How Virtual Assistants Can Help Your Business in Times of Crisis

Over the course of time, Australian businesses flourished since its first recession in 1991. A process of economic reform and restructuring from 1996 really helped improve Australia’s economy, making it one of the most promising economies globally.

Mining ores contributed to Australia’s financial growth, thus, increasing the value of the Australian dollar. Mass production of cars such as Mitsubishi, Ford, Holden, and Toyota increased helped drive an uptick in the economy, by exporting cars up until the end of 2017.

Today, Australia and the rest of the world face another financial crisis as COVID-19 continuously persists as pandemic disease. Many businesses globally have temporarily closed their doors, whilst some are faced with the hard decision of closing down permanently or even declaring bankruptcy. 

In any case, we now need to consider the notion of operating online. An opportunity, in difficult times, is all about providing people with all the help they need so they can keep their business going.  

One form of help is by hiring someone or a team of specialised people, to assume the daily tasks. This is where virtual assistants come in.

Stress can be constant, especially if your daily task list never ends. With self-isolation and lockdown measures now in place, hiring a virtual assistant is a great decision to make in ensuring the smooth maintenance of your business. 

A virtual assistant is a person who can help you manage tasks, in order to focus on other matters within your business. As an example, the assistant can help you with digital marketing activities, boosting sales, and leads while your attention is focused on other critical matters. 

So what are the benefits of having a virtual assistant?

1. Delegate non-essential tasks. One good reason why you should hire a virtual assistant, especially now, is to give you more time, freeing you from nonessential tasks. Being frozen in times of a crisis can bring unnecessary stress, so delegating those tasks to a dedicated assistant would be a breath of fresh air. Non-essential tasks may be answering phone calls, filtering emails, managing calendars, setting up appointments, managing social media, updating CRM, bookkeeping, and preparing payrolls. 
2. Organise your business. One important trait of any successful business owner is to be highly organised. Though not all have this quality, your virtual assistant might prove to be that missing link to help organise your business. This is particularly important especially now that any plans for the next 6-9 months face the tough task of readjustment, in light of the pandemic. A virtual assistant can suggest appropriate organisational frameworks to establish stronger systems. For businesses that aren’t up to speed with technology, having a virtual assistant operate in a virtual environment can prove to be a great long-term decision.
3. Realign your budget. With the majority of businesses closing down, thinking about redirecting your budget is a smart move given the nature of current events. Reducing business cost is an absolute priority, and hiring a virtual assistant can certainly help, when you factor in the combined costs of rent, electricity, and other operational aspects of having someone on-site. A virtual assistant is a more commercially viable option under the current climate. 
4. Capitalize on specialisation and expertise. Having an assistant, may it be within your company or a virtual one is not limited to just administrative tasks. You can find a vast pool of virtual assistants having specialised and technical skills that can offer a wide range of services. Below are some of the following specialised skills that virtual assistants can offer:

– SEO

– Content Management

– Digital marketing

– Software Development

– Inventory Management

– Market research

– Data Protection and Security

1. Build a partnership. This is by far one of the most important reasons to why you should hire a virtual assistant. A misconception: virtual assistants are hired to do the tasks assigned to them, nothing more, nothing less. But remember, like you and your business, virtual assistants want to grow too, learning as much as they can to be better at what they do. When interests and expectations are aligned, virtual assistants and businesses develop a strategic partnership. Collaboration is the key to a successful business. Growing that partnership requires businesses to share a company’s culture, and mutually develop shared ideas for future opportunity. 

A virtual assistant can be your strategic asset, engaging in the right way will bear fruit in the long term helping to drive efficiency and productivity to your business.