“The art of delegation is one of the key skills any entrepreneur must master” – Richard Branson

Why successful business entrepreneurs appreciate the hidden value of a virtual assistant: Starting your own business can be a daunting experience. Making time to manage operating costs, while setting up effective working practices and administration, can be an unproductive drain on your individual skills. Which is why you’ll find the professional services of an experienced virtual assistant invaluable.   Take a look at just some of the essential administrative tasks a virtual assistant can take care of, leaving you to get on with your business:

• Organising events and preparing you for meetings with potential clients through background research, so you are always ahead of the game.
• Stay on top of your emails so you don’t get bogged down and filing the most important into folders for review when you’re travelling. Replying to meeting requests and following up on potential sales leads.
• Keeping track of your invoices so you get paid on time.
• Identifying and taking care of time-consuming tasks you do repetitively on a day to day or weekly/monthly basis.
• Setting up appointments on your behalf and dealing with the often difficult process of co-ordinating delegates/clients through their assistants.
• Preparing multiple receipts ready for the accountant or scanning them into software packages such as Quickbooks or Xero.
• Compilation of presentation material, proposals, marketing schedules to share with potential clients.

  "Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life."  - Dolly Parton There is also an important work life balance to consider. Building a successful business should not be at the expense of a happy, healthy lifestyle. Which is why it makes sense to delegate those burdensome administrative jobs to your virtual assistant and learn to appreciate some rewarding social time outside of working hours, with your family and friends.