Team Double-Click

Short on help? Hire a Cloud-Based Virtual Administrative Assistant!

tdcadmin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:47:57 +0000

Short on help? Hire a Cloud-Based Virtual Administrative Assistant!

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

Is your business short on help? Good help, that is? Did the best administrative assistant you ever had leave because her husband was relocated to Timbuktu? Now what? You’ve been through countless resumes and none of the candidates seem to measure up. Maybe you need extra help once in a while, just to keep your regular assistant’s head above water. Are you a small business owner who can’t afford, or don’t have enough work, for a full-time secretary?

Why not hire a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant? Gaining in popularity among large and small businesses alike, a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can help bail you out of a rough spot on a temporary basis or even work long-term just like a regular employee.

What does a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant do?

In short, a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can do just about anything a regular employee can do. You just won’t see his or her face every day. Many assistants are Jack’s or Jill’s of all trades, some are more specialized, but here’s a list of some of the things a virtual can do:

Accounting
Bookkeeping
Human resources
Concierge services
Collections
Sales
Marketing
Travel arrangements
Research
Word processing
Appointment setting
Meeting arrangements
Event planning
Letter preparation
Transcription
Reports
Proof reading
Manuals
Newsletters
Flyers
Mailings
Data entry
Data processing
Document scanning
E-mail processing
Answering phone calls
Procedure documentation
Customer support
Copyrighting
Web design

Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants are typically a very intelligent bunch as well. Many are college educated and even more have countless years of excellent business experience to draw upon. This comes in very handy when you’re looking for ideas.

How does a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant work?

Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants come in all shapes and sizes, just as any business does. They’re the savviest of the savvy when it comes to operating on a low budget and using technology to their advantage. Most are equipped with the latest software (and lots of it), multiple phone lines, Internet, e-mail, fax machine, cellular phone, copy machines, scanners, and a great attitude. Many even come with a cat or dog! He or she will use all of the latest technology to communicate with the client and get the work done as quickly as possible. And, possibly best of all, they only “clock in” when they’re on your project, not while they’re sitting at your desk, using your electricity, playing solitaire!

What’s all this going to cost?

All well and good, right? But aren’t cloud-based virtual administrative assistants more expensive than regular employees? Absolutely not! Actually, a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is far more cost effective than a regular employee. You may pay more per hour than a regular employee, but leave out the FICA, state unemployment taxes, Social Security, health insurance, vacation time, sick time, 401(k), profit sharing, Christmas bonus, holiday pay, and other benefits you need to offer a regular employee, and a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant’s wage comes out far lower than that of a regular employee.

A cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can save money in other areas as well. How much does it cost you to maintain office footage, a computer, a phone line or two, a refrigerator, a microwave, a desk, electricity, heat, air conditioning, and parking for your regular employees? With a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant, you don’t need any of those things either – he or she supplies his or her own.

The fee for a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant usually depends upon the area of the country where he or she is located and their area(s) of expertise. Click here to see Team Double Click’s pricing. Cloud-based virtual administrative assistanst charge between $15 and $75 per hour. But, you only pay for the time he or she actually spends working on your tasks. Some will ask that you pay for a “minimum guaranteed usage” each week or month. Many will also agree to work for varying hourly rates depending on the task. For example, if they’re to perform basic word processing, the fee might be $18 per hour, but if they’re expected to research the legalities of transforming your LLC into a Corporation, they may charge $45 per hour. Yet, others may agree to a flat fee based upon individual project requirements. Either way, you come out ahead.

Why should I trust someone I’ve never met?

Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants are as concerned with your business success as they are with their own. In fact, their success depends on your success. So, a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can become one of the best assistants and business partners you’ve ever had. Just like you, they are very interested in helping their clients.

Virtual versus temp or temp agency

Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants tend to work harder than the average person issued to you by a temporary agency. Keep in mind that the temp agency is charging you as much as 20% more than the worker is actually getting paid. This practice often leads to the use of unskilled or unacceptable laborers. Hiring a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant allows you to choose who works with you. You’ll also need to provide all of the temp’s supplies like paper, toner, pens, computer, electricity, etc, whereas, the cloud-based virtual administrative assistant comes with his or her own supplies.

How many times have you hired a temp who you spent time training, only to have her stick around for three weeks, then you had to train yet another temp? A cloud-based virtual administrative assistant, as we mentioned, is in this to succeed and help you succeed. You’ll have to train him or her too, but only once!

Oh, yes, and you still need to pay the temp while she sits there and waits for another assignment from you. Not with a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant. While she’s waiting for the next assignment from you, you can bet she’ll be working on something for another client.

Choosing a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant

Now that you’ve decided to hire a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant, how do you go about choosing one? There are several things you need to know before you start looking:

What exactly do I need help with?
What expertise does the cloud-based virtual administrative assistant need?
How much do I have to spend?
How quickly do I need this project done?
How long will I need virtual assistance?
How often will I need my cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to work?
What hours should he or she be available?
What days of the week?
Is there any specific software he or she needs to have?
Is what I need accomplished so specific that I’ll need to incorporate some training time?
How will I pay him or her? Visa, MasterCard, Check, Paypal?
How do I want to communicate with my cloud-based virtual administrative assistant? Phone, e-mail, snail mail, or a combination?
Does my cloud-based virtual administrative assistant really need to be located in a particular time zone, country, part of the country, city?
Any other particular qualities you’d like your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to have?
Just as you would screen someone who would apply to work in your office, you’ll still need to spend a little time screening your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant. You’ll need to tell him or her what you need and want, and what is and isn’t acceptable. You’ll also need to negotiate pricing and terms with the virtual.

The best thing you can do to ensure you receive the help you need, is behave as though you’re choosing a new car. Push the buttons, turn on the stereo, kick the tires, and ask, ask, ask. Listen to what the potential VA has to offer you as well. He or she may even be able to do several other tasks, which you hadn’t counted on, or even offer some very sound business advice.

Who benefits by using a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant?

Large corporations
Small businesses
Home based businesses
Busy executives or managers
Entrepreneurs
Students
Even individuals who just need a little extra help

What happens if I don’t like the cloud-based virtual administrative assistant I’ve hired, or s/he doesn’t work out?

Unless you’ve signed a contract guaranteeing a particular amount of time or pay, the answer is rather simple: you just don’t offer any more assignments. If you do happen to have a bad experience with one cloud-based virtual administrative assistant, however, don’t let is sour you from finding another. Treat it as though you simply had a bad date. Bad dates to happen and some people just aren’t compatible. Get back out there and look for another cloud-based virtual administrative assistant that better suits your needs or personality.

A win-win for everyone

The use of cloud-based virtual administrative assistants truly is a win-win for everyone involved. For the employee-challenged business, cloud-based virtual administrative assistants dramatically increase your labor pool. And, for the cash-strapped entrepreneur, cloud-based virtual administrative assistants save money – lots of money. What’s more, it’s better for the environment to hire a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant. Just think of all the vehicle emissions you’ll be saving by having one or two workers telecommute.

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Team Double-Click®, the country’s foremost staffing agency for trained cloud-based cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistants – Matching Top Virtual Workers with Top Companies! Visit www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129 for a variety of full-service virtual staffing options.

NOTE: You may publish this article for your magazine, trade journal, newspapers, business journals, website and/or Ezine provided you keep it in its original form and include the resource box at the end.

How to use your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant

tdcadmin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:46:35 +0000

How to use your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

In short, a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can do just about anything a regular employee can do. You just won’t see his or her face every day and the manner in which you send tasks to him or her will vary slightly. Instead of walking paper files into the next office, you can simply attach those same electronic files to an email and hit send. Your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant will work on those files according to your instructions and return them, mail them, or do whatever else you request with them.

Many cloud-based virtual administrative assistants are Jack’s or Jill’s of all trades, some are more specialized, but just a few of the tasks a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can do are:

Accounting
Bookkeeping
Human resources
Concierge services
Collections
Sale
Marketing
Travel arrangements
Research
Word processing
Appointment setting
Meeting arrangements
Event planning
Letter preparation
Transcription
Reports
Proof reading
Manuals
Newsletters
Flyers
Mailings
Data entry
Data processing
Document scanning
E-mail processing
Answering phone calls
Procedure documentation
Customer support
Copyrighting
Web design

Professional cloud-based virtual administrative assistants are typically a very intelligent bunch. Many are college-educated and even more have countless years of solid business experience to draw on. This comes in very handy when you’re looking for ideas.

Your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can dofollow up calls after post cards or letters have been sent (which by the way, she can also mail those post cards or letters for you). Follow up calls and outbound cold calling are essential in any business to keep touching new potential clients – your cloud-based virtual administrative assistants can also do the cold calling for you.

Give her a simple script, tell her what you want done with the good leads, and unleash her on your prospect list! If the prospect appears to be a good lead, ask her to garner as much information for you as she can and send the good leads back to you for follow through.

We’ve seen this type of approach and follow up net as many as one good lead for every hour of calling time.

Your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can also take your inbound calls for you. We do not recommend using a company which utilizes a bank of people answering phones. Each and every client should be treated as the individual that they are. Each client, regardless of how big or small should be assigned just one cloud-based virtual administrative assistant (or at least a main assistant). This cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is then able to get to know your clients/customers, your business, and how you like your work performed. That’s how the personal touch and true human element stays intact. Sending your callers to a bank of phone operators generally doesn’t foster that kind of relationship or human contact.

Answering your inbound calls for you is as easy as forwarding your existing business line to one of our cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants come in all shapes and sizes, just as any business does.

They’re the savviest of the savvy when it comes to operating on a low budget and using technology to their advantage. Their cost consciousness should extend to your business expenses as well.

They are equipped with the latest software (and lots of it), multiple phone lines, Internet, e-mail, fax machine, cellular phone, copy machines, scanners, and a great attitude. Many even come with a cat or dog! He or she should use all of the latest technology to communicate with you and get your work done as quickly as possible. Hiring a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant that already comes with all of the best software saves you hundreds of dollars by not having to purchase all of that software yourself.

Our cloud-based virtual administrative assistants will only “clock in” when they’re on your project. This means you don’t pay for her time playing solitaire on the computer or while she’s waiting for the next assignment.

A cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can free your time to do what you’re good at and what’s important to your company. Whether that’s making sales, following up on leads, attending speaking events, or doing the other meaty tasks your business requires.

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Putting your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to good use…helping you grow your business

tdcadmin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:45:33 +0000

Putting your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to good use…helping you grow your business

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

Want your business to grow? What kind of question is that, right? Of course you do. Unless of course you’re already making all the money you want and have all the free time you need. But then who in business ever has enough of either? That’s right – business owners are ambitious people who are always looking for more, more, more.

So what can you do to make more money and gain more free time? How about putting your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to better use for starters? Quite often we find that even though our clients are very interested in and concur with the virtual-working concept, they don’t quite know how to use their cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to his or her fullest potential

Avoiding the “it’s-easier-to-do-it-myself” syndrome

It’s important to first remember that your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is there, period. And she’s there to assist you. To take things off your plate that keeps you from contributing to the bottom line. This can be difficult when you don’t see her smiling face each morning. Here are some ideas to help you remember that your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is there:

When your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant sends her daily reporting to you, use that as a trigger to think of other tasks she could be doing to free up your time to sell more, make more deals, or spend time with family.

Keep a journal of your daily activities. It’s simple to keep a notebook with you and jot a couple quick notes about each task you do throughout the day. Even a small tape recorder works well. Look (or listen) back through those notes and take a critical look at what items you shouldn’t be spending your time on. Then decide which ones your admin can do instead.

Remember: a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can do almost anything that an in-person assistant can do. It’s just a difference of how you send tasks to her.

Getting work to your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant should be easy. Instead of buzzing the intercom button, program her number into your speed dial. Instead of walking a paper folder to her office, hit the attach button in a new email and send it to her.

One of the biggest traps is thinking that “it will just be quicker and easier to do this task myself”. Not so. Yes, it will take you a few minutes to show your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant how to do that particular task. However, the next time it needs to be done, all you need do is say “Jane, please do task XYZ – just like I showed you last time.” Voila, time saved!

As for teaching your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant how to do a new task, it doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming. For instance, you can email the instructions to her in a step-by-step format. This way you can chip away at the procedure whenever you have a few spare moments. What about taking 10 minutes on the phone while you’re on your way to a meeting, or soccer game with the kids, or on your way to play golf? You can speak the instructions and your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can jot them down. Just ask her to send you a recap of the instructions you gave via email so you can check them over and make sure you conveyed them correctly and she understood them correctly.

About your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant

Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants are also eager to do more work and are flexible about when they can be reached for additional training, i.e. weekend or evening for an hour or so.

Ask your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant! You might be surprised at what they know or what they might recommend. A few minutes of conversation might save YOU some time and money.

As you send “step by step” procedures to your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant, she can keep the instructions for each task and compile them into a business manual that can be continually updated as she performs new and different tasks. A business manual such as this can become an invaluable tool for you and your business.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of tasks that your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can do to help you make more money and save you time. It’s all in the “how” and consciously remembering that she’s there to help you grow your business. If you’re ever unsure of how to make good use of your cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistant or what things you can have her do, don’t hesitate to talk to your sales rep, admin, or client services rep. We’re all here to serve you and help you get the most out of working with Team Double-Click^®.

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through cloud-based virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Team Double-Click®, the country’s foremost staffing agency for trained cloud-based cloud-based virtual administrative assistants – Matching Top Virtual Workers with Top Companies! Visit www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129 for a variety of full-service virtual staffing options.

Increasing your bottom line

tdcadmin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:44:19 +0000

Increasing your bottom line

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

As a small business, your focus on the bottom line is always crucial. But how do you increase your bottom line? Increasing the bottom line can happen two ways. One way is to reduce expenses. The other is to increase sales. Of course – that’s Business 101, right? But how does a small or home-based business on a shoe string budget do those things?

Reducing expenses

It all adds up! Five dollars here, ten dollars there, maybe a couple hundred somewhere else. Take a good hard look at the services you’re using. Are they all optimized for what you use? A good example is your phone service. Are you signed up for an unlimited long distance calling plan? If not, you should! If you’re using a service like eFax, be sure that you’re on a plan that matches your monthly usage. Same goes for a service like Freedom Voice. Be sure that the number of minutes you’re signed up for each month is in line with how much you use the service.

You can also reduce expenses by making good use of a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant. A professional cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can not only help keep an eye on your bottom line, but s/he can save you money because you only pay for what you use. There’s no need to hire a bricks-and-mortar temp service and pay for four hours each time you need a one hour task completed. A cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is essentially on stand-by for whenever you need her and she only clocks in when she’s working on your tasks. This saves huge amounts of money over in-office assistance and bricks-and-mortar staffing agencies.

Hiring a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant also helps reduce, actually eliminate, the cost of hiring an assistant. When you make the decision to hire a staff member, if you’re considering an in-house person, you need to factor in the cost of an additional phone line (or two), an additional computer, desk, office chair, etc. With a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant you don’t need any of those things. All cloud-based virtual administrative assistants come with their own equipment to get the job done!

Increasing sales

Not enough of you to go around? Write up the sales procedure you use, along with the phone script, give her the qualifiers (what makes a good customer for you), send your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant the names and phone numbers you want called, and have her cold call and qualify leads for you. Imagine being out and about during the day following up on all those leads she finds you! Talk about saving you time and helping you make more money. You can even take it one step further and ask your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to send out the preliminary information to your potential customers. Now that’s making good use of your time and your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant’s time!

Sending out letters and postcards? Have your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant do it! As a business owner you shouldn’t be spending your time licking envelopes and stamping cards – it should be selling or servicing your customers. What dollar amount do you bill for your time? $50 per hour? $75 or $100 an hour? Isn’t it more cost effective to have a $20 per hour assistant handling those menial tasks for you?

Have your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant answer your inbound calls for you. How many times during the day does someone call that you don’t really need to talk to – that someone else could handle. How about the time wasters who call just wanting to chit chat? Let your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant screen those out for you. Better still – train her on the types of calls that come into your office and teach her how to handle each call type. Again, this frees up your time to do what you do best!

A cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can not only help you save money, which of course impacts the bottom line, but he or she can also help you make more money.

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Team Double-Click®, the country’s foremost staffing agency for trained cloud-based virtual administrative assistants – Matching Top Virtual Workers with Top Companies! Visit www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129 for a variety of full-service virtual staffing options.

Communicating With Your Cloud-Based Virtual Administrative Assistant: New technologies make it easier than ever

tdcadmin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:43:12 +0000

Communicating With Your Cloud-Based Virtual Administrative Assistant: New technologies make it easier than ever

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

One of the most-often asked questions we hear is,

“How do I communicate with my cloud-based virtual administrative assistant?”

A very valid question but also a very easy one to answer. First, you must remember that your professional cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is a human being, just like you, and just like someone who may sit in the office right next to you. She has feelings, morals, standards, kids, pets, and a life – just like you.

While I can’t speak for other cloud-based virtual administrative assistant staffing agencies, at Team Double-Click®, we go to great pains to be sure our clients can communicate directly and openly with their cloud-based virtual administrative assistants. This ability is vitally important to any business relationship and especially that of a businessperson and his or her assistant. Without that communication, there is no exchange of ideas and tasks.

We do monitor communication between our virtual staff and our clients, but this is simply the mechanics of our business model in motion. We monitor these communications to first be sure the communications are there and second so that we can step in if we spot a problem or see something that can be done more efficiently. However, we encourage our clients to get to know their cloud-based virtual administrative assistants on a personal level as well. As with any relationship, the better you know one another, the better you’ll be able to anticipate one another’s moves, needs, and pet peeves. Now that the “why” is out of the way, we can talk about the “how”.

Of course, there are several options for communicating tasks, assignments, and other matters to your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant:

E-Mail is a very effective mode of communication when working virtually. It allows you to quickly attach a file and send it to your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant so that she may make changes, print a letter and mail it, or keep it as a reference. Be sure to talk to our Client Services Rep Denise Schrock or your virtual administrative assistant if you need help attaching and sending files.

Using the telephone to communicate with your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant, while obvious is quite underutilized and so simple to do. Tired of looking up your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant’s phone number each time? Simply program her phone number into your office phones and cell phone’s speed dial. One-touch dialing your virtual administrative assistant is a snap and no harder than buzzing a bricks-and-mortar assistant in the next room

Instant messenger is another example of a wonderful technology, which is underutilized when it comes to communicating with cloud-based virtual administrative assistants. There are several excellent instant messaging programs and they’re so easy to use.

IM programs to check out:

Yahoo: http://messenger.yahoo.com
MSN: http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=MSNTDLINK
AOL: http://www.aim.com
ICQ: http://www.icq.com

With an instant messaging program you can, with just a couple clicks of the mouse, type messages back and forth with colleagues and your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant – all in real time. You type, she types, and before you know it, the questions you and she had are all answered and you can move on.

Caution – time wasting opportunity: It’s easy to get hooked into “chatting” with someone on IM, which can soak up a lot of time. IM should be used for quick questions and quick answers, and then back to your tasks. IM was not meant to take the place of the telephone for giving lengthy instructions or holding very involved e-versations.

Snail mail, while very retro, it is sometimes necessary. With so many technologies at our fingertips these days, there’s very little use for snail mail except for the most formal of business communications, marketing mailings, or sending supplies to your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant.

Faxing your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is also a popular means of communicating tasks and lists to your professional cloud-based virtual administrative assistant. However, if the items you’re intending to send via fax are in electronic (editable) format already – it’s best to send it as a file attachment. That way your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant doesn’t need to retype everything and spend unnecessary client dollars. Check out eFax at www.efax.com for the latest in electronic faxing – there’s almost no need for a landline fax anymore.

VOIM (voice over instant messenger) is my new favorite communications toy. What VOIM allows you to do is simply pull up your instant messaging program, click your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant’s name, click the call button, and voila, it rings through the computer to her. Once the connection is established (which only takes a second or two) you can talk with your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant through the computer – no phone line involved). You can then quickly delegate tasks, give instructions, or ask questions without stopping to look up her phone number, and without typing out a lengthy email. At Team Double-Click®, we’ve begun implementing the Yahoo! VOIM program and with wonderful results. If you’d like to give it a try, go to http://messenger.yahoo.com and download the software – it’s ridiculously easy to use and best of all, it’s free!

Just keep in mind that VOIM will only work with other people who download the newest version of the Yahoo! software and have a microphone and speakers on their computer.

There are many great ways to communicate needs, likes, dislikes, tasks, and training to your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant. It’s all a matter of personal preference and what you’re most comfortable using. Professional cloud-based virtual administrative assistants are flexible and will be happy to use whatever mode of communication you prefer. As technology advances even further, well, who knows how we’ll be communicating next year or even next month!

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Does A Down Market Mean You Need To Downsize Too?

tdcadmin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:42:10 +0000

Does A Down Market Mean You Need To Downsize Too?

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

Let’s just say it – the economy stinks! It’s no secret. The question is how to survive during a poorly performing market. What do most companies cut first when things start to slide? If you answered “marketing” or “staff” you nailed it.

Why is that though? It’s human nature to cut the “extras” when business is rough. Marketing is usually out the window first because the bills are typically huge. Followed shortly by staff members that may be dead weight or not as good as they should be. And quite often, especially for small businesses, the owners decide there’s a lot more they can pick up and work on; things that the assistant used to do. There are a couple of great lessons here. There’s downsizing and there’s taking yourself out of the market.

Let’s first explore the idea of cutting off your marketing efforts in this down market. If you chuck your marketing, doesn’t that just cut off your nose to spite your face? A down market is precisely when you need marketing. If not for your marketing efforts, how will those few buyers in the market know about you when they’re ready? Maybe it’s time to look at some old fashioned guerrilla marketing tactics and free marketing. Yes, I said free. Of course we all need to spend some marketing dollars from time to time but what happened to all of the great free opportunities out there? Let’s explore some of them.

Article submissions. One of the greatest things about the ‘net is that you can almost instantly become the expert in your market/community/area by writing and submitting articles. A quick search on the ‘net will unearth dozens upon dozens of places to post your articles. Of course, that’s what I’m doing right here – writing an article which my cloud-based virtual administrative assistant will post to as many free article submission sites as she can find. What does this do? It positions me as an expert. It sends links back to our company web site (thus increasing search engine rankings). It tells people we exist. It drives traffic (and hopefully customers) to our web site. It keeps our marketing alive and fresh. AND – it doesn’t cost any more than my time to write the article and my cloud-based virtual administrative assistant’s time to post. Cheap!
Blogging. Wow, what a beautiful thing blogging is. Similarly to article submissions, blogging gives you a voice, makes you an expert, sends links back to your web site, and allows you to engage in conversations with potential customers. Another quick search on the ‘net will unveil a hoard of free blogging sites.
Partnerships. In a down market, aligning yourself with complementary companies that can funnel business your way becomes paramount. Do me a favor; sit down and think of the products and services that compliment your business. Don’t look for specific companies just yet. Look for the kinds of products and services. Maybe they’re roofers (who may know that someone really needs to sell), maybe plumbers (who may also know who needs to sell or someone looking to buy), lenders, banks, and so on. Once you have this list together, find all of the companies who fit each category. In other words, find all of the plumbers in the area, all of the roofers, etc. Once you’ve got that list together, call them up and see how you can work together. Can they send referrals to you if you send referrals to them? Which of the plumbers can send you the most referrals? Then start setting up partnerships with these folks.
Co-Advertising. Are there complementary companies (such as the ones you found while seeking partnerships) whom you can work with to create and implement advertising pieces? Advertise both of your services in the same ad and cut advertising costs?
Teleseminars. Check your contacts both locally and nationally – if you can be creative enough about your presentation topic, you can come up with dozens of things to discuss that others would like to hear about. Solicit your contacts for speaking engagements on teleseminars and plug your wares while you’re there. If you can’t get onto someone else’s teleseminar, do your own. They’re very inexpensive to produce (check out www.freeconferencecall.com) and you can invite your market area to the teleseminar to share some great bit of information. You’ll be the first person they turn to when they’re ready to buy. Try a teleseminar on “improving the curb appeal of your home to get it sold more quickly” and I’ll bet you’ll have local sellers flocking to listen to you talk. Try “getting the biggest bang for your buck in a buyer’s market” and the buyers will be knocking down your doors. Be sure to grab their contact information so you can use them as leads!
Radio and TV. Any business can position themselves as experts in their field with the local media. Send them your press releases, your articles, your information. Keep working to land a spot or two on the local news and you gain immediate credibility and recognition in your market.
Podcasts. Podcasts can work similarly to teleseminars in that you can solicit to be a guest on others’ podcasts. However, you can also put up your own podcasts. Again, cheap, easy, and great lead generators. Check out www.talkshoe.com, which is a great, free podcasting site. Share similar information and think about topics similar to those we discussed for teleseminars.

These are just a few ideas for free (or almost) marketing that you can do even during a good market. But especially in times like these, you can focus on free and cheap marketing tactics without spiting your face. Be creative and I’ll bet you can think of dozens of others.

Firing your staff. They’re always the next to go after marketing. Sure, getting rid of dead, useless weight is always a good idea – even when you’re prospering. But during lean times you need to be sure that you’re getting what you pay for from the help. What disturbs me, however, are comments I’ve heard recently like “hired help is a luxury we cannot afford right now” and “well, I’ll just do a little less selling and take over the administrative functions again” and then there’s “I was an assistant once, I can surely do it again and save a few bucks.” Wrong, wrong, all wrong! I’ll tell you why.

The best place for you during lean times is out in front of clients and making money – not setting up drip campaigns in the mailing software and directing phone calls. And how can you set up all of those referral partnerships if you’re preparing post cards for mailings?

So do get rid of those who aren’t helping your business – that’s good advice even in the best of times. But keep those who are producing for you and who are making your job (selling and getting in front of partners) possible.

What about hiring a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant? Bricks and mortar produces huge wastes just by its nature: you pay for time you don’t use, you spend more on gasoline, as does your assistant, you pay rent (or a mortgage), you heat the place, and you electrify it, and so on. Have you considered going virtual? Believe me, it can be done. We were once a bricks and mortar business in a previous enterprise. But after going virtual, we’d never go back. Think about it: you only pay for what you use, you don’t pay rent, you don’t have to heat the office, you don’t have to provide desks and computers. You save tons! One of our virtual staffing clients recently said, “Having cloud-based virtual administrative assistants handle the majority of my administrative paperwork (and me!) has cut over $100,000 from my payroll and given me better skills and talents, better accountability, better organization and better stability in working from two locations, now in Vail, Colorado AND (as of April this year) Naples, Florida!” Check it out – you can downsize without downsizing how much your company accomplishes. If you need to downsize, do it smartly – keep the staff that’s working well and replace the others with cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

As this down market cycles through and works itself out, please, don’t let your marketing fall to the wayside and don’t downsize what your company accomplishes! Just go about it a little differently.

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Working With The “New” Generation

tdcadmin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:41:04 +0000

Working With The “New” Generation

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click® and VirtualAssistingUSA;

I’ve heard them called by many names as of late: Generation Y, Gen Y, The Plug-and-Play Generation, The Gotta-Feel-Good Generation. What they’re all referring to is the new young generation – our current 20-somethings. Every generation “deals” with the generation who comes after them. Their different views, their different ways of doing things, and so on; this generation is no exception.

Why is everyone talking about this new generation now though? They’ve been coming along for years. They’re in their 20′s now, after all! Because now they’re starting to impact the workforce and because we couldn’t predict their group characteristics until we saw them in action. In some ways they’re changing the landscape for the better, in some ways we oldies would say for the worse.

Regardless of the nostalgia we feel for the “old days” this generation is plunging headlong into the workforce and will impact you and your business at some point. There’s really no sense fighting it. No generation has ever changed the generation which came after it; not once that generation reached its 20′s anyway. These are the kids we raised and we did raise them this way, so let’s figure out how to work with them. To work with them we first need to understand them.

What makes this generation tick (or turn off) and what is the impact on businesses looking to hire them?

Problem: They’re not called The Plug-and-Play Generation for nothing. This generation grew up on video games and television while their parents were out working and making (what they viewed as) better lives for their families. This led to a whole generation of children, now entering the workforce, who need instant gratification in whatever it is they do. Whether its work or play, the satisfaction must be immediate.

Solution: What this means to the business owner looking to hire qualified workers is that you need to be diligent in assigning tasks to (or rather asking the worker if they’d be happy to do the tasks) that they enjoy doing. You must challenge this generation to the capacity in which they want to be challenged.

Problem: This generation waits for nothing and no one. If they don’t like the game, they find a new game to play and new people to play it with – now – not tomorrow or next week. Simple as that. Think pulling the PS2 game out of the player and inserting one they think they may like better.

Solution: This goes back to speed again. They’re used to moving at the speed of the internet, not the speed of the horseless carriage. You’re going to have to give this generation what it’s looking for or prepare to lose them. Regular check-ins individually to gauge their interest and excitement is critical to keeping this generation happy and working for you.

Problem: The Generation Y’s demand that they feel good about what they’re doing. If they don’t feel good about it, they’re not going to do it. Again, simple as that and no amount of money will convince them otherwise. Remember: they watched their parents work and work and work to earn a few extra bucks and what did it get them? Absentee parents who were rich. This generation wants quality, not necessarily quantity.

Solution: Sometimes the work just isn’t all that gratifying. However, you can combat that by showing your gratitude in the work being done. Often the sheer pleasure of helping someone else and that person being grateful is enough for the worker to receive the gratification they need.

Problem: The generation of ADD. Oh yes, this is where ADD became popular. The Gen Y’s are not going to pay attention for long. They want their information fast and to the point.

Solution: Don’t waste time with long drawn out memos and information. Just shoot it straight and fast!

Problem: A recent study suggested that the average tenure in a job for Generation Y’s is 18 months. Wow, what happened to life, or even a few years? Unfortunately those days are but a memory. As older workers retire and leave the workforce, we’re left with the generation we raised and we need to count on them to fill the open positions within our companies. Remember again that this generation watched their parents stick in jobs for life, only to be spat out by the very corporations and unions who claimed they’d protect them – when they were juuuuuusssst about to collect that pension. The Generation Y’s aren’t going to hang around to let that happen to them.

Solution: There’s no changing this generation’s stick ability. So as a business owner you have two options: 1) Make the work enjoyable or 2) Prepare in advance for every single worker’s eventual departure. If you opt with number 1, you need to figure out what it is that makes each and every one of your workers happy. They must be regarded as the individuals they are and with their own set of needs and instructions. Prepare to meet those needs or move on to number 2: The most crucial thing any business owner can do is to have instructions written for every task that is performed within their company. Put all those instructions in a safe place and hang on to them so you can pass them on to the worker’s successor. In staffing, one of the biggest complaints we hear from clients is the need to retrain the next person. I’m sorry – that’s the way it is nowadays. We train and we retrain and we need to be ready for it.

Problem: Lack of office etiquette. Check out this recent article on Yahoo! News about modern office etiquette (and lack of it) Ten New Etiquette Tips for the Workplace. Unfortunately, as the article suggests, the new generation may not even know they’re breaking the rules! Etiquette in their world is far different than that of other generations.

Solution: As my husband and business partner says, “But wrong is still wrong and right is still right”. However, with the internet and a new generation, is this perhaps the new “right”. Maybe, maybe not. If most families are dysfunctional, doesn’t dysfunction become the new “normal”? Unfortunately I think the new generation has us beat in sheer numbers folks. In this writer’s opinion there’s not much we can do but learn to deal.

Problem: As another article Why We Should Be Grateful for Gen Y by Penelope Trunk suggests: “They won’t play the face-time game.” That means they’re not going to sit in the office just to make you happy. They know that work can be done from home (or from the beach) just as well as it can be done sitting in the office.

Solution: Let ‘em work from home! Why not!? Working from home offers the ultimate in flexibility (something this generation demands) and helps keep this generation of workers happy and working for you.

As a virtual staffing agency, we deal with the same things as you do day in and day out. We’re not immune to the caveats of Generation Y. We deal with the unique issues of this generation through increased back end staff which checks in with and coaches our cloud-based virtual administrative assistants regularly. We also take great pains to make good matches between clients and cloud-based virtual administrative assistants and quickly offer to change assignments if it doesn’t “feel right” for the cloud-based virtual administrative assistant.

Yes, this (generation’s issues) results in a higher turnover of cloud-based virtual administrative assistants but no higher than what you’d experience in the bricks and mortar world. In many respects we shield our clients from the impacts of turnover by quickly locating new help, interviewing and screening for the right skills and attitude. But even as a virtual staffing agency, we still can’t change a generation or their attitudes so we can’t stop the turnover – we can help our clients get through the turnover.

Even with a high-turnover generation, companies can still benefit from all of the pluses of virtual assistance and virtual staffing. The cost savings over hourly in-office staff still exist; office politics is still absent; the speed of bringing in additional help is still present; the benefits of not having someone sitting in your office holds ground; start up capitol needed (desks, computers, phone lines) of hiring help is not a concern; and ultimate flexibility still exists.

In many ways, hiring virtually is a great way to deal with the issues businesses must face with this generation. This generation wants flexibility. Working virtually offers the ultimate in flexibility, which helps keep the generation happy. Virtual staffing fits this generation like a glove and is one of the best ways to put them to work for you.

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

How Long Can I Expect My Cloud-based virtual administrative assistant To Stay With Me?

tdcadmin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:39:46 +0000

How Long Can I Expect My Cloud-based virtual administrative assistant To Stay With Me?

By Gayle Buske, President and CEO, Team Double-Click®

That’s the number one question I’m asked by clients, future clients, and the media. So how long can we expect cloud-based virtual administrative assistants to stick? My answer is always the same: “it depends”. It depends on many things. But first we need to realign our thinking a little bit and better understand today’s workforce.

As a small or home-based business owner, are you basing your perception of how long a worker stays in a position on your own work history? Yeah, me too. Big mistake. Personally, when I take on a position I intend to stay with it – I don’t give up. I’ve enjoyed lengthy tenures at my places of employment throughout my career. All except one and that’s a story for later.

What we need to remember though is that everyone is not like us. Especially the current workforce. I mentioned in a previous article (Working with the New Generation) that the days of staying in your job for the rest of your life are long gone. As business owners, we tend to forget that and we are frustrated by it.

Let me say it again in this article: A recent study said that the average tenure in a job for Generation Y is 18 months. That’s realistically the max you can expect someone – anyone, bricks-and-mortar or virtual, to stick with a job. Let’s leave that thought to stew for a while and talk about the “that depends” I mentioned earlier.

Depends on what?

Things change in people’s lives – everyone’s lives. Mine and yours and your cloud-based virtual administrative assistants’. Think back to the reasons you have changed jobs in the past. What things in your past have caused a need for job changes? Pregnancy, sudden depression, death in the family, shift in financial obligations, relocation, change of career goals, a decision to go back to college, ill parents, ill children, ill spouse? Of course, and there are many more. Your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant is a human being too and they’re also subject to all of these normal human occurrences. Any one of these or many more reasons are cause for a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to move on elsewhere or even stop working altogether.
Job likeability. You’ve got to like your job. I hope we can all agree on that. If you don’t like what you’re doing you’re not going to do your best and you’re always going to be shopping for a better job or better opportunity. Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants, as with bricks-and-mortar assistants, are not immune. I’m not talking about being a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant in general – though that happens too – where a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant decides she can’t handle the isolation and hangs up her computer. I’m talking about all of the tasks a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant does on a daily basis. For one client she may answer phones, for another she may do data entry, and for yet another she may be asked to cold call. If she doesn’t like those duties she’s not going to like the job and will ask for reassignment or quit entirely.
Boss likeability. For me, the only one I didn’t stick with for a good length of time was one where I was treated like a prisoner in a concentration camp, neck breathed down and so on. I left one day for lunch and never looked back. Have you ever had a boss you just couldn’t stand? How about one with whom you just couldn’t see eye-to-eye. Or maybe there was the one you always thought was creepy or shifty. Would you stick with a boss that gave you those feelings? Certainly not! Yet we expect our cloud-based virtual administrative assistants to do that and we can’t. With 6.6 billion people in the world every one of them is not going to like each and every one of us. And you’re not going to like every one of them either.
Then of course there’s Big Bad Team Double-Click®. At Team Double-Click® our job, as we see it is this: to help you determine your needs in a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant; to locate the best cloud-based virtual administrative assistant for you, our client, based on your personality needs as well as your skills needs; to locate problem cloud-based virtual administrative assistants and send them packing before they do damage to you; to nurture the relationship between you and your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant; alert you to potential problems with a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant; to stand by what we do and what we offer; and locate a new cloud-based virtual administrative assistant for you should things not work out. Now, sometimes the cloud-based virtual administrative assistants we hire don’t like this. This is when we become “Big Bad Team Double-Click®”. You see, we’re the good guys when we’re offering work to cloud-based virtual administrative assistants. However, when we have to take that work away or ask a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant for reimbursement for a client due to negligence in their actions, we’re no longer popular with that cloud-based virtual administrative assistant. This quite often causes a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to quit. In order to protect you, our client, sometimes we have to tick people off to do it.
Theft. Yes, theft. Team Double-Click® is a virtual staffing agency – we’re the middleman. We work hard to do the best by our clients and locate quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants for them. And theft does happen – even from cloud-based virtual administrative assistants who’ve shown no signs of being anything but above board. If finances get tough, the first thing most people want to do is cut out the middleman. Why? Usually to make more money of course! While we do our best to prevent it from happening it does from time to time happen that a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant will attempt to steal a client – to make more money. I’m sure you can see how this opens a whole can of worms here and can easily mess things up for other clients. My question to you: would you want to directly hire a person with that kind of track record? Could you really trust they wouldn’t try to steal something from you later on down the road? I wouldn’t. In fact, this brings me to an interesting story. A cloud-based virtual administrative assistant (let’s call her Jane) recently successfully stole a client (let’s call him Dick) from Team Double-Click®. In this instance, rather than enter into a lengthy legal battle with Dick and Jane, we let it go. We of course discussed with Dick the potential for Jane the Thief to repeat her history again in the future. Three months later Dick came back and said “Gayle, Jane just stole from me – she embezzled my funds in fact.” While I felt badly for Dick we predicted that this could happen which is why we’d warned him. Dick chose not to listen to our years of experience and the information we had available.
Popularity. Team Double-Click‘s cloud-based virtual administrative assistants are employed by Team Double-Click®. As with most employees we too impose restrictions, benchmarks, and even penalties on our employees for lack of performance. Again, this sometimes makes us unpopular and can cause a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to quit. Would you want us to do anything less in the name of protecting our clients?

Knowing what causes people to leave should help you better understand how long a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant may stay in a position. About 25% of our cloud-based virtual administrative assistants have been with us and the same clients for well over a year and many more approaching the one year mark. In fact, earlier this year one of our cloud-based virtual administrative assistants retired from Team Double-Click® and the client she was assigned, after being with him for more than three years.

So when asked “how long can I expect my cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to stay with me”. I always say “It depends. As long as nothing goes wrong and there is no reason for the cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to leave, she will most likely stay.” As one of my daughter’s teachers used to say, “It’s all about cause and effect.”

This article’s goal was to give you a better perspective of what to expect in this day and age of hiring and some insight into what can go wrong. I hope I’ve accomplished that. And with a better understanding maybe we’ll all be less shocked and better prepared when one of our workers – bricks-and-mortar or virtual – departs.

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Key to hiring virtually: Key #4 – Plan It Out

tdcadmin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:38:31 +0000

Key #4 – Plan It Out

By Ruthie Palmatier

The New Year has started; have you set your goals for the year? If you are like most people, your goals have been identified. Have you gone beyond thinking and identifying them? Do you have a plan? Or are you simply “going for it?” Are you committed to the cause? How badly do you want to achieve your goal? What is your passion factor?

One of my favorite quotes is something Bear Bryant said “It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.” While we all know you must first start by determining what your goals are, you need to do more than simply identify your goals. Whether it is a personal or business goal, sometimes what we seem to think is doable for the year becomes overwhelming when it’s time to actually get started. What would be the best way to break it down so that you can actualize your goal? You need to determine your plan of action that will get you there. Chunk it out. You can break it down by both actions and by time frames so that it has a level of measurability. Dream big. Don’t be afraid to reach for the moon, the stars and a few planets too. By breaking down your goals into quarterly, monthly and weekly time frames, you’ll be able to have greater focus on what needs to be done now without feeling overwhelmed by the big picture.

Try going about your goals like a NASCAR® pit crew. They look at the end of the race first (your goal for the end of the year) and work the plan backwards. They plan where each pit stop must be (each goal marker in your case) and where each tire change (more goal markers) must be in order to win the race. So they start with the end in mind. If your goal is to make a million dollars this year, you need to be at $250,000 by the end of March, $500,000 by the end of June, and $750,000 by the end of September in order to win the year at $1,000,000. So think like a NASCAR® pit crew and look at the end first and work backwards.

Think ahead. Don’t be afraid to seek help! If you are stuck knowing how to start or where to go next, get help. Ask your friends and colleagues. I have found that people are surprisingly happy and eager to share what they know. You can start by researching the internet. You can also talk to people you know. Look for networking groups/sites on the internet and find the discussion boards and start asking your questions. There is an incredible wealth of information right at your fingertips. Once you get started, stick to it and don’t sell yourself short! You are only limited by your imagination.

Track your progress. Ignorance is not bliss. You can’t get yourself back on track if you don’t know whether or not you’ve fallen off. What if you don’t have all the hours in the day to do take care of the tasks needed? Are you going to accept that as an excuse or are you going to do something about it? You know what I’m going to say next, right? Of course, if you don’t already have one, HIRE A CLOUD-BASED VIRTUAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT! If you already have a cloud-based virtual administrative assistant, are you maximizing her time and resources? If so, GREAT. If not, why not? Are you aware of all of her skills? Have you asked her how much time she has to offer you? Talk to her. Cloud-based virtual administrative assistants care deeply about the growth of your business. Your success is their success. Find out how your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant can help you meet your goals by talking to her. Share with her your plans and visions. Tap into her resources and if you need more assistance, don’t be shy about getting a 2nd cloud-based virtual administrative assistant!

To your success!

Ruthie

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.

Key to hiring virtually: Key #3 – Training

tdcadmin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:37:19 +0000

Key #3: Training

By Ruthie Palmatier

Are you struggling with the thought of how to train your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant? Is that preventing you from getting started? I hear that a lot. Maybe you are concerned with the amount of time it might take to train her. I hear that too. The first thing to remember is that if don’t train your cloud-based virtual administrative assistant to take over those tasks, you’re still stuck doing them yourself. Are you ready to move forward and get back to doing what you do best? If so, then let the cloud-based virtual administrative assistant do what she does best. She’s the skilled administrative assistant. She LOVES doing that kind of work.

Now, there are a couple of ways to go about training your assistant. While your assistant is already a trained administrative professional, you will still need to train her to your specific ways of doing things. Yes, it may take you some time to go through each of the steps, but once you do and she’s off and running you can move on to those things that you have been wanting to get to. If the training is complex or lengthy, consider recording the training call. That way she can go back over her notes and make sure she didn’t miss anything.

Did I say notes? YES! Have your assistant take notes of your training calls, each and every time. At the end of the training, have her type up those notes and email them to you. Go over those notes yourself to make sure she got all the steps and that you didn’t miss anything. This is a good way to also ensure that she understood you correctly. Then have her save that document into a new folder called “Training Manual”. Each time you go over something new, have her document the training and then again, email you those training notes. These notes are now building a training manual for you and your business.

As a business owner, having a training manual, or a procedures manual is really critical. What if your VA gets sick and you need to bring someone else to fill in? What if down the road you decide you want to add to your staff, virtual or otherwise? Having document training materials will truly make your life easier. So, please take the time to train your assistant properly. It is an investment that will pay off with high returns!

To your success!

Ruthie

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About the author:

Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click®. As the head of a virtual staffing agency, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid small business owners in their growth and development through virtual administrative assistant outsourcing. Clients across the country look to Ms. Buske and her organization to supply quality cloud-based virtual administrative assistants.