​​Do you need more time during the day to meet with clients, develop products or give your attention to future planning for your business?

Do you feel that you spend too much time filling out forms, updating your contacts list, renewing subscriptions and settling invoices?

Do you feel overwhelmed trying to manage your email marketing campaigns?
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Do you get stressed about staying top of of mind on your social media platforms?

IF you answered YES to any of those questions.... KEEP READING!

The Most Important Reason to Hire a Virtual Assistant

Every single person on this planet has the same 24 hours each and every day. Hard to believe, but it's true! The most important reason to hire a virtual assistant is so you have the ability to spend your time more wisely. So instead of spending an hour or two each day completing less important administrative tasks, you could meet with a new client, or work on ways to expand your business and your brand. You can even choose take the day off to spend with your family or to pursue a passion or hobby. 

A talented virtual assistant will work with you on a project-by-project basis or on an on-going basis for a specific number of hours each week or month.This means you don't necessarily have to hire a full-time employee (a big concern for startups and small businesses on a budget); you can simply hire someone to just get the work done. 

Developing a Successful Working Relationship with Your VA

Find a VA that has the specific skill sets needed to complete business tasks that are unique to your business. Create a daily or weekly schedule of tasks for your VA to complete, then encourage your VA to submit a completed task list each week so you can track their progress. Keep in mind, most VA's use some form of tracking system to track time and tasks so you can really just ask for a printout. Since your virtual assistant works remotely, you can expect most tasks to be completed in less time than it would take an in-house employee who may become distracted with clients, meetings or chatting with co-workers.

It's definitely in your best interest to schedule at least one monthly meeting with your VA to discuss their workload. By doing so, you may find that your VA can to take on a few extra responsibilities or you may discover your VA has a skillset you were unaware of.

It's important to understand that working with a virtual assistant is more of a partnership versus an employer/employee relationship. Since many VAs are also business owners with multiple clients, you need to maintain a certain amount of flexibility when it comes to hiring the right VA for you. For example, some VAs will only commit to a specific number of hours per week or per month, while others prefer to work on a per-project basis only. Before hiring a particular VA, make sure both of you are in agreement with the number of hours they can work for you and there is clarity on tasks that need to be completed. Also, you want to make sure to provide any training required if there is a specific way you want something done and any feedback you ave about the process in which tasks are completed. 
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Help Your Business Grow

To get the most out of your partnership with your virtual assistant, make a list of all the tasks you need to complete in order to grow your business, and be specific. Delegate as many of the less important tasks to your virtual assistant as possible so you can concentrate on the more meaningful tasks. This is how you actively help you business grow. NOTE: Less important tasks are tasks that can be done by someone else and more meaningful tasks are tasks that only you can do.

In the meantime, if you need to talk through if you need a VA or what tasks to delegate to a VA, don't hesitate to schedule a call with me.

The ugly P word for entrepreneurs; procrastination, yields limited results.  How often do you find yourself waiting for the ‘perfect’ time to start a task, saying you work better under pressure, second-guessing everything you do, or completing other tasks you have put off instead of completing tasks you NEED to complete?  I’m sorry to inform you that you are an AVOIDER; you avoid the necessary tasks until you can no longer do so.  This, my friend, suggests you are a PROCRASTINATOR!!!
Aren’t you glad that I have a few ways you can stop procrastinating!

10 TIPS TO STOP PROCRASTINATING
1.  MAKE A SMART TO-DO LIST

• A SMART to do list only includes tasks that you have been avoiding instead of tasks that you know you will complete.  The second part of a SMART to do list is to set deadlines for the tasks you have listed.

2.  LET’S MAKE A DEAL

• Make a personal deal with yourself that when you complete the tasks on the list you will reward yourself (go to the movies, have ice cream, or whatever feels rewarding to you).

3.  RESIST TEMPTATION

• Eliminate anything that will distract and tempt you to do anything and everything except what is on your SMART TO-DO LIST.

4.  I’VE GOT A FEELING

• Focus on the joy and accomplishment you will feel once the task is complete.  Think about how it moves you closer to your goal.

5.  BREAK IT ON DOWN

• Break the tasks down into smaller segments to alleviate the feeling of being overwhelmed.  Once you complete a couple smaller tasks you create a sense of accomplishment and are more likely to complete more.

6. WOOSA

• Keep calm and keep in mind that there will always be more to be done than there is that can be done; but, make sure you are getting the SMART things done!

7.  GO TO THE CORNER

• When children do not make good decisions, and get out of line, they must suffer the consequence of having to sit in timeout.  As adults, timeout does not work the same; however, we do understand the consequences of making bad decisions.  Send yourself to timeout by creating a consequence for the instances when you make the bad decision of getting off task.

8.  SAY IT OUT LOUD

• Tell somebody, but not just anybody!  Let your trusted circle know what you have going on and what you are trying to accomplish.  This gives you a sense of accountability because you know someone will eventually ask about your progress and most of us do not want the embarrassment of having to say there is none.

9.  2-MINUTES IS ALL YOU NEED

• Implement the 2-minute rule.  The 2-minute rule encourages you to inventory your tasks and determine how long it will take to complete.  It says if it will take less than 2 minutes to complete then it should be done Right Now; however, if it will take more than 2 minutes to complete then start with completing 2 minutes of the task.  The idea behind the 2-minute rule is JUST START because objects at rest tend to stay at rest and objects in motion tend to stay in motion.  It’s easier to continue to do something if you are already doing it!

10.  HELP ME PLEASE

• Those three words can make a world of difference in your business.  Getting help relieves you of tasks that will take you longer to accomplish and allow you to focus on the more important parts of your business.  Sometimes, we forget that although asking for help may be one of the hardest things to do; it is one of the easiest things to get:  In doing this, we must remember to ask the right people for the help we need.  We can’t ask our 3-year-old to create a PowerPoint, but we can ask an administrative professional to complete that task.  GET THE HELP YOU NEED!

 
STOP PROCRASTINATING!!!

The Business Office Genie is here to support you in the process! Schedule a consultation TODAY.

Another great component of CoSchedule is all the FREE training guides, tutorials, resources, etc that you receive. A lot of times we have to jump in only to find that this tool we just purchase is not as easy to use as the demo showed. Yikes! Well, you don't have to concern yourself with that when using CoSchedule because CoSchedule has a training on almost any question or concern you may come across. And it's FREE! I have learned so much via the FREE trainings. These trainings helped to better manage my clients' blog and social media posts. CoSchedule make what I do much easier.

I remember, one of my clients was having trouble with the third-party platform we were using to manage social media because of the changes the social media platform had implemented. The client said we needed to find another third party platform. Without any hesitation I recommended CoSchedule. The client did the free trial and was in awe of what they experienced. Keep in mind that the client wasn't even going to be working in the system that much. Well, that turned out not to be true! The best part for the client was seeing all marketing in one place and being able to implement from the same place and her team and my team could see everything. This encouraged the client to plan out marketing and it was more effective.

If you haven't guessed it yet....I love CoSchedule! You can try it for FREE, just click TRY CoSCHEDULE FOR FREE