Assistant

Running a small business alone can be difficult but that is what entrepreneurship is all about, right? Well, yes and no. I am sure that when your business idea was stuck inside your mind you never dreamed that you would be overloaded with so many phone calls to return, emails in your inbox not to mention the mountains of paperwork or bank statements to reconcile. How do you get it all done without help? Could you ask your spouse or a friend for help? Sure, but if they have a regular full-time job then their time is limited too. How can you accomplish the administrative duties AND continue to launch new products or services? The answer to that question is…..you can hire an assistant!

You might think that hiring an assistant is out of the question but think about this, if you had someone to delegate some of those arduous daily tasks how much time would you have for marketing, launching a new product line or spending quality time with important clients (or even family)? These are important things to consider if you want your business to grow. If you’re spending time on a mountain of administrative-like tasks then you will not have time for more important things like growing your company—which is why you are working for yourself in the first place, right?

You-see, the thought of hiring an assistant never occurred to me until I received an email from Alexandra Brown (the EZine Queen). She is the owner of a very successful business and still has time for vacations--not yearly but quarterly! How does SHE do it all and relax too? She has a virtual assistant (or VA) whom she freelances administrative tasks to while she uses her time to grow and market her business. This makes sense to me because these tasks need to be done but they can pile up so quickly stealing valuable time away from other more important things.

I visited the AssistU (http://www.assistu.com) website to learn more about this service and it seems like a reasonable thing to consider. A side note here: I think this is a wonderful opportunity for those who are gifted with administrative skills and want to work from home. If you own a business and want to explore this further their website also has a link to help you find an assistant who will fit your needs. Another website dedicated to VA’s is the International Virtual Assistants Association (http://www.ivaa.org/), a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about this growing career opportunity.

Alexandra has a step-by-step guide (www.ezinequeen.com/assistanttele.htm) to help you to select the best VA for you and your business.

Lastly, my disclaimer: I am not trying to promote these businesses, my hope is that these links will help you in your endeavors.