GetFriday

Tasks out of the Ordinary

There are many demands which have come to GetFriday over the years. But some tasks have left an indubitable mark on the organizations and the assistants who service them. Here are some more tasks as a continuation of our previous blog on interesting tasks. Story 3 One of our long-standing clients had a very interesting request. He wanted one of our GetFriday associates to take tuition for his kid. Mathematics was the subject in which, the client asked us for help. Our associates did not have any hesitation and took up the task as any normal task. They taught him algebraic equations and helped him with his homework. On the whole, we are able free-up some time for the client from his schedule, which otherwise would have been used to give lessons to his kid. This way GetFriday was able to bring comfort to a stressed father. The client was happy with the results and the kid started performing well in his studies.   Story 4 One of the regular clients at GetFriday had a peculiar request for us. He wanted us to teach his son – the Indian national anthem and the meaning of it. So one of our associates took it upon herself to teach anthem to the child. Just after two sessions on Skype, the child was able to recite the national anthem. With his continuous singing of the anthem, he was able to teach the anthem to his kid brother as well. In addition, he was able to generate enough enthusiasm for making his mother sing the anthem with both of them. The main idea behind the exercise was to showcase the child’s anthem singing to his grandparents, who lived in the UK. When they paid a visit, this time around – the child was able to recite the anthem with ease to surprise his grandparents. This development delighted the client and he was full of praise for our associate who undertook this task. Even if you have such tasks and are hesitant to approach a VA, you would never know unless you make an approach. At virtual assistant services company like GetFriday, every task is given equal weightage compared to other regular tasks. There may be starting trouble with tasks of such nature because they come without prior experience. You can log on to GetFriday’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/GetFriday) for more such stories.

Tasks out of the Ordinary Read More »

There are many demands which have come to GetFriday over the years. But some tasks have left an indubitable mark on the organizations and the assistants who service them. Here are some more tasks as a continuation of our previous blog on interesting tasks. Story 3 One of our long-standing clients had a very interesting request. He wanted one of our GetFriday associates to take tuition for his kid. Mathematics was the subject in which, the client asked us for help. Our associates did not have any hesitation and took up the task as any normal task. They taught him algebraic equations and helped him with his homework. On the whole, we are able free-up some time for the client from his schedule, which otherwise would have been used to give lessons to his kid. This way GetFriday was able to bring comfort to a stressed father. The client was happy with the results and the kid started performing well in his studies.   Story 4 One of the regular clients at GetFriday had a peculiar request for us. He wanted us to teach his son – the Indian national anthem and the meaning of it. So one of our associates took it upon herself to teach anthem to the child. Just after two sessions on Skype, the child was able to recite the national anthem. With his continuous singing of the anthem, he was able to teach the anthem to his kid brother as well. In addition, he was able to generate enough enthusiasm for making his mother sing the anthem with both of them. The main idea behind the exercise was to showcase the child’s anthem singing to his grandparents, who lived in the UK. When they paid a visit, this time around – the child was able to recite the anthem with ease to surprise his grandparents. This development delighted the client and he was full of praise for our associate who undertook this task. Even if you have such tasks and are hesitant to approach a VA, you would never know unless you make an approach. At virtual assistant services company like GetFriday, every task is given equal weightage compared to other regular tasks. There may be starting trouble with tasks of such nature because they come without prior experience. You can log on to GetFriday’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/GetFriday) for more such stories.

Interesting Tasks @ GetFriday

Every day a number of tasks are executed by virtual assistants. Most of the tasks which are taken up by the assistants are routine and mundane. But at times there come requests from clients to do tasks that are out of the ordinary. These tasks stretch the boundary of the normal and can be termed as “Special” tasks. This article tries to explore some of the tasks that came into GetFriday and was executed with full zest by the employees. Task 1 Expressing through Post Cards One of our client’s former teacher was based in France. The client residing in the UK wanted someone to write postcards for his teacher who was interested in Indian culture. This task seemed interesting and virtual assistants at GetFriday took up the task. They started sending postcards from Indian to France, once every 2 weeks. The teacher was very pleased with the fact that she was receiving postcards from India on a regular basis and that too on behalf of her former student. The client was also delighted that he could do his bit to bring a cheer on to his teacher’s face. GetFriday, the virtual assistant services company has experience with over 14,000 clients over a decade of its existence. If you have a task similar to the one mentioned above, you can right way forward it to assistants at GetFriday. Task 2   Healing from Far A client at GetFriday based in America wanted someone to send medicines to an elder relative in Bangalore. We at GetFriday were asked if this task was at all possible from our side, to which we replied in the affirmative. Our virtual assistants here at Bangalore procured the medicine and sent it to the client’s relative on a regular basis. The client was happy about the fact he was able to help his elder relative with medication. The relative was praising the client all along for having done so. Even if you have such tasks that are out of the ordinary, virtual assistant companies such as GetFriday will be happy to accommodate such tasks if you are willing to come forward. There are many such tasks that have come through the doors of GetFriday. We are willing to take such interesting tasks and you can follow us on social media https://www.facebook.com/GetFriday for updates on such interesting tasks.

Interesting Tasks @ GetFriday Read More »

Every day a number of tasks are executed by virtual assistants. Most of the tasks which are taken up by the assistants are routine and mundane. But at times there come requests from clients to do tasks that are out of the ordinary. These tasks stretch the boundary of the normal and can be termed as “Special” tasks. This article tries to explore some of the tasks that came into GetFriday and was executed with full zest by the employees. Task 1 Expressing through Post Cards One of our client’s former teacher was based in France. The client residing in the UK wanted someone to write postcards for his teacher who was interested in Indian culture. This task seemed interesting and virtual assistants at GetFriday took up the task. They started sending postcards from Indian to France, once every 2 weeks. The teacher was very pleased with the fact that she was receiving postcards from India on a regular basis and that too on behalf of her former student. The client was also delighted that he could do his bit to bring a cheer on to his teacher’s face. GetFriday, the virtual assistant services company has experience with over 14,000 clients over a decade of its existence. If you have a task similar to the one mentioned above, you can right way forward it to assistants at GetFriday. Task 2   Healing from Far A client at GetFriday based in America wanted someone to send medicines to an elder relative in Bangalore. We at GetFriday were asked if this task was at all possible from our side, to which we replied in the affirmative. Our virtual assistants here at Bangalore procured the medicine and sent it to the client’s relative on a regular basis. The client was happy about the fact he was able to help his elder relative with medication. The relative was praising the client all along for having done so. Even if you have such tasks that are out of the ordinary, virtual assistant companies such as GetFriday will be happy to accommodate such tasks if you are willing to come forward. There are many such tasks that have come through the doors of GetFriday. We are willing to take such interesting tasks and you can follow us on social media https://www.facebook.com/GetFriday for updates on such interesting tasks.

8 Soft Skills to look for in a Virtual Assistant

Now that you have made up your mind towards hiring a virtual assistant, the next thing on your list is what to look for in an assistant that will make your life easier. This needs to be done with some consideration on your part on the kind of VA that will suit your business needs. You need to have a keen eye when looking at soft skills of your virtual employee. Soft skills are those character traits and interpersonal skills that a person comes with. Character traits tend to be ingrained unlike occupational or hard skills, which are learned and honed over time. This write-up looks at what specific soft skills you need to look at when selecting an assistant: Great Attention to Detail: A great assistant should be meticulous at all things. The attention to detail should be part and parcel of a normal day. They need to proud of the fact that they look into those details, which others tend to ignore. By approaching each of their tasks with meticulousness and urgency an assistant helps the manager or executive to achieve the often quoted work-life balance. They ensure that the errands are completed before the deadline and great care is taken on fast delivery of the tasks.       Presence of Mind: Despite all things being spoken about being attentive on the job, many assistants tend to miss the most obvious things. A good employee is known to fill in the gaps and demonstrate initiative. Even when incomplete ideas are given out by the executive or manager, an ever-present assistant is able to bring completeness to the ideas, keeping the executive informed and in approval all along the way. Great Listening Skills:  Listening leads to learning. While most people tend to ignore this fact on the course of life in general, a great assistant assimilates information quickly and boldly ask a question to fill in the gaps in understanding. By intently listening, a good assistant is able to understand the direction the boss is taking and the reason behind every strategy. This kind of work ethic will be able to bring an excellent working relationship to fruition. Relationship Builder: One of the quality traits of an assistant is being able to build rapport with people whether in person or on phone. Irrespective of the number of people he meets, he needs to have a knack for breaking the ice and able to forge relationships. This kind of personality would not only click anywhere but would be an asset to the manager or executive. Communication Skills: One of the key skills an assistant must possess is communication skills. There is nothing more valuable in business and in corporate circles than understanding and being understood. In a situation, when there is no face-to-face time between the client and the assistant, it is necessary to have appreciable communication skills to streamline your work. At times when the instructions are vague and ambiguous, it is the assistant who has to take the upper hand and straighten out the correspondence. Time Management Skills: A good assistant needs to do two things at the same time. Not only does he needs to be able to manage his own schedule, he also needs to prioritize his boss’s assignments and events. The employee carefully plans and organizes the boss’s schedule to ensure the executive is spending more time on long-term planning and goal setting. Project Management Skills: It is generally a known fact that the assistant helps the manager or the executive see the big picture. This big-picture thinking can come to life if the assistant helps him/ her in the endeavor. With each and every project coming with moving parts, it is necessary that the assistant is able to help the boss in being able to help with the moving parts. A great assistant is able to make the job easier by tackling things like comparing expenses on financial statements, analyzing client trends or even simply highlighting a budget. These things help in a huge way in growing the partnership between the executive and administrative assistant. Technology Skills: When looking for VA it would be a good judgment on your part to look for someone who is technologically well oriented. It can be as simple as MS office and as complex the latest CRM software. A good assistant would easily be able to assimilate the latest in technology with a little amount of training. This kind of ability in an administrative assistant would make it an ideal for to be taken in as your assistant. The article talks about the kind of skills a great assistant needs to possess for them to be hired by a first-timer, someone who is hiring a VA for the first time.

8 Soft Skills to look for in a Virtual Assistant Read More »

Now that you have made up your mind towards hiring a virtual assistant, the next thing on your list is what to look for in an assistant that will make your life easier. This needs to be done with some consideration on your part on the kind of VA that will suit your business needs. You need to have a keen eye when looking at soft skills of your virtual employee. Soft skills are those character traits and interpersonal skills that a person comes with. Character traits tend to be ingrained unlike occupational or hard skills, which are learned and honed over time. This write-up looks at what specific soft skills you need to look at when selecting an assistant: Great Attention to Detail: A great assistant should be meticulous at all things. The attention to detail should be part and parcel of a normal day. They need to proud of the fact that they look into those details, which others tend to ignore. By approaching each of their tasks with meticulousness and urgency an assistant helps the manager or executive to achieve the often quoted work-life balance. They ensure that the errands are completed before the deadline and great care is taken on fast delivery of the tasks.       Presence of Mind: Despite all things being spoken about being attentive on the job, many assistants tend to miss the most obvious things. A good employee is known to fill in the gaps and demonstrate initiative. Even when incomplete ideas are given out by the executive or manager, an ever-present assistant is able to bring completeness to the ideas, keeping the executive informed and in approval all along the way. Great Listening Skills:  Listening leads to learning. While most people tend to ignore this fact on the course of life in general, a great assistant assimilates information quickly and boldly ask a question to fill in the gaps in understanding. By intently listening, a good assistant is able to understand the direction the boss is taking and the reason behind every strategy. This kind of work ethic will be able to bring an excellent working relationship to fruition. Relationship Builder: One of the quality traits of an assistant is being able to build rapport with people whether in person or on phone. Irrespective of the number of people he meets, he needs to have a knack for breaking the ice and able to forge relationships. This kind of personality would not only click anywhere but would be an asset to the manager or executive. Communication Skills: One of the key skills an assistant must possess is communication skills. There is nothing more valuable in business and in corporate circles than understanding and being understood. In a situation, when there is no face-to-face time between the client and the assistant, it is necessary to have appreciable communication skills to streamline your work. At times when the instructions are vague and ambiguous, it is the assistant who has to take the upper hand and straighten out the correspondence. Time Management Skills: A good assistant needs to do two things at the same time. Not only does he needs to be able to manage his own schedule, he also needs to prioritize his boss’s assignments and events. The employee carefully plans and organizes the boss’s schedule to ensure the executive is spending more time on long-term planning and goal setting. Project Management Skills: It is generally a known fact that the assistant helps the manager or the executive see the big picture. This big-picture thinking can come to life if the assistant helps him/ her in the endeavor. With each and every project coming with moving parts, it is necessary that the assistant is able to help the boss in being able to help with the moving parts. A great assistant is able to make the job easier by tackling things like comparing expenses on financial statements, analyzing client trends or even simply highlighting a budget. These things help in a huge way in growing the partnership between the executive and administrative assistant. Technology Skills: When looking for VA it would be a good judgment on your part to look for someone who is technologically well oriented. It can be as simple as MS office and as complex the latest CRM software. A good assistant would easily be able to assimilate the latest in technology with a little amount of training. This kind of ability in an administrative assistant would make it an ideal for to be taken in as your assistant. The article talks about the kind of skills a great assistant needs to possess for them to be hired by a first-timer, someone who is hiring a VA for the first time.

Hiring a VA from an Agency versus an Independent Freelancer

      When assigning your workload to a virtual employee, it is always a choice between hiring someone from an agency or an independent freelance worker. There are different kinds of virtual assistance service providers out there, and even many independents (freelancers). This article is meant to help you narrow down your search. In this article we shall try to weigh the pros and cons of an assistant from an agency versus an independent freelancer. Commitment – It is generally seen that employees from agencies are more committed to their clients as they are answerable to their companies. While freelancers are not much committed as they manage it themselves and is not liable to anyone. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) – Companies are generally seen working safe when it is confidential data of clients. All companies mostly sign a NDA with the clients to keep the work confidential between the client and the company. While, when it comes to the independents, no such arrangements or assurances are made. Cost Versus Quality – It can be disputed that agencies come off as expensive when it comes to pricing. However, if you compare to independents, the kind of quality which an agency delivers is quite high.    Scalability – If you want to execute a larger than the usual project and need more hands to complete, a company can provide you with all the necessary help with extra hands. Likewise, if your business starts growing real quick and your requirement for human resources shoots up, a company will be more than willing to suffice your staff requirements. In the case of freelancers there is not enough scope for scalability and you would not be able to go beyond a single individual’s capacity. Even if you want to expand beyond the present capacity, you would have to start your recruitment process from the start. Experts in Varied Areas – In a company, you would find many experts supporting a varied number of skill-sets like accounting, digital marketing, and website development. But among independents it is difficult to find a single person who is an expert in different domains. Replacing an assistant – In case your regular one is not keeping well or has gone for a vacation, companies’ generally have enough hands for a replacement. In case of a freelancer, if such a situation arises, you would have to strive extra hard yourself to bridge the gap to finish the work. Or you would have to ask your assistant to train someone to function as a backup. Even in a situation, where your virtual assistant quits the company to join elsewhere, companies would quickly find a replacement and seamless transition would be in place. In case of a independent, such a situation would set you back to square one and you would have to start again at finding a new assistant. Urgent Tasks – Suppose you need to get something done immediately, companies like GetFriday would get it done. While in the case of a freelancer you would have to hold back and wait till the person is available during your time. In case he/she is filled with any other work, he/she may not take it up immediately also.   Trial Period – Most agencies that are into personal assistance give some kind of trial period for the client. This ensures that the client gets to judge the services, without committing any capital upfront. This is kind of a set-up is unheard of, when it comes to independents. Feedback Giving – When your task is not completed as per your guidelines, you can always escalate within the company to a manager and you would find your concerns addressed. In an independent’s case, you would have to give the negative feedback directly to the assistant. Recently outsourcing to a freelancer has become a trend since the prices are low, but in real scenarios majority of the clients are dissatisfied with the freelancer’s efforts and get the same work redone by the agencies. We later realize that outsourcing to an individual had been an unnecessary expense. With the major points mentioned above, hope you would agree that outsourcing to an agency/company is more advantageous than going with an independent.  GetFriday (earlier YMII or YourManInIndia) is a service that was featured and used in the NYTimes best-selling productivity and lifestyle design book ‘The 4-Hour-Workweek’ by Timothy Ferris. Sign up now!

Hiring a VA from an Agency versus an Independent Freelancer Read More »

      When assigning your workload to a virtual employee, it is always a choice between hiring someone from an agency or an independent freelance worker. There are different kinds of virtual assistance service providers out there, and even many independents (freelancers). This article is meant to help you narrow down your search. In this article we shall try to weigh the pros and cons of an assistant from an agency versus an independent freelancer. Commitment – It is generally seen that employees from agencies are more committed to their clients as they are answerable to their companies. While freelancers are not much committed as they manage it themselves and is not liable to anyone. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) – Companies are generally seen working safe when it is confidential data of clients. All companies mostly sign a NDA with the clients to keep the work confidential between the client and the company. While, when it comes to the independents, no such arrangements or assurances are made. Cost Versus Quality – It can be disputed that agencies come off as expensive when it comes to pricing. However, if you compare to independents, the kind of quality which an agency delivers is quite high.    Scalability – If you want to execute a larger than the usual project and need more hands to complete, a company can provide you with all the necessary help with extra hands. Likewise, if your business starts growing real quick and your requirement for human resources shoots up, a company will be more than willing to suffice your staff requirements. In the case of freelancers there is not enough scope for scalability and you would not be able to go beyond a single individual’s capacity. Even if you want to expand beyond the present capacity, you would have to start your recruitment process from the start. Experts in Varied Areas – In a company, you would find many experts supporting a varied number of skill-sets like accounting, digital marketing, and website development. But among independents it is difficult to find a single person who is an expert in different domains. Replacing an assistant – In case your regular one is not keeping well or has gone for a vacation, companies’ generally have enough hands for a replacement. In case of a freelancer, if such a situation arises, you would have to strive extra hard yourself to bridge the gap to finish the work. Or you would have to ask your assistant to train someone to function as a backup. Even in a situation, where your virtual assistant quits the company to join elsewhere, companies would quickly find a replacement and seamless transition would be in place. In case of a independent, such a situation would set you back to square one and you would have to start again at finding a new assistant. Urgent Tasks – Suppose you need to get something done immediately, companies like GetFriday would get it done. While in the case of a freelancer you would have to hold back and wait till the person is available during your time. In case he/she is filled with any other work, he/she may not take it up immediately also.   Trial Period – Most agencies that are into personal assistance give some kind of trial period for the client. This ensures that the client gets to judge the services, without committing any capital upfront. This is kind of a set-up is unheard of, when it comes to independents. Feedback Giving – When your task is not completed as per your guidelines, you can always escalate within the company to a manager and you would find your concerns addressed. In an independent’s case, you would have to give the negative feedback directly to the assistant. Recently outsourcing to a freelancer has become a trend since the prices are low, but in real scenarios majority of the clients are dissatisfied with the freelancer’s efforts and get the same work redone by the agencies. We later realize that outsourcing to an individual had been an unnecessary expense. With the major points mentioned above, hope you would agree that outsourcing to an agency/company is more advantageous than going with an independent.  GetFriday (earlier YMII or YourManInIndia) is a service that was featured and used in the NYTimes best-selling productivity and lifestyle design book ‘The 4-Hour-Workweek’ by Timothy Ferris. Sign up now!

Sell Better With GetFriday

If you have just taken your business online or are planning to do so, you will know that it is easy to “get started” and with minimum overhead costs, you can make your business as small or large as possible. However, one of the biggest disadvantages of running your e-commerce store on platforms such as Amazon or eBay is working with tedious, never-ending processes that, unfortunately, cannot be automated. When you begin selling on e-commerce platforms, you will slowly begin to realize that there is a wide spectrum of work that will require plenty of your time. Each process, though simple, will require human control and like mentioned earlier, cannot be automated. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself spending more time on broken links and listings than actually focusing on growing your business. You definitely don’t want to be doing this when your focus should ideally be on boosting sales. This is where online virtual assistants should be hired. These virtual aces can handle mundane processes for you, while you continue to ace the e-commerce domain with growing sales. But How Do I Know What To Outsource?   If there are tasks that do not fall under your core skill set or if you find certain processes eating through most of your day, you know it is not worth your time, especially when you have more important functions to handle. You can always divvy up administrative, repetitive tasks to the virtual assistants. This will leave you with significant time to deal with strategizing and building your business.   Working with online, personal virtual assistants come with multiple benefits. For starters, they will save you a lot of money because your costs of having to deal with keeping employees in-house, renting office space, training them etc., don’t exist. Why bother incurring such considerable costs when your entire business can be carried out online?  Virtual assistants, as the name suggests, work “virtually” and can handle tasks that range from managing general to specialized work depending on your requirement. If you have listed your business on Amazon or eBay, they can handle time-consuming aspects such as vendor management, customer support and product listings, to name a few processes. If you’ve been shouldering all the responsibility so far, here are some of the ways Virtual Assistance firms like GetFriday, can help you sell better and help you make most of your day. Product Listing & Product Description Writing  One of the most tedious tasks on an e-commerce platform involves uploading pictures, building category pages, optimizing content and updating and uploading the product listings. If you’ve ever faced a dip in the sales, chances are, it is a problem with one of your listings. Listings should always be monitored for reviews, images, and description if you still want to remain competitive. To have someone manage that aspect of the business, will give you more time to develop marketing strategies and handle other core functions of the business.   Along with managing product listings, another aspect of the business that can be governed by a professional virtual assistant, is product description writing. You may find that on some days, your creative juices don’t flow or you don’t have the knack to develop an effective sales pitch through brief content. In such a scenario, leave it to the experts! Virtual Assistance firms like GetFriday, have professional in-house copywriters who can handle this aspect of your business with no trouble at all. After all, the better the sales pitch in the product description, the better the returns in the long run. A good copywriter could just make all the difference!  24/7 Customer Support  Responding to the e-mails of customers is a Herculean task and can take up half your time while you’re at work. Responding to queries, tracking order statuses, gathering feedback and filtering requests are processes that don’t necessarily need to be done by you as head of the company. You don’t even need to hire people to sit in office to tackle this. This is something that can most definitely be handled virtually (and better!) by online, personal virtual assistants. Getting tangled with customer support can be a frustrating aspect of business that needs to be dealt with diligently. The fine art of communication needs to be done regardless of the size of your business and if you don’t someone who can handle all these processes and more, chances are, you’ll get sucked into this black hole and you’ll have to eventually handle it all by yourself. The opportunity cost? Developing and actually working on growing your business!  Order & Vendor Management  Your Virtual Assistant can not only manage your inventory, but he/she can also help you keep your virtual shelves stocked. No matter the size of your business, having a virtual assistant to manage inventory levels or simply working with your suppliers, sending invoices, or just getting your stock to the warehouse or anywhere else it needs to be, can be a boon for your business. These time-consuming tasks are essential and having a virtual assistant on board could also mean that he/she could help plan ahead for stock, help with pricing, conduct competitive analyses and produce up-to-date reports on fast and slow-moving inventory. All this and more can be handled by a virtual assistant and can help make crucial business processes function seamlessly.  Marketing To Acquire New Customers   The fact is, running an online store can be demanding. Having too many hats to wear could get the better of you. Having a Virtual Assistant can help you retain that A-game while you delegate all inevitable and routine processes. With the right skill sets, your virtual assistant could even handle crucial marketing functions. Website performance optimization, Search optimization, online promotions and Amazon Buy Box Strategy are some of the many aspects that GetFriday Virtual Assistants are adept at handling.  These are some of the tasks that you are probably already doing, but virtual assistants can handle better. The end result? They could help bring in bigger sales for you.    Other Support   Other support services such as Merchandising support, returns/exchanges, formatting images, checking for broken links, writing press-releases, updating meaningful content for products and product information collection are some of the other administrative tasks your personal assistant could take up for you while you focus on more crucial

Sell Better With GetFriday Read More »

If you have just taken your business online or are planning to do so, you will know that it is easy to “get started” and with minimum overhead costs, you can make your business as small or large as possible. However, one of the biggest disadvantages of running your e-commerce store on platforms such as Amazon or eBay is working with tedious, never-ending processes that, unfortunately, cannot be automated. When you begin selling on e-commerce platforms, you will slowly begin to realize that there is a wide spectrum of work that will require plenty of your time. Each process, though simple, will require human control and like mentioned earlier, cannot be automated. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself spending more time on broken links and listings than actually focusing on growing your business. You definitely don’t want to be doing this when your focus should ideally be on boosting sales. This is where online virtual assistants should be hired. These virtual aces can handle mundane processes for you, while you continue to ace the e-commerce domain with growing sales. But How Do I Know What To Outsource?   If there are tasks that do not fall under your core skill set or if you find certain processes eating through most of your day, you know it is not worth your time, especially when you have more important functions to handle. You can always divvy up administrative, repetitive tasks to the virtual assistants. This will leave you with significant time to deal with strategizing and building your business.   Working with online, personal virtual assistants come with multiple benefits. For starters, they will save you a lot of money because your costs of having to deal with keeping employees in-house, renting office space, training them etc., don’t exist. Why bother incurring such considerable costs when your entire business can be carried out online?  Virtual assistants, as the name suggests, work “virtually” and can handle tasks that range from managing general to specialized work depending on your requirement. If you have listed your business on Amazon or eBay, they can handle time-consuming aspects such as vendor management, customer support and product listings, to name a few processes. If you’ve been shouldering all the responsibility so far, here are some of the ways Virtual Assistance firms like GetFriday, can help you sell better and help you make most of your day. Product Listing & Product Description Writing  One of the most tedious tasks on an e-commerce platform involves uploading pictures, building category pages, optimizing content and updating and uploading the product listings. If you’ve ever faced a dip in the sales, chances are, it is a problem with one of your listings. Listings should always be monitored for reviews, images, and description if you still want to remain competitive. To have someone manage that aspect of the business, will give you more time to develop marketing strategies and handle other core functions of the business.   Along with managing product listings, another aspect of the business that can be governed by a professional virtual assistant, is product description writing. You may find that on some days, your creative juices don’t flow or you don’t have the knack to develop an effective sales pitch through brief content. In such a scenario, leave it to the experts! Virtual Assistance firms like GetFriday, have professional in-house copywriters who can handle this aspect of your business with no trouble at all. After all, the better the sales pitch in the product description, the better the returns in the long run. A good copywriter could just make all the difference!  24/7 Customer Support  Responding to the e-mails of customers is a Herculean task and can take up half your time while you’re at work. Responding to queries, tracking order statuses, gathering feedback and filtering requests are processes that don’t necessarily need to be done by you as head of the company. You don’t even need to hire people to sit in office to tackle this. This is something that can most definitely be handled virtually (and better!) by online, personal virtual assistants. Getting tangled with customer support can be a frustrating aspect of business that needs to be dealt with diligently. The fine art of communication needs to be done regardless of the size of your business and if you don’t someone who can handle all these processes and more, chances are, you’ll get sucked into this black hole and you’ll have to eventually handle it all by yourself. The opportunity cost? Developing and actually working on growing your business!  Order & Vendor Management  Your Virtual Assistant can not only manage your inventory, but he/she can also help you keep your virtual shelves stocked. No matter the size of your business, having a virtual assistant to manage inventory levels or simply working with your suppliers, sending invoices, or just getting your stock to the warehouse or anywhere else it needs to be, can be a boon for your business. These time-consuming tasks are essential and having a virtual assistant on board could also mean that he/she could help plan ahead for stock, help with pricing, conduct competitive analyses and produce up-to-date reports on fast and slow-moving inventory. All this and more can be handled by a virtual assistant and can help make crucial business processes function seamlessly.  Marketing To Acquire New Customers   The fact is, running an online store can be demanding. Having too many hats to wear could get the better of you. Having a Virtual Assistant can help you retain that A-game while you delegate all inevitable and routine processes. With the right skill sets, your virtual assistant could even handle crucial marketing functions. Website performance optimization, Search optimization, online promotions and Amazon Buy Box Strategy are some of the many aspects that GetFriday Virtual Assistants are adept at handling.  These are some of the tasks that you are probably already doing, but virtual assistants can handle better. The end result? They could help bring in bigger sales for you.    Other Support   Other support services such as Merchandising support, returns/exchanges, formatting images, checking for broken links, writing press-releases, updating meaningful content for products and product information collection are some of the other administrative tasks your personal assistant could take up for you while you focus on more crucial

How to inculcate, the productivity culture in small businesses?

Culture has been a buzzword in the corporate world for sometime now. A company’s culture is defined as a set of values and beliefs that companies develop over time. In other words, culture is the personality of the organization from the perspective of the employee and includes the company’s mission, expectations and work atmosphere. In fact, growth in the business can be directly attributed to the company’s productive culture. To be productive it requires active participation of both employer and employee on a regular basis for working effectively on set targets. This article here tries to identify actions that will culminate in a productive culture in a small business: Trusting employees – It is important that employees are trusted by the management in carrying out the tasks set forth. The employees should not merely be puppets at the hands of the management but should rather have the liberty of taking productive measures into consideration as per their abilities to execute tasks. The company should trust the employee after giving general guidelines to perform a specific task as per their own discretion. This will make the employees to be feeling genuinely part of the company and improve productivity levels. Having realistic targets – To improve productivity in the business, it is necessary that the organization sets realistic targets and goals. Any organization that is overly ambitious and sets forth ambitious goals is surely setting up its employees for failure as the results from over ambitious goals is bound to be counter productive. It is important that the organization keeps its goals and objectives clear to keep the productivity and the employee morale high. Keep projects at manageable scale, is to break them into smaller steps, this will help show clear progress and keep employees motivated as they advance towards the final results. Simply assigning a project for 2 months can be overwhelming, by breaking it up keeps the productivity levels high to complete the project.   Following Up on Targets – For a small business, it is not enough to set the goals and lay back and think the employees will take care of the rest. As a business, it becomes essential that employers follow up on the targets and deadlines. With follow up, employees will become aware of the loopholes and the tools required to improvise on efficiency. Keeping track of the goals being pursued will help measure individual performance of the employee and the measures taken to improve in-efficient performance. Proper follow-up will help measure individual productivity. Acknowledging Performances – To keep a tab on productivity, it is essential that good performances are noted and rewarded. This will keep the motivation of the performing employees high and make him eager to perform better the next time around. It is important to ensure the bad performer is made aware of his/ her performance and made known about the inadequacies in performance on a one-to-one basis without harming the employee’s dignity in the organization. Studies have shown that employees are most productive when their interests including incentive based pay are aligned. Training for employees – Every employer needs to keep track of the latest developments in his domain and also arrange for training sessions regarding the same. The training will help the employee to stay abreast with the latest workflow procedures and adopt them on requirement. Training is meant for employees for gaining knowledge regarding their profession and for improving productivity. Studies have shown that employees are motivated by a sense of responsibility when it comes to their work and maintaining high productivity levels. Training should be imparted into employees as an incentive, this way more people will be attuned to receiving training with serious motivation at organizations. By maintaining high motivation levels, employees are able to improve business productivity. Training employees on new skills can give them a new sense of purpose. It lets them know that the organization is willing and able to evolve. When employees are trained on new methods it is a win-win situation.     Enhanced communication between employer and employee – It is important that employees are given the privilege to report matters directly to the management. By being able to report directly to the management, the employee will be convinced about his voice being heard in the company. This will ensure new vigor and vitality in his/her work performance in the company. Two and fro communication between employee and employer is essential because if adequate information is not conveyed, it can lead to delay and at times non-completion of the task at hand. So clear communication between employer and employee is essential for keeping productivity scales high. Flexible working hours – By following relaxed working hours option, it will become easy on the employee to perform well, without getting constrained to limited working hours. The 9 to 5 schedule is under attack with the availability of internet connectivity and laptops, which makes it easier for employees to complete their tasks beyond the working hours. Efficient managers ensure the best use of resources with flexible work patterns address workplace pressures by optimizing the available labor.   Flexible working hours can lead to increased job satisfaction, improved staff morale, engagement and motivation leading to good productivity. Management’s responsibility – It is the responsibility of the management to ask the right questions to when the productivity levels are not high. There is a need to put in efforts to avoid micro-management; it hinders the sense of accomplishment on the part of the employee. It can feel great from a manager’s point of view of holding the reigns tightly, however, it is always advisable to believe in your team and allow them to make judgment calls for the projects they own. Management can help employees prioritize their work. An employee should not be overwhelmed by the long to-do lists but should be concentrating on one task at a time. The management should communicate the top team priorities, so everyone knows where to focus their energy. Conclusion – Although

How to inculcate, the productivity culture in small businesses? Read More »

Culture has been a buzzword in the corporate world for sometime now. A company’s culture is defined as a set of values and beliefs that companies develop over time. In other words, culture is the personality of the organization from the perspective of the employee and includes the company’s mission, expectations and work atmosphere. In fact, growth in the business can be directly attributed to the company’s productive culture. To be productive it requires active participation of both employer and employee on a regular basis for working effectively on set targets. This article here tries to identify actions that will culminate in a productive culture in a small business: Trusting employees – It is important that employees are trusted by the management in carrying out the tasks set forth. The employees should not merely be puppets at the hands of the management but should rather have the liberty of taking productive measures into consideration as per their abilities to execute tasks. The company should trust the employee after giving general guidelines to perform a specific task as per their own discretion. This will make the employees to be feeling genuinely part of the company and improve productivity levels. Having realistic targets – To improve productivity in the business, it is necessary that the organization sets realistic targets and goals. Any organization that is overly ambitious and sets forth ambitious goals is surely setting up its employees for failure as the results from over ambitious goals is bound to be counter productive. It is important that the organization keeps its goals and objectives clear to keep the productivity and the employee morale high. Keep projects at manageable scale, is to break them into smaller steps, this will help show clear progress and keep employees motivated as they advance towards the final results. Simply assigning a project for 2 months can be overwhelming, by breaking it up keeps the productivity levels high to complete the project.   Following Up on Targets – For a small business, it is not enough to set the goals and lay back and think the employees will take care of the rest. As a business, it becomes essential that employers follow up on the targets and deadlines. With follow up, employees will become aware of the loopholes and the tools required to improvise on efficiency. Keeping track of the goals being pursued will help measure individual performance of the employee and the measures taken to improve in-efficient performance. Proper follow-up will help measure individual productivity. Acknowledging Performances – To keep a tab on productivity, it is essential that good performances are noted and rewarded. This will keep the motivation of the performing employees high and make him eager to perform better the next time around. It is important to ensure the bad performer is made aware of his/ her performance and made known about the inadequacies in performance on a one-to-one basis without harming the employee’s dignity in the organization. Studies have shown that employees are most productive when their interests including incentive based pay are aligned. Training for employees – Every employer needs to keep track of the latest developments in his domain and also arrange for training sessions regarding the same. The training will help the employee to stay abreast with the latest workflow procedures and adopt them on requirement. Training is meant for employees for gaining knowledge regarding their profession and for improving productivity. Studies have shown that employees are motivated by a sense of responsibility when it comes to their work and maintaining high productivity levels. Training should be imparted into employees as an incentive, this way more people will be attuned to receiving training with serious motivation at organizations. By maintaining high motivation levels, employees are able to improve business productivity. Training employees on new skills can give them a new sense of purpose. It lets them know that the organization is willing and able to evolve. When employees are trained on new methods it is a win-win situation.     Enhanced communication between employer and employee – It is important that employees are given the privilege to report matters directly to the management. By being able to report directly to the management, the employee will be convinced about his voice being heard in the company. This will ensure new vigor and vitality in his/her work performance in the company. Two and fro communication between employee and employer is essential because if adequate information is not conveyed, it can lead to delay and at times non-completion of the task at hand. So clear communication between employer and employee is essential for keeping productivity scales high. Flexible working hours – By following relaxed working hours option, it will become easy on the employee to perform well, without getting constrained to limited working hours. The 9 to 5 schedule is under attack with the availability of internet connectivity and laptops, which makes it easier for employees to complete their tasks beyond the working hours. Efficient managers ensure the best use of resources with flexible work patterns address workplace pressures by optimizing the available labor.   Flexible working hours can lead to increased job satisfaction, improved staff morale, engagement and motivation leading to good productivity. Management’s responsibility – It is the responsibility of the management to ask the right questions to when the productivity levels are not high. There is a need to put in efforts to avoid micro-management; it hinders the sense of accomplishment on the part of the employee. It can feel great from a manager’s point of view of holding the reigns tightly, however, it is always advisable to believe in your team and allow them to make judgment calls for the projects they own. Management can help employees prioritize their work. An employee should not be overwhelmed by the long to-do lists but should be concentrating on one task at a time. The management should communicate the top team priorities, so everyone knows where to focus their energy. Conclusion – Although

Email list building Strategies

While there are voices that talk of email being a not-so-sought after technology anymore, the truth is that email still works fine for people who know the actual benefits of it. Email marketing provides the most direct line of communication for turning leads into sales, which is why the most noteworthy entrepreneurs are in no mood to give it up at any cost. Social networks can be a good avenue to bring people to your website. But, you have to still continue to communicate with them, for which email is the viable choice. This can give you a good idea that email continues to be important in the present day dominated by social media. Here in the article, we talk about actions that will help build your email lists; Build Your Loyal Fans Early in the life of a website, it is necessary to get on to sites which are more popular than you by saying – “Hey, I love your post; I would like to contribute a post”.  After having published the post, at the bottom you need to ensure you tell them to come to your site for more cool content and link it to your site. This strategy accomplishes three tasks – you have put material in front of people who do not know you, second you have gone to a site that is bigger than you and get more exposure and third, you have shown people a way to come to your site. Mostly people who read your guest blog will like it and come to your site and ideally become your subscribers. Provide Amazing Content on the site Everything begins with content. People will find a website based on good content. Once you impress the reader, the next step could be to ask for email address. The good content on the website will help them stay subscribed.  Once the reader subscribes to your site, they will receive the updates as soon as you post them on your website. Offer your readers something in exchange for their email In this strategy, you need to offer more than just ‘updates’. The idea is to solve one of the problems, which the audience is facing and help them with a free download. You can offer any one of the following: EBook, workbook, templates, checklist, cheat sheet, email course, video course or a newsletter. It is not necessary that you always give an EBook (Find out Tips to steer your small business with an e-book); you can also give something smaller like a checklist or template because they make the process a lot quicker to implement. Provide Call to action link easily visible It is very hard to find a call to action on some websites because of the clutter on them. It is always better to put subscribe buttons to be placed on top of the websites. Keep your offers upfront and include a call to action on every page on the website. Key places to consider are your website’s homepage, the main page of the blog, ‘About us’ page and ‘Contact us’ page. Promote Your Email Newsletter on Social Media Most of the marketing services like MailChimp offer Facebook integrations. You can create a form within the mail client, sync it up to Facebook, and it will create a tab on your Facebook page. People who like your page can subscribe on the spot, without having to visit your website. Popups Popups are a great way to get in front of the user and encourage them to subscribe. This exercise asks for reaching the people at the right time- such as when returning visitor lands on the site after the visitor has seen a certain amount of pages or right before they plan to exit the website. Large companies like Xerox are able to deliver on great results by sticking to the Popup strategy. Do you find the entire process to be overwhelming? Outsource it to a Virtual Assistant and focus on business growth. It is a choice that is within your hands. You can either do the all the above-mentioned process yourself or you can outsource it to a virtual administrative assistant. The assistant will ensure that most of the processes being talked about in the blog would be taken care off by a hired virtual assistant. This will not only save time but also ensure you have the bigger picture in mind for your business. You will only be involved with parts of the business which takes it forward rather than getting involved in the nitty-gritty of the business. These are some of the processes that will help you in building the email list building strategies. The thing to remember is that following these measures will make your website an effective sales magnet for your business.

Email list building Strategies Read More »

While there are voices that talk of email being a not-so-sought after technology anymore, the truth is that email still works fine for people who know the actual benefits of it. Email marketing provides the most direct line of communication for turning leads into sales, which is why the most noteworthy entrepreneurs are in no mood to give it up at any cost. Social networks can be a good avenue to bring people to your website. But, you have to still continue to communicate with them, for which email is the viable choice. This can give you a good idea that email continues to be important in the present day dominated by social media. Here in the article, we talk about actions that will help build your email lists; Build Your Loyal Fans Early in the life of a website, it is necessary to get on to sites which are more popular than you by saying – “Hey, I love your post; I would like to contribute a post”.  After having published the post, at the bottom you need to ensure you tell them to come to your site for more cool content and link it to your site. This strategy accomplishes three tasks – you have put material in front of people who do not know you, second you have gone to a site that is bigger than you and get more exposure and third, you have shown people a way to come to your site. Mostly people who read your guest blog will like it and come to your site and ideally become your subscribers. Provide Amazing Content on the site Everything begins with content. People will find a website based on good content. Once you impress the reader, the next step could be to ask for email address. The good content on the website will help them stay subscribed.  Once the reader subscribes to your site, they will receive the updates as soon as you post them on your website. Offer your readers something in exchange for their email In this strategy, you need to offer more than just ‘updates’. The idea is to solve one of the problems, which the audience is facing and help them with a free download. You can offer any one of the following: EBook, workbook, templates, checklist, cheat sheet, email course, video course or a newsletter. It is not necessary that you always give an EBook (Find out Tips to steer your small business with an e-book); you can also give something smaller like a checklist or template because they make the process a lot quicker to implement. Provide Call to action link easily visible It is very hard to find a call to action on some websites because of the clutter on them. It is always better to put subscribe buttons to be placed on top of the websites. Keep your offers upfront and include a call to action on every page on the website. Key places to consider are your website’s homepage, the main page of the blog, ‘About us’ page and ‘Contact us’ page. Promote Your Email Newsletter on Social Media Most of the marketing services like MailChimp offer Facebook integrations. You can create a form within the mail client, sync it up to Facebook, and it will create a tab on your Facebook page. People who like your page can subscribe on the spot, without having to visit your website. Popups Popups are a great way to get in front of the user and encourage them to subscribe. This exercise asks for reaching the people at the right time- such as when returning visitor lands on the site after the visitor has seen a certain amount of pages or right before they plan to exit the website. Large companies like Xerox are able to deliver on great results by sticking to the Popup strategy. Do you find the entire process to be overwhelming? Outsource it to a Virtual Assistant and focus on business growth. It is a choice that is within your hands. You can either do the all the above-mentioned process yourself or you can outsource it to a virtual administrative assistant. The assistant will ensure that most of the processes being talked about in the blog would be taken care off by a hired virtual assistant. This will not only save time but also ensure you have the bigger picture in mind for your business. You will only be involved with parts of the business which takes it forward rather than getting involved in the nitty-gritty of the business. These are some of the processes that will help you in building the email list building strategies. The thing to remember is that following these measures will make your website an effective sales magnet for your business.

Virtual assistance

Virtual Strategic Partner: The Secret behind the success of Start-ups and Small Businesses

Highly productive people do not have any secret sauce behind their success but rather they are very good at doing something which other people forget often. It’s delegating. In principle, delegating might sound like a fairly easy step but if you look closer, there is a fair amount of planning that goes into getting it done. This is especially true for heads of start-ups and small businesses. Why to Hire Virtual Assistants? In the beginning, it is understood that it is very difficult to let go control of the business at this early stage. Too much of multi-tasking is one of the reasons for burnout among first-time entrepreneurs. It must be understood that anything that does not help your growth directly can be delegated to someone else. You need to place your focus where it matters the most, and let others take care of tasks which are not critical to the business. Another challenge that start-ups and small businesses face is the problem of cash flow. As an entrepreneur even if you are financially getting help, you sometimes do not have the time, space and resources available to hire that additional employee that is really needed. This is the reason why many businesses turn to virtual assistants. A virtual assistant not only saves time and money but is a financially viable time tested investment for the growth of the company.   There are good reasons why the trend of virtual work is catching up. The first and the foremost is the penetration of technology which has enabled work force to function from almost any remote location. This helps businesses hire a wide range of talent pool readily available from across the globe. You could be hiring virtual assistants for one of the following reasons: You don’t need or cannot afford a full-time employee You find it troublesome to complete important tasks You need work to be done, but don’t have the luxury of office space Your frequent travel requires you to have someone work virtually Most of your time is spent in organizing than executing You know what tasks to be done, but don’t have anybody to do it As far as hiring an employee is concerned, it is about having a fit between the business goals and culture. However, if you only need help in doing administrative tasks and have the flexibility of hiring someone virtually, then you should definitely consider hiring a virtual assistant. Benefits that virtual assistants bring to start-ups and small businesses Earlier, it was believed that virtual assistants are only for executives. It is no longer the case, with start-ups and small businesses finding obvious benefits. VAs is a big time saver during the growth phase of the company where it doesn’t make fiscal sense to have full time employees. Today, small businesses and start-ups swear by the fact that virtual assistant has helped them in improving productivity, happiness and work-life balance. The scope of VAs are not limited to personal tasks – start-ups and small businesses use VA’s for tasks like order processing, customer support, bookkeeping, social media, web design and development, email management, marketing and administrative tasks. Guidance for the Virtual Employee You have to treat the virtual assistant just like a telecommuting employee. You need to still provide supervision on what kind of tasks need to be done and you need to understand the right fit for the job at hand. There is a need for some level of training, whether you start from small tasks and then give more responsibility or give more direction in the beginning and step back later. In any relationship, it is better to focus on the long term and build trust over time. Conclusion As the interaction with the virtual assistant increases you can provide honest feedback to the work being done. After all, the trust factor with the virtual employee is important as well. You can start by providing your password for social media accounts and ask them to manage the social media accounts. When the trust gets established you can follow it by making him/her book vacations using your credit card. The important thing is that your Virtual Assistant is just like any other employee in your office, who needs to be taken care of just like a normal employee and given the due courtesy. The virtual employee helps reduce your workload so that you can focus on the much important things.

Virtual Strategic Partner: The Secret behind the success of Start-ups and Small Businesses Read More »

Highly productive people do not have any secret sauce behind their success but rather they are very good at doing something which other people forget often. It’s delegating. In principle, delegating might sound like a fairly easy step but if you look closer, there is a fair amount of planning that goes into getting it done. This is especially true for heads of start-ups and small businesses. Why to Hire Virtual Assistants? In the beginning, it is understood that it is very difficult to let go control of the business at this early stage. Too much of multi-tasking is one of the reasons for burnout among first-time entrepreneurs. It must be understood that anything that does not help your growth directly can be delegated to someone else. You need to place your focus where it matters the most, and let others take care of tasks which are not critical to the business. Another challenge that start-ups and small businesses face is the problem of cash flow. As an entrepreneur even if you are financially getting help, you sometimes do not have the time, space and resources available to hire that additional employee that is really needed. This is the reason why many businesses turn to virtual assistants. A virtual assistant not only saves time and money but is a financially viable time tested investment for the growth of the company.   There are good reasons why the trend of virtual work is catching up. The first and the foremost is the penetration of technology which has enabled work force to function from almost any remote location. This helps businesses hire a wide range of talent pool readily available from across the globe. You could be hiring virtual assistants for one of the following reasons: You don’t need or cannot afford a full-time employee You find it troublesome to complete important tasks You need work to be done, but don’t have the luxury of office space Your frequent travel requires you to have someone work virtually Most of your time is spent in organizing than executing You know what tasks to be done, but don’t have anybody to do it As far as hiring an employee is concerned, it is about having a fit between the business goals and culture. However, if you only need help in doing administrative tasks and have the flexibility of hiring someone virtually, then you should definitely consider hiring a virtual assistant. Benefits that virtual assistants bring to start-ups and small businesses Earlier, it was believed that virtual assistants are only for executives. It is no longer the case, with start-ups and small businesses finding obvious benefits. VAs is a big time saver during the growth phase of the company where it doesn’t make fiscal sense to have full time employees. Today, small businesses and start-ups swear by the fact that virtual assistant has helped them in improving productivity, happiness and work-life balance. The scope of VAs are not limited to personal tasks – start-ups and small businesses use VA’s for tasks like order processing, customer support, bookkeeping, social media, web design and development, email management, marketing and administrative tasks. Guidance for the Virtual Employee You have to treat the virtual assistant just like a telecommuting employee. You need to still provide supervision on what kind of tasks need to be done and you need to understand the right fit for the job at hand. There is a need for some level of training, whether you start from small tasks and then give more responsibility or give more direction in the beginning and step back later. In any relationship, it is better to focus on the long term and build trust over time. Conclusion As the interaction with the virtual assistant increases you can provide honest feedback to the work being done. After all, the trust factor with the virtual employee is important as well. You can start by providing your password for social media accounts and ask them to manage the social media accounts. When the trust gets established you can follow it by making him/her book vacations using your credit card. The important thing is that your Virtual Assistant is just like any other employee in your office, who needs to be taken care of just like a normal employee and given the due courtesy. The virtual employee helps reduce your workload so that you can focus on the much important things.

Best virtual assistance service provider

Executive Virtual Assistant – A time management solution for C-level Executives

As a C-level executive are you juggling between your administrative tasks and high-level works with a short deadline?  According to Inc. Magazine article, effective leaders focus on high-level business strategies and problem solving that demand their expertise and attention, whereas less effective leaders spend their time more evenly across a number of roles including low-level administrative jobs, micro managing etc., It is found that on an average, managers spend more than 25% of their time doing administrative tasks which could be a downturn in daily productivity and business growth.  To be a high performing leader it is necessary to differentiate the important and unimportant jobs at hand. As a first step to manage time effectively, identify the important tasks, important and outsourceable task and finally unimportant tasks.  As a C-suite employee, most of your daily works are likely to fall under “Important & Outsourceable” category, now refine that into a list of items. In today’s scenario outsourcing has become a new normal not only for business but also for C-suite employees. The new age Executive Virtual Assistants (EVA) is both virtual and on-demand. Virtual assistants nowadays are more skilled and affordable. They work from a remote location and help with your daily errands and you can pay on hourly basis or time spent. This article explores how EVA’s can be of help to C-level executives like you and here is a list of such important tasks which you can think of outsourcing. Email & Calendar Management Tasks Keeping the calendar up to date can be one of the most mundane tasks you are handling and surprisingly it takes a great deal of time.  You would be receiving a lot of mails on a daily basis, which eats a chunk of your time. This stream of mails can be assigned to an Executive Virtual Assistant, who takes care of it to give you much needed time to work on other important matters at hand. Hence your EVA will fix appointments for you, schedule them in your calendars and help you plan your day effectively. Online Research As a C-suite employee, online research is essential for number of things right from updating yourself about the latest happenings in the industry, data curation for your upcoming blog or even to prepare your next TED talk. Here is where your virtual assistant becomes a support tool.  Your remote executive assistant can help you in doing research for business works that would give you an extra time to focus on other pressing needs.   Proof-reading documents Proofreading is an essential managerial job and as C-level person we would come across a lot of works like proposals, blogs updating, documents writing etc., which involves extensive proofreading.  Your EVA will help you in handling the proofreading task and can ensure your written materials are accurate, relevant and ready to use. Secretarial Tasks Earlier, it was common for every C-level executive to have a personal secretary at hand to take care of the regular administrative tasks. But presently, in this age of cost cutting and saving on administrative tasks, it has become uncommon to have a personal secretary. But, help is at hand, with Executive Virtual Assistant (EVA), you can outsource all your administrative errands like attending phone calls and free up your time to focus on much important things. Data Curation There is always a pile of data that needs to be converted into something meaningful. You can leave all the data curation to your Executive Virtual Assistant. Social Media Management Your virtual assistant can be an extension of you on social media.  As a C- suite executive you tend to spend all your time at the office, busy with meeting, conferences and deals and you would hardly have time to manage your social media accounts. Here comes your assistant for your rescue! Your EVA can accommodate all your social media tasks, which include but not limited to; creating posts and promoting Facebook fan pages/ groups, managing and increasing your twitter following etc., Personal Tasks Being a high performing leader gives you less space for your personal life and it becomes more than a challenge to balance your work and life. We often face scenarios that does not justify our personal schedule and feel desperate for family time. Do not worry; your EVA can make some difference here! They can help in various errands like family trips, work out routines, arranging for plumbers, booking hotels and many more. Basically, your EVA can take care of your personal routines as well. If you think outsourcing the above errands will help manage your time, Think GetFriday, and we can make your life better.  Try out our services and manage your time effectively with an Executive Virtual Assistant.

Executive Virtual Assistant – A time management solution for C-level Executives Read More »

As a C-level executive are you juggling between your administrative tasks and high-level works with a short deadline?  According to Inc. Magazine article, effective leaders focus on high-level business strategies and problem solving that demand their expertise and attention, whereas less effective leaders spend their time more evenly across a number of roles including low-level administrative jobs, micro managing etc., It is found that on an average, managers spend more than 25% of their time doing administrative tasks which could be a downturn in daily productivity and business growth.  To be a high performing leader it is necessary to differentiate the important and unimportant jobs at hand. As a first step to manage time effectively, identify the important tasks, important and outsourceable task and finally unimportant tasks.  As a C-suite employee, most of your daily works are likely to fall under “Important & Outsourceable” category, now refine that into a list of items. In today’s scenario outsourcing has become a new normal not only for business but also for C-suite employees. The new age Executive Virtual Assistants (EVA) is both virtual and on-demand. Virtual assistants nowadays are more skilled and affordable. They work from a remote location and help with your daily errands and you can pay on hourly basis or time spent. This article explores how EVA’s can be of help to C-level executives like you and here is a list of such important tasks which you can think of outsourcing. Email & Calendar Management Tasks Keeping the calendar up to date can be one of the most mundane tasks you are handling and surprisingly it takes a great deal of time.  You would be receiving a lot of mails on a daily basis, which eats a chunk of your time. This stream of mails can be assigned to an Executive Virtual Assistant, who takes care of it to give you much needed time to work on other important matters at hand. Hence your EVA will fix appointments for you, schedule them in your calendars and help you plan your day effectively. Online Research As a C-suite employee, online research is essential for number of things right from updating yourself about the latest happenings in the industry, data curation for your upcoming blog or even to prepare your next TED talk. Here is where your virtual assistant becomes a support tool.  Your remote executive assistant can help you in doing research for business works that would give you an extra time to focus on other pressing needs.   Proof-reading documents Proofreading is an essential managerial job and as C-level person we would come across a lot of works like proposals, blogs updating, documents writing etc., which involves extensive proofreading.  Your EVA will help you in handling the proofreading task and can ensure your written materials are accurate, relevant and ready to use. Secretarial Tasks Earlier, it was common for every C-level executive to have a personal secretary at hand to take care of the regular administrative tasks. But presently, in this age of cost cutting and saving on administrative tasks, it has become uncommon to have a personal secretary. But, help is at hand, with Executive Virtual Assistant (EVA), you can outsource all your administrative errands like attending phone calls and free up your time to focus on much important things. Data Curation There is always a pile of data that needs to be converted into something meaningful. You can leave all the data curation to your Executive Virtual Assistant. Social Media Management Your virtual assistant can be an extension of you on social media.  As a C- suite executive you tend to spend all your time at the office, busy with meeting, conferences and deals and you would hardly have time to manage your social media accounts. Here comes your assistant for your rescue! Your EVA can accommodate all your social media tasks, which include but not limited to; creating posts and promoting Facebook fan pages/ groups, managing and increasing your twitter following etc., Personal Tasks Being a high performing leader gives you less space for your personal life and it becomes more than a challenge to balance your work and life. We often face scenarios that does not justify our personal schedule and feel desperate for family time. Do not worry; your EVA can make some difference here! They can help in various errands like family trips, work out routines, arranging for plumbers, booking hotels and many more. Basically, your EVA can take care of your personal routines as well. If you think outsourcing the above errands will help manage your time, Think GetFriday, and we can make your life better.  Try out our services and manage your time effectively with an Executive Virtual Assistant.

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