Starting out in business is expensive and so business owners come to the conclusion that they can take care of everything themselves. Wrong! The job of a business owner is to market their business and increase profits.

Taking care of administrative tasks takes you away from your main focus. There are so many tasks to take care of on a daily basis, if you attempt them all on your own; you will burn out very quickly. Thousands of people start businesses each year, less than half succeed; you dont want to be the half that didnt make it.

Lets take a look at a day in the life of a busy business owner;

1. Check email
2. Follow-up on previous day inquiries from potential clients
3. Send out marketing materials to 1 client
4. Update website information
5. Update and send out billing information to clients
6. Schedule appointment for consultation with potential client
7. Answer the phone
8. Spend at least 30 minutes marketing on-line
9. Call to get quotes for office supplies
10. Attend a networking event
    
    
    Accomplishing everything on this list along with the other tasks that will come up during a typical day can hinder the progress of your business and family time will become a rarity. Think about it this way, how much business would you lose if you took several days to get back with clients, or if you forgot an important meeting.

    A Virtual Assistant provides you with the administrative support that you had access to in your former corporate life. The rates for virtual assistants are higher than you would pay for a temp or an in-house assistant BUT with a VA you are only paying for productive time and YOU can set the budget. If you can only afford to spend $150 per month for an administrative tasks, choose the most time consuming tasks and delegate those to your VA. Do not choose a VA because of the rate they charge, cheaper is not the way to go!

    VAs provide sohos with a cost effective solution for their administrative needs. They work from their home office and use their own equipment, office space, software; they also pay for their own taxes, insurance, benefits. You only pay for the time spent on the project. It seems to me that spending money on a VA is money well spent!