You probably won’t want to hire a virtual assistant just so they can handle your scheduling and reservation bookings. While those might take up precious time, they aren’t the only things that bog you down. So what are some of the other ways a virtual assistant can help you?

Research

Research work is vital to any successful business. Whether it's trends, market data, or contact information—there’s always something that needs to be researched. The problem is that it’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole when it comes to conducting research and then you still have to extrapolate the important information and plug it into a presentation. A virtual assistant can be the one to do the digging and sorting only delivering the vital, verified information to you.

Email Management

How many emails are currently in your inbox? When is the last time you were able to sort them and make sure that nothing has fallen through the cracks? A virtual assistant can do that task for you. From Freshdesk to Zoho—virtual assistants are experts at email management software and they can sort through your inbox for you and flag any messages that need your attention. They can also take on the task of answering any emails that do not need your attention.

Purchasing

Virtual assistants can also handle tasks like maintaining inventory levels, making purchases, or paying bills. From renewing a web hosting plan to researching and purchasing the best office desk for your needs—a virtual assistant can save you the time and energy that you would have spent on a purchasing task. Many online retailers also allow you to save credit card information so you don’t even need to share that with your virtual assistant—they can just use the card on file.

Travel Reservations

Booking travel reservations can eat up a significant amount of time. Comparing costs on flights, hotels, and rental cars can easily eat up an entire day. By delegating this task to a virtual assistant, you can alleviate the stress from the situation. If your group is attending a trade show or workshop your virtual assistant can even book you a block of rooms, a vehicle large enough to accommodate the group, and even dinner reservations during the trip. Let your Virtual Assistant know specific dates, times, and budget for your travels and any preferences you might have. This includes airlines, frequent flier account numbers, or seating.

Documents

There’s many times the paperwork can pile up and the to-do list of documents that need to be created becomes overwhelming. If you’re going to be sharing work – make sure your Virtual Assistant has the software you prefer. Cloud software is the best source for sharing documents as they allow instant real-time access to the latest version. A virtual assistant can handle proofreading and formatting a document, transferring your handwritten notes into an electronic document, creating presentations, or even the tedious task of data entry. If there’s any paperwork that doesn’t need you to be the point person on it—delegate it to your virtual vssistant.

Social Media

Most businesses are now on social media and use it for their marketing and communication efforts. What many people don’t realize is how much time can be consumed by making posts and responding to comments. Posting on multiple channels, culling articles to share, creating graphics, and replying to comments can easily take over 2-3 hours a week. Your virtual assistant can handle the research and scheduling and let them be the one to respond to clients. Just be sure to provide your virtual assistant with a style guide of do’s and don’ts for your business and a cheat sheet of logins.

This list alone could easily free up an entire week of work for you.