Need an Assistant? Read On

Let me let you in on a little secret — you don’t have to do it all. Business owners are often burdened with the (unrealistic) expectation of accomplishing everything. Your job is to run the business. You will inevitably come to a point in the growth of your business where you’ll need to hand off any tasks that don’t directly contribute to steering the ship.

One of the ways to ease your burden and free up time is to hire an assistant. The great thing about hiring an assistant is you can go all in, or hire someone to just take care of select tasks. Whatever your business needs, here are a few options to help lighten your load:

Going Big with the Executive Assistant

If you are running a successful and established business that’s rapidly growing, you might consider bringing an executive assistant onboard. This person is someone you bring in to not only help you with tasks but to help you run your business. They understand your vision and are able, and empowered, to make decisions on your behalf. Their priorities are your priorities.

“They know where your business is going, they know where you want to be, and they can help you get there.” – Ramon Ray

Executive assistants can be used in many ways, but here are a few examples of what one can do for your business:

Prepare executive correspondence.
Make travel arrangements.
Plan and execute complex events.
Project management.
Team and personnel management.

Balancing Your Workload and Budget with the Administrative Assistant

Businesses that are still growing and may not have the need or the budget for an executive assistant should consider the administrative assistant. Administrative assistants help more with daily tasks more than overall business operations. As the name implies, they are best leveraged for administrative functions such as:

Data entry.
Research.
Scheduling.
Phone and inbox management.

Starting Small Can Have a Big Impact with the Virtual Receptionist

If you’re not quite ready to commit to a full-fledged assistant, you can still get many of the benefits that an assistant can offer by hiring a virtual receptionist. Our friends over at Ruby have mastered the art of giving business owners their time back by allowing them to delegate time-consuming tasks.

What can a virtual receptionist do for your business:

Answer and transfer calls.
Take messages.
Relay and collect information on your behalf.
Make outbound calls.
Answer FAQs.
Schedule appointments.

For a fraction of the cost of an in-person or virtual assistant, a virtual receptionist can make a real impact in your day by taking on a lot of the “front office” functions of a traditional receptionist. But, what sets Ruby apart is that your business can have access to a receptionist 24/7, 365 days a year and because they operate as a fluid team, you’ll never have to worry about covering down on sick days or vacation time. The best part — it’s totally personalized. Nothing about Ruby is cookie-cutter. They will work with your business to make sure your customers don’t even realize that your virtual receptionist isn’t actually sitting at a physical reception desk in your office.

Republished by permission. Original here.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, "Need an Assistant? Read On" was first published on Small Business Trends