Today, achieving business growth entails not only growth but growing smartly. However, as all entrepreneurs know growth must be managed, and at times it can be overwhelming.
And that is where virtual assistants or VAs are considered in the conversation.
By wisely employing VAs, one is capable of running the business smoothly, concentrating on key processes, and growing the company without being overwhelmed by the pile of work.
In this guide, you will get to identify the ways through which your business can be scaled through the use of Virtual Assistants and show you how what you might be seeing as a mere mountain, can be brought down to being a molehill.
Step 1: Understanding the Tasks You Want to Delegate.
The first way to scale with Virtual Assistance is by discerning which tasks may and should be outsourced.
Take a close look at your daily operations and identify the tasks that are time-consuming but not directly tied to revenue generation or strategic growth.
These could be organizational tasks such as handling emails, calendars, documentation, clients’ complaints, or online communities management.
Actionable Tip: List work activities that consume much of your time. It involves sorting them in a way that will enable the person to determine those that can be delegated to a VA without causing a lot of negative impact to the output of the project.
Step 2: State Specific and Measurable Duties and Responsibilities
Once you have outlined the tasks and that is how you proceed to develop the scope of work as well as the responsibilities of VAs clearly.
This entails developing clear descriptions of the tasks entailed in each position; skills needed, and tasks anticipated in the company.
Most employees and all VAs want to do the job well and do not intend to disappoint their employer or be dismissed for poor performance or for not meeting set goals and objectives.
This is why it is always advised that the goals and objectives of the employer should be made clear to VAs, and this will go a long way in helping the VAs perform well and with less misunderstanding of the employer’s expectations of them.
Actionable Tip: Provide guidelines of writing a VA job description that will fill the above given positions. Be sure to state specific KPIs that will be needed to periodically monitor the progress and effectiveness of the project.
Step 3: Get the Right Virtual Assistants
Recruitment and selection are one of the most critical activities determining the outcomes of your scaling strategy. Always ensure that you are hiring a VA with the exact skills that are needed to do the tasks effectively.
To get yourself a qualified virtual assistant, you can search through the aforementioned platforms, recruiting agencies, or you can recommend one.
It is crucial to look at their experience but do not fail to look at their communication skills especially when the candidate is going to be reporting to you.
Actionable Tip: Carry out comprehensive interviews to gather initial information and maybe explore possibilities of offering test assignments to evaluate the VA’s efficiency and compatibility in terms of business ethos.
Step 4: Train Your Virtual Assistants
Every VA should be properly oriented and trained to learn the details of the particular enterprise and its operations.
It may be necessary to let them know about the various procedures used in the business, equipment and means of communication.
This investment means that VAs to be assigned in the different stations will be well trained and would mean that more efficient VAs could be produced hence taking less supervision.
Actionable Tip: Develop a set of office procedures including data about the company’s operations, work with tools and methods, and communication rules in the form of a manual for new employees or a video lesson. It could even take some time for the students to exhaust all their questions or problems. Hence, weekly meetings for the first few weeks could be useful in offering the much needed guidance.
Step 5: Choose Proper Communication Tools
Another important factor that can be mentioned as crucial when working in a virtual team is communication.
They should fit and be clear from the beginning of their undertaking regarding the lines of communication and the manners in which they shall be implemented.
Depending on the communication medium used regularly for business; email, project management apps or instant messaging apps, make sure the VAs know how and when to get in touch with you.
It is, however, important to realize that in order to stay on schedule someone has to be updating and checking in from time to time.
Actionable Tip: Make use of online platforms like Slack, Trello or Asana, so that all the members of the group are aware of the status of the project
Step 6: Measure Progress and Provide Feedback
When your VAs are performing more diverse tasks, their productivity must be checked and feedback given to them.
This aids in upholding high standards and practice of efficiency to such a level that it becomes a custom or norm.
Ensure that you use the KPIs that you set at the beginning of the process to determine their success and solve problems as and when they occur.
Actionable Tip: There should be periodic organizational meetings where issues making a round can be reviewed and the general performance of the employees discussed. Praise them when they do a good job as this will motivate the VAs.
Conclusion
Outsourcing has become a very effective way of expanding your business venture, hiring virtual assistants isn’t just good business practice; it is mandatory in the current world economy.
The delegation of tasks, setting expectations and fostering your virtual team also help you save time for growth, product development, and customer satisfaction.
At Shrewdva, we understand the fact that good management of companies is the key to the growth of your business companies. We have a team of professional virtual assistants who aim to keep you on course as you work towards success in your business.
