Virtual assistants (also known as VAs) are a great alternative for small business owners looking for support. Outsourcing provides all the perks of having employees without all the costs and responsibilities that come along with it. Here are some tips that will help you with your next outsourcing experience: Have Patience Working with an outsourcing company requires a bit of patience. Small business owners often go into this type of relationship with unrealistic expectations. It [...]

Listen in to a recent episode of BlogTalk Radio show Color Your Life Happy with host Flora M Brown, PhD to learn ‘Why Entrepreneurs Need a Virtual Assistant‘. Dr. Brown chats with professional virtual assistant Melissa Barham of Barham Virtual Assistance about why outsourcing to a virtual assistant is less complex and more cost-effective than hiring an in-house employee as well as being a great way to delegate those to-do list tasks that just aren’t [...]

The Smart Business Owner’s Guide to Virtual Assistance is available via Amazon for Kindle or PDF eBook. This 48 page guide to successful outsourcing will teach you: Why a VA is not an employee (and how this benefits you!) The best places to find a virtual assistant online. How to maximize your RFP (Request for Proposal) submissions so you get the best responses from the best VAs for your project – every time. The ten [...]

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere. – Ronald Reagan Dr. Jeff Cornwall blogs at The Entrepreneurial Mind today about the art of delegation. In his post, entitled ‘Learning to Let Go‘ he shares the three most common mistakes entrepreneurs can make when delegating to employees. Granted, virtual assistants are not employees, but the rules of engagement are the same when it comes to successful delegation. In his article, [...]

Probably the biggest problem with being a small business owner is right there in that phrase. Small. Small means few or no employees. Small means you end up doing most, if not all, business tasks yourself, whether or not you’re any good at them. But even if you ARE perfectly capable at completing those tasks, is doing them really a wise use of your time? (Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD.) [...]

We’re going to take a short detour today from the list of questions you should ask a prospective virtual assistant to discuss the importance of submitting an RFP (Request for Proposal) that gives the right amount of information to get the best results possible. Many clients don’t realize that when they submit an RFP they have an opportunity to frame their expectations, needs, and more. Virtual assistants who read a well-written RFP can learn enough [...]

A recent article, Get Organized by Hiring a Virtual Assistant, published by Dunn and Bradstreet, showcases how working with a professional virtual assistant can help bring organization, focus, and stability to a growing business. While the article does a good job of explaining the overall concept of working with a VA and even points out the advantages of working with an independent contractor as opposed to an employee, citing “there is no need to pay for health [...]