Back to School Organization for the Entrepreneur

Number 2 pencils are being sharpened, school buses are traversing through the city, kindergarteners are waddling around wearing backpacks as big as they are – it’s back to school time once again!

The start of the school year is a natural fresh start in our calendars, regardless if you are sending children off to classes (or heading off to class yourself). It’s a time to shift gears from hopping aboard the boat at the lake to hitting the books. Back to school organization is just as important for entrepreneurs as it is for students.

Get ready to start the year strong with our back to school organization guide for the entrepreneur.

Get Your Schedule Sorted Out

Students rely on a schedule to be where and when. Sure, you may not have to report to geometry in room A203 anymore. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow a schedule.

It’s the paradox of the entrepreneur life. You hold autonomy over your schedule, but you should use that autonomy to set restrictions. Ask any successful entrepreneur and they will tell you a schedule is key (not convinced? Check out this post on why you need to set your work hours when you work from home).

Take some time to develop a work schedule that will work for you. Maybe your peak productivity hours are early morning and late afternoon. Schedule your workout for the midday slump. Maybe at 3 you need to shuttle your kiddos around to after school activities. Start your workday a bit earlier. Making a schedule sets you up to be organized and ready to rock this year.

Stock Up on Supplies

Most stores host back to school sales for supplies like paper, pens, post-it notes, and even electronics. Conveniently, all tools you use to run your business! Take advantage of these sales and stock up on anything you will need throughout the year.

If you are lucky enough to have a storage area, pack it to the brim with discount supplies. If you haven’t already, make sure your supplies are organized and easily accessible.

Get Ready to Learn

Students everywhere are getting ready to learn and so should you! Plan out a duoable learning schedule you can follow throughout the school year.

Maybe you take an online course through Udemy where you dedicate one hour Tuesday evenings to. Maybe it’s reading a business development book for twenty minutes a day (try this list of top books every entrepreneur should read). Always be learning. It’ll make you a better entrepreneur (and more well-rounded person).

Gather Up the Timelined Checklists

Checklists are a great organizational tool. They help you remember those dozens of small tasks you need to do without letting something fall through the cracks. Checklists are your friend. At the start of the school year, collect ones you will rely on the following months.

Here are a few we recommend:

Beginning of the Year Checklist
Summer Slump Checklist
End of Year Checklist
Linkedin Personal Branding Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Checklist

Test Out Productivity Hacks

Productivity hacks are great. They let you work smarter, not harder. Pick a few new productivity tricks to try out this school year. You can even pick a new trick each month to continually make yourself more effective.

Here’s a round-up of some great tips to get you started:

Streamline your business with these free tools
Keep your to-do list short (a few items or less)
Test out the pomodoro method of time management
Try batching your tasks
Plan your day the evening before

Use these organization tips to start your school year off right. Don’t forget, Alpine Small Business Solution is always here to lend a helping hand. We can assist with any aspect of business building. Let us help your company grow this school year. Reach out today with a quick call or email to get started.

Your LinkedIn Personal Branding Strategy Guide

For many of us, LinkedIn is a heck of a lot like eating enough vegetables or reducing the sugar in your diet.

You know you’re supposed to do it. You know you can benefit from it. But in the hustle and bustle of life, making and implementing a LinkedIn strategy consistently falls down to the bottom of your to-do list. And it never gets done.

Luckily, effective LinkedIn practices really do not take much time at all. A few minutes each day, week, month, and quarter can make a world of difference developing your personal branding.

Below is our recommended LinkedIn personal branding strategy guide. Commit to a few extra minutes and watch your online presence become stronger!

Daily LinkedIn Practices

As an entrepreneur, you are already stretched pretty thin. I get it! The last thing you want is another item on your to-do list. Fortunately, this one really does only take a few minutes a day. If you need to, download the LinkedIn app on your phone so you can update it while waiting in line at the grocery store or during your commute.

Post content. Like any social media channel, LinkedIn requires consistent quality posting to be effective. Aim to post every day Monday through Friday. Regular posting showcases your industry knowledge, since it shows you know enough to identify then read content from top industry players. When you add in your own commentary, it showcases your witty and intelligent analysis. To save time, you can batch posts with Hootsuite and curate posts by plugging your favorite blogs into Feedly.
Interact with others. Social media needs to be social. Take the time to do something every day. Support others’ career efforts by “liking” their job anniversaries or new gigs (or, even better, shoot off a personal message). Comment on articles posted by others to add your intelligent voice into the world.

Weekly LinkedIn Practices

At some point each week, make sure you are completing the following tasks.

Look for new contacts. Your network should always be growing. Attending networking events is a huge asset for this, but even just looking for people you know each week can massively grow your community. LinkedIn will suggest contacts for you in the “My Network” section, making it easy to continually be connecting. You can also look through profiles of those you know to see if you have mutual contacts.
Interact in LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn groups are a valuable networking tool that gather like-minded professionals together. Aim for a smaller number of groups that you interact with frequently. You can search for groups here. Once you find groups, check out our post for best group practices.

Monthly LinkedIn Practices

Each month, take the time to accomplish the following tasks.

Add in portfolio content. Ideally, each month you will be doing several projects that can be showcased in a portfolio. LinkedIn allows you to add in these pieces to display your amazing work. Take advantage of it! Adding in one or two projects a month can really round out your profile.
Promote your profile elsewhere. If you maintain a personal branded Facebook or Twitter, create a few posts directing those audiences to your LinkedIn. Mention your profile in blog posts or a newsletter. Do a little bit of marketing each month to draw more people to your profile.
Write blog posts. Well-written articles really help showcase your expertise. Taking the time to whip up one or two 500 word articles a month helps build your brand as a knowledgeable player in your industry.

Quarterly LinkedIn Practices

Each quarter, take time to comb over your profile and make any necessary tweaks.

Examine your keywords. Your LinkedIn profile should be search engine optimized of course. But as your career develops, so might your career aspirations. Maybe last quarter you were more focused on general virtual assistant services, but recently you’ve delved into the world of social media marketing and love it. Adjusting your keywords can help make your profile appealing to different job recruiters. Use Word Cloud Generator to paste your LinkedIn text to see which keywords are most common (and adjust if they do not match your targeted industry keywords).
Add in any new developments. Did you take a marketing class that you forgot to add in? Did your role shift at your current position and now you need a new description? It’s easy for these changes to happen without remembering to make adjustments on our LinkedIn. Going thoroughly through your profile each quarter helps make sure nothing important falls through the cracks.

When you take the time to build up your LinkedIn profile, it really can make a difference to your personal branding. Regular use helps paint you as an industry expert and someone others will really want to work with. It also serves as a self-reflection. Are you where you want to be in your career? What areas are you lacking experience? How can you re-adjust your strategy? Use your LinkedIn time to reflect on your career.

If you want assistance on setting up or building your LinkedIn profile, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Just give us a call or shoot us an email to get started.

A Case for Marketing with Promotional Products

In today’s fast paced digital world, the best form of advertising is online and social media right?

Wrong.

In many cases, you are better off marketing with promotional products. You know, those pens/bags/shirts/mugs/other random assortment of items branded with a company’s name and logo.

Sure, you may roll your eyes a bit when you get a pen from your dentist. Gee thanks I’ve always wanted a dentist pen. But you still own the pen don’t you? And you still see that dentist don’t you?

The promotional products industry is valued to be more than $21 billion for one clear reason: it works.

There are a number of reasons why your small business can benefit from marketing with promotional products.

More Bang for Your Buck

The cost per impression tends to be among the lowest for promotional products compared to other methods of advertising.

The breakdown goes:

Newspapers: 3.2¢

Prime-time TV: 2.5¢

Targeted mobile: 1¢

Internet: .7¢

Promotional product: .7¢

For highly cost effective marketing, go with Internet or promotional products. But as the following reasons show, promotional products often edge out Internet in other arenas.

Customers View Promotional Products Highest

When ranking different forms of advertising, consumers rank promotional products as the most highly regarded form. Internet advertising came in sixth and mobile advertising came in seventh. Put your money where the consumer trust is.

Customer Generation

Promotional products help at every stage of customer generation.

For raising awareness among the target audience, promotional products lead to 22% more referrals and 14% more leads. Promotional products also help increase response rates to direct mail marketing by 50%.

Promotional products create a favorable view of the company in 76% of people.

For turning leads into customers, promotional products turn 52% of people into customers.

Promotional products help you reach your target audience, woo your target audience, and convert your target audience into customers.

Customers Better Remember Your Company

Consumers remember your company better when it shows up as a promotional product over other forms of advertising.

They say 76.1% of consumers can remember the company name off of a promotional item given to them in past year. Only 53% could remember from a TV or print ad they saw in the last month. A mere 27% could recall from an online ad.

There are a few possible explanations for this discrepancy. Customers are blasted with online ads every day, so they learn to tune them out (or install ad blocker). Customers are not bombarded with promotional products daily, so the ad stands out.

Promotional products also lead to repeat exposure, while an online, TV, or print ad does not. There, the customer sees the ad once. With a promotional product, they can see it multiple times. About 73% of consumers used the promotional product in the last week and 45.2% used it at least once a day. And 58% of consumers keep the promotional product from between one year to four years. That’s a lot of exposure, helping customers better remember your company.

A Case for Promotional Products

Choosing the right advertising medium for your company is a never ending quest. Various factors affect the “best” option at this given moment: the budget, the campaign project, the target audience, etc.

Promotional products are unfortunately often overlooked as a solution in today’s electronic world, but they should not be. Promotional products may be exactly what you need for marketing your company! That simple pen/bag/shirt/mug/other random item could be the ticket to capturing the attention (and the payment) of your target audience.

If you want assistance implementing a promotional product marketing campaign, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Just give us a call or shoot us an email to get started.

Twitter Makes Changes to Their Character Limit…Again

Since Twitter launched in 2006, the character limit has remained constant. Users could say anything they wished, so long as it was confined to 140 characters. This number was loosely based off the 160-character text message limit, since Twitter was meant to be a sort of public text messaging service.

Users have complained about the character limit restriction (while simultaneously arguing that removing the character limit would kill the platform). Ah, the fickleness of the consumer.

Twitter’s newest attempt to appease consumers and improve the functionality of their service took the form of changing how replies work.

How Twitter Replies Used to Work

Previously, a reply would involve a tweet beginning with “@username” and then the user’s message. The username character count went towards the 140-character limit. If a few users were involved in the conversation, the character total quickly got eaten up. It also made it difficult to actually see the message content since it was after a long string of usernames

The Recent Change

Now, the Twitter handle in a reply will not count against the 140-character limit. Instead, there will be a message at the top of the tweet saying “replying to…” with the list of usernames in the conversation.

The main reason for this change is user-friendliness. Removing the usernames from the word count allows users to fit more information in their message, potentially improving the quality of discussion.

Twitter’s goal is to make conversations easier to follow, allowing users to focus on the discussion of the tweets and not the lists of those in the discussion. Tests done by Twitter found this change led to more people engaging in more conversations, so it’s reasonable to believe this change affects conversations.

The Drawback

With every change, people grumble. People grumbled when Twitter’s algorithm changed. People grumbled when the Facebook newsfeed look changed. People will always grumble.

Right now, the biggest complaint people have over this change is the potential for trolling. Now that the usernames don’t count for the character limit, users can tag a ridiculous number of people in their messages. Since people can be tagged and dragged into conversations without their consent, this can become a huge annoyance rather quickly.

Future Changes to the Character Limit

In the past few years, Twitter has tweaked what counts towards the character limit. Other changes included not counting photos, GIFS, or quote tweets as part of the limit. The next logical change would be to not count URL links as part of the word count. An argument can be made that links are comparable to photos. Neither are usually meant to be the whole message, but rather a supplement to the message itself. There’s no word yet on whether this change is being considered by Twitter staff.

5 Things to Do When You Feel Overwhelmed in Your Business and Life

As an entrepreneur, life can get overwhelming pretty fast. Projects pile up, crucial staff members call in sick, clients impose unreasonable deadlines…and that is just on the work end. Somehow you also need to find time to do a grocery run, take the dog to the groomers, shuttle the kids to soccer practice, all while dealing with being sleep deprived, of course.

It is common to have periods of time of being utterly overwhelmed in your business and life. Heck, it is almost a rite of passage for entrepreneurs to face…again and again. When you feel the stress and tension headache bubbling up, get into action with these five things to do when you get overwhelmed.

Get Rid of as Many Stressors as Possible

If you have too much on your plate right now, clear off the plate! As go-getter entrepreneurs, we can find ourselves overcommitted quickly. Maybe we hate saying no. Maybe we underestimated the time commitment when we said yes. Maybe when it rains it pours and you find yourself now drowning. Whatever the reason, you do not need to resign yourself to struggling to bear the weight of everything needing to get done.

Ask yourself if everything needs to be done. Then ask yourself again. Much of what we do can be automated or streamlined. Can you batch tasks to get them done more efficiently? Is there a low-cost service you can invest in to automate these repeating tasks? Is the output on a task really worth the time and effort cost? Ruthlessly evaluate everything on your to-do list and then eliminate, automate, and streamline.

Then look at what’s left and delegate everything you can. It can be tough to hand over the reins to someone else, but you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel once you do. It’s an immediate solution to getting more off your list. Sure, you may stress a bit wondering if the person will get everything done. But reassure yourself that they will (or worst case scenario someone else can pick up the slack).

Sit Down and Write It Down

When life gets overwhelming, we often find ourselves scurrying about trying to get it done. We feel we have no time to waste, so we resist taking the time to pause and create an effective plan of attack. We launch ourselves into tasks immediately, failing to stop and prioritize. This results in us mismanaging our time and energy.

Taking a few minutes to write everything down makes a world of difference. Seeing everything in black and white makes it instantly less stressful. A list can be tackled. A list has an end point. A list means we are no longer wasting precious mental energy trying to keep track of everything in our mind. Writing it down helps us “clear our heads” and see the full picture, allowing us to more effectively strategize.

Once you make your list, prioritize tasks and attach deadlines to everything. It will help you feel less like things are hanging over your head, which helps reduce feeling overwhelmed.

Get Up and Go Out

Now that you have eliminated everything possible from your list and articulated everything you need to do, step away from the chaos for a moment. But I don’t have the time you may think.

Here’s the thing. You do.

You can spare fifteen minutes to go for a walk outside and clear your head. Nature has a unique calming effect on our bodies and our brains. Study after study shows the near healing power of being outside. Spend a few minutes walking around in nature and do not obsess over your to-do list. Focus on the sights and sounds around you, your breathing pattern, a fun memory from a recent time with a loved one, whatever it takes to think about anything other than what you need to be doing next. Clearing your head will help stop your stressed-out fight or flight mode and return your body to a healthier state, allowing you to get started on your to-do list with a focused mind.

Be Proactive in Managing Your Stress

Now that you have returned to the grind, ready to tackle your projects, it is important to proactively manage your stress. It is not sustainable for your physical and mental wellbeing to go from overwhelmed, to workaholic mode, to feeling fine for a few days, only to return to feeling overwhelmed. When our projects pile up, it can be hard for us to justify taking breaks. But breaks help refuel our energy and help make us more productive. Breaks help us get more and better quality work done in less time.

It’s important to not wait until you feel overwhelmed to take a break. It will take longer to return to a state of calm than if you instead proactively take breaks before you feel overwhelmed. There are many break time strategies, with the Pomodoro method being a steady favorite. Work for 25 minutes. Take a 5-minute break. Repeat four times and then take a 30-minute break. Repeat until the work day is done. This proactive managing of your stress will help prevent future feelings of being overwhelmed.

Practice Daily Self Care

Caring for yourself is one of the most important things you can do, both for yourself and your business! To perform at your best capacity, you need quality sleep, a balanced diet, regular exercise, and time for yourself. Journal your feelings. Get massages. Read in the backyard. Find one or two habits designed just for your self-care, not for being productive, and engage in them every day. It will help you feel better overall and fight those feelings of being overwhelmed.

Should a Virtual Assistant Have Insurance?

One nitty gritty detail about working as a virtual assistant is insurance. But how do you know which you need when there are so many choices? Errors and omissions insurance? Business owner’s policy insurance?

There are a plethora of options. There’s insurance most people get through their companies, like health insurance. There’s insurance common for people who work from home, like business interruption insurance. And there’s insurance for every scenario and disaster under the sun.

With so many options out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. (Or even talked into insurance you really don’t need!) But, you can be fine with minimal insurance (unless you’re running your own company). Below are the basic insurance options most likely to benefit virtual assistants.

Business Personal Property Insurance

You can’t work as a virtual assistant without your tools. Your computer, phone, and desk are some of the invaluable resources you use to get things done. But, what happens if these are stolen or damaged in a natural disaster?

Unfortunately, most home insurance policies do not cover your home business office. It’s worth a check of course (hey, maybe you’ll luck out), but odds are you’ll need to buy this separately. You can add coverage of business related property as a rider to your home insurance policy.

In most cases, this is a worthwhile investment. You can skip this one if your equipment isn’t worth much or the odds of theft or natural disaster are low.

Business Interruption Insurance

This insurance protects you if your business premises and equipment are temporarily unusable (like after a fire). You’ll get compensated for your loss of income and your operating expenses. Sometimes, the insurance covers expenses for temporarily re-locating to a new location.

This insurance is added to a property insurance policy or is included in a package policy.

You’re fine skipping this option if it’d be easy for you to work from somewhere else or get replacement equipment (like temporarily borrowing someone else’s computer). But for those who would be stuck if anything happened to their office or equipment, you’ll want to be sure to make this investment.

Disability Insurance

Accidents happen. A car wreck, illness, or other outstanding circumstance can hit you out of nowhere, and leave you unable to work.

That’s where disability insurance comes into play. Disability insurance helps you when you can’t work due to illness, injury, or accident. Hopefully, of course, those scenarios never happen! But if they do, you’ll get income replacement checks so you’re not temporarily out of a source of income.

Disability insurance is especially important for virtual assistants. You can’t rely on vacation days or sick leave to buy you time while you heal like you could in a traditional job.

If you’re in the early stages of being a virtual assistant (and making minimal income), then you can hold off investing for a bit. But, you’ll want to buy disability insurance once you start relying on your virtual assistant income. It’s one crucial step toward preparing for the unexpected in your work life.

You’ve got a few choices in choosing a disability insurance provider. If you’re married, you may be able to buy a policy through your spouse’s carrier. Also, you can get insurance from an individual provider or the Freelancers Union.

Health Insurance

Your health should be a priority in your life. Being able to afford treatment, doctor’s visits, and medications is a crucial part of that. Even if you’re a young and healthy person, these costs out of pocket add up fast. Since you’re not able to get health insurance through an employer, you’ll need to get this one on your own.

Fortunately, you have several options. If you’re married, check out your spouse’s policy. You can join the Freelancer Unions’ National Benefits Platform. You can go through a faith based health care sharing service. Check out your state’s health insurance marketplace. Look into an individual private insurance company.

When choosing a plan, keep in mind what medical services you need and what prescriptions you need covered.

At the end of the day, the insurance you need depends on where you’re at. Brand new virtual assistants can wait longer. Once you start taking in more clients and income, consider getting coverage. Insurance is a tedious topic, but it is important to know what your best options are. It’s just one of the many pieces to get into place during your virtual assistant career journey!

Maintaining Your Sanity While Working From Home

Working from home as a virtual assistant is a massive blessing. But sometimes, bad habits can sneak up and make it a curse. Suddenly, we’re frazzled workaholics with a glaze over our eyes. Suddenly, it’s 3pm and we haven’t left our bed or showered. Suddenly, we’re never fully present with our families and are always glancing at our emails.

The work from home life can be whatever you make it (that’s part of the appeal, right?) But sometimes we make it into an exhausting and draining experience- when it doesn’t need to be!

Maintaining your work-life balance while working from home takes some proactivity. Ironically, we need to set boundaries to enjoy the freedom of this lifestyle. Below are some action steps you can take to proactively make your life as a virtual assistant working from home as stellar as it should be.

Create a Regular Schedule

You’re probably thinking, Jessica that’s exactly why I don’t want to work a 9-5! I want to set my own hours and be a free soul working when I please.

And that’s great. In theory.

What actually happens when we fail to structure our day isn’t the balanced relaxed utopia we imagine. It’s a day where work sticks its tentacles where it doesn’t belong. We don’t disconnect from work, and it dominates our thoughts during dinner, during playtime with your kids, during your resting time. Before you know it, you’ve slid into workaholic habits never being able to turn off your work brain.

Creating a regular schedule isn’t about setting rigid 9-5 work hours. It’s about being intentional about separating your work time from your life time. It ensures you stay productive while working…and then leave it at work when you’re finished. When there’s no set lines between work and life, usually work takes over.

You don’t need to set 9-5 regular hours. Maybe you work in the mornings and late evenings when you’re most productive, and schedule a workout or social lunch during your afternoon energy lull. You can plan your day so it works best for you. And each day does not need to be the same. Maybe on Playdate Tuesdays you work from 8 to 10, then 12 to 6. That’s fine! The important thing is clear boundaries of your time.

And please, please, please schedule a cut off time for work! Whether it’s 5 or 8, you must have a designated “no more thinking about work” time. It’s amazing how quickly you will get drained when you lack an end working time for the day.

Designate a Work Area

Just like you need boundaries with your time, you need boundaries with your space. Find a place in your house that’s just for work. Ideally, it will be a separate room. But, if you don’t have the space for a full office, that’s okay. Maybe you can set a desk in your bedroom or the living room. What’s important is you have somewhere to go with minimal distractions.

When you’re setting up your work area, treat it like a real office. Fill it with supplies. Use a desktop calendar. Hang up photos of your family and decorate it. If it feels like a sterile box, you won’t want to work there. Showcase your personality to make it more inviting.

Designate a No Work Area

There are places in your home you shouldn’t work, like the dining room where the family gathers for dinner. Make sure there are clear areas where no work (or thoughts of work) are allowed so you can be fully present during family and relaxation time.

Take Regular Breaks

Sometimes, we get so into our flow we don’t realize we’ve been working for hours straight. The best way to fight stress and burnout is proactively, so it’s important to avoid this work grind. Schedule breaks into your day. Maybe it’s 10 minutes every hour with a half hour lunch break. Maybe it’s the Pomodoro method, where you work for 25 minutes and take a five-minute break. Play around with different strategies and find what works best for you.

Leave Your House

When you work from home, there’s a weird resistance about leaving. Maybe it’s the effort of gussying up to go out in public. Maybe it’s the drive time that could be spent working or resting. Maybe it’s Newton’s third law: an awesome virtual assistant at home will stay comfortably at home unless acted upon by an outside force.

Make sure you don’t become a hermit! You can meet up with your traditional office worker friends for lunch. Grab a happy hour with friends. Enroll in a weekly yoga class. Do something to make sure you leave your house at least three times a week.

Establish Boundaries with Your Family

This isn’t about becoming one of those scary “don’t you dare interrupt me while I’m working” work witches.

It’s about protecting the time you work and protecting the time you’re with family to make sure you’re fully present in each one.

Talk with your family members about what your work from home arrangement needs to look like. Go over when it is, and isn’t, appropriate to interrupt you at work. Go over when it is, and isn’t, appropriate for you to leave family time to go work. Make sure every family member feels heard, and is comfortable and clear with the conclusion you agree to.

Dress Like You’re Going to Work

But Jessica, isn’t one of the best parts of being a virtual assistant being able to work in PJs and sweats? Comfort for the win!

Some people (very few mind you) can work in grunge clothes without it affecting their work. Good for them!

But most of us experience a little phenomenon called “when we wear lounge around clothes, we tend to work in a lazier mindset”

Dressing for work helps shift your brain from relaxed mode into work mode. You can still rock a comfortable outfit, but try a step above the old ripped PJs.

Of course, if you’re work isn’t affected by what you wear then wear those PJs with pride!

When a VA Needs a VA

So, here’s a conundrum: when should you hire someone to do your job? At first glance, that may seem ridiculous, right? Why would you hire someone when you can do it?

But, in some cases, that’s exactly what you should do! Hiring yourself a virtual assistant can actually be the best business move.

You can probably rattle off several benefits to using a virtual assistant. You know, the list you use when you’re trying to land a client. But have you ever stopped to realize those benefits of using a virtual assistant apply to you too?

There are two great situations when a virtual assistant should hire a virtual assistant.

Situation One: When you want to keep a client, but can’t meet all their needs

So, you just found a great client. Congrats! But, something about the gig is beyond your ability. You don’t have to sigh sadly and say goodbye. You can use a virtual assistant to fill in the gaps.

Maybe you lack the right equipment for a project. A small portion of the work involves using Quickbooks. The occasional editing project requires Photoshop. It won’t be enough hours for you to justify buying whatever software, but it still needs to be done. Hire a virtual assistant with the right equipment to handle those tasks for you. It’s a win-win. The client gets every need taken care of. You don’t have to dump money on something you’ll hardly use. You pay it forward supporting your fellow virtual assistant in giving them a small gig (hello karma!).

Maybe you lack the expertise for a task. The client needs you to write blogs (your forte!) but also needs help coding a site (your worst nightmare!). Part of the gig requires creating social media posts, which you know nothing about. The client wants you to occasionally call their customers, and speaking on the phone terrifies you. Pass off the task to a better suited virtual assistant. Again, it’s a win-win! The task gets handled by someone more qualified, making the client happy. You can avoid tasks you’re uncomfortable with. And you support your fellow virtual assistant (more karma!)

Maybe you just lack the time. It’s a busy season right now, and you can’t keep up. You don’t have to drop a client, and you certainly don’t have to run yourself ragged or drown trying to keep up. You can hire a virtual assistant to take on some of the load. A virtual assistant can be hired for a short-term project or two, or become a permanent member of your team. Whatever better fits your need, you’ll benefit from the helping hand.

Situation Two: When you want help managing or growing your business

Maybe your need is internal. You need help maintaining the status quo, or you’re ready to take things to the next level. A virtual assistant can be a great help with business building tasks.

You can pass off little tasks that need to be done, but don’t need to be done by you. Things like data entry, scheduling, or addressing envelopes are great tasks to delegate. Do a time audit for a week to see the biggest time sucks. You may be surprised at how much time you spend with these little tasks that can be handled by someone else. Pass off anything that someone else can do 80% as well or better. For help finding specific tasks to delegate, use our delegator worksheet.

You can also pass off tasks that need to be done, but shouldn’t be done by you. Tasks that you lack the knowledge or experience for, like social media or SEO marketing, are well-suited for a specialized virtual assistant. Hiring a team member can help make sure these important business building tasks get done, and get done well.

You can also bring in a virtual assistant just for a fresh perspective. Maybe you’re working on an idea project and you need brainstorming help. Maybe you’re stuck and need an outside view. Maybe you’re hoping to change your approach, and could use fresh eyes to shake things up. Whatever the reason, a virtual assistant can offer a new perspective.

Before You Outsource to a Virtual Assistant

If you’re ready to hire a virtual assistant, make sure to do these three things first. It’ll make the hiring process a better experience for you both (why couldn’t everyone be a dream client like you?)

Be ruthless about a task’s necessity. Stop and really evaluate whether the task even needs to be done. You’d be surprised how many things we do on autopilot, things that we should eliminate. As Timothy Ferris, author of The 4 Hour Workweek says, “never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined.” You shouldn’t waste time outsourcing tasks that aren’t imperative. Make sure it’s necessary and cannot be automated before you delegate it.
Make the process efficient. Look at the steps used for the task. Can you remove any unnecessary steps? Can you make any steps more efficient? Can you batch tasks for better productivity? When you make the process more efficient, it takes less time and costs you less money.
Put all the needed information in one place. Give your virtual assistant a guidebook with everything they’ll need. Include passwords, step-by-step instructions, and an example if possible. Cut down on the amount of time you’ll need to explain the project. Make things as clear as possible for the virtual assistant to reduce the time spent asking questions. Plus, if the project is ever repeated, you’ll have a guide ready to go.

If you’re ready to hire a virtual assistant, consider Alpine Small Business Solutions! Our expert staff can help you with any project, so give us a call or shoot us an email today.

How to Delete Facebook Apps

Today’s tutorial request comes in from Daniel. Daniel was curious how to remove apps from his Facebook settings. He was worried that they were obtaining too much personal information.