One of the first giant steps forward is bring on your first employee so it is important to learn how a Virtual Assistant can save you time and make you money.
It’s no surprise that with our increasingly technological based society even our colleagues and employees have become virtual.
This is How a Virtual Assistant can Save You Time and Make You Money.
As a busy blogger, and mother, when life gets chaotic I take the chance to step back and see where I can downsize.
There are always parts of business that we do not enjoy, or are not particularly good at.
This is where a virtual assistant may be beneficial.
Table of Contents
What Exactly is a Virtual Assistant?
It is exactly as it sounds. According to Wikipedia:
A virtual assistant (typically abbreviated to VA, also called a virtual office assistant)[1] is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients remotely from a home office.
In the world of blogging there are several types of VAs. For us here at TOTS, we occasionally use a Social Media VA.
They can help share blog posts, engage on social media and improve the look and feel of your social media accounts.
VAs also can create blog posts, transcribe podcasts, maintain your books, improve SEO optimization or make extraordinary images.
With VAs who are experienced, they will likely have specialties and preferences of the types of work they do.
They will likely be able to do tasks in a fraction of the time it would take you to learn and complete.
How a Virtual Assistant can Save You Time and Make You Money
Being based entirely online, a VA is the only way to go for TOTS. Honestly, like many bloggers, I work from home, often at night and around my children’s schedules.
I don’t dress up, have a fancy office or have set hours. For these reasons, a ‘regular’ employee would not work for us.
Virtual assistants are often very much like bloggers, and may have a blog themselves. Communication is usually done online and occasionally on the phone.
My priority is my children and for this reason, online work is my favourite type.
There are a number of things to keep in mind when using a Virtual Assistant:
Ask for Referrals
Any experienced VA will be able to provide previous employers.
Be sure to ask the right questions when speaking to one of their current or former employers.
What was their best asset? How timely was their work? What is their biggest weakness?
It is important that you get to ‘know’ the person whom you will entrust with some very important tasks.
What is their Turnaround Time?
Personally, I need to have a VA that can turn something around in a matter of 1-2 days.
Other people might be okay with projects typically taking a week. Ask the VA to be upfront and realistic.
Asking for a Time Log is Always a Good Idea
When hiring, ask if they are willing to provide a time log. This is especially important for social media VAs.
You should monitor where they are spending their time and the subsequent results you are seeing.
Encourage them to use the Tools that You Use to Save Time
For us, we use Hootsuite to schedule some social media posting.
We also use Ahalogy for our pinning.
Make sure that they are comfortable with the tools you use. It is also important that interaction is real and genuine.
This is key to How a Virtual Assistant can Save You Time and Make You Money.
Give them Access
Virtual assistants will need access to your social media accounts.
For Facebook and WordPress this is simple as you can add them as an admin.
For Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram (along with others) you will need to give them your passwords.
So be sure to change the password to something you feel comfortable with sharing (and not the same one as your bank account).
Use Google Docs
We use Google Docs constantly. Post ideas, passwords, contracts and our business goals are all in there.
As a two owner and multi-author blog, it is essential that the right people are given access to the right information in order to complete their tasks.
We strongly encourage the use of the right virtual assistant for your small business or blog.
They are a time saver and can help you make more money by taking away some of the tasks that take up a lot of time, or you are not that comfortable with.
This is how How a Virtual Assistant can Save You Time and Make You Money.
Have you hired a VA before?
What was your experience?
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- 4 Work At Home As A Writer With Upfront Pay – Part 4
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I’ve been thinking about using a VA recently. It would be so nice to have some help with the busy work of blogging!
Exactly, and some of this work can be done faster by someone else. Leaving you to be free to the work you really enjoy and can do quickly. Blogging is all about time, isn’t it?
At this point, no I have no hired a VA – and I probably won’t unless works gets crazy. But I am going to bookmark this post, because I think it may come in handy if and when the time comes!
Thank you for sharing this useful information! I’ve been toying with the idea of hiring a VA specifically for social media purposes. I’m thinking it might be time to take the plunge. Love the idea of asking for a time log!
I’ve always wondered if I would get into the VA business — especially when my youngest goes to school; but how do you get that first reference? Very informative post!
Tammy Doiel,
I’m a VA. My first “client” for my first “reference” was a coach I know. I did her newsletter and mailing list for a few months for free, just to get my foot in the door, learn some best practices when working with someone, and get some experience in areas where I was not strong.
Perhaps when you’re ready you can find someone to barter with, or someone to be your guinea pig.
Mary
Thanks, Mary. I appreciate you giving me your advice and experience..
Thanks Mary, I appreciate your feedback as a VA. I hope the post did your job justice!
I agree with Mary, barter your services, or make a great deal at first. Once people will provide feedback then raising your prices will be easy!
This is really great! I am thinking about getting a VA in the future! Can save me lots of time!
It does save you time. Sometimes someone with a specialty can do the same work in half the time, that is worth the money to me!
This is a handy reference! I haven’t hired a VA yet, but I plan on hiring someone in the near future. I wouldn’t have thought of requesting a time log. This will be a great cheat sheet for me to use!
Glad you like it. Honestly we can trust all we want, but at the end of the day you need to know how you are spending your money.
Great post! I’ve been thinking about trying to get into this field for some time. Thanks for sharing!
Honestly, I think this is a growing opportunity for many bloggers. Once you find your ‘specialty’ helping other people with it can be rewarding for both of you1
Thank you so much for the information. This is something I think about at times when I am crazed with several projects at once. Nice to know that you have had a great experience!
Kathy, thanks for taking the time to leave us some feedback!
Thank you for this post, and for the feedback in the comments as well. I have considered branching into VA work, as I have a history in graphics, small business and administrative work.
I love the idea of bartering to get started. I notice that there are several people in the comments considering VA’s, and several more of us considering the field!
I’m very glad I came across this post on Pinterest, as this field seems like a nice way to diversify income.
I’m very happy you found it too. Honestly it is an awesome way of staying home and making some money and on the flip side, it is so helpful for me to know certain things can be handled by someone else.
I have dabbled a bit into the VA thing, but not too much. I know that I’ll have to rely on that more and more as time goes on though. Thanks for the helpful advice.
Thanks Liz for the comment. I think with VAing there are lots of avenues which makes for lots of opportunity.