As a solo-preneur in your Virtual Assistant business, you are the boss, the worker, the accountant, the complaints department, the marketing manager, the strategist, the administrative clerk and the chief financial officer all-in-one.
With so many things happening at the same time, how do you take care of your business?
The primary purpose of Virtual Assistants is to help clients run their businesses smoothly. Yet we are sometimes putting so much time into our clients and their businesses that we don’t have time to make things easier for our own business! Can you identify with this situation?
So, how can you take care of your own business?
Well, by making some time to think, develop and implement a few systems, or easy-to-follow processes for each major element of your business.
With systems in place, you can concentrate on the parts of your work that you love. Because the good thing about a system is that once it is in place and you start using it regularly, you can forget about it. The system becomes part of your regular routine and you’ll be amazed at how it simplifies your work life and makes you more efficient.
Systems that can streamline your own business operations and save a truckload of time include a:
- Accounting system; how do you keep up to date with your income and expenses?
- Billing system; how and when do you send invoices and receive payments for your work?
- Client management system; how do you keep record of you clients’ information?
- Client communication system; what is the procedure for communicating with first time clients (e.g. a consultation process) or for regular follow-up meetings?
- Contracts and document management system; how do you conduct your business and close the deal with clients?
- Filing system; how do you stay organised and keep information within easy reach?
- Back-up system; how do you safeguard against loss of information / files from your computer?
- Time management system; how do you keep record of your time spend on projects and work?
The systems you develop for yourself should not be difficult to use. In fact it should be so easy to follow that you do them automatically without even thinking about it – like riding a bike or driving a car.
The truth is: If your internal systems and operations are in disarray or non-existing, it will eventually show to your clients through gaps in customer service.
However, if you are taking care of your business, and operations are running smoothly, your clients will see and benefit from it.
So, how do you take care of your business?
We would love to hear your comments and thoughts on this.
