Small business owners are still wasting time on admin when they could be focusing on revenue generating parts of their business.
Research by Sage shows that businesses are spending an average of 120 working hours a year on admin tasks when they should be majoring on tasks that drive profitability. Now is the time to unlock this time burden by outsourcing repetitive tasks and driving software automations. In turn this will free up hours for fee-earning activity that will improve the bottom line. .
As a business owner your time is precious. So work it and own it. Delegate tasks and projects to people with the experience to complete them quicker and faster than you.
Smash Your Admin
Admin won’t take care of itself and can take up huge chunks of your precious time. If you’re struggling to keep on top of it, or are just starting out but can see that it’s not for you, then a virtual assistant (VA) could be your solution.
A VA is on hand to take care of all your admin tasks, in particular those niggly ones that never get done. This leaves you free to concentrate on critical and revenue generating areas of your business. It can also improve your work/life balance.
It’s Too Expensive
When you sign a contract with a VA you pay only for the hours worked. It’s a flat fee with no hidden costs. Lunch breaks, holiday or sick pay is not your responsible. You can pass work across when you need to – on an ad-hoc or regular basis. With project management apps like Asana you can share task lists. This enables you to track how much time your VA has spent on projects and how many hours you have used so far.
Hiring a permanent employee involves the financial commitment of a full time salary including taxes, sick pay, holiday pay, maternity pay, training, desk space, equipment stationery and more. You also have to factor in the time and funds needed to recruit the ideal candidate in the first place.
Added Benefits
The benefit of a VA is that they allow you to delegate without an additional headcount cost. Any reduction in overheads allows you to shift more revenue to operational growth. At the same time outsourcing to an experienced VA can provide continuity, drive automation, operational expense control and risk management.
A VA can be scaled up and down to suit your business requirements.
How Can A VA Help
- Bookkeeping: stop spending your precious time chasing your operating invoices and outsource to an expert. No-one wants to make costly mistakes when running a small business and if managed efficiently can mean accurate reporting and easier tax returns.
- Content marketing: the best way to sell something without direct selling. It involves creating strong and relevant content aimed at attracting and retaining a clearly defined audience.
- PA and Administration: a VA can eliminate all the repetitive tasks that eat into your time. They can manage your inbox, create email templates, schedule meetings, manage your phone calls, create call back reports, produce presentations and so the list goes on…..
- Provide holiday cover: taking a break from work is essential for all of us. As a small business owner leaving the helm of your ship can be difficult. There are the logistics of how to handle your calls, reply to your emails, follow up on business development leads and ensure projects are kept on track and running smoothly. A virtual assistant can provide an ideal solution.
- Documenting business processes: this is a tedious job but essential to ensure consistency, reduce costly mistakes and avoid duplication of work. They are also helpful for new hires and for staff covering staff holidays or sickness.
- Implement automations: once your processes are mapped you can introduce the automation platforms such as Zapier (there are many others to choose from). In turn they drive productivity, improve customer service and further reduce costs and mistakes. A VA can implement software (that links well with each other) to maximise business automations.
- Arranging cloud-based document management: this will allow you to access content from any drive and securely archive documents. With part, or all of, your team working from home supporting an increasing number of remote teams with business information at any time, and from any device, is critical. A cloud based document management system enables fast and easy access. No more messy shared drives or sluggish VPN, or worse still saving to your hard drive.
Outsource your weaknesses
A small business owner wears many different and time-consuming hats. There are many areas of the business to outsource and it can be tricky to know where to start. A good access point is to assess your team and their skillset, your processes (if you have them identified) and the work you have to do on a regular basis.
in the beginning consider outsourcing those areas where you and your team struggle or lack skills.
Buy Time VA
With a no-fixed cost approach and a wide range of skills, a VA could be exactly what you need to get your business organised and free up your time.
Our focus is our client. We therefore offer a flexible and transparent pricing structure, with no membership, contract or joining fees. There are no minimum use requirements – simply ‘buy time’ as it is needed. At Buy Time we support businesses on an individual project or on an on-going basis. Our long term relationships have benefited from this approach for well over a decade. We charge an hourly rate and in 5 minute slots. It is not as expensive as you think and no job is too small or unusual!
Sound good? Then give us a call and see what we can do for you.
If you would like to find out more about how Buy Time can help, please do get in touch at info@buy-time.co.uk or 0203 292 0566.