there are lots of horrible stories. Oftentimes expectations are not met or work delivered is substandard.
Getting the right people is a real challenge, more so if you are looking at overseas resources.
In my years as a virtual assistant, I’ve learned some offshore hiring practices that have worked.
Here are tips to successful outsourcing for offshore hiring: 1. Spend time looking for the right virtual assistant person or team
With so many offshore virtual assistant providers out there, it would be time consuming to actually check them all out. You can ask for referrals from friends but if no one you know has tried outsourcing, it is smart to do actual background checks before hiring anyone or any company for their services.
Always ask for portfolios or samples of their work, whether you’re dealing with a freelance individual or a VA services company.
For background check on freelancers, you can ask for their resumé and call their previous employers for information on the quality of their work and attitude.
For VA service companies, you can check their reputation through online reviews or if possible, contact people who have provided testimonials for these companies. This will give you an idea if their company would serve your needs well. 2. Take advantage of free trial offers
Most virtual assistant services offer free trials. This is a great way for you to test the quality of service the company or their staff can provide. It is a chance for you to gauge if they can meet your standards.
3. VA companies vs individual VA freelancers
I have nothing against freelance workers (heck, I used to be one!) but hiring from a reliable virtual assistant company offers more security when hiring from a different geographical location.
A reputable company or agency will be a safer choice given the fact that they can be held accountable if any issue arises. A reliable company would always have a support or contact person available even after a project is completed, which is advantageous for obvious reasons.
If you experience any problems with a freelance VA, you need to directly deal with the VA. This is one less headache to deal with if you signed up with an outsourcing company. 4. Get a virtual assistant that you can work effectively with
Besides affordability, one of the reasons for outsourcing or hiring a VA is to free up more time. So it is vital to find the right person to work effectively with. Here are some things to consider when finding an effective offshore assistant.
• Communication & writing skills
Miscommunication is a common problem in any workplace. It is a good idea to find out if a virtual assistant you’re potentially hiring can effectively communicate with you. You can conduct interviews over the phone and correspond a few times by email to test their communication and writing capabilities.
• Work attitude & cultural exposure
These two things affect the execution of their work. A virtual assistant, who knows her business ethics and is a bit familiar with the Western way of doing business, would likely be able to deliver work with integrity and quality.
5. Get a multi-skilled VA
Aside from basic computer skills, you should find out if your VA has other useful skills. Some VAs also proofread, write copy, compose articles, use Photoshop, Podcast etc. Learning your VA’s work experiences can help you discover her other skills.
Following these five steps will help you get quality people to work for your company.
Besides cutting down on expenses and getting more results, successful outsourcing also translates to more security for your company and more free time for you.
Tags: offshore assistants, offshore hiring, online help, Outsourcing, Virtual assistant companies, virtual assistants
Posted in Outsourcing | 4 Comments »
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