3 Ways a Virtual PA Can Help
3 Ways a Virtual PA Can Ease the Job of Running Your Home Business
Your home based business is typically limited by how much time and energy you have
to put into it. However, by investing in a Virtual PA, or Personal Assistant (also
called a VA), you can free yourself from many of the time-consuming details that
eat up your day. Imagine what you could do with all that free time and energy!
The Nuts and Bolts of Home Based Business
A virtual personal assistant will be able to take care of the tasks that take up
so much of your time, and will therefore allow you more time to build your business.
She can take on many of your daily, time-consuming tasks such as: checking your
business email, billing clients, drafting letters, proposals and offers, accounting
and much more. Typically, virtual personal assistants also work from home and are
perfect candidates for data entry from home work, should you have any that needs
to be done.
Business Development for a Home Based Business
With the right remote email capabilities, a virtual assistant can be priceless in
helping you develop new business. As an appointment setter, he or she can make calls,
represent your business, and request appointments with potential clients for you.
By accessing your calendar, which is built in to your business email account, a
VA can set appointments in real time, without worry that you will be double-booked.
Your VA can also use the shared
documents feature of anywhere email to make notes about upcoming appointments. Often
useful information is gained by appointment setters and can be put to your benefit
when you meet with the potential client.
Customer Service for the Home Based Business
By allowing a virtual personal assistant to handle customer service for your home
based business, you can maintain control, but at the same time can be mostly hands-off
in this area of your business. Having standard responses ready for your assistant
will allow him or her to provide consistent answers to questions from customers.
A business email specifically for customer service, and that has remote email capabilities,
will allow you to oversee your VA’s work and review customer feedback spontaneously
and without asking for time-consuming reports. Should time-sensitive or unique customer
service issues arise, technology can ensure a timely response on your part. Your
personal assistant can contact you by cell phone, text message or even by emailing
your primary business email account. If you have a PDA Palm or Blackberry that has
a mobile alert feature, you will be able to address such situations quickly.
A virtual personal assistant has the benefit of being an employee with whom you
can share the work from your home based business. However, none of the overhead
costs typically associated with employees are a factor. It is really the best of
both worlds. You can economically enlarge your home based business while providing
a work at home opportunity for someone else.
Rodney Alison has served as Systems Architect on many international projects
for over a decade before turning his expertise in engineering, physics and technology
into the development of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, the Quincerto Group. To
find out more about the mobile technologies that Rodney and his team offer
small business owners across Australia and New Zealand go to
www.teamanywhere.com.au.