Small business and home business are becoming very popular and common around the world thanks to the power of the Internet. Many employed people run part time businesses from their homes and many more run start ups and other well established small businesses full time. While the small business may be more flexible in terms of business models, it does not have the finances and resources to tide major economic slowdowns like the one we are in presently. Cost cutting is one of the top agendas for any small business in such tough times. However this cannot come at the cost of customers, in fact the steps should allow the business to attract more customers. Any small business looking for such alternatives should consider the option of a Virtual Assistant.
VAs are professional online resources that can handle a wide range of your non-core business functions. The good VAs offer top notch services with no frills attached. So, if you were planning to get a personal assistant, you can skip the thought and prefer a VA. You would not have to foot any additional overheads with a VA – no monthly salary, no perks, no benefits, no office spaces and other PA specific paraphernalia. If this is not sufficient savings for you, you can also employ the VA in flexible timings to suit the workload and pay them accordingly. So if yours is a seasonal business with large orders coming in certain months and a lull in some others; you can employ the VA services accordingly. In effect your non-core business expenses can follow your core business revenues helping you optimize your finances.
Apart from the regular PA work like managing your appointments, schedules, meetings, phone calls and e-mails, a VA can also help you in accounting. Certain qualified VAs can provide bookkeeping services helping you manage your financial records in proper manner for better accounting and tax filing purposes. Besides, the VAs can also provide you with front-end and marketing services like web site development and maintenance, circulating mails and brochures, exploiting social networks, managing your blog entries, article posting in directories, even handling newsletters if you have any. The vital aspect of all these services is that they would be performed by experts that have knowledge of the domain and the respective market dynamics. The good VAs use the best industry practices and latest technological advancements. Your firm cannot afford a similar service from in-house divisions without spending a lot on employing the experts and procuring the infrastructure like technology. You get a better service at a lower cost, which is perfect for any business any time and more so during turbulent times.
The last aspect that a small business must consider is to retain customer loyalty which can fluctuate all the time. However this requires extra expenditure for customer support teams and the associated overheads. Again, you could outsource this to a VA. The VA can handle customer feedback, customer loyalty rewards, provide inputs, help in troubleshooting problems and also look for new customers on behalf of your business. The VAs would adopt a professional approach in handling your clients giving them the best service possible – in turn building your company’s reputation.
Thus, it is clear that VAs can boost your small business’s finances in many ways. They provide you better service at lower costs, provide you professional service with significant customer focus helping build your company’s reputation and most importantly handle all the non-core business aspects while allowing you to focus on developing your core business.