Virtual Assistant

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.

Trending Traffic Outside Restaurants

Food Delivery Industry Trends

In the western world, a home cooked meal is a luxury only a few can afford. The recent market research study in U.S. reveals, 82 percent of food delivery orders were placed from home, while only 16 percent were placed from the workplace. Added to this, there is a constant craving for new cuisines to have healthy and fresh foods delivered to their homes and office for a healthy living. Where do you think this Industry is heading now? It’s an interesting road map to read through to understand the current trends dominating the food delivery market.     Trending Traffic Outside Restaurants Future of online food delivery industry is in the hands of the Millennials says National Restaurant Association, US – that by 2020, 70% customers who look for off premises meal solutions are Millennials, 21-36 years. Exceptional Growth Prediction of Online Food delivery   There is an astronomical rise in the number of orders delivered. More people are catching on to the bandwagon. According to a study conducted by Morgan Stanley U.S. restaurant analysts, the food and delivery industry has the opportunity to grow 7 folds more than its current value of $30 billion, that’s a $210 billion, potential. Online food delivery giants in the different parts of the world are trying to position their services by acquiring new food players in the market such as chef made meals or Meal kit delivery startups. These mergers and acquisitions are indicative of how the food delivery industry market is empowering the global online space. The next evolution in this industry is not only attributed by rise in number of delivery companies which are enhanced by technology but also accompanied by new niches. Competition with New Niches and Technology The startups and highly funded companies are creating tremendous competition in the food delivery space. Everyday companies are finding new niches in the market like customized healthy and nutritious meal being prepared and delivered or the technology with the modern digital users which has fierce competition in the food delivery space. There is digital transformation in companies like Domino’s, robot named “DRU” (Domino’s Robotic Unit) is an autonomous delivery vehicle and is set to take the world of food delivery space by storm. Hence 2017 will be undoubtedly driven by more innovations through technologies. Inhouse or Third Party Delivery Lieutenants The traditional restaurants lean on either in-house or third party delivery lieutenants to face the online food delivery competitors. Take for example, UberEats which is allowing online delivery services for in-house restaurants. There is a trend that restaurants are starting their own delivery service models to reduce reliance on third party usage. If this trend grows, third party delivery services would need to re-think in future. Outsourcing Vs  Online Food Delivery Industry In this growing phase, these start ups face a lot of pain areas in their day to day operations, for which they reach out and knock the doors of outsourcing companies. Virtual assistant companies like us have experience in servicing food industry clients across the globe. We help these companies to monitor their logistics and delivery management, uploading product details to website, customer support (email, chat and phone), market analysis and business expansion, and other website support. In this industry, where technology and logistics has major say, it is a wise decision to employ a virtual business team to save on infrastructure and various actuals. New players capturing Online Food delivery market Times have changed; we see constant improvements in the food delivery market. At first, it was only pizza which dominated the food delivery market. Today, it accounts for 60% of the US market, with rest of the 40% shared by new players like start-ups and food apps. These are the major trends which are likely to shape up the second half of 2017. If you are in the food delivery business or know someone in the food delivery business this article can be shared with them.

Food Delivery Industry Trends Read More »

In the western world, a home cooked meal is a luxury only a few can afford. The recent market research study in U.S. reveals, 82 percent of food delivery orders were placed from home, while only 16 percent were placed from the workplace. Added to this, there is a constant craving for new cuisines to have healthy and fresh foods delivered to their homes and office for a healthy living. Where do you think this Industry is heading now? It’s an interesting road map to read through to understand the current trends dominating the food delivery market.     Trending Traffic Outside Restaurants Future of online food delivery industry is in the hands of the Millennials says National Restaurant Association, US – that by 2020, 70% customers who look for off premises meal solutions are Millennials, 21-36 years. Exceptional Growth Prediction of Online Food delivery   There is an astronomical rise in the number of orders delivered. More people are catching on to the bandwagon. According to a study conducted by Morgan Stanley U.S. restaurant analysts, the food and delivery industry has the opportunity to grow 7 folds more than its current value of $30 billion, that’s a $210 billion, potential. Online food delivery giants in the different parts of the world are trying to position their services by acquiring new food players in the market such as chef made meals or Meal kit delivery startups. These mergers and acquisitions are indicative of how the food delivery industry market is empowering the global online space. The next evolution in this industry is not only attributed by rise in number of delivery companies which are enhanced by technology but also accompanied by new niches. Competition with New Niches and Technology The startups and highly funded companies are creating tremendous competition in the food delivery space. Everyday companies are finding new niches in the market like customized healthy and nutritious meal being prepared and delivered or the technology with the modern digital users which has fierce competition in the food delivery space. There is digital transformation in companies like Domino’s, robot named “DRU” (Domino’s Robotic Unit) is an autonomous delivery vehicle and is set to take the world of food delivery space by storm. Hence 2017 will be undoubtedly driven by more innovations through technologies. Inhouse or Third Party Delivery Lieutenants The traditional restaurants lean on either in-house or third party delivery lieutenants to face the online food delivery competitors. Take for example, UberEats which is allowing online delivery services for in-house restaurants. There is a trend that restaurants are starting their own delivery service models to reduce reliance on third party usage. If this trend grows, third party delivery services would need to re-think in future. Outsourcing Vs  Online Food Delivery Industry In this growing phase, these start ups face a lot of pain areas in their day to day operations, for which they reach out and knock the doors of outsourcing companies. Virtual assistant companies like us have experience in servicing food industry clients across the globe. We help these companies to monitor their logistics and delivery management, uploading product details to website, customer support (email, chat and phone), market analysis and business expansion, and other website support. In this industry, where technology and logistics has major say, it is a wise decision to employ a virtual business team to save on infrastructure and various actuals. New players capturing Online Food delivery market Times have changed; we see constant improvements in the food delivery market. At first, it was only pizza which dominated the food delivery market. Today, it accounts for 60% of the US market, with rest of the 40% shared by new players like start-ups and food apps. These are the major trends which are likely to shape up the second half of 2017. If you are in the food delivery business or know someone in the food delivery business this article can be shared with them.

How to Increase Office Productivity

It is everyone’s dream to work to their optimum capacity, but there are only 24hrs in a day and in those hours, we have to maximize our efficiency. There is always a plan at the beginning of the day to maximize our productivity at work. But it just becomes a hollow plan by the end of the day. While it may not be everybody’s cup of tea to find out ways to work smarter, here is a list of strategies that will help improve productivity at work. While it may not happen that your working habits undergo a drastic change overnight, it is possible that gradual changes can add up to big changes in productivity. It is best to start with one-tip and follow it up before you can adopt next tip to your schedule. Being accountable to someone at work or announcing your targets to others helps keep you stay on track in the course of your activities and in the long run. It is best to keep in mind that we are humans and have a tendency for slip-ups. Hence, it is with this attitude you should approach productivity improvement tips. Whenever, there is a slip-up it is best to forgive yourself than to brood about it overtime which only adds up to unproductive time. You have to understand that multi-tasking is an over-used term. Studies have very clearly indicated that our brains are not equipped to multi-task and focusing on one task alone will help us accomplish much more than trying to multi-task and accomplish more. It is also seem that while multi-tasking, the brain loses its ability to be creative. The brain is like a muscle the more work we give it, the stronger the muscle is likely to become. By focusing on one single task helps you make those connections stronger. Before you leave work each day, it is best to write down, 5-6 things that you want to accomplish the following day and in a separate page write down personal errands that you would like to accomplish. Keeping the list shorter helps it keep realistic. Have a strategy while you begin each day and stick to it as far as possible. There is a theory and it states that our primal mind craves distraction especially when you are in the course of accomplishing your listed tasks. It so happens that we would turn our attention towards some easy unlisted task such as liking a picture on Facebook or spending more time jotting down the list can also be part of ‘structured procrastination’. So give yourself five-minutes or less to complete writing the list and stick to your list in hand as far as possible without getting distracted. Piles of paper lying on your desk are a sign of unfinished tasks and unorganized work. Since you are lagging behind, the remedy is to delegate the tasks. By delegating you will be able to realize your productivity goals sooner than later. If in case you are not very proficient at something, it is best to ask someone about how to use something more efficiently. This simple request can ensure you are improving your productivity. Another distractor at the work place is e-mail. It is prudent that you embrace e-mail as an ally rather than making it your nemesis. You can manage your email better by dividing your email into two groups – first group requiring quick responses and those needing some degree of thought. You can acknowledge the receipt of the mail for the latter, but can answer the mail after some days. And make it a point to follow through. Another tactic could be to turn off your email notifications for some time, if there is a need to focus on a specific task for 20-30 minutes without distractions. The next thing to do is to learn e-mail management from someone, who is more proficient at it. Learn about different labels, folder, filters, archives and unsubscribe lists etc will help you spend less time on emails. Taking regular breaks at work may sound counter-productive but research has shown that your consistent level of performance can be maintained while taking short breaks during long tasks. And, taking no breaks decreases your level of performance. Giving yourself a deadline helps in accomplishing the tasks quicker and lets you focus better on the task. For open ended tasks, try giving yourself a deadline and then stick to it. You may be surprised just how focused and productive you can be while watching the clock. Any task that needs less than two minutes to accomplish must be accomplished quickly without a second thought in the mind. Completing the task right-away actually takes less time than having to get back at it later. It is much common among entrepreneurs to get hung on attempting to perfect a task – the reality is nothing is ever perfect. Instead of wasting time chasing a mirage, it is realistic to complete the task to the best of your ability and move on. It is better to complete the task right away, since most times you can come back and improve on the task later. Being pro-active and not reactive helps in accomplishing more than the other way around. By responding to emails and calls for the day, you will be able to put out the fires, but that is all you will be able to do during the day. It means you get dictated by the calls and emails at all times. Instead set aside time to respond to emails, but don’t let them determine what your day is going to look like These are some of the pointers towards increasing your productivity. It is not practical to adopt each one of the points into your life. Instead find a preference for some and you could incorporate these into your life. To improve your productivity further, you could hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) from GetFriday and assign your administrative tasks to your

How to Increase Office Productivity Read More »

It is everyone’s dream to work to their optimum capacity, but there are only 24hrs in a day and in those hours, we have to maximize our efficiency. There is always a plan at the beginning of the day to maximize our productivity at work. But it just becomes a hollow plan by the end of the day. While it may not be everybody’s cup of tea to find out ways to work smarter, here is a list of strategies that will help improve productivity at work. While it may not happen that your working habits undergo a drastic change overnight, it is possible that gradual changes can add up to big changes in productivity. It is best to start with one-tip and follow it up before you can adopt next tip to your schedule. Being accountable to someone at work or announcing your targets to others helps keep you stay on track in the course of your activities and in the long run. It is best to keep in mind that we are humans and have a tendency for slip-ups. Hence, it is with this attitude you should approach productivity improvement tips. Whenever, there is a slip-up it is best to forgive yourself than to brood about it overtime which only adds up to unproductive time. You have to understand that multi-tasking is an over-used term. Studies have very clearly indicated that our brains are not equipped to multi-task and focusing on one task alone will help us accomplish much more than trying to multi-task and accomplish more. It is also seem that while multi-tasking, the brain loses its ability to be creative. The brain is like a muscle the more work we give it, the stronger the muscle is likely to become. By focusing on one single task helps you make those connections stronger. Before you leave work each day, it is best to write down, 5-6 things that you want to accomplish the following day and in a separate page write down personal errands that you would like to accomplish. Keeping the list shorter helps it keep realistic. Have a strategy while you begin each day and stick to it as far as possible. There is a theory and it states that our primal mind craves distraction especially when you are in the course of accomplishing your listed tasks. It so happens that we would turn our attention towards some easy unlisted task such as liking a picture on Facebook or spending more time jotting down the list can also be part of ‘structured procrastination’. So give yourself five-minutes or less to complete writing the list and stick to your list in hand as far as possible without getting distracted. Piles of paper lying on your desk are a sign of unfinished tasks and unorganized work. Since you are lagging behind, the remedy is to delegate the tasks. By delegating you will be able to realize your productivity goals sooner than later. If in case you are not very proficient at something, it is best to ask someone about how to use something more efficiently. This simple request can ensure you are improving your productivity. Another distractor at the work place is e-mail. It is prudent that you embrace e-mail as an ally rather than making it your nemesis. You can manage your email better by dividing your email into two groups – first group requiring quick responses and those needing some degree of thought. You can acknowledge the receipt of the mail for the latter, but can answer the mail after some days. And make it a point to follow through. Another tactic could be to turn off your email notifications for some time, if there is a need to focus on a specific task for 20-30 minutes without distractions. The next thing to do is to learn e-mail management from someone, who is more proficient at it. Learn about different labels, folder, filters, archives and unsubscribe lists etc will help you spend less time on emails. Taking regular breaks at work may sound counter-productive but research has shown that your consistent level of performance can be maintained while taking short breaks during long tasks. And, taking no breaks decreases your level of performance. Giving yourself a deadline helps in accomplishing the tasks quicker and lets you focus better on the task. For open ended tasks, try giving yourself a deadline and then stick to it. You may be surprised just how focused and productive you can be while watching the clock. Any task that needs less than two minutes to accomplish must be accomplished quickly without a second thought in the mind. Completing the task right-away actually takes less time than having to get back at it later. It is much common among entrepreneurs to get hung on attempting to perfect a task – the reality is nothing is ever perfect. Instead of wasting time chasing a mirage, it is realistic to complete the task to the best of your ability and move on. It is better to complete the task right away, since most times you can come back and improve on the task later. Being pro-active and not reactive helps in accomplishing more than the other way around. By responding to emails and calls for the day, you will be able to put out the fires, but that is all you will be able to do during the day. It means you get dictated by the calls and emails at all times. Instead set aside time to respond to emails, but don’t let them determine what your day is going to look like These are some of the pointers towards increasing your productivity. It is not practical to adopt each one of the points into your life. Instead find a preference for some and you could incorporate these into your life. To improve your productivity further, you could hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) from GetFriday and assign your administrative tasks to your

Making up your mind for hiring a VA

In a perfect world, you could be doing everything on your own and waiting for things to turn your way. However, in reality it is not the case. We cannot manage everything on our own and need help. The books you read about from outsourcing might suggest great things about working with from virtual assistants and they are not wrong. Virtual assistants can definitely help in the regular administrative tasks, while you focus on high value tasks, that only you can do. This article seeks to tell you how to get over your apprehensions before hiring a VA: Does the VA have enough experience to handle all my tasks? You can gauge this by asking the VA for a one -on- one interview. Having worked before as VA gives him/ her definite advantage over others. If he/she is into freelancing, there would be other clients, whom she would be freelancing. This need not be a stumbling block because if the VA is confident of executing all your tasks, it is essential that you validate her skillset in a trial period to test her skill sets and capabilities. And, if he/she is working for a company, he/she would be supported by the entire team if the need arises. So, in all the above cases, it is definite that the hiring a VA comes with its fair share of advantages. Does the VA have experience in a specific domain to help you out? Most VA’s are “Jack of all trades and master of none”. VAs are trained to handle all kinds of tasks without getting limited to a defined domain. However, there can be VAs with specific domain experience from previous jobs, which encouraged them to take up VA work in a specific domain. For instance, you will find VAs who work only in the field of web designing or as social media experts. Either, way it is a win-win situation. A VA with generic experience will be able to handle most generic things that do not require deep domain knowledge or skill. On the other hand, the VA with specific domain expertise would bring in a wealth of experience, which needs to be put to the right use by you when employing him/her. Is it affordable to hire a VA? Consider a simple equation to understand this better – if your time is worth $100/hr and you could be paying your assistant about $20/hr, the ROI on the transaction is $80/hr. It turns out, it is not an additional cost, but an additional revenue for the business., Imagine if you find a VA for let’s say $15/hr. Being able to reduce your administrative tasks and able to devote your time to grow your business makes it really necessary to hire a VA. Secondly, if the VA comes from a developed country, chances are that the service would be expensive. But, for an Asian country such as India or Philippines , due to the difference in the dollar exchange rate, it would turn out to be quite cheaper. Do I hire employees or manage VAs? The answer is really a no-brainer. There are businesses which are in a hurry to hire employees and later repent it. After the hires do not go in their favour, they can turn into a financial burden if you happen to hire employees soon.The advantages of hiring a VA and an employee has been listed out: There is a training period for the employee, which is comparatively less for a VA   It is easy to let go a VA compared to a regular employee.   Most times, businesses don’t hire part-time, but VAs can be hired part time.   Will I remain ‘in control’ of my business with a VA by my side? This again stems from the fact that unless you do everything in your office, you are not in control. Getting a VA and relinquishing some control would come as a welcome relief for you after hiring a VA. This would also help you create some space in your schedule and help run your business more efficiently. For example, you can cut down the time spent on replying to mails when you hire a VA. The time hence saved will be spent on finding new clients or generating new revenue streams for business. In addition, most of the tasks which your VA does on your behalf are those which are not critical or those in which you do not have expertise. With a virtual assistant taking over the basic tasks you gain more time in the day to focus on tasks that make better use of your time. Can I expect overnight turnaround in my business if I hire VAs? This thought comes from someone, who has pondered over the question for a long-time, but always was skeptical about it. Now that he has made up his mind, he looks forward to a dramatic shift in his business. The reality being, there is a lot of work that goes into accommodating VAs into organisations. From ensuring they are rightly trained, to assigning them tasks all the way to ensuring that they are the right fit for the business. It can also be said, that unless you properly spell out the instructions of the task to be done, it will be not be possible for the VA to work with his/her optimum efficiency. So, in the end it all comes down to the kind of understanding you create with your VA to make him/ her understand the needs of your business. These are some apprehensions for someone, who would like to hire a VA. And these are the tips for someone to handle those apprehensions and to comprehend them before recruiting a VA. For all you know, you could hire a VA from GetFriday, a trusted name in VA services.

Making up your mind for hiring a VA Read More »

In a perfect world, you could be doing everything on your own and waiting for things to turn your way. However, in reality it is not the case. We cannot manage everything on our own and need help. The books you read about from outsourcing might suggest great things about working with from virtual assistants and they are not wrong. Virtual assistants can definitely help in the regular administrative tasks, while you focus on high value tasks, that only you can do. This article seeks to tell you how to get over your apprehensions before hiring a VA: Does the VA have enough experience to handle all my tasks? You can gauge this by asking the VA for a one -on- one interview. Having worked before as VA gives him/ her definite advantage over others. If he/she is into freelancing, there would be other clients, whom she would be freelancing. This need not be a stumbling block because if the VA is confident of executing all your tasks, it is essential that you validate her skillset in a trial period to test her skill sets and capabilities. And, if he/she is working for a company, he/she would be supported by the entire team if the need arises. So, in all the above cases, it is definite that the hiring a VA comes with its fair share of advantages. Does the VA have experience in a specific domain to help you out? Most VA’s are “Jack of all trades and master of none”. VAs are trained to handle all kinds of tasks without getting limited to a defined domain. However, there can be VAs with specific domain experience from previous jobs, which encouraged them to take up VA work in a specific domain. For instance, you will find VAs who work only in the field of web designing or as social media experts. Either, way it is a win-win situation. A VA with generic experience will be able to handle most generic things that do not require deep domain knowledge or skill. On the other hand, the VA with specific domain expertise would bring in a wealth of experience, which needs to be put to the right use by you when employing him/her. Is it affordable to hire a VA? Consider a simple equation to understand this better – if your time is worth $100/hr and you could be paying your assistant about $20/hr, the ROI on the transaction is $80/hr. It turns out, it is not an additional cost, but an additional revenue for the business., Imagine if you find a VA for let’s say $15/hr. Being able to reduce your administrative tasks and able to devote your time to grow your business makes it really necessary to hire a VA. Secondly, if the VA comes from a developed country, chances are that the service would be expensive. But, for an Asian country such as India or Philippines , due to the difference in the dollar exchange rate, it would turn out to be quite cheaper. Do I hire employees or manage VAs? The answer is really a no-brainer. There are businesses which are in a hurry to hire employees and later repent it. After the hires do not go in their favour, they can turn into a financial burden if you happen to hire employees soon.The advantages of hiring a VA and an employee has been listed out: There is a training period for the employee, which is comparatively less for a VA   It is easy to let go a VA compared to a regular employee.   Most times, businesses don’t hire part-time, but VAs can be hired part time.   Will I remain ‘in control’ of my business with a VA by my side? This again stems from the fact that unless you do everything in your office, you are not in control. Getting a VA and relinquishing some control would come as a welcome relief for you after hiring a VA. This would also help you create some space in your schedule and help run your business more efficiently. For example, you can cut down the time spent on replying to mails when you hire a VA. The time hence saved will be spent on finding new clients or generating new revenue streams for business. In addition, most of the tasks which your VA does on your behalf are those which are not critical or those in which you do not have expertise. With a virtual assistant taking over the basic tasks you gain more time in the day to focus on tasks that make better use of your time. Can I expect overnight turnaround in my business if I hire VAs? This thought comes from someone, who has pondered over the question for a long-time, but always was skeptical about it. Now that he has made up his mind, he looks forward to a dramatic shift in his business. The reality being, there is a lot of work that goes into accommodating VAs into organisations. From ensuring they are rightly trained, to assigning them tasks all the way to ensuring that they are the right fit for the business. It can also be said, that unless you properly spell out the instructions of the task to be done, it will be not be possible for the VA to work with his/her optimum efficiency. So, in the end it all comes down to the kind of understanding you create with your VA to make him/ her understand the needs of your business. These are some apprehensions for someone, who would like to hire a VA. And these are the tips for someone to handle those apprehensions and to comprehend them before recruiting a VA. For all you know, you could hire a VA from GetFriday, a trusted name in VA services.

Seven E-commerce Trends for 2017

E-commerce is here to stay, even with limited customer service, no instant gratification and no access to a physical store where you can touch and feel the product. The online platform provides 24x 7 services and the amount of selection one gets to see on online cannot be matched in a physical store. With such advantages, e-commerce has changed the way we shop. Presently, it consists of only 8% of the total retail sales in the US, but the situation is here to change with increasing usage and a growing preference for purchasing online. This article seeks to look at trends which suggest how the e-commerce domain is changing as we go through 2017. Some of the trends are: Shopping on the Mobile We have seen in recent years that there is a shift in consumer behavior towards mobile. And as we move forward, there will be more movement towards this medium. The number of searches emanating from a mobile exceed that of a desktop and more websites are making themselves mobile ready. It must have come to everyone’s notice that Google is slowly removing sites that do not cater to a mobile experience. It is becoming increasingly clear that the way forward is mobile. Having said that, it is known that mobile still lags behind desktop when it comes to conversions. People like to search for their online goods on mobile, but prefer make the purchase on the desktop. This means there aren’t separate consumers for mobile and desktop. This only means at times, it is the same consumer, who searches on the mobile and later purchases through a desktop. This is seen as a habitual fact and will take time to see any improvement. But as we see more smartphone penetration and new technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence) assistants getting included to smartphone devices, the future definitely looks brighter for mobile. Mobile Payments or E-wallets Gone are the days when going cashless meant using the credit or debt card, today, people are turning towards contactless mobile payments. There is an array of companies offering services catering towards mobile payments. It is estimated that mobile payments by 2021 are going to reach $3 trillion dollars. While, it is a lot of money getting transacted on small screens, mobile payments will only equate to 11 percent of all transactions made, a jump from the modest 5% in 2016. As we see more e-commerce companies adopt mobile payments as the preferred mode of payment, there is a world of possibilities that are emerging such as digital loyalty and reward programs. With the increased spread of smartphone and more user-friendly apps, it will further cement the prospect of convenient payment through mobiles. In the US, where the mobile based e-commerce is going to grow the largest, the mobile payment’s ratio of e-commerce is expected to increase from 20% in 2015 to 46% in 2020. Personalization and customization Already users are seeing customization from Netflix and Amazon, these channels with large amount of data from users are able to target customers in a personalized way. Till now customization was exclusively a domain of the big e-commerce retailers, but 2017 will see the small retailers also venturing in with highly targeted ads and embrace personalization. They will start with collecting behavioral data from each website user and send highly targeted campaigns based on customer segments and previous online experiences. This would mean each user who comes to the website will have unique experience from the brand, if he/she is a repeat customer. Same Day Delivery 2017 will see more e-commerce companies taking the step towards same day delivery instead of the normal 3-5 business days. While the trend was started by Amazon prime, the flexibility of delivery options would become a key differentiator in e-commerce domain. According to one study, 29% of the users were keen to pay extra for same day delivery. In today’s world of online commerce, logistics will play a key role in defining the future of e-commerce players. Every online retailer, who is there for the long run is working towards building a strong logistics network and up the game by making delivery of goods as fast as possible for its valued customers. Social Selling We are seeing a lot of noise on social network about including “buy“ buttons on these networks. These social networks have a vested interest in making this work, because they have people who visit their sites regularly. By leveraging their traffic for selling is the new strategy on social networking sites, since people like to include their friends in the purchase decisions. Social media users can now buy items without ever having to switch to a different more traditional e-commerce site. The ability to offer your products and services directly through social media platform represents the essence of social selling phenomenon, which is gaining traction as we go through 2017. Sales can increase and sales costs will drop by applying social media to the online sales process effectively. This also concerns with using the true power of social media to acquire more leads and with that more turnover. Exceptional Content or Inbound Marketing Brands which are ahead are putting out exceptional content in the digital space. Good e-commerce marketers know they have to consistently stand out by producing exceptional content to attract and convert prospects into customers. In 2017, we are going to see more content marketing strategies and as the brand looks for conversion with content, great pieces of content will be created and this content will reproduced in various forms such as blog-posts, e-books, pod casts, info-graphics, data visualizations and videos etc. After which, focus should be on measuring the response of each content and focusing only on promoting the content on the successful 3-5 channels. Chatbots This is one of the unique feature to look-out for in 2017. We will see the rise of chatbots led conversation on most of the e-commerce sites. Chatbot is a robotic agent that will help

Seven E-commerce Trends for 2017 Read More »

E-commerce is here to stay, even with limited customer service, no instant gratification and no access to a physical store where you can touch and feel the product. The online platform provides 24x 7 services and the amount of selection one gets to see on online cannot be matched in a physical store. With such advantages, e-commerce has changed the way we shop. Presently, it consists of only 8% of the total retail sales in the US, but the situation is here to change with increasing usage and a growing preference for purchasing online. This article seeks to look at trends which suggest how the e-commerce domain is changing as we go through 2017. Some of the trends are: Shopping on the Mobile We have seen in recent years that there is a shift in consumer behavior towards mobile. And as we move forward, there will be more movement towards this medium. The number of searches emanating from a mobile exceed that of a desktop and more websites are making themselves mobile ready. It must have come to everyone’s notice that Google is slowly removing sites that do not cater to a mobile experience. It is becoming increasingly clear that the way forward is mobile. Having said that, it is known that mobile still lags behind desktop when it comes to conversions. People like to search for their online goods on mobile, but prefer make the purchase on the desktop. This means there aren’t separate consumers for mobile and desktop. This only means at times, it is the same consumer, who searches on the mobile and later purchases through a desktop. This is seen as a habitual fact and will take time to see any improvement. But as we see more smartphone penetration and new technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence) assistants getting included to smartphone devices, the future definitely looks brighter for mobile. Mobile Payments or E-wallets Gone are the days when going cashless meant using the credit or debt card, today, people are turning towards contactless mobile payments. There is an array of companies offering services catering towards mobile payments. It is estimated that mobile payments by 2021 are going to reach $3 trillion dollars. While, it is a lot of money getting transacted on small screens, mobile payments will only equate to 11 percent of all transactions made, a jump from the modest 5% in 2016. As we see more e-commerce companies adopt mobile payments as the preferred mode of payment, there is a world of possibilities that are emerging such as digital loyalty and reward programs. With the increased spread of smartphone and more user-friendly apps, it will further cement the prospect of convenient payment through mobiles. In the US, where the mobile based e-commerce is going to grow the largest, the mobile payment’s ratio of e-commerce is expected to increase from 20% in 2015 to 46% in 2020. Personalization and customization Already users are seeing customization from Netflix and Amazon, these channels with large amount of data from users are able to target customers in a personalized way. Till now customization was exclusively a domain of the big e-commerce retailers, but 2017 will see the small retailers also venturing in with highly targeted ads and embrace personalization. They will start with collecting behavioral data from each website user and send highly targeted campaigns based on customer segments and previous online experiences. This would mean each user who comes to the website will have unique experience from the brand, if he/she is a repeat customer. Same Day Delivery 2017 will see more e-commerce companies taking the step towards same day delivery instead of the normal 3-5 business days. While the trend was started by Amazon prime, the flexibility of delivery options would become a key differentiator in e-commerce domain. According to one study, 29% of the users were keen to pay extra for same day delivery. In today’s world of online commerce, logistics will play a key role in defining the future of e-commerce players. Every online retailer, who is there for the long run is working towards building a strong logistics network and up the game by making delivery of goods as fast as possible for its valued customers. Social Selling We are seeing a lot of noise on social network about including “buy“ buttons on these networks. These social networks have a vested interest in making this work, because they have people who visit their sites regularly. By leveraging their traffic for selling is the new strategy on social networking sites, since people like to include their friends in the purchase decisions. Social media users can now buy items without ever having to switch to a different more traditional e-commerce site. The ability to offer your products and services directly through social media platform represents the essence of social selling phenomenon, which is gaining traction as we go through 2017. Sales can increase and sales costs will drop by applying social media to the online sales process effectively. This also concerns with using the true power of social media to acquire more leads and with that more turnover. Exceptional Content or Inbound Marketing Brands which are ahead are putting out exceptional content in the digital space. Good e-commerce marketers know they have to consistently stand out by producing exceptional content to attract and convert prospects into customers. In 2017, we are going to see more content marketing strategies and as the brand looks for conversion with content, great pieces of content will be created and this content will reproduced in various forms such as blog-posts, e-books, pod casts, info-graphics, data visualizations and videos etc. After which, focus should be on measuring the response of each content and focusing only on promoting the content on the successful 3-5 channels. Chatbots This is one of the unique feature to look-out for in 2017. We will see the rise of chatbots led conversation on most of the e-commerce sites. Chatbot is a robotic agent that will help

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