Are You Ready for the Busy Season? Partner with a Virtual Assistant Before the Rush!

Many small business owners first try out the services of a virtual assistant when they want to take a longer summer vacation and need someone to handle client care and social media while they’re away. While this is a completely legitimate way to utilize a virtual assistant, there are so many other things they can help with after the summer is over!

[Tweet “A virtual assistant can free up large blocks of time, so you can focus on expansion.”]

With September comes more business, and more work on a day-to-day basis. For a “solopreneur”, that can mean long hours and stress, or even having to turn away new potential clients when overwhelmed. Your small business can suffer when you’re overworked, and not being able to keep up can slow growth. With this in mind, I’d like to share a few reasons why you should keep the virtual assistant you hired to help you go on vacation.

Getting Ready for the Busy Season
The dog days of summer may seem like a time when you don’t require extra help, but a virtual assistant can actually be put to good use during this time. When you’re less busy, it’s the perfect time to bring a virtual assistant up to speed on all aspects of your business, so they can be more effective when doing work for you. If you plan to continue making use of their services for the traditionally busy “back to school” period, now is the time to smooth out any issues of communication. You want your virtual assistant to work together with you like a well-oiled machine once business is booming again.

Maintaining Consistency
Instead of delegating regular tasks like content creation, email marketing, social media management or updating your website only when you’re otherwise overwhelmed, I recommend permanently handing those duties over to a virtual assistant. As a specialized worker who focuses on these areas of your business, a good virtual assistant is often more efficient at finishing these tasks.

The other big benefit is maintaining a consistent voice and style through all of your online presence: social media, blog writing, website updates, email marketing, etc. One other aspect of consistency to consider is the regularity with which you post. If you leave these tasks for when you personally have the time to do them, a long time can pass between updates and blog posts! A virtual assistant can help you maintain an active presence online and regularly write new content for your business blog and social media platforms.

[Tweet “Having a virtual assistant handle your online presence keeps your content consistent.”]

Giving You More Time to Work on Your Business
Another excellent use of a virtual assistant is handling one-off projects that take time but not a lot of your personal touch, so you can focus on the big picture for your business. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some extra chunks of time in which to make plans for your future, come up with strategies for growth, and otherwise do the kind of visionary work that made you start your business in the first place? Whether it be designing new graphics for your website or social media accounts, helping to write copy for an ebook or magazine, handling client follow-ups, or organizing your client information, a virtual assistant can be put to work on tasks you’d rather not get bogged down with.

Leaving administrative tasks to a virtual assistant can also free up a lot of time you might not realize was being sucked away by them. Things like staying caught up on emails, trying to figure out new technology, filling out forms and applications, and doing research into new products that might help you. 

While these tasks may seem trivial, they break up your day and keep you from getting important work done. By passing these sorts of tasks along, you give yourself the gift of uninterrupted time. It’s that time which you can use to grow your business and become even more successful!