List of Tasks to Outsource to Virtual Administrative Assistants
Administrative Virtual Assistant Job Summary
A Virtual Administrative Assistant is tasked with providing online help to corporate leaders and executives. Their responsibilities involve conducting research and data organization, maintaining customer and client relationships on behalf of their firm, and executing clerical tasks such as managing schedules and sorting records.
Virtual Administrative Assistant Task List, You Can Outsource
Administrative tasks are among the most delegated responsibilities for virtual assistants as they are quite laborious and time-consuming. Nevertheless, most are simple to execute. Thus, it is a very convenient decision for business owners to outsource.
Below is a list of tasks that you can outsource to a virtual administrative assistant.
1. Email, Contact Management, and Communications
If you are among those busy entrepreneurs drowning in numerous emails every day, with new contacts to update to, then you may outsource those to an administrative task virtual assistant. They can save a significant amount of your time because they'll be the ones sorting out your emails and can even reply to them for you. Apart from that, their administrative virtual assistant duties also include updating your list of contacts with their present information and encoding them to a CRM. Just make sure to properly orient your administrative tasks virtual assistant on your email arrangement preference to avoid complications.
2. Calendar Management
As an entrepreneur, having a very hectic schedule is an understatement. That is why managing your calendar of activities can be quite a challenge and will most likely consume a lot of your time – especially if you're finding the balance between personal and business affairs. With this being said, outsourcing the laborious calendar management responsibility to an administrative task virtual assistant will benefit you the most. These virtual assistants can assist you with almost all online administrative tasks, from screening appointments to confirming them and finally scheduling them. This might be a simple task that can obviously be done by yourself. However, if you outsource them to an administrative task virtual assistant, you can already save ten hours in a week!
3. Travel Arrangements
On a regular day, arranging and booking flights and hotel accommodations can be a very fun activity, not until you are a business executive hopping from one state to another. With all the responsibilities you ought to fulfill, arranging travel and accommodations should be atop your list but isn't something to stress you moreover. Hence, delegating these to an administrative task virtual assistant can save you from the unnecessary stress of searching for the most convenient flight and hotel.
4. Phone Tasks
Easy receptionist duties or phone tasks are among the basic duties you can outsource to your administrative task virtual assistant. Since being usually in a business meeting or any related activity, it might be a little difficult for you to attend to calls promptly. So, an administrative task virtual assistant can receive calls for you and connect them to you. You may also orient your administrative task virtual assistant to your default responses or yet authorize them to answer some queries for you. Additionally, an administrative task virtual assistant can also transcribe voice messages for you that are sent through email.
Importance of Outsourcing
Most business owners are aware of outsourcing, which is the practice of contracting external firms to handle work that would usually be conducted internally in a firm. For example, starting small businesses commonly outsource their accounting functions, clerical operations, and a variety of other critical responsibilities as it is the most practical option for them. On the other hand, already established corporations use outsourcing to reduce costs. In effect, a whole new industry has emerged to meet companies' outsourcing needs. However, despite it being a seemingly successful strategy, there are still a few businesses that haven't fully comprehended the advantages of outsourcing.
Yes, it is true that outsourcing is a good way to minimize costs. It is only one of the many advantages outsourcing can do for your business. In fact, outsourcing can provide a long list of long-term benefits if done properly.
Below are some of the advantages outsourcing has to offer:
1. Cost-Effective
Saving money isn't the only justification for outsourcing, but it's a significant reason. Several industries see outsourcing as a way to cut down costs or gain the most practical leverage over the outsourced functions. Since outsourcing translates fixed costs to variable costs, it frees up capital for other investments and allows you to veer away from releasing large expenditures. Ultimately, the most significant advantage of outsourcing is that it allows one to complete tasks at a much lower cost and in a more efficient manner.
Since compensation schemes of developed and developing countries are vastly different, wages in the west are 60% significantly higher in comparison to developing countries for the same amount and difficulty of work. Thus, outsourcing offshore enables businesses to still maintain high-quality products and services while incurring low operational costs.
2. Increased Efficiency
Businesses that operate entirely by themselves give higher efforts and shell out higher costs in research and development, marketing, sales, and distribution before they can provide their products and services to their customers. Outsourcing some business and operating functions and collaborating with external service providers can provide your company with a significant competitive advantage and increased efficiency.
3. Focus
Due to massive demands in operating a business, time-consuming minor tasks eventually hinder the momentum from scaling and drag away productivity. By outsourcing tasks to external organizations or independent contractors, you can shift your focus to things that matter more for the long-term success of your business. Delegating some tasks, albeit minor ones or even specialized, can allow you to focus your attention on more critical priorities.
4. Growth
If you are planning on expanding your business, it usually takes a lot of toll on your company and expectedly exhausts you. However, the result of it all is ultimately fulfilling. But expanding or scaling up generally connotes another set of operating costs and employee training. Thus, making the process a tad more difficult. In this light, it would be wise for you to team up and outsource to a third-party contractor to do those additional tasks for you. With this, you will be able to save on training costs and other overhead costs.
5. Reduced Risks
Running a business and its related activities generally involve some level of risk. As there is a rapid change in markets, governmental regulations, economy, and technological innovations, it is really expected to gamble. However, outsourcing some of your business functions to industry experts might manage the corresponding risks they hold as they are better at assessing situations than you since it is their line of expertise.
6. Access to Technology
Outsourcing information technology functions are promoted by some experts as a means of gaining access to the latest technology and technology experts. In-housing IT might be a major concern for businesses as it entails an additional infrastructure cost. But outsourcing to an external provider can provide you with the services you need along with their trained professionals.
Where do you find Administrative Tasks Virtual Assistants?
Your days of being overburdened with running your business can finally be put to rest if you hire an administrative task virtual assistant. You will finally have the opportunity to organize things by delegating some of your responsibilities to an administrative task virtual assistant who will keep track of everything. SmartVAs has experienced and knowledgeable administrative task virtual assistants who can help with virtual administrative assistant duties such as email and contact management, calendar management, travel arrangement, phone tasks, personal errands, and more.
What are you waiting for? SmartVAs is only a discovery call away from increasing your productivity and assisting you in scaling your business.