One part of your business where a virtual assistant can make a big difference, is in planning your calendar for you. Correctly used, a virtual assistant has the potential to transform your efficiency, by helping you to organise key appointments, travel plans and important meetings.
It’s often the case that, if you are busy doing something, then it is difficult to plan ahead so you stay busy. If your diary is full of appointments this week, then the danger is that you don’t have time to arrange your appointments next week. But, if getting in front of prospects to make sales presentations is what makes you the money, then why waste your time setting up your next few appointments, when that is not something you are naturally skilled at.
Using a virtual assistant to call potential customers or prospects, and set up meetings or appointments in your diary, is a much more efficient way to plan your weeks.
Simply give the virtual assistant the contact details of the people you want to meet, and the available time slots in your calendar over the next few days or weeks.
The virtual assistant can then focus on making contact with the individuals you want to see, liaising with them to find a suitable time when both of you are free, confirming the details and getting it in the diary. They can also arrange a courtesy confirmation call the day before your appointment, to ensure you do not have a wasted journey.
If you wish, your virtual assistant can also make travel arrangements for you, including route planning if you are driving in a car, or booking tickets on trains, flights and taxis. If necessary, they can plan overnight stays in hotels. By planning ahead, your travel will run more smoothly, and you can probably add another meeting a day into your schedule, with the time saved; or alternatively, you end up with a working day the length it should be, so you get to spend more time with your family at the end of it!
A virtual assistant can also help with the other essential administrative tasks that come from having a busy diary. They can ensure all your costs and expenses are accounted for, in order to claim back expenses from clients, your employer or as part of your self assessment preparations; many virtual assistants offer a bookkeeping service, and this vital function makes accounting for costs much easier.
Often, the result of positive meeting is that further work needs to be planned, or orders processed. Once more, a well briefed virtual assistant can help take the strain, confirming order details, ensuring commitments are signed, invoices issued and payments received as necessary. For any busy individual, there are plenty of creative ways that a virtual assistant can provide support that ensures working days are no longer than they need to be, and that those days are filled with productive, and profitable, activities.
How do you employ a virtual assistant, to see how much of a positive impact they could make on your life? It’s really simple, as there are no employment contracts or any complications of that kind. Just decide on the first tasks that you can outsource to your virtual assistant, then ask for a quotation or costs so that you know what they can achieve for you, at what cost. Get in touch with us – you really have nothing to lose, and plenty to gain, once a virtual assistant becomes part of your working life!