A Virtual Assistant is not only an automated bot that can answer your questions it’s also someone like me a HUMAN! Virtual Assistants are independent contractors or in other terms just business owners or freelancers. So you are probably wondering well how does that work? Well I’m going to give you a run down.
Virtual Assistants are here to make your life easier and not only the professional side of your life but they can help manage parts of your home or personal life. We can pretty much work from anywhere as long as their is internet coverage and we have our laptop. This also works for your benefit too because you don’t have to pay overheads and have a dedicated premises if you don’t need to and you don’t have someone working in your home.
Because a Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent contractor they take care of the following themselves as a part of their obligations, which means you also don’t have to pay holiday pay, sick leave etc. like you would to an employee.
tax
superannuation
insurance
Virtual Assistants aren’t all the same you may get some that only perform general admin tasks and then you have others that may specialise in a certain field, for instance real estate, web design, law, the medical field and so on.
It’s about finding the right VA for you and your business. It also comes down to personality, you may have chosen a VA that on paper looks like they will fit in your business nicely however you may clash in personalities and that’s ok because it can sometimes take a bit of trial and error to find the right fit for you.
If you are a VA or you are looking for a VA to integrate into your business then you also need to make sure that you are hiring them in the right circumstances (should they be an employee?). A great way to check this is by using the “Employee or Contractor Decision Tool” on the ATO website. This will work out if the person you are hiring should be classified as an employee rather than a contractor. Because in the end you need to make sure that you have your tax obligations right.
How do your customers contact you? Is it just by contact form on your website or do they message you through Facebook?
I found that alot of my clients prefer to message me through Facebook rather than emailing. Sometimes it’s easier to chat online as opposed to emails back and forth. These are two of the best chat plugins that I found from experience.
Tawk.to is a free chat plugin for WordPress where you can chat to your customers in real time. You also have the ability to;
create support tickets
assign requests
keep a transcript of your conversations
see your live website statistics
enable live,away and invisible mode
create a series of questions for your customers to answer before you initiate a chat
download the app on your phone and you can chat to your customers on the go
Tawk.to is definitely a great plugin but I feel it is more suited to businesses that really need to watch their analytics and they have a large online customer base.
Facebook Messenger
Last year Facebook released the chat plugin that can be added to your website by enabling a couple of settings on your Facebook page and copying some code to implement on your website.
These days nine out of ten people are on Facebook and it’s just an easier way to keep in contact with your customers on Facebook via your website. With Facebook adding more and more features for businesses to utilize it makes it easier to keep notes on your customer conversations and also booking appointments directly from their platform.
I am currently using this feature and it works well for my business, but it is all about finding what works for you and what is simple.
The two main email management programs you hear of often are Microsoft Outlook and Gmail or Gsuite, but have you heard of Mailbird? Mailbird is a great tool to use to manage multiple email accounts no matter what platform your account is created on. They do offer a free version (lite) for up to 3 accounts otherwise the pro version is just as affordable and has so many extras.
So what is the difference between the two?
Source: www.getmailbird.com
I have been using Mailbird for years now and I love that I can have all my email accounts in the one platform plus I can check Feedly for daily articles, check Facebook, view my calendar and sync to Dropbox all within Mailbird.
They have a few different theme options
Different views depending on what layout you prefer working with
Snooze option
Starred emails
You can even have some of the popular apps like Asana, Trello, Hangouts, Google Keep, Wunderlist, Twitter, Slack and Evernote integrated in there.
So if you are looking for a simple solution to manage multiple email accounts without flicking between windows then take a look at Mailbird and see if it is for you.
P.S – I am not affiliated with them I just love their product.
Hi I’m Tammy the owner of TLB Admin Support and Online Biz Connect. With years of experience in administration I help business owners grow and build their business by focusing on what’s important.
Want to learn how to use Canva in your business? Join me for this hands on workshop at the Co-Hub in Butler. This is a 1 hour introductory workshop and is limited to 5 people.
Have you heard the term Personal Concierge & Virtual Assistant?
These people can help you manage your business both off site and on site without costing you a fortune.
Sarah owns and operates her own business Tick That Box a Personal Concierge service where she helps you with tasks from grocery shopping to on site office support for small businesses.
Say for instance you have your Receptionist or Office Manager going on leave so you are needing a temp to fill the spot temporarilly, but you’re not too enthused about going through a temp agency who would more thank likely charge you a percantage to source you a temp. Here’s your other option ‘Sarah’. She will come to your office and help fill in for that person.
Tick That Box can help you with not only tasks for you business but personal tasks too.
Here’s how Sarah can help you.If you are not necessarily needing onsite support and you are happy to communicate with someone over phone, email and Skype then a Virtual Assistant may be the solution you need. This is where we come in at TLB Admin Support. Where Sarah offers you onsite support we take care of the offsite support, not to mention we both offer different services. Because we work from our own premises you can save on overheads if you are not necessarily needing an office space.
We help small businesses with projects such as website design, social media services, animated videos, admin support and just general customer service. If you have a task you need completing and it involves a computer more often than not we can help you.
As you can see it’s never been easier to get support for your business, we’re only a phone call away!
We will also have a booth at the Wanneroo Business Expo, so make sure to come down and say hi.
You can find out more information by clicking here and make sure to register and reserve your tickets for the special events on the day.
Tick That Box
Sarah Nickson
0447 118 884
sarah@tickthatbox.com.au
TLB Admin Support
Tammy Brown
(08) 9468 0323
tammy@tlbadminsupport.com.au
