How a Virtual Assistant can help with Recruitment

Recruitment of staff can be very time consuming, particularly with the new employment legislation.

Involving a Virtual Assistant from the start can free up valuable time. A VA can draft the advert, place it in suitable media and newspapers, ensure a job description and any application forms are sent out, they can also liaise with recruitment agencies on your behalf.

If you provide a Virtual Assistant with specific criteria, they can match CVs, meaning that the initial sift is done for you, arrange candidate interviews and any testing that may be necessary.

They can ensure that any necessary employment checks, such as a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) are carried out, contact references and send out any offer letters and contracts when needed.

Virtual Assistants can organise to get copies of the relevant documents needed to comply with Employment Legislation, for example ensuring that the candidate has a right to work in the UK.

If you are currently thinking about recruiting a member of staff, then please feel free to contact me to see how I can help.

Is your list overwhelming?

You had this great idea, turned it into a business and now you make money from it. Well done! In reality though, a lot more hard work goes into making any business successful and the behind the scenes work can often get overwhelming but money is tight and you just can’t afford to take anyone on or add to the team.

If that scenario is familiar then why not consider outsourcing? There is good business sense in freeing up your time to concentrate on the activities that make you money and spend less time on the actions that do not.

As a virtual assistant, I often see people commenting on Twitter or their blogs about how busy or overwhelmed they are and wondered how much on your To-Do list you could delegate to free up valuable time?

This is a list of activities that I’ve been asked to do recently;

• Create a slideshow on Powerpoint for a job interview.
• Merge spreadsheets containing a list of names and email addresses into one usable document.
• Create a CSV file for outlook from a collection of business cards.
• Create a HTML email for a small business wanting to let their contacts know they had moved.
• Proofread a study outline for a PhD Student.
• Take notes at the AGM of a small charity, produce the minutes and distribute.
• Confirm appointments for a small sales team and follow up with a thank you “email”.
• Research the relevant contact names for local media business correspondents.
• Credit control letters for overdue accounts.
• Liaise with printers and research prices for advertising materials.

Take a look at your list, if you feel overwhelmed by it what could you outsource?

Christmas Planning with a Virtual Assistant

I know Halloween has only just passed but now is the time to start planning business activities over Christmas.

There are a number of things that you could leave in the hands of a Virtual Assistant, ensuring that you can maximise sales, or your time, at one of the busiest buying times of the year.

Are you planning to send out Christmas cards? A virtual assistant can ensure that suitable cards are purchased, that your contact database is up to date, mailing labels are correct and that the cards go into the postal system ahead of the 20th December deadline.

Perhaps you are planning on distributing some Christmas goodies to your best customers? Again, a virtual assistant can provide information on suitable customers, make appointments for you to visit those customers.

You may well decide to organise a Christmas party for associates or customers, the VA can help source a venue, menus and invitations. Keeping track of RSVP and ensuring the event goes smoothly.

Other Christmas considerations are telephone answering during periods of closure, updating your marketing plan and activities for the New Year ahead.

Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance in the above.

First Impressions

Receptionists and secretaries form the front line of any business.It is usually they who send out letters, answer the telephones, greet any visitors and communicates throughout the company. They play a massive part in how well information flows between people. As they say, ” first impressions last”, and the largest of corporations spend a lot of money on making sure their “first impression” is a good one.

What if you’re a small business, maybe a “one man band”? Used to promoting your own business, handling all the information on a daily basis, developing your business. What happens to all that paperwork when you are out visiting customers? Who handles the calls to your business or do you rely on the answer machine?

To run your business effectively you need to wear a number of different hats. Telephonist, salesman, marketer and administrator alongside whatever your actual business is. You need to be a “jack of all trades” and may end up being “master of none” as you find your time gets taken up with everything but what it really is you want to be doing?

The Virtual Assistant world is fast developing into one of the largest support fields and is a welcome answer to the problems mentioned above. Using the services of a VA is easy, pick the tasks that you need doing, set a deadline and delegate, get one who has a call answering service as well and you can instantly improve the “first impression” of your business.

In one small step, you’ve gained a professional telephonist for when you aren’t available, improved your time management and increased the team working to make your business successful!

A case of the blahs!

I've a real case of the blah's right now! I won't go into all the boring details but it's not a feeling I'm used too!

I had a bit of a self indulgent whine on the SVA site and got some good advice. I've also made a list (something I have a real talent for ;) ) of some things I can do to stave off the blahs! I'm going to post it on here as an incentive to get stuck in.

I also managed to contribute to a world record today! Firefox 3 was launched! I love Firefox and it's add-ons as I'm a real IT gadgety type person. I'm yet to pass judgement but needless to say I'm now waiting for the fabulous techy types to write me a black skin and for Piclens to be updated to work with Firefox 3

I've always considered myself to be fairly techno savvy! By that I mean that my kids don't treat me like an idiot when it comes to computers and are still in awe that I know about creating websites and publishing them! Luckily they are still too young to realise that I know virtually nothing about nothing but can blag really well!!!

And I can .... create websites and publish them ... well not super websites but I can open the design programme and fiddle a bit. Nothing complicated. I started my new website three weeks ago and I'm upto version 4 so far! Last time I created a website was about 8 years ago and things have moved on now! Oh boy, have things moved on.

I've started up working for myself. Apparently somewhere in my subconscious I realised I need a challenge. I've done this previously and I actually miss the buzz and the reward. I do work full-time but there's no buzz working for someone else.

I made my list of things to do. Top of that "design website" I sat down and quickly realised my old trusted Frontpage was old news and that Microsoft had upgraded, that was my first inkling that I knew nothing! XHTML and CSS ??? I spoke to my techy IT guru who told me to have a go set up the web and blog! Blog???

So here I am ... having a go!

So now my kids think I'm supercool! I blog! I don't want to correct their spelling just yet ... blag has an 'a'!!