Podcast: Play in new window
This week I get to share with you an interview I recorded with Sharyn Munro from sharynmunro.com.au. Sharyn is a professional virtual assistant (and long time member of redcliffesocialmedia.com).
Not up to speed on what a virtual assistant does for businesses?
Perfect – that’s why we did the interview.
What is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant (typically abbreviated to VA, also called a virtual office assistant) is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients remotely from a home office. – Wikipedia
If you attend any kind of modern entrepreneurial training courses or conference then you’ll quickly find out that leveraging your limited time through hiring a VA is all the rage.
A large company wouldn’t dream of their CEO and top directors not having a personal assistant – it is because their time is so important and for the good of the business their hours at work need to be spent being as productive as possible.
Yet as solo-preneurs and small business owners many of us fall into the trap of not valuing the limited hours we have each day and work week highly enough.
You try to do everything…
You don’t get to many of the things that you want to. You spend a lot of time doing tasks that others could do for you or could even do better than you. In a great many cases its financial restraints that stop you putting on another staff member.
Enter the Virtual Assistant…
A virtual assistant can provide you with a few hours a week of support allowing you to get more done without needing to worry about the equipment, training and employment overheads of a traditional staff member.
Get all the details by listening to the interview with Sharyn.
Virtual Assistants for Tradies
Sharyn and I cover several examples in the interview however I just want to cover one here in the blog post.
An airconditioning unit in our rental property was serviced on Thursday by a small local operator. He sent the invoice through on email that night at 9pm. So I can only imagine that he had a full day of work on the road and then was still going at 9pm at night on the day’s paperwork.
If he had the services of a virtual assistant he could have emailed or phoned in the details of the job while onsite. His assistant could have then created and sent the invoices for the day. Meanwhile our example airconditioning contractor could have been working on other job sites or enjoying time with family at night. He would only have paid for the time that his virtual assistant spent on the invoicing.
Sometimes technology can also be used to achieve the same effect. Using Freshbooks invoicing platform he could have sent the invoice straight from his mobile phone.
Got questions?
If you’ve got questions about virtual assistants or need ideas about how they could help your business then leave a note in the comments. Myself and Sharyn would be more than happy to try and help out.