Are you effective in delegating work to your virtual assistant? Do you know the reason you need them during the holiday season? Do you know what they can do to your business, especially these holidays? If you say no to these questions, then it’s about time to read on.
A virtual assistant is your best bet if you want your business to prosper in this hectic holiday. In this blog, we are giving out some tips to ease your delegation journey. We also mentioned how to prepare your workload with your virtual staff and crucial business tasks to rev up your business this holiday.
How Can Virtual Assistants Be More Efficient?
When it comes to time management, you do tasks you are good at with all your best. But how about the rest? Well, it is where delegation comes in. Check out these tips to delegate the tasks you pass on better.
1. Hire Someone You Trust
Delegating is tough when you do not believe in your virtual assistant, who takes over the task. When you hire a person, you build trust and alleviate your concerns, like the worries you have. You can ask particular questions and give situations to determine how to manage the tasks. It tells you if that person is fit for the job, and you do it before handing in the work. Initiating a trial period where you can provide sample tasks is a way to evaluate if that person fits your requirements.
2. Give Yourself An Incentive
You will need time to sacrifice things you desire over those you should do. Instead of looking at delegation that weighs you down, you consider it a way to retrieve the missing activities, like working out in a gym and the opportunity to handle your project or business line. If you delegate things more, you have more working time on other things that excite you. Soon, a good delegation will connect to more freedom.
3. Create A Delegation Wish List
At times, you get stuck when making decisions on how to delegate. Some ideas in your wish list may include the following:
- recurring and easy-to-replicate tasks
- admin tasks that you do not need to be an expert on a particular subject
- any job that you do not want to do
While working on those tasks, develop the habit of creating a three-column list, including the things to keep, outsource, and delegate straightaway. This list helps split up activities in your to-do list. You can also answer your new virtual healthcare staff when they have questions or don’t know their next task.
4. Set Your Hire Up for Success
Before hiring a Filipino virtual assistant, personal assistant, or sales buddy, creating a process for managing the delegated work is essential. To not waste time discussing mistakes, you can block out the time you’ve spent on a person. A few examples include walking them through the task using a share screen via Skype, referring back using Google docs, and having face-to-face meetings.
5. Retain Visibility
The reason for blocking delegation is because it lacks control. You create a system for viewing what the remote workers are doing and give constructive feedback. We at Phoenix Virtual Solutions love to use Google Sheets that we share and edit simultaneously. Other tools you can use for delegation include:
- Trello: an all-in-one project management tool for viewing a to-do list and tasks.
- Asana: also a project management tool great for assigning tasks and deadlines.
6. Create Clear Expectations
When the capacity of your to-do list exceeds is why you delegate tasks. Sharing this list indicates that the forgotten aspects are the important ones. Make a clear guideline when delegating any task. It includes the following:
- Deadlines that are either soft or firm
- Phrases or actions that are banned
- Projects having timescales
- Aspects that cannot be negotiable and done to consider a complete task
7. Provide Feedback
You secure this feedback at the early stage of the delegation process. It includes notes and comments in your Google doc or calls, either per month or week, as long as it covers improvements. You do this at the start of the delegation. Employees or virtual staff find this an opportunity they will enjoy since they know your wants as their employer. They usually catch up on your instructions if you tell them once.
Why Hire a Virtual Assistant During the Holidays?
When you hear the words “holiday season,” the first thing that crosses your mind is Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Christmas. In a year, business owners find these holidays among the busiest. The year ends on the positive side. Business owners make it productive and adopt strict measures at this time in the year. This time can either be the most important of the year or the one that can break or fulfill your goals for this year.
Your preparation is dependent on how you operate your business and make advertisements for your brand. Your target goal for their festive season can be a profit of 35% and above or yearly revenue, amounting twofold. It is not bad at all. You can win this even if you are in a very competitive situation. You can do proper planning and add more dedication. Don’t forget to inject hard work.
How Do Sellers Maximize Profit During This Holiday?
Preparing for Critical Workload
Knowing the tedious workload is coming, sellers plan it. It is a norm that the workload gets hectic when holidays are fast approaching. The business becomes successful depending on how effective the management and operations are.
1. Amazon Marketing Services (AMS)/Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
If you have the intention to sell your products, ask the help of a virtual assistant specializing in AMS or Amazon PPC. Your products will be visible on the Amazon marketplace. As a result, many people will buy your products. This role is what the AMS or Amazon PPC virtual assistant does. Other things they can help to make your brand stand out include:
- Research the most searched keywords
- Find the right products which could give good results
- Select the products you want to advertise
- Set your targeting, campaign budget, bid, and duration
- Monitor the ads closely
- Optimize the ads if necessary depending on their performance
- Review the keywords that provide more clicks or sales
2. Amazon Account Management
Do you know the reason your Amazon account suddenly closes? Then, an expert Amazon Account Management virtual assistant is your solution to unfreeze your locked accounts. They also remove bad reviews of your products. Your stocks and inventory are safe in their hands while you are away. Ensuring your business operation is stable, the Amazon virtual assistant manages your products in stock necessary for the holidays.
3. eBay
Besides Amazon, other marketplaces to sell your products are eBay. But you will need an eBay virtual assistant to manage the product inventory and list the products. It is because the workload becomes hectic during the holidays. They can also help you with the following tasks:
- eBay Account Management
- Inventory Management
- Product Listing and Optimizing
- Basic Photo Editing
- Keyword Research
- eBay Market Research and Competitor Analysis
4. Listing Optimization
In optimizing your product listings, your virtual assistant does keywords research with a high volume and includes these on your product titles and descriptions. This way, your listing ranks on top of the most searched results. Your virtual assistant can also write catchy descriptions having the correct category to attract consumers to purchase your product.
5. Graphics Designing
Product images with the best quality attract online buyers. When advertising your products, offers, and schemes, you can use banners and headings. We at Phoenix Virtual Solutions ensure that each product photo is high quality with correct dimensions and pixel quality. These kinds of images provide good results and sell more.
6. Copywriting
Content is powerful to promote your products and reach the appropriate audience. It is hard to sell your products when people are not interested in purchasing them. You will need a virtual assistant to handle emails and blogs to reach potential customers. You can also choose a copywriter with a background in search engine optimization. The product descriptions in your blogs will be catchy and contain keywords.
7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
People who use Google prefer convenience when finding answers to their problems. They do not even reach the second page while reading. That is where the SEO virtual assistant comes in. They use strategies either onsite or offsite, which will help land your website or products on the first page of Google Search Results. Your sales also increase when you hire them.
How Can Virtual Assistants Help Your Business During Festive Season?
Arrange Travel Plans
Your virtual healthcare assistant can book tickets for your flights and make reservations for your hotel. If you have written the things you will need for your vacation, give it and let them handle it.
Create a Holiday Newsletter
It indicates your presence. You can use a newsletter for promotion. Let your Phoenix virtual assistant think of promoting your services and products. You can also send your business partners and clients a holiday greeting using a newsletter.
Manage Business While You Are Gone
Time-off refreshes your mind. Are you reluctant to leave behind a lot of work amid the holidays? Then choose Phoenix virtual healthcare staff to assist you. They got you covered with your tasks. Enjoy and have a fun vacation!
Send Out Holiday Cards
Many among us follow the tradition every year to give Christmas cards. Still, the need is effort and time. Nothing to worry about since your virtual assistant makes the order and cards. They also check the cards to ensure the delivery is on time.
Do Online Holiday Marketing
Last year, more than 75% of consumers shopped online during the holidays. A marketing campaign for holidays is also effective in online platforms to profit. You can ask for your virtual healthcare assistant’s help for marketing and promotion to target the desired sales figures and the target market.
Provide Event Planning
When you host a party, it shows how you appreciate your employees and clients. Your virtual assistant can organize, send invites, check those who replied and book a venue. Your company party is
Respond to Emails
Note that not everyone takes time off. Your virtual assistant can update social media accounts, process transactions, and respond to emails. You have peace of mind when someone helps you watch your inbox.
Purchase Gifts
Giving gifts is great. But some have no more time to shop. You can instruct your virtual assistant to buy gifts for your family, clients, and virtual staff. Create a list of those people with details to help pick the best gifts for them.
Handle Payments
You would want payments to be the last thing that comes into mind. If you continue to chase payments and settle balances, you will waste most of your time, so let your Phoenix virtual assistant handle it before the new year starts.
Prepare for the Coming Year
Your company has performances within the year that your virtual staff can analyze and plan for the next. It gives you insights into what is happening to your business and its progress. Feedbacks help you create the best strategy for next year.
Final Thoughts
When you hire a virtual assistant for your team, you allow more productive time for other tasks and spend more valuable time with your loved ones, which is a perfect gift. Just ensure that you don’t forget to give acknowledgments to your virtual assistant services.
Do you need a virtual healthcare assistant too? Feel free to contact one of our representatives anytime to help you get the best virtual partner for your business as you spend the holidays free from stress and more joy with Phoenix Virtual Solutions.
