No one ever said running a business would be easy but, when you’re in the midst of countless emails, a never-ending string of phone calls and mountains of customer data with no structure, it can feel incredibly overwhelming. In our modern age, there are more entrepreneurs than ever before. In fact, statistics estimate that this number could be somewhere in the region of 582 million globally. And, we want you to succeed. Virtual Assistants step in when those tasks you once tackled on your own fall outside the scope of capabilities. When there just aren’t enough hours in the day or your customer service levels are slipping. 

Whether you call us Administrative Assistants, Remote Admin Assistants or Personal Assistants, we’re here to help your business grow. As an extension to your team, a VA will offload essential tasks that simply cannot fail. And this frees you up to focus on business-critical decisions and planning the next elevation of growth for your company. 

So, to help you get started with outsourcing, here are 5 tasks you can delegate to a Virtual Assistant today. 

1. Organise inboxes

There are two types of people in the world. Those who open and answer emails straight away and those who regularly get to the point where their unread messages number in the thousands. If it’s your personal inbox, you can get away with missing the odd message from your favourite takeaway restaurant or answering family invites too late. But for your business, good communication and organisation is key. Over 50% of consumers would choose to take their business elsewhere if they felt the service was poor due to a lack of communication. 

It takes time to set up a structured business email – time that you rarely have free. This is where a Virtual Assistant steps in. With access to your account, they can organise files, set up rules and create a manageable inbox structure that is easy to follow going forward. Think of it as a Spring clean for your emails. 

2. Raise and send invoices

Every business needs to get paid but there is something about requesting money from customers and clients that feels uncomfortable. Sometimes, it’s less about discomfort and more about time – you simply don’t have the spare hours needed to correctly raise, send and chase money. As an entrepreneur, you know how important this task is but that doesn’t make it any easier to do on your side. 

A Virtual Assistant can take management of your accountancy software, whether that be Xero, Quickbooks or another system. They can manage the raising, sending and chasing of an invoice alongside other bookkeeping tasks too. If needed, a Virtual Assistant can also work alongside your existing accountancy team to ensure all financial information is streamlined and correct. 

3. Schedule appointments

Find yourself constantly running late for meetings? Or struggling to pack in work, family and personal appointments into one day. You’re not alone. Research from 2021 found that 82% of workers don’t have (or use) a time management system and, therefore, feel overwhelmed with everything that has to fit in. As an entrepreneur, your time is important and every minute needs to be allocated appropriately. 

A Virtual Assistant can work with you and your chosen calendar to schedule, book and plan necessary appointments. These can be business-related, such as accountants meetings or lead calls or it can be personal appointments, such as that much-needed dentist trip or a school play. Having a well-organised calendar will eliminate stress and worry significantly – trust us! 

4. Upload content

Most businesses these days have a website but how often are they updated? It’s not just you – most companies get themselves online, create a striking website and then leave it alone. Yes, you’ve invested the time into producing something that could help potential customers coming your way but websites need to evolve with the Internet. Search engines, like Google and Ask, have a way in which they select the right websites for each search and if your content is old or irrelevant, you could be missing out on exposure. 

A Virtual Assistant can log in to the backend of your website and upload new images, blog posts or videos. Uploading content also doesn’t need to be restricted to websites. If you use a CRM system or are migrating to a new business management platform, a VA can work with you to make this upload process as straightforward as possible too. 

5. Manage social media platforms

If your business chooses to promote itself on social media, you need to be active regularly. This is where most business owners struggle. Your time needs to be focused on business-critical tasks so how do you also produce trending, topical and engaging content for your Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook?

You hire a Virtual Assistant with marketing experience to do it for you! VA’s come from different walks of life and the right one will be able to manage, grow and develop your online audience so that social media becomes a means of generating leads too. 

Ready to delegate your first task to a Virtual Assistant today? Get in contact with us at michelle@flowbusinesssupport.co.uk to speak to our team.