Virtual Assistance Service

Things to consider- Before Getting an Outside Blogger/ Writer

“Whether it is a blog or an e-commerce store, at the end of the day, it is the traffic that drives online business.” -Unknown A blog is a marketing tool that you can play around with, test and adapt to suit your needs and measure for effectiveness, as you go along, just like any other form of marketing. If you have a small business which plans to reach out to its audience using a blog, it is a good time to think whether you want to do it yourself or want to hand it over to someone, while you engage yourself in a supervisory role. There could be many reasons, why you would want to assign the responsibility of blog writing to someone else: It could be that your writing skills are just above average and you want some one better than you to manage it.   Your writing skills are good, but the time factor does not permit you to devote the amount of time required to churn out a decent blog.   It is cumbersome for you at this point of time to do all the research. So it is prudent to hire someone to do research and blog as well.   As said above, the intention behind writing the blog is to attract more traffic to your website. In such a case you have to make an important decision to make sure the blog ticks. These are some of the important pointers you might want to adhere to while selecting the blogger: Your rapport with your readers It is possible that over the years you have created a credible following for your blog among your readers. And as your business has scaled up, time has become a precious and a limited resource for you. In such a context you would want to think twice before you outsource your blog writing. The option available before you could be to reduce the number of posts of your blog. But, this could result in a loss of some of your readers. In such a scenario, it is better to hire a blog writer and weather the storm of losing some readers. And you would see, things stabilizing after a certain period of time. Overall, it is about you posting good content on the blog. As long as the content is good, your readers will hang in there, without bidding goodbye. The Type of Blogger You are entrusting your business reputation with the blogger, when you make the choice of hiring someone from outside for your website. It becomes equally important to see whether: a. The blogger has similar personality traits as yours b. His/ her writing style is in sync with yours c. The writing style fits the brand d. The blogger has knowledge of the job You are looking at someone, who can take it one notch up and enhance your reputation. The person needs to fire up your reader’s imagination and get them to talk about your business. By doing so, it leaves you with additional time on your hands and lets you focus on streamlining your business. Blog Marketing It becomes very obvious that the time you save from assigning your blog to someone outside, can be used by you in doing other strategic activities for your business. While the blogger can help you in blog marketing, it is seen that Google places special emphasis on good content. By hiring a blogger from outside who is proficient in SEO, your website will achieve a higher page rank on Google. This would apparently invite more traffic to your website than before. Fresh Perspective As a business owner, there are times when you could become oblivious to certain aspects of the business. These can be termed as blind spots, which get overlooked most times. However, getting help from outside brings in a fresh pair of eyes and perspective to the business because the outside blogger would associate with the brand differently than you. The fresh view can help bring out never before heard stories about your brand, which could popularise your brand. In due course of time, you will learn to appreciate and associate yourself with this fresh perspective. Access to Updated Knowledge This luxury of having a blogger from outside means you are dealing with a professional. Since his/her profession calls for updating knowledge every now and then, it comes by default that the blogs he/she writes is always up to date on knowledge and happenings in the stipulated domain. The final deliverable that you come across would always be updated on SEO, content standards and the trends in the industry. Poorly written Posts Hurt Your Brand In a world where Google ranking is very important it becomes tremendously important that your blog is well written. Google’s page ranking algorithm is seen to be positively inclined towards high quality content. Else, there are chances that a blog with grammatical errors and spammy links is not going to get you a higher page rank. There needs to be consistent effort from your side to succeed at Google page rank, every time you post a blog. A professional can bring about the consistency, then it is a good idea to assign your blog writing to some one outside the company. You could also hire a virtual assistant (VA) from GetFriday to write a blog and keep yourself free to do other things, which would help your business in the longer run. You can also hire a freelancer from Hubstaff Talent.Your brand and its growth among other blogs can be completely taken over by the VA, while you provide the macro view on how the blog post must be managed.

Things to consider- Before Getting an Outside Blogger/ Writer Read More »

“Whether it is a blog or an e-commerce store, at the end of the day, it is the traffic that drives online business.” -Unknown A blog is a marketing tool that you can play around with, test and adapt to suit your needs and measure for effectiveness, as you go along, just like any other form of marketing. If you have a small business which plans to reach out to its audience using a blog, it is a good time to think whether you want to do it yourself or want to hand it over to someone, while you engage yourself in a supervisory role. There could be many reasons, why you would want to assign the responsibility of blog writing to someone else: It could be that your writing skills are just above average and you want some one better than you to manage it.   Your writing skills are good, but the time factor does not permit you to devote the amount of time required to churn out a decent blog.   It is cumbersome for you at this point of time to do all the research. So it is prudent to hire someone to do research and blog as well.   As said above, the intention behind writing the blog is to attract more traffic to your website. In such a case you have to make an important decision to make sure the blog ticks. These are some of the important pointers you might want to adhere to while selecting the blogger: Your rapport with your readers It is possible that over the years you have created a credible following for your blog among your readers. And as your business has scaled up, time has become a precious and a limited resource for you. In such a context you would want to think twice before you outsource your blog writing. The option available before you could be to reduce the number of posts of your blog. But, this could result in a loss of some of your readers. In such a scenario, it is better to hire a blog writer and weather the storm of losing some readers. And you would see, things stabilizing after a certain period of time. Overall, it is about you posting good content on the blog. As long as the content is good, your readers will hang in there, without bidding goodbye. The Type of Blogger You are entrusting your business reputation with the blogger, when you make the choice of hiring someone from outside for your website. It becomes equally important to see whether: a. The blogger has similar personality traits as yours b. His/ her writing style is in sync with yours c. The writing style fits the brand d. The blogger has knowledge of the job You are looking at someone, who can take it one notch up and enhance your reputation. The person needs to fire up your reader’s imagination and get them to talk about your business. By doing so, it leaves you with additional time on your hands and lets you focus on streamlining your business. Blog Marketing It becomes very obvious that the time you save from assigning your blog to someone outside, can be used by you in doing other strategic activities for your business. While the blogger can help you in blog marketing, it is seen that Google places special emphasis on good content. By hiring a blogger from outside who is proficient in SEO, your website will achieve a higher page rank on Google. This would apparently invite more traffic to your website than before. Fresh Perspective As a business owner, there are times when you could become oblivious to certain aspects of the business. These can be termed as blind spots, which get overlooked most times. However, getting help from outside brings in a fresh pair of eyes and perspective to the business because the outside blogger would associate with the brand differently than you. The fresh view can help bring out never before heard stories about your brand, which could popularise your brand. In due course of time, you will learn to appreciate and associate yourself with this fresh perspective. Access to Updated Knowledge This luxury of having a blogger from outside means you are dealing with a professional. Since his/her profession calls for updating knowledge every now and then, it comes by default that the blogs he/she writes is always up to date on knowledge and happenings in the stipulated domain. The final deliverable that you come across would always be updated on SEO, content standards and the trends in the industry. Poorly written Posts Hurt Your Brand In a world where Google ranking is very important it becomes tremendously important that your blog is well written. Google’s page ranking algorithm is seen to be positively inclined towards high quality content. Else, there are chances that a blog with grammatical errors and spammy links is not going to get you a higher page rank. There needs to be consistent effort from your side to succeed at Google page rank, every time you post a blog. A professional can bring about the consistency, then it is a good idea to assign your blog writing to some one outside the company. You could also hire a virtual assistant (VA) from GetFriday to write a blog and keep yourself free to do other things, which would help your business in the longer run. You can also hire a freelancer from Hubstaff Talent.Your brand and its growth among other blogs can be completely taken over by the VA, while you provide the macro view on how the blog post must be managed.

E-Commerce Advantage with GetFriday

If you are over-whelmed by your e-commerce business by the number of activities, GetFriday is here to help you with your business. We have skilled and experienced executives to help you with your e-commerce business needs. The key tasks which GetFriday undertakes on behalf of e-commerce business are inventory management, order processing, order tracking and customer support. Inventory Management The GetFriday executive logs into the client’s CRM and downloads the daily inventory files. The executive then checks and updates the client on the daily status of the products such as in stock, out of stock and approaching safety stock, to track for the availability of each product. Order Processing When an order is placed on the website by a customer, the GetFriday executive then co-ordinates with the vendor and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. The executive also cross verifies the shipping address and the quantity officially placed with the supplier to fulfill orders. Order tracking Once the product has been shipped, the GetFriday executive co-ordinates with the logistical partner to get the tracking code. The executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and updates the customer to help them track the order. Customer Support GetFriday executives are well trained to attend to all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails with multiple back ups so that regular work is not interrupted. If you are overcome by increased orders, GetFriday will be able to handle all tasks with multiple back-up assistance meeting all quality standards and deadlines. We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions high domain expertise and timeliness are other qualities of our executives. What are you waiting for? To get started, visit our website @ www.getfriday.com or write to us at support@getfriday.com or get an understanding of all the e-commerce process which GetFriday supports with the video Managing Major Tasks for eCommerce Businesses 0:00 Hello There! Do you run an E-commerce business? Are you overwhelmed by the number of tasks? 0:06 Do not worry!! GetFriday is here to help you with your business tasks. 0:11 First let me introduce myself. I am Kumar,Project manager for e-commerce businesses in GetFriday. 0:18 I will walk you through the processes we support for e-commerce businesses. 0:22 We have experienced and skilled executives to take care of your e-commerce business needs. 0:27 The key tasks we undertake on behalf of e-commerce businesses are Inventory management, Order processing, Order tracking, and Customer support. I am really excited to walk you through each task. 0:39 Let us start with Inventory management. 0:42 Your GetFriday executive will log into your CRM and download the inventory files daily at the start of the day. 0:47 Your executive will then check and update you about the daily status of the products i.e. In-stock, Out-stock, and approaching safety stock to keep track of each product’s availability in the stock. 1:01 Second key task is ‘Order processing’. 1:04 When an order is placed on your website by a customer, your GetFriday executive coordinates with the vendors and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. 1:14 Your assistant will also cross verify the details such as shipping address and the quantity ordered for efficiently placing the order with the suppliers. 1:20 Now we come to the Third major task which is ‘Order Tracking’. 1:22 Once the product is shipped, your executive will coordinate with your logistics partner to get the tracking code. Your executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and update the customers to help them track the order. 1:36 The other task undertaken for e-commerce businesses is ‘Customer support service”. Your GetFriday executive is well trained in handling all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails. 1:48 Your assistant will take care of your daily customer care support activities such as emails, calls, etc. with multiple back-ups so that the regular work continues uninterrupted. 2:00 And if you find yourself with increased orders, do not worry!! GetFriday will be able to handle all the tasks with multiple back-up assistants meeting all the quality standards and deadlines. 2:11 We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions. High domain expertise and timeliness are other major qualities of GetFriday’s executives. 2:22 Then what are you waiting for? Let’s get started. 2:32 Visit our website www.getfriday.com to know more about the services. Or write an email to support@getfriday.com with your requirements.

E-Commerce Advantage with GetFriday Read More »

If you are over-whelmed by your e-commerce business by the number of activities, GetFriday is here to help you with your business. We have skilled and experienced executives to help you with your e-commerce business needs. The key tasks which GetFriday undertakes on behalf of e-commerce business are inventory management, order processing, order tracking and customer support. Inventory Management The GetFriday executive logs into the client’s CRM and downloads the daily inventory files. The executive then checks and updates the client on the daily status of the products such as in stock, out of stock and approaching safety stock, to track for the availability of each product. Order Processing When an order is placed on the website by a customer, the GetFriday executive then co-ordinates with the vendor and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. The executive also cross verifies the shipping address and the quantity officially placed with the supplier to fulfill orders. Order tracking Once the product has been shipped, the GetFriday executive co-ordinates with the logistical partner to get the tracking code. The executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and updates the customer to help them track the order. Customer Support GetFriday executives are well trained to attend to all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails with multiple back ups so that regular work is not interrupted. If you are overcome by increased orders, GetFriday will be able to handle all tasks with multiple back-up assistance meeting all quality standards and deadlines. We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions high domain expertise and timeliness are other qualities of our executives. What are you waiting for? To get started, visit our website @ www.getfriday.com or write to us at support@getfriday.com or get an understanding of all the e-commerce process which GetFriday supports with the video Managing Major Tasks for eCommerce Businesses 0:00 Hello There! Do you run an E-commerce business? Are you overwhelmed by the number of tasks? 0:06 Do not worry!! GetFriday is here to help you with your business tasks. 0:11 First let me introduce myself. I am Kumar,Project manager for e-commerce businesses in GetFriday. 0:18 I will walk you through the processes we support for e-commerce businesses. 0:22 We have experienced and skilled executives to take care of your e-commerce business needs. 0:27 The key tasks we undertake on behalf of e-commerce businesses are Inventory management, Order processing, Order tracking, and Customer support. I am really excited to walk you through each task. 0:39 Let us start with Inventory management. 0:42 Your GetFriday executive will log into your CRM and download the inventory files daily at the start of the day. 0:47 Your executive will then check and update you about the daily status of the products i.e. In-stock, Out-stock, and approaching safety stock to keep track of each product’s availability in the stock. 1:01 Second key task is ‘Order processing’. 1:04 When an order is placed on your website by a customer, your GetFriday executive coordinates with the vendors and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. 1:14 Your assistant will also cross verify the details such as shipping address and the quantity ordered for efficiently placing the order with the suppliers. 1:20 Now we come to the Third major task which is ‘Order Tracking’. 1:22 Once the product is shipped, your executive will coordinate with your logistics partner to get the tracking code. Your executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and update the customers to help them track the order. 1:36 The other task undertaken for e-commerce businesses is ‘Customer support service”. Your GetFriday executive is well trained in handling all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails. 1:48 Your assistant will take care of your daily customer care support activities such as emails, calls, etc. with multiple back-ups so that the regular work continues uninterrupted. 2:00 And if you find yourself with increased orders, do not worry!! GetFriday will be able to handle all the tasks with multiple back-up assistants meeting all the quality standards and deadlines. 2:11 We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions. High domain expertise and timeliness are other major qualities of GetFriday’s executives. 2:22 Then what are you waiting for? Let’s get started. 2:32 Visit our website www.getfriday.com to know more about the services. Or write an email to support@getfriday.com with your requirements.

Digital Nomads

Picture this – how would you like it if you get to work for at least a few months on the endless white beaches of Bali while the turquoise-emerald waters splashed against the shore? You could even work out of a dreamy village tucked away on the alluring coast of Spain. Take your pick. No daily commute in the traffic and no rush. Sounds unbelievable right? Believe us when we say that a new breed of techies is doing just that. They are called ‘digital nomads’. It is a combination of 2 words – digital and nomad. Here the digital part means someone, who is tech savvy and nomad is someone preferring a nomadic lifestyle compared to a regular one. These are people who have let go of the comforts of their home and offices to live nomadic lives. They are just like you and me but prefer to live location independent life. Meaning they have chosen to let go of the stability and comfort of living in one place; either with or without a regular income. There are several kinds of digital nomads – people who have jobs with regular organisations but happen to telecommute; freelancers and entrepreneurs. All of them move about from place to place and complete their jobs using a laptop and with the help of high speed internet connectivity. There are a couple of advantages of living like this. It helps not being tied down by organisational rules and responsibilities and experiencing the freedom to travel and explore new cultures. Most of the nomads are more focussed on eventually becoming online entrepreneurs or freelancers by leveraging the advantages offered by technology, such as high-speed internet through which it is possible to create a viable career online in almost any location. There are increasing number of careers that have been created online, jobs such as web design, software engineering, programming, graphic design, English teacher, travel writer, SEO consultant are some of the careers an aspiring digital nomad can look forward to. There needs to be a certain willingness to let go of the familiar and embrace the unknown. Excelling at a particular skill and being able to make money out of it happens to be the most important trait for a nomad. It is especially meant for folks who are tired of a 9-5 grind and want freedom from it. They prefer to have the luxury of freedom to travel on their part and would not like to be tied down by a regular office job. Freelancers among them happen to work on their own schedule and complete the task assigned to them. If you are successful at becoming a digital nomad, then your workstation could be under the blue sky on sandy beaches. There are a number of possibilities available such as being able to meet new people and explore new places every few months. There is also a flip side to being a digital nomad. Getting used to the idea having to deal with no internet at times and coping with different cuisines, having to continuously deal with booking your own hotels, flight tickets and other living arrangements in the new place. You also tend to miss the birthdays and parties hosted by your loved ones. Getting to date someone becomes a luxury, since you are not around in a regular place most of the time. If you happen to dream of having a life like this, then it is important to find organisations that will help you in this endeavour. There are sites that help hire freelancers through their portal. Next there are sites that help in finding accommodations. Then there are sites that help compare the cost of living in cities around the world. There are also organisations like GetFriday, to whom you could assign a chunk of mundane tasks that you want someone else to do on your behalf. Stuff like booking your tickets and hotel reservations can be taken care of by a virtual assistant (VA), while you focus on the more important core job that you are good at. Suppose you’re good at writing, you could assign – answering emails, calendar management, blog posting to a virtual assistant (VA), thus ensuring you have enough time to do things that you enjoy the most. It is about finding out what your non-core tasks are and then assigning these tasks to a VA to have more clarity and focus on your core tasks.

Digital Nomads Read More »

Picture this – how would you like it if you get to work for at least a few months on the endless white beaches of Bali while the turquoise-emerald waters splashed against the shore? You could even work out of a dreamy village tucked away on the alluring coast of Spain. Take your pick. No daily commute in the traffic and no rush. Sounds unbelievable right? Believe us when we say that a new breed of techies is doing just that. They are called ‘digital nomads’. It is a combination of 2 words – digital and nomad. Here the digital part means someone, who is tech savvy and nomad is someone preferring a nomadic lifestyle compared to a regular one. These are people who have let go of the comforts of their home and offices to live nomadic lives. They are just like you and me but prefer to live location independent life. Meaning they have chosen to let go of the stability and comfort of living in one place; either with or without a regular income. There are several kinds of digital nomads – people who have jobs with regular organisations but happen to telecommute; freelancers and entrepreneurs. All of them move about from place to place and complete their jobs using a laptop and with the help of high speed internet connectivity. There are a couple of advantages of living like this. It helps not being tied down by organisational rules and responsibilities and experiencing the freedom to travel and explore new cultures. Most of the nomads are more focussed on eventually becoming online entrepreneurs or freelancers by leveraging the advantages offered by technology, such as high-speed internet through which it is possible to create a viable career online in almost any location. There are increasing number of careers that have been created online, jobs such as web design, software engineering, programming, graphic design, English teacher, travel writer, SEO consultant are some of the careers an aspiring digital nomad can look forward to. There needs to be a certain willingness to let go of the familiar and embrace the unknown. Excelling at a particular skill and being able to make money out of it happens to be the most important trait for a nomad. It is especially meant for folks who are tired of a 9-5 grind and want freedom from it. They prefer to have the luxury of freedom to travel on their part and would not like to be tied down by a regular office job. Freelancers among them happen to work on their own schedule and complete the task assigned to them. If you are successful at becoming a digital nomad, then your workstation could be under the blue sky on sandy beaches. There are a number of possibilities available such as being able to meet new people and explore new places every few months. There is also a flip side to being a digital nomad. Getting used to the idea having to deal with no internet at times and coping with different cuisines, having to continuously deal with booking your own hotels, flight tickets and other living arrangements in the new place. You also tend to miss the birthdays and parties hosted by your loved ones. Getting to date someone becomes a luxury, since you are not around in a regular place most of the time. If you happen to dream of having a life like this, then it is important to find organisations that will help you in this endeavour. There are sites that help hire freelancers through their portal. Next there are sites that help in finding accommodations. Then there are sites that help compare the cost of living in cities around the world. There are also organisations like GetFriday, to whom you could assign a chunk of mundane tasks that you want someone else to do on your behalf. Stuff like booking your tickets and hotel reservations can be taken care of by a virtual assistant (VA), while you focus on the more important core job that you are good at. Suppose you’re good at writing, you could assign – answering emails, calendar management, blog posting to a virtual assistant (VA), thus ensuring you have enough time to do things that you enjoy the most. It is about finding out what your non-core tasks are and then assigning these tasks to a VA to have more clarity and focus on your core tasks.

Top 10 trends on social media in 2017

This article seeks to share what are likely to be the key trends to shape up in 2017. As a small business you need to be on top of the trends to gauge, if you are connecting with the right audience or not. Here are some of the trends that are going to define 2017. Social Messaging It is an increasing trend for people to turn to private social messaging rather than engage on social networks. In February 2016, Whatsapp announced it has hit the 1 billion mark. Messaging has a much wider community compared to social networks, and hence companies are taking advantage of this situation. In fact, if you happen to click an ad on Facebook messenger, it directly takes you to the brand’s chat window. As companies learn about the advantage of these, compared to social networks, they will increasingly make their presence felt here. In 2017, we are likely to see more interesting developments on social messaging. Action on Fake News Today there are more people turning to social media platforms for their news. As a result, we see more inaccurate content getting circulated on these media platforms. We saw the worst of this in the US presidential election, where fake news about both candidates was circulated across Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. In terms of action, Facebook has already stopped these news outlets from advertising on its platform. In Europe, Germany is already considering legislation against platforms that allow fake news to proliferate. New age users are smart and tech savvy and are likely to investigate and authenticate the news, and reward actual reporting by sharing content. Chat Bots Instead of, on their Facebook wall, more companies are engaging with customers on a one-on-one basis within their messaging platforms. We are likely to see more companies deploy bots to automatically respond to customers. The content on the site and the response that is provided would become equally important. Artificial Intelligence is beginning to touch every part of our daily lives, with SIRI and Google Assistant, people are moving to voice recognition tools away from typing out a search. A majority of the major social networks now deploy chat bots to handle simple bookings and customer service. This in-turn can free up customer support representatives to answer more in-depth queries. Employees turn to brand promoters In 2017, we will see increasing number of employees turning brand ambassadors for their respective brands. This is especially true for companies that want to expand the reach and impact of social media without spending a penny. Employee Advocacy is the practice of incentivizing and encouraging team members to share brand messages on their own social media account. Brands have now started focusing on their employees to promote a brand. Promoting brands on one’s personal social account is a trusted practice. There is no right way or wrong way of doing it, but advocacy cannot be forced. Customer Support Social media has grown in ability to run effective client support programs. Brands are slowly but surely are becoming aware of the practice of having teams on their payrolls to answer and resolve issues. Research shows a high percentage of users expect responses from brands they follow, sometimes in as little as within an hour. This has led brands to heavily invest in teams and tools which help them remain on top of the latest social media developments. Beginning 2017, a large part of client service will shift to social media accounts. Social media analytics In the earlier days of social media, it was seen as an option and used more on a trial basis for marketing activities. Later, social media presence for brands became the norm. These days and in the coming months, we are likely to see powerful social media analytics tools that provide more comprehensive and easier to use tools for the layman. Marketers will come to heavily rely on social media statistics for key decision making in this year. In the current lot, Google Analytics, Followerwonk, Iconosquare are the most used analytics tools and also happen to be free. These can be of tremendous help for small business owners who want to know the latest on social media analytics. Live Video Social media sites have taken the engagement with video sharing to the next level by launching live video in real time. Live streaming first became popular by twitter’s periscope. Now, Facebook live has been launched. Social media videos have more engagement than any other content and, have been responsible for recent growth of Facebook. According to estimates, some 74% of the total traffic on the internet is due only to video content. Even news channels are quoting Facebook Live while they cover news. We could see brands releasing engaging content or conduct marketing around a particular event in the near future. We are going to see more of this in the months to come. Augmented Reality Pokemon Go and Snapchat selfie brought augmented reality into social sphere. Hence, one can expect other social platforms to jump on this bandwagon. Facebook has already confirmed that it is experimenting with augmented reality. The technology is actually old, but it has recently caught the attention of social media networks. In 2017, we will see more of this with brands choosing to engage with their audience using this technology. Social Media commerce Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest are offering ways to purchase products online. You can buy products displayed on social networks now. The buy buttons on these networks are soon going to become ubiquitous. Research shows that new age users are more likely to buy products which they are following online. Also product demonstration videos on social networks are also a factor in bringing sales to these social networks. Disappearing/ ephemeral Media First, it was Snapchat which started with disappearing visual content. Instagram was the second to join this bandwagon. New age users love intimate thoughts and risqué pictures to disappear forever. The content for the media

Top 10 trends on social media in 2017 Read More »

This article seeks to share what are likely to be the key trends to shape up in 2017. As a small business you need to be on top of the trends to gauge, if you are connecting with the right audience or not. Here are some of the trends that are going to define 2017. Social Messaging It is an increasing trend for people to turn to private social messaging rather than engage on social networks. In February 2016, Whatsapp announced it has hit the 1 billion mark. Messaging has a much wider community compared to social networks, and hence companies are taking advantage of this situation. In fact, if you happen to click an ad on Facebook messenger, it directly takes you to the brand’s chat window. As companies learn about the advantage of these, compared to social networks, they will increasingly make their presence felt here. In 2017, we are likely to see more interesting developments on social messaging. Action on Fake News Today there are more people turning to social media platforms for their news. As a result, we see more inaccurate content getting circulated on these media platforms. We saw the worst of this in the US presidential election, where fake news about both candidates was circulated across Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. In terms of action, Facebook has already stopped these news outlets from advertising on its platform. In Europe, Germany is already considering legislation against platforms that allow fake news to proliferate. New age users are smart and tech savvy and are likely to investigate and authenticate the news, and reward actual reporting by sharing content. Chat Bots Instead of, on their Facebook wall, more companies are engaging with customers on a one-on-one basis within their messaging platforms. We are likely to see more companies deploy bots to automatically respond to customers. The content on the site and the response that is provided would become equally important. Artificial Intelligence is beginning to touch every part of our daily lives, with SIRI and Google Assistant, people are moving to voice recognition tools away from typing out a search. A majority of the major social networks now deploy chat bots to handle simple bookings and customer service. This in-turn can free up customer support representatives to answer more in-depth queries. Employees turn to brand promoters In 2017, we will see increasing number of employees turning brand ambassadors for their respective brands. This is especially true for companies that want to expand the reach and impact of social media without spending a penny. Employee Advocacy is the practice of incentivizing and encouraging team members to share brand messages on their own social media account. Brands have now started focusing on their employees to promote a brand. Promoting brands on one’s personal social account is a trusted practice. There is no right way or wrong way of doing it, but advocacy cannot be forced. Customer Support Social media has grown in ability to run effective client support programs. Brands are slowly but surely are becoming aware of the practice of having teams on their payrolls to answer and resolve issues. Research shows a high percentage of users expect responses from brands they follow, sometimes in as little as within an hour. This has led brands to heavily invest in teams and tools which help them remain on top of the latest social media developments. Beginning 2017, a large part of client service will shift to social media accounts. Social media analytics In the earlier days of social media, it was seen as an option and used more on a trial basis for marketing activities. Later, social media presence for brands became the norm. These days and in the coming months, we are likely to see powerful social media analytics tools that provide more comprehensive and easier to use tools for the layman. Marketers will come to heavily rely on social media statistics for key decision making in this year. In the current lot, Google Analytics, Followerwonk, Iconosquare are the most used analytics tools and also happen to be free. These can be of tremendous help for small business owners who want to know the latest on social media analytics. Live Video Social media sites have taken the engagement with video sharing to the next level by launching live video in real time. Live streaming first became popular by twitter’s periscope. Now, Facebook live has been launched. Social media videos have more engagement than any other content and, have been responsible for recent growth of Facebook. According to estimates, some 74% of the total traffic on the internet is due only to video content. Even news channels are quoting Facebook Live while they cover news. We could see brands releasing engaging content or conduct marketing around a particular event in the near future. We are going to see more of this in the months to come. Augmented Reality Pokemon Go and Snapchat selfie brought augmented reality into social sphere. Hence, one can expect other social platforms to jump on this bandwagon. Facebook has already confirmed that it is experimenting with augmented reality. The technology is actually old, but it has recently caught the attention of social media networks. In 2017, we will see more of this with brands choosing to engage with their audience using this technology. Social Media commerce Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest are offering ways to purchase products online. You can buy products displayed on social networks now. The buy buttons on these networks are soon going to become ubiquitous. Research shows that new age users are more likely to buy products which they are following online. Also product demonstration videos on social networks are also a factor in bringing sales to these social networks. Disappearing/ ephemeral Media First, it was Snapchat which started with disappearing visual content. Instagram was the second to join this bandwagon. New age users love intimate thoughts and risqué pictures to disappear forever. The content for the media

Ebooks to increase value of your business

E-books are a digital version of a normal book and are meant to be an easy-to-carry alternative to a book. If you happen to have a website, there is a good chance that visitors who come to the site happen to search for an E-book. Depending on the type of website you own, it is always a good idea to have an e-book on the site, which can be downloaded freely by the site visitors. Apart from creating a good landing page, it is always a good idea that a free e-book will make the visitor come back for more the next time around. Staring off, e-books are books in electronic format which can be downloaded on PC, Mac, laptop, tablet or on any reading device and can be read on the screen. An Ebook can also be purchased online, just like any other item – the only difference being that you would be directed to a download page or a link where you would be able to read the book. After downloading the book, you need not stay online, the book remains available for reading. Now there is huge debate around normal books and e-books. This article seeks to provide certain insights into the type of arguments that generally surround e-books: Ebooks are delivered almost immediately to the readable device. There is no need to wait for it in the mail. Many Ebooks today come along with bonuses, which is not available with normal books. Ebooks take up less space, they can be easily stored in a readable device. It is not necessary to build a library to keep the books. They can be taken and read anywhere, without really worrying about the weight. Ebooks are searchable. You can easily search for information on an Ebook. They can be interactive and can incorporate audio, video and animation, which can enhance the message, the author is trying to convey. Fonts in the Ebooks can be resized, helpful for people with disabilities. With additional software e-books can be converted into audio books.   With these advantages in mind, a website owner should be eager to put-up free Ebooks on his website. However, it is equally important for owner to understand the arguments in favor of giving away Ebooks for free on the website. These are some of the points of view that will help a website owner to make up his mind regarding free Ebooks. Publicity It is a known fact that an average person will not spend his hard earned cash on a new author. But there is a good chance that people who visit the site will download a free Ebook when given a chance. This will ensure the author of the book will get enough publicity and limits the risk to the reader of buying an EBook from an unknown author. Feedback There is a good enough chance that a new author might not be easily accepted by the readers. There can be several rejections for a new author from the publishing houses. Meanwhile, it is equally possible that a new author would find it easy to publish a free Ebook and gather review and feedback from interested readers. These can be used by the author to tweak his writing and subject to garner enough loyal audience to help publish his/ her full fledged book. This equally applies to writers, who lack confidence in their writing to take the same path. Networking After having written a successful Ebook, it is certain that people will know you through the success of your book. You could be known in industrial circles as a go-to person regarding a specific domain. This, in the long run, will help you gather a network of like-minded persons and to be known as an expert in the domain is an added advantage. This will go a long way in creating robust personal network, which would definitely help your business in the long term. Leads A successful free Ebook will help you reap links from other website to yours. Even reviews and embedded social media buttons will help spread the word on the internet about your free Ebook. These are the means to generate positive leads for your business. Who said generosity is not good for business? After having made the case for giving away free Ebooks, most authors/ business owners are not professional writers, they own a business & workloads and writing remains a hobby on the sidelines. This calls for making life easy as a business owner and outsource the work of writing the Ebook to professionals. At GetFriday, you could hire a virtual assistant to write an Ebook for your website or do the basic research to get started on the Ebook. This will not only help you with all the advantages mentioned above, you could also free up time for other things that you enjoy.

Ebooks to increase value of your business Read More »

E-books are a digital version of a normal book and are meant to be an easy-to-carry alternative to a book. If you happen to have a website, there is a good chance that visitors who come to the site happen to search for an E-book. Depending on the type of website you own, it is always a good idea to have an e-book on the site, which can be downloaded freely by the site visitors. Apart from creating a good landing page, it is always a good idea that a free e-book will make the visitor come back for more the next time around. Staring off, e-books are books in electronic format which can be downloaded on PC, Mac, laptop, tablet or on any reading device and can be read on the screen. An Ebook can also be purchased online, just like any other item – the only difference being that you would be directed to a download page or a link where you would be able to read the book. After downloading the book, you need not stay online, the book remains available for reading. Now there is huge debate around normal books and e-books. This article seeks to provide certain insights into the type of arguments that generally surround e-books: Ebooks are delivered almost immediately to the readable device. There is no need to wait for it in the mail. Many Ebooks today come along with bonuses, which is not available with normal books. Ebooks take up less space, they can be easily stored in a readable device. It is not necessary to build a library to keep the books. They can be taken and read anywhere, without really worrying about the weight. Ebooks are searchable. You can easily search for information on an Ebook. They can be interactive and can incorporate audio, video and animation, which can enhance the message, the author is trying to convey. Fonts in the Ebooks can be resized, helpful for people with disabilities. With additional software e-books can be converted into audio books.   With these advantages in mind, a website owner should be eager to put-up free Ebooks on his website. However, it is equally important for owner to understand the arguments in favor of giving away Ebooks for free on the website. These are some of the points of view that will help a website owner to make up his mind regarding free Ebooks. Publicity It is a known fact that an average person will not spend his hard earned cash on a new author. But there is a good chance that people who visit the site will download a free Ebook when given a chance. This will ensure the author of the book will get enough publicity and limits the risk to the reader of buying an EBook from an unknown author. Feedback There is a good enough chance that a new author might not be easily accepted by the readers. There can be several rejections for a new author from the publishing houses. Meanwhile, it is equally possible that a new author would find it easy to publish a free Ebook and gather review and feedback from interested readers. These can be used by the author to tweak his writing and subject to garner enough loyal audience to help publish his/ her full fledged book. This equally applies to writers, who lack confidence in their writing to take the same path. Networking After having written a successful Ebook, it is certain that people will know you through the success of your book. You could be known in industrial circles as a go-to person regarding a specific domain. This, in the long run, will help you gather a network of like-minded persons and to be known as an expert in the domain is an added advantage. This will go a long way in creating robust personal network, which would definitely help your business in the long term. Leads A successful free Ebook will help you reap links from other website to yours. Even reviews and embedded social media buttons will help spread the word on the internet about your free Ebook. These are the means to generate positive leads for your business. Who said generosity is not good for business? After having made the case for giving away free Ebooks, most authors/ business owners are not professional writers, they own a business & workloads and writing remains a hobby on the sidelines. This calls for making life easy as a business owner and outsource the work of writing the Ebook to professionals. At GetFriday, you could hire a virtual assistant to write an Ebook for your website or do the basic research to get started on the Ebook. This will not only help you with all the advantages mentioned above, you could also free up time for other things that you enjoy.

Tips to convert your web traffic

Every business website should be able to attract enough traffic and also be able to convert the traffic into potential customers. There are several ways to do it. This article talks about a few key tips for converting the web traffic into potential customers: High quality content Having high quality content means updated information and authentic material about the business & services offered in the form of About Us, Contact Us or Customer Service Information. It is important for a business website to create a sense of trustworthiness and be regarded as an expert in a particular domain among its visitors and potential customers. This ensures that the website maintains a high recall value. It also ensures that more visitors get converted into customers. Create a good landing page Having a high quality landing page (s) is one of the key strategies companies can adopt to get more traffic on the site. High quality landing pages will have clear and concise headlines, sub-headlines, high quality images, high-value proposition, live-chat support to attract more visitors. At times, when one page does not do the trick, websites can have multiple landing pages to get their different type of visitors to stay on the website. Have a blog A blog can ensure that the website is up-to-date on current events on the specific subject. If the website has a consistent stream of visitors who receive solutions to their problems through the blog. These people will have enough reasons to come back to the blog again. And considering the blogs succeeds at a reader’s level, it can ensure that the visitors register for the blog for regular updates. Call to Action (Create a prominent call to action) Anybody who comes to the website needs to be asked to commit to an action on having reached the website. On having reached the homepage, the visitor needs to be guided to a call to action (CTA).It could be as simple as “Sign-up for Free” or “7-Day Trial”. This will ensure the visitor takes the required action on the website. Without a call for action, the website might be popular but the bounce rate would remain high. Testimonials and customer reviews Word of mouth is an important phenomenon in the marketing domain. Testimonials and customer reviews are to be taken very seriously by the website owner. Having them on the site immediately establishes trust and authenticates the purpose of the company. This in turn, improves the chances of turning a visitor into a customer. Unique, interesting and persuasive content Apart from high quality content, the website should boast of well-researched content that is unique. It is also good, if the writing style is persuasive so that it serves as a key tool in converting the visitors. The aim here is to increase the stickiness and decrease the bounce rate of the site. Keep forms only to the essential Nowadays, every website has a set of forms to be filled-in. Some of these forms could be quite long and cumbersome which could be a turn off. The ideal form should be short, not exceeding 4-5 fields. If it exceeds this limit, it is seen that the visitor tends to abandon the site altogether. Keeping it to a bare minimum is the trick to make him register on the site. Offer a toll free number and make it visible With landing page and call to action in place, it is important to follow up on these steps with a provision for a toll free number. This will ensure that the visitor gets in touch with the website owner if required. The phone call will also help identify that the visitor as serious and with a potential to becoming a customer. Allow visitors to reach for the products in fewer clicks as possible Whatever your product may be, it is essential that the visitor on the site reaches the product or the topic of interest easily without having to sift through too many pages. The more the visitor struggles to reach the actual product, the greater is the chance of him leaving the website. Hence, it is amply important that he reaches the product and service with minimum number of clicks as possible. Collateral materials (Ebook, whitepapers, case study) Even if a customer is not interested in a site, it is always a good idea to gift the visitor with something when he comes to the site. This could be an E-book, whitepapers or a case study for free. This could significantly improve the chances of the visitor coming back to the site to get converted a customer in the future. Implementing all the above mentioned tips for winning more conversions is time demanding. So, outsourcing some of the above tasks to a Virtual Assistant may reduce your work stress as well as enrich your inputs.

Tips to convert your web traffic Read More »

Every business website should be able to attract enough traffic and also be able to convert the traffic into potential customers. There are several ways to do it. This article talks about a few key tips for converting the web traffic into potential customers: High quality content Having high quality content means updated information and authentic material about the business & services offered in the form of About Us, Contact Us or Customer Service Information. It is important for a business website to create a sense of trustworthiness and be regarded as an expert in a particular domain among its visitors and potential customers. This ensures that the website maintains a high recall value. It also ensures that more visitors get converted into customers. Create a good landing page Having a high quality landing page (s) is one of the key strategies companies can adopt to get more traffic on the site. High quality landing pages will have clear and concise headlines, sub-headlines, high quality images, high-value proposition, live-chat support to attract more visitors. At times, when one page does not do the trick, websites can have multiple landing pages to get their different type of visitors to stay on the website. Have a blog A blog can ensure that the website is up-to-date on current events on the specific subject. If the website has a consistent stream of visitors who receive solutions to their problems through the blog. These people will have enough reasons to come back to the blog again. And considering the blogs succeeds at a reader’s level, it can ensure that the visitors register for the blog for regular updates. Call to Action (Create a prominent call to action) Anybody who comes to the website needs to be asked to commit to an action on having reached the website. On having reached the homepage, the visitor needs to be guided to a call to action (CTA).It could be as simple as “Sign-up for Free” or “7-Day Trial”. This will ensure the visitor takes the required action on the website. Without a call for action, the website might be popular but the bounce rate would remain high. Testimonials and customer reviews Word of mouth is an important phenomenon in the marketing domain. Testimonials and customer reviews are to be taken very seriously by the website owner. Having them on the site immediately establishes trust and authenticates the purpose of the company. This in turn, improves the chances of turning a visitor into a customer. Unique, interesting and persuasive content Apart from high quality content, the website should boast of well-researched content that is unique. It is also good, if the writing style is persuasive so that it serves as a key tool in converting the visitors. The aim here is to increase the stickiness and decrease the bounce rate of the site. Keep forms only to the essential Nowadays, every website has a set of forms to be filled-in. Some of these forms could be quite long and cumbersome which could be a turn off. The ideal form should be short, not exceeding 4-5 fields. If it exceeds this limit, it is seen that the visitor tends to abandon the site altogether. Keeping it to a bare minimum is the trick to make him register on the site. Offer a toll free number and make it visible With landing page and call to action in place, it is important to follow up on these steps with a provision for a toll free number. This will ensure that the visitor gets in touch with the website owner if required. The phone call will also help identify that the visitor as serious and with a potential to becoming a customer. Allow visitors to reach for the products in fewer clicks as possible Whatever your product may be, it is essential that the visitor on the site reaches the product or the topic of interest easily without having to sift through too many pages. The more the visitor struggles to reach the actual product, the greater is the chance of him leaving the website. Hence, it is amply important that he reaches the product and service with minimum number of clicks as possible. Collateral materials (Ebook, whitepapers, case study) Even if a customer is not interested in a site, it is always a good idea to gift the visitor with something when he comes to the site. This could be an E-book, whitepapers or a case study for free. This could significantly improve the chances of the visitor coming back to the site to get converted a customer in the future. Implementing all the above mentioned tips for winning more conversions is time demanding. So, outsourcing some of the above tasks to a Virtual Assistant may reduce your work stress as well as enrich your inputs.

Six Virtual Assistant services you must opt for a merrier Christmas

It’s time to make merry, decorate trees with mistletoes and stars, because Christmas is just around the corner. We all know that it is a busy season for Santa Clause and so it is for small business owners like you. It’s a shorter working month for you, above that you have to launch seasonal campaigns, host parties, dinners and manage all sorts of festivities. Santa manages his load of work with the assistance of his elves but what about you? Don’t worry, just like elves are there for Santa, there are Virtual assistants for you. Doing everything on your own in this festive season could be overwhelming. Now is a good time to outsource some of those piled up tasks to Virtual Assistants. It will decrease your stress; ensure quality deliverance along with timely accomplishment. In order to reap the best benefits of outsourcing you must outsource the right things. Here, we list out six such tasks you must outsource this holiday season to make the most of Virtual Assistance: Sending your clients Seasonal Greetings: Let your business clients know how much you value them -wish them a merry Christmas and a happy new year. You can easily outsource such seasonal greetings campaign to a virtual assistant. If outsourced to an expert e-mail marketer, it will run smoothly and efficiently without adding to your stress. Calendar maintenance and reminder setting: As already stated, Christmas season is loaded with festivities as well as business errands and it is likely to miss out on something important. Maintaining a calendar and setting reminders to accomplish everything on time will help you sail smoothly through the season. Outsourcing calendar maintenance will save time and make your schedule easier to manage. Settle all accounts: This season awaits a fresh New Year and it is good to start the New Year with a fresh financial account. Which means it is an ideal time to settle your payable and receivable accounts. It requires a lot of time and patience, so outsourcing this to your virtual book-keeping team will save you time and money. Gifting your clients: Just like sending seasonal e-mails to delight your clients, you may send them gifts as well. Sending gifts is again a time consuming procedure. All the tasks, right from segmenting your list of clients for personalizing the gifts till purchasing the gifts and sending them to their respective addresses can easily be offloaded to a Virtual Assistant. Social media marketing: An interesting new social media campaign is a magnet of client attraction for this season. Creating Christmas themed videos for Facebook and YouTube, initiating a contest in twitter or Facebook, making an Instagram film and other similar initiatives will help further your brand goals. Outsourcing seasonal social media marketing to expert virtual assistants will improve the engagement your audience. Making travel itinerary: After working for a long year you need a break away from the routine and to spend quality time with your loved ones. But you can enjoy the vacation only after going through a host of boring errands like booking flight tickets, finding the right hotel, hunting a suitable travel agent and the like. These errands can also be very efficiently accomplished by virtual assistants. Outsourcing the above mentioned errands will free up your time to focus on your core business and wrap up the important things on time before you leave for your much awaited vacation. You will be able to strike a balance between your work and festivities, which in turn will help you enjoy longer and happier hours with your family.

Six Virtual Assistant services you must opt for a merrier Christmas Read More »

It’s time to make merry, decorate trees with mistletoes and stars, because Christmas is just around the corner. We all know that it is a busy season for Santa Clause and so it is for small business owners like you. It’s a shorter working month for you, above that you have to launch seasonal campaigns, host parties, dinners and manage all sorts of festivities. Santa manages his load of work with the assistance of his elves but what about you? Don’t worry, just like elves are there for Santa, there are Virtual assistants for you. Doing everything on your own in this festive season could be overwhelming. Now is a good time to outsource some of those piled up tasks to Virtual Assistants. It will decrease your stress; ensure quality deliverance along with timely accomplishment. In order to reap the best benefits of outsourcing you must outsource the right things. Here, we list out six such tasks you must outsource this holiday season to make the most of Virtual Assistance: Sending your clients Seasonal Greetings: Let your business clients know how much you value them -wish them a merry Christmas and a happy new year. You can easily outsource such seasonal greetings campaign to a virtual assistant. If outsourced to an expert e-mail marketer, it will run smoothly and efficiently without adding to your stress. Calendar maintenance and reminder setting: As already stated, Christmas season is loaded with festivities as well as business errands and it is likely to miss out on something important. Maintaining a calendar and setting reminders to accomplish everything on time will help you sail smoothly through the season. Outsourcing calendar maintenance will save time and make your schedule easier to manage. Settle all accounts: This season awaits a fresh New Year and it is good to start the New Year with a fresh financial account. Which means it is an ideal time to settle your payable and receivable accounts. It requires a lot of time and patience, so outsourcing this to your virtual book-keeping team will save you time and money. Gifting your clients: Just like sending seasonal e-mails to delight your clients, you may send them gifts as well. Sending gifts is again a time consuming procedure. All the tasks, right from segmenting your list of clients for personalizing the gifts till purchasing the gifts and sending them to their respective addresses can easily be offloaded to a Virtual Assistant. Social media marketing: An interesting new social media campaign is a magnet of client attraction for this season. Creating Christmas themed videos for Facebook and YouTube, initiating a contest in twitter or Facebook, making an Instagram film and other similar initiatives will help further your brand goals. Outsourcing seasonal social media marketing to expert virtual assistants will improve the engagement your audience. Making travel itinerary: After working for a long year you need a break away from the routine and to spend quality time with your loved ones. But you can enjoy the vacation only after going through a host of boring errands like booking flight tickets, finding the right hotel, hunting a suitable travel agent and the like. These errands can also be very efficiently accomplished by virtual assistants. Outsourcing the above mentioned errands will free up your time to focus on your core business and wrap up the important things on time before you leave for your much awaited vacation. You will be able to strike a balance between your work and festivities, which in turn will help you enjoy longer and happier hours with your family.

Gift your Loved ones the ‘Gift of Time’ this Christmas

Ho ho ho Christmas is just around the corner.   Christmas kindles our emotions. It is the season for expressing love and joy in the form of family get-togethers, merry making and gifting. In fact, gifting is one of the most enjoyed traditions of Christmas. The joy of gifting is in delighting our loved ones. So, gifts must actually satisfy the desires and needs of our loved ones. During Christmas, almost everyone yearns to spend more time with their families, take days off in dream destinations, revel with old friends, and decorate trees and all the more. More than anything else, the first thing we all need for fulfilling these wishes is time. Yes, ‘time’ makes for a unique gift this Christmas season. In order to make your Christmas merrier than usual GetFriday brings to you ‘the Gift of Time’. On the flip side, festive season also means a lot of chores, both business and personal. For businesses it means wrapping up all your pending accounts and initiating new marketing promotions/activities for the festive sales. While back at our home, our loved ones wait for us to be a part of in a string of festivities and parties. It’s a challenge to strike a balance between our work and personal life amid this load of activities until and unless someone assists us. GetFriday’s Gift of Time is a package of hours for which the recipient may avail Virtual Assistance for a range of errands from travel arrangements to data curation. So, while the Virtual Assistant handles all these errands, the recipient may enjoy these free hours. So, you may send this Gift of Time to your loved ones and help them offload the seasonal workload and thereby help them enjoy a carefree holiday season. Follow the steps below to gift time to your near and dear ones this Christmas: 1. Purchase a GetFriday digital gift card 2. Gift it to your loved ones or your friends/family. 3. Your loved one will outsource errands to a Virtual Assistant who will take care of everything. So while a Virtual Assistant takes care of these chores, your loved one may use his/her freed up time to travel, revel and focus on things that are more important for making a merrier Christmas.

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Ho ho ho Christmas is just around the corner.   Christmas kindles our emotions. It is the season for expressing love and joy in the form of family get-togethers, merry making and gifting. In fact, gifting is one of the most enjoyed traditions of Christmas. The joy of gifting is in delighting our loved ones. So, gifts must actually satisfy the desires and needs of our loved ones. During Christmas, almost everyone yearns to spend more time with their families, take days off in dream destinations, revel with old friends, and decorate trees and all the more. More than anything else, the first thing we all need for fulfilling these wishes is time. Yes, ‘time’ makes for a unique gift this Christmas season. In order to make your Christmas merrier than usual GetFriday brings to you ‘the Gift of Time’. On the flip side, festive season also means a lot of chores, both business and personal. For businesses it means wrapping up all your pending accounts and initiating new marketing promotions/activities for the festive sales. While back at our home, our loved ones wait for us to be a part of in a string of festivities and parties. It’s a challenge to strike a balance between our work and personal life amid this load of activities until and unless someone assists us. GetFriday’s Gift of Time is a package of hours for which the recipient may avail Virtual Assistance for a range of errands from travel arrangements to data curation. So, while the Virtual Assistant handles all these errands, the recipient may enjoy these free hours. So, you may send this Gift of Time to your loved ones and help them offload the seasonal workload and thereby help them enjoy a carefree holiday season. Follow the steps below to gift time to your near and dear ones this Christmas: 1. Purchase a GetFriday digital gift card 2. Gift it to your loved ones or your friends/family. 3. Your loved one will outsource errands to a Virtual Assistant who will take care of everything. So while a Virtual Assistant takes care of these chores, your loved one may use his/her freed up time to travel, revel and focus on things that are more important for making a merrier Christmas.

Quickbooks and Virtual Assistance – a golden duo for book-keeping

The journey of thousand miles begins with one step – Lao Tzu.   Ben the owner of a startup in Australia, was overwhelmed by his business errands. Owning a startup in a competitive business environment and growing his business was in itself a challenge. On top of that, handling and tracking expenses added to his worries. He knew, the solution was in efficient book-keeping but he lacked resources for the same. So he decided to outsource one of his book-keeping tasks to GetFriday. He started with outsourcing monthly invoice maintenance which included updating bills from vendors and invoice for the clients. This was his first step towards success and it worked out wonderfully. GetFriday’s team of QuickBooks experts created Ben’s QuickBooks account which was linked to contact details of all his clients and vendors. They customized invoices with ‘create invoice’ feature of QuickBooks. Apart from customizing invoices, Ben’s Virtual Assistance team scheduled, tracked and sent invoices to his clients. All these activities of invoicing were accomplished through QuickBooks’s built-in features. Just like they managed invoicing, GetFriday team also updated Ben’s bills from vendors in an accurate and timely manner. Thus with QuickBooks and virtual assistance, Ben’s accounting became simpler and efficient. After he got comfortable with GetFriday’s assistance, Ben started outsourcing the task of budget tracking. For this, Ben’s Virtual Assistants matched and verified his income and expense accounts. This freed his accounts from errors and kept his finances safe. Thus, Ben got a better control over his expenses. By now, GetFriday Assistants had won Ben’s trust and he outsourced the task of reconciling his expenses with his bank statements. As a direct result of outsourcing, finances turned out to be the most efficiently managed function of his business. He did not have to invest extra resources for making financial reports as it was auto generated by his QuickBooks account. QuickBooks‘s report generation feature yielded financial details of various aspects whether it be transaction details or a customer report. Ben could now understand his financial loopholes and opportunities. With all these insights, he was able to focus on realizing his objectives. Just like Ben, many other small-business owners crave for more efficient solutions for managing their finances. QuickBooks is a leading software for managing the accounts of small business. It comes with many features to simplify the accounting processes but its benefits are best seen with expert handling. Ben’s decision of outsourcing to GetFriday paid him in the long run, because GetFriday boasts of a team of QuickBooks experts. GetFriday’s QuickBooks team’s expertize includes: Account maintenance: Creating and sending invoices to customers based on requirement. Updating customer payments Sending weekly pending invoices to clients based on follow up Matching bank transactions with invoices Reconciliation of customer, vendor and stock accounts: It involves matching of all balances of band and books of accounts. Reporting and Analyzing financial statements: Analyzing monthly, quarterly and annual comparison report. Preparing customized reports For small business owners, it is often an expensive affair to hire and employ an expert bookkeeping team in-house. Even if he/she is enough rich to employ an in-house team, it is definitely a leaner choice to outsource bookkeeping to Virtual Assistants. There are two types of Quickbooks accounts viz, ‘the online account’ and ‘the desktop account’. The online account is a real time account and it can be availed by paying a monthly fee. The desktop account is accessible only when the account manager shares the details with an authorized person and one can use a desktop account with installed payments. So, one may avail any of these QuickBooks accounts as per one’s convenience. One advantage of using Quickbooks is that is customizable. It has customized industry specific packages for contractors, retailers, health care and non-profit organizations. Above that, when virtual assistants manages your Quickbooks accounts, your accounting overheads are reduced. Thus, a Quickbooks’ account managed by a Virtual Assistant makes book-keeping easier and efficient for small businesses.

Quickbooks and Virtual Assistance – a golden duo for book-keeping Read More »

The journey of thousand miles begins with one step – Lao Tzu.   Ben the owner of a startup in Australia, was overwhelmed by his business errands. Owning a startup in a competitive business environment and growing his business was in itself a challenge. On top of that, handling and tracking expenses added to his worries. He knew, the solution was in efficient book-keeping but he lacked resources for the same. So he decided to outsource one of his book-keeping tasks to GetFriday. He started with outsourcing monthly invoice maintenance which included updating bills from vendors and invoice for the clients. This was his first step towards success and it worked out wonderfully. GetFriday’s team of QuickBooks experts created Ben’s QuickBooks account which was linked to contact details of all his clients and vendors. They customized invoices with ‘create invoice’ feature of QuickBooks. Apart from customizing invoices, Ben’s Virtual Assistance team scheduled, tracked and sent invoices to his clients. All these activities of invoicing were accomplished through QuickBooks’s built-in features. Just like they managed invoicing, GetFriday team also updated Ben’s bills from vendors in an accurate and timely manner. Thus with QuickBooks and virtual assistance, Ben’s accounting became simpler and efficient. After he got comfortable with GetFriday’s assistance, Ben started outsourcing the task of budget tracking. For this, Ben’s Virtual Assistants matched and verified his income and expense accounts. This freed his accounts from errors and kept his finances safe. Thus, Ben got a better control over his expenses. By now, GetFriday Assistants had won Ben’s trust and he outsourced the task of reconciling his expenses with his bank statements. As a direct result of outsourcing, finances turned out to be the most efficiently managed function of his business. He did not have to invest extra resources for making financial reports as it was auto generated by his QuickBooks account. QuickBooks‘s report generation feature yielded financial details of various aspects whether it be transaction details or a customer report. Ben could now understand his financial loopholes and opportunities. With all these insights, he was able to focus on realizing his objectives. Just like Ben, many other small-business owners crave for more efficient solutions for managing their finances. QuickBooks is a leading software for managing the accounts of small business. It comes with many features to simplify the accounting processes but its benefits are best seen with expert handling. Ben’s decision of outsourcing to GetFriday paid him in the long run, because GetFriday boasts of a team of QuickBooks experts. GetFriday’s QuickBooks team’s expertize includes: Account maintenance: Creating and sending invoices to customers based on requirement. Updating customer payments Sending weekly pending invoices to clients based on follow up Matching bank transactions with invoices Reconciliation of customer, vendor and stock accounts: It involves matching of all balances of band and books of accounts. Reporting and Analyzing financial statements: Analyzing monthly, quarterly and annual comparison report. Preparing customized reports For small business owners, it is often an expensive affair to hire and employ an expert bookkeeping team in-house. Even if he/she is enough rich to employ an in-house team, it is definitely a leaner choice to outsource bookkeeping to Virtual Assistants. There are two types of Quickbooks accounts viz, ‘the online account’ and ‘the desktop account’. The online account is a real time account and it can be availed by paying a monthly fee. The desktop account is accessible only when the account manager shares the details with an authorized person and one can use a desktop account with installed payments. So, one may avail any of these QuickBooks accounts as per one’s convenience. One advantage of using Quickbooks is that is customizable. It has customized industry specific packages for contractors, retailers, health care and non-profit organizations. Above that, when virtual assistants manages your Quickbooks accounts, your accounting overheads are reduced. Thus, a Quickbooks’ account managed by a Virtual Assistant makes book-keeping easier and efficient for small businesses.

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