Sunday 10 May 2009

Why are you doing everything yourself?

Owning your own business requires wearing a lot of hats. But it seems that when many people leave their jobs to "go solo", they think they must work completely solo as well. They insist on doing everything themselves - even tasks that perhaps they know they're not really very good at.
They try in vain to design websites and brochures, write copy or manage mailing lists and personally respond to every call or mailing. Pretty soon, they find themselves running around like the proverbial "headless chicken".

What eventually happens is that their love for their work - the reason they started their own business in the first place - drowns in a flood of administrative trivia. Freelance PAs, Virtual Assistants, or self-employed Girl-Fridays - whatever you want to call them - can take care of all that "busy work" for you. What could you delegate?

Try keeping a log of all your activities for the next week or so, then sit down for a thorough review and decide which activities are TRULY ones that only you can do. As for the rest.......

Here are some examples of what a remote assistant (virtual assistant) could do to help you:
  • Respond to customer emails and make follow up calls
  • Schedule business appointments, interviews, travel
  • Keep your book-keeping up to date, reconciling banks statements, paying bills, tracking expenses, etc
  • Internet research
  • Organise seminars / speaking engagements / handle registrations
  • Create sales reports
  • Write blogs and other articles
  • Design powerpoint presentations
  • Personal stuff such as researching holiday destinations, purchasing gifts, organising workmen.
You'll have more free time to focus on marketing and growing your business, developing product ideas and income streams. You'll think much bigger and have much more creative energy. So what are you waiting for?

To find out what kind of projects can be completed by a virtual assistant in just one hour, visit: http://www.theawaypa.eu/one_hour_projects.htm

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