Guide to Create More Time in Your Business

Time.

As an solo professional, it's the commodity you covet most but never seem to have enough of.

If you had more time, you could complete all the administrative chores required to operate your business.

With enough time, you could do more marketing, more networking, more planning and systemizing.

If you had just a little more, you'd be a whole lot less hurried and stressed.

But how on earth do you create more time to do all the things necessary to run smoothly, build business, and create revenue?

A Creative Solution

The obvious answer is to increase your manpower. But hiring staff is not such an easy or affordable proposition for the solo or small practice professional.

"Fortunately,” says Danielle Keister, “there's an outsourcing alternative--Virtual Assistance.”

Ms. Keister’s company, The Relief Virtual Assistance, is a successful Virtual Assistance practice that has been delivering expert, personalized administrative support services to the small business and professional community since 1997.

And just what is a Virtual Assistant, you ask?

Ms. Keister defines a Virtual Assistant (or VA) as a professional service provider specializing in administrative support services who works from her own fully-equipped office utilizing computers and other technology to deliver services and communicate with clients.

“Virtual Assistants primarily serve small to mid-sized business owners who have smaller workloads, need only occasional help, or who don't have the space or budget for in-house office staff, much less the time to train and manage them. Today’s technology allows us to serve clients anywhere--they can be across town or on the other side of the world.”

Virtual Assistants to the Rescue

Virtual Assistants provide just about any administrative support you can think of:  word processing, transcription, data entry, database management, spreadsheet creation, proofreading--you name it. The overall service--and real value--is provided within the framework of an ongoing, collaborative relationship with clients. Ms. Keister’s practice offers additional non-administrative specialties such as graphic and web design, and legal support services.
The savings can be huge compared to the cost of an actual employee because there are no payroll taxes or benefits to pay, no extra office space and equipment needs, and no training or management headaches.

Not to mention that not all employee time is productive (think breaks, sick leave, vacations and other downtime). With Virtual Assistance, clients pay only for the time the Virtual Assistant spends working on their behalf.

That's 100% productive time; you can't get more efficient than that!

And who are these saviors? What are their qualifications?

The Virtual Assistance profession was founded in 1996, and has its own industry associations and certification programs.

Ms. Keister states, “Virtual Assistants come from a variety of business backgrounds, but the common denominator is that the best of us are typically overachievers with extensive administrative experience and superior skill sets and training.”

She stresses that Virtual Assistants are not at-home workers, telecommuters or temps. “We are highly-skilled independent professionals who love what we do, and in business to provide consistently top-quality work to clients we are committed to.”

A Simpatic Partnership

Although they can certainly assist with occasional projects, Virtual Assistants are more commonly interested in establishing long-term, collaborative relationships with their clients. This is where the true value of a Virtual Assistant is found. As the Virtual Assistant gets to know the owner and learns more about his or her business, support the client becomes more intuitive.

Ms. Keister states, "The ideal is to achieve a simpatico working relationship where my support not only instills more efficiency and productivity, but is key to helping my clients improve their systems and workflows to create more time in both their business and personal lives."