Why it's good to be a bit Monica!

In my last blog I wrote about the benefits of working with a Virtual Assistant, so for this post I thought I would look at the importance of good admin within every type of business and the benefit to your productivity in being organised.

Ok, so it is a bit of a standing  joke with my family & friends that I am a real life Monica from Friends and yes I might take a bit too far, with my ribbon drawer but I think we could all learn a little something from being a bit Monica!

We have all the seen job adverts for ‘administration assistant’ or ‘administrator’ with a job specification of ‘general administrative duties’ but what does that mean? For me ‘admin’ is one of the most over looked parts of any business and not placing a high enough importance could be the difference between success and failure – yes,  I think it is that important! I have heard of many ‘administrators’ being made redundant in the last few years as a cost cutting exercise because managers feel that they can take on the workload, but they soon realise it’s not as easy as it looks!

Admin covers such a huge array of tasks within any business and each one will have different needs and requirements. In my last employed role I was the Admin & Quality Supervisor for a large firm at Gatwick Airport, I supported 4 managers between 2 warehouses and only had 1 part time assistant to help. My role was huge and covered anything from recruitment to ISO document control and everything in between to make sure the operation ran smoothly. In my hand over when I left it was over 20 pages long with all the information about what the role entailed!

Good administration takes time to get to right as you need to find what works for you, but organisation will be always play a key part and for me they go hand in hand.

We are all moving towards a paperless way of living, with lots of us now using on line banking and services, which is great as it makes it easier to stay organised and it takes away the paper element which causes so many issues for people. However, just because you are not filing a hard copy, good filing systems on your PC will help everything stay in order.

If you can immediately put your hands on that quote, that email from a client or that report not only will it save you time searching for it, it makes you look so much more professional and efficient to your clients and that is invaluable!

If you know you can’t be that organised or you can but it will be at the detriment to other parts of your business then it is certainly worth investing in admin support whether it be via a VA or by employing someone – it could be the making of your business!

The Benefits of Working with a Virtual Assistant

My first 2 blogs have been about my love of Social Media and benefits of different platforms, but for this week’s post I thought I would have a look at the benefit of working with a Virtual Assistant like me. I have had a few requests to do a blog on Google+ which I will do once I have had time to sign up & explore!

So, you are up to your eyeballs in paperwork & loosing track of what you need to do but you don’t have the funds to hire someone to help on a permanent basis. You have heard the term Virtual Assistant banded about but don’t have the time to look into it properly. You know you need help so you can focus on growing your business but the thought of working with someone remotely worries you. All sound familiar?

Well never fear, here are the top 3 reasons to work with a VA!

1.    Working with a VA gives the you the best of both worlds, getting you the help you need but without all the additional costs involved with employees such as Tax, NI, Holiday & Sick pay. A VA will only charge for the hours worked & even though the hourly rates may initially seem high, when you compare to the cost of employing someone it soon makes sense.

2.    You get to delegate the work that takes you away from building and growing your business. This means you could offload that customer spread sheet you have been meaning to do for months, that mail shot you keep meaning to do, that research on a new product, or just your general day to day admin – these are just a few things a VA could help with, really when it comes to VA’s the possibilities are endless!

3.    Working remotely does seem strange to a lot of people, as we are all so used to ‘going to the office’ to work, however with all the amazing technology we have available to us it really is easier than most people think. There are file sharing systems, instant messaging, Skype and of course good old email & telephone. I personally love good old fashion emailing, it keeps a perfect record of all conversations and you always have them as a point of reference. The one huge benefit you have of working remotely is that you are not having to supply equipment for the work to be done, (obviously there may be postal charges and other miscellaneous items but all of these would be agreed at the time of booking)

There are hundreds over other reasons to hire a VA but I think these are 3 main stumbling blocks that people may see when considering taking that leap before requesting the assistance of ‘virtual’ help.

If you think you may be at a point where you may need to look for a VA, these are a few things to consider?

1.  Where are they based – VA’s are based all over the world, but if location is important to you, make sure you include that in your search criteria

2.   Do you need a VA with experience in a certain field i.e. recruitment, data entry or something specific to your business?

3.  Is it a particular project you need assistance with or ongoing support?

4.  If it is ongoing support you need, think about how many hours a week/month you would like a VA to work on your projects. That way you can begin to budget how much it may cost you

5.  Which methods of communication are important to you – do you need regular Skype calls, or will email be sufficient?

6.  Use platforms such as Linked In to look for VA’s – it has the recommendation area, so you can see what previous clients have said about their work

7.  Lastly, ask at networking meetings or on social media platforms such as Twitter for recommendations for VA’s

There are numerous websites which can help you find your perfect VA, here are just a few;

http://www.occasionalassistants.co.uk/

http://allianceofukvirtualassistants.org.uk/

http://www.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/

If you think you might need some help to enable you to move your business forward, please don’t hesitate to get in touch or check out my website http://www.staceysadminsolutions.co.uk/ for more details about me and the solutions I provide.