Delegating Tasks to a Virtual Support Assistant (VA)

Do you wish you had a clone or at least an extra set of hands? Do you spend large chunks of time performing administrative tasks. Does your focus need to be on utilizing your area of expertise and growing your business vs wasting time on the tasks it takes to run a business? Perhaps it's time to DELEGATE !

What is DELEGATION? In short, it's assigning a responsibility to another person to carry out specific activities.

It is becoming increasing popular for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs to contract out administrative work vs hiring an employee. Virtual Assistants (VA) utilize today's technologies, work from anywhere and everywhere, to complete tasks and free up time that can be focused on generating revenue.

You may be surprised how much time you can free up or save by delegating some tasks to a Virtual Assistant (aka Virtual Support Specialist). When a support person is working on the administrative tasks, their focus is zoned in on those specific tasks. Their mind is not clouded with the numerous other things that need your attention, like your clients, customers or increasing your revenue. For this specific reason, a Virtual Assistant (VA) is most likely to perform your administrative tasks quicker and more effectively than you can.

The hardest part for anyone is letting go. We all have the mentality of 'no one can do it as good as I can.' That may be true, but you can show or teach someone to do it like you. Delegating tasks creates an extension of yourself, allowing you to free up your time to focus on the business side of things and not the administrative tasks.

HOW TO DELEGATE ? Start by identifying the areas and specific time-consuming tasks that you feel comfortable with letting go. It easy to remember the delegation process if you use the acronym IDEALS.

I - Introduce the task

D - Demonstrate clearly what needs to be done

E - Ensure understanding

A - Allocate authority, information and resources as needed

L - Let go

S - Support and Monitor

10 Tasks You Can Delegate To Your Virtual Support Specialist (VA):

Email Management - A VA can screen, filter, organize, draft responses.
Calendar Management- Utilize a shared calendar so VA can set up appointments and manage your calendar.
Social Media Management - A VA can set up accounts, filter, reply, comment, participate, etc.
Research - A simple yet time consuming task.
Proofreading - No matter how many times you proof your own work, a second set of eyes can catch typos, etc.
Invoicing - A time consuming yet important part of any business. A VA can take care of generating, sending, tracking and receiving invoices.
Expense Reports - Another unpleasant time consuming task. A VA can organize receipts, and expenses. You can utilize a central area for sharing and storing, such as Google Drive, Box or Dropbox.
Project Tracking/Management - A VA can track projects, deadlines, deliverable and provide you with status updates. You can utilize something as simple as a spreadsheet or a project management software/app that can sync directly with your phone.
Travel - Let a VA research and book flights, hotels, car rentals. They can track your Frequent Flyers miles, Hotel points/rewards, etc. to ensure you don't miss out before they expire.
Content / Creative Work - Many VAs are skilled writers. Tasks can range from writing bios, blog content, newsletters, social medias postings, etc.