As the African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

The same principle can be applied to building a sustainable and flourishing business. If you’re a small business owner, then you know there are not enough hours in the day. Your business requires attention to so many details.

By the time you reply to emails, do some paperwork, and put out all the little fires that have started, your long work day is almost over. If you find yourself drowning in the day to day tasks of operating your business, missing valuable time with family and often wanting to through your laptop out the window then FIRST….you need to do a Martin Lawrence styled “Woosahhhh” and then search for a Virtual Assistant ASAP.

Virtual Assistants (VAs) are independent contractors that provide various support activities for small business owners. By hiring a virtual assistant to work on repetitive daily tasks, you suddenly have more time in your day to focus on your business and those things that you do so well for your customers.

It’s not a dream. It’s real. And it happens when you outsource your “busywork” to a competent VA who will efficiently complete it while you laser focus in on your best, most profitable tasks.

The VA candidate pool consists of a wide spectrum of skill-sets. Some VA’s specialize solely in particular activities such as blog management, or podcast management or social media management.  While others, also known as General VA’s, provide a variety of services. To help you get started, here are over 40 tasks you can start outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant.

Email Management

• Inbox clean up
• Setup of email templates
• Setup out of office replies
• Setup inbox filter automations
• Respond to customer inquiries

Customer Service Management

• Create a document of FAQ’s
• Respond to customer inquiries
• Facilitate payments & refunds
• Perform lead followup

Scheduling & Calendar Management

• Setup appointments with leads, clients and vendors
• Schedule or send out appointment reminders
• Schedule special events on your calendar
• Book flights and hotel reservations for business related activities
• Keep you accountable and on schedule for important meetings
• Create itineraries

Administration

• Organize office files and folders.
• Perform clerical research
• Order office supplies
• Create business related reports
• Compile and or consolidate excel files
• Manage word and excel documents
• Transcribe videos and voice notes

Social Media Management

• Create a social media plan
• Create & schedule posts to social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
• Manage and update your Linkedin account
• Upload videos to YouTube
• Manage and moderate Facebook groups
• Update company information on social media platforms
• Review, respond and or remove social media comments
• Manage and moderate forums

Outreach Management

• Reach out to niche related bloggers and media outlets for features or
• Submit blogs to notable sites
• Initiate contact with potential collaborators
• Submit your media kit to podcasts to be featured
• Submit your media kit for speaking events

Graphic Design

• Create a welcome packet to on-board new clients
• Create social media graphics
• Create PowerPoint or Keynote presentations
• Create marketing materials to attract new clients
• Create company brochures

Blog Management

• Create content for blog
• Source blog images
• Proofread blog posts submitted by copyrighting
• Schedule posts to blog management application
• Setup blog tags and categories
• Monitor your blogs analytics

If you find yourself requiring several skill-sets to perform business critical tasks, I would highly suggest delegating activities to more than one Virtual Assistant to maintain operational efficiency and avoid VA burnout. Yes…VA’s get burnt out too. To avoid a “Where is Waldo” situation, regularly check in with your VA and ensure that their task lists are REALISTIC and MANAGEABLE.

Now that I have brought you up to speed on the variety of tasks you can delegate to a Virtual Assistant, click here to subscribe to our email list to get notified when our next blog on “How to find the perfect Virtual Assistant” is released.

Don’t forget to share in the comments below, what tasks you would love to have outsourced to a Virtual Assistant.