Busy is a badge of honor in startup culture. We carry our grueling schedules and infinite to-do lists like badges of honor that we’re building something of value. But what if that constant state of “busy” is keeping you awake at night, not just because it’s preventing real growth?
The secret sauce of thousands of successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, and influencers is not a magic pill; it’s a Virtual Assistant (VA).
A VA is not a virtual administrator; they’re a strategic partner who does your back-end grind work so you can spend your energy on your genius work: strategy, creation, and high-level growth. They are independent contractors and are not eligible for benefits like paid vacation or sick leave. Virtual assistants typically work thirty hours per week or more, though schedules will vary based on your needs and the availability of your virtual assistant.
They work with you to ensure that they are meeting your expectations and are available during regular business hours. This can include checking in with you via phone, email, or text. The most asked question we get is: “What can I actually outsource?”
Worry no more. We’ve got the ultimate list of 50 things you can outsource to a virtual assistant today.
Why Outsource a Virtual Assistant?
Before we start, let’s bust a myth: outsourcing is not assigning work you dislike (although that’s a pleasant fringe benefit). It’s optimizing your ROI on time.
Save the $1,000/hour tasks for last: Don’t waste your time on $10/hour activities. Your top priority should be high-leverage tasks that generate income.
Leverage specialty skills: Require graphic design, bookkeeping, or social advertising? Outsource to a VA who possesses that very skill without the expense of a full-time employee.
Get real work-life balance: Take back your nights and weekends. A VA enables you to grow your business without burning out.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant is essential to your company’s success in today’s fast-paced environment. Let’s admit it: we cannot do everything ourselves. If you’re an entrepreneur and you are forcing yourself to do everything on your own, you might get lost in translation. Managing your time wisely means looking at opportunities where you can grow your business in a much more effective way to keep up with the times.
The first thing you need to understand is that creating a virtual team for your business with specific roles saves a lot of time and keeps things moving swiftly. Identify the different components that are essential to your company’s overall growth, and you will be able to determine the Virtual Team’s specific functions.
Ready to take your time back? Here are 50 things you can be outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant to grow your business, segregated accordingly:
The Website Wizard
Websites will always be essential, and having a virtual assistant help you with making sure your company’s website is up to date and active will make you sleep better at night! With a Virtual Assistant on board, you’ll be able to outsource the following:
1. Schedule and manage weekly postings
2. Upload and format new pages within the website
3. Constantly update resource pages
4. Consistently does backups
5. Always making sure grammar is correct and typos are checked
6. Customer feedback management
Share the vision clearly with the Virtual Assistant, and you will be able to sleep well knowing that your website is clearly in good hands!
The Social Media Content Virtuoso
Social Media is the language of today’s generation whether we like it or not. If you want your business to achieve maximum results, you yourself need to understand this fast-paced medium. Having a vision as well in the kind of image and messaging you want to portray will be key on how the Virtual Assistant you can outsource for this executes your game plan. Here are the tasks:
- Create a social media plan for the whole year
- Research on your primary target audience
- Develop engaging online contests or events
- Create images for posting content
- Schedule posts
- Created automated posting content
- Market research on Twitter and engage with targeted accounts to follow and retweet
- Research on other social apps (old and new) for effective messaging and engagement
- Analyze engagement on previous posts to see what works and what doesn’t work
Suggest strategies on organic and paid posting
Hiring an expert in handling all of this will allow you to oversee the plans in a way that will not affect other aspects of your already busy schedule.
General Marketing Expert
Look at this role as the online version of your Office Manager. This role is crucial for the following:
- Managing SEO of blog posts or YouTube content
- Weekly Newsletter (upload, schedule, send)
- Handling of new subscribers (newsletter and other ways of engaging)
- Uploads blog and video content upon your submission (You create, VA uploads!)
- Edits and uploads podcasts (if you do use podcasts for your business)
- Handles inquiries in Facebook Groups where you post about your services
- Track business and marketing stats
- Create spreadsheets for information processing
- Create solutions or give recommendations when goals are not being met
- Create and implement a marketing plan and strategy
- Develop company branding online in coordination with the business owner
- Choose an online voice (vibrant, serious, fun, etc.) in coordination with the business owner
- Identify the primary target audience in coordination with the business owner
Product Lunch Head
- Set up a Launch calendar
- Social media posting for the product launch
- Create content posting for the product launch (images, videos)
- Set up Facebook Ads
- Write blog posts focused on the launch
- Prepare emails related to launching to send to key targets
- Create promotional content for the product launch to share with the current network
- Handle affiliates
- Product website management
Public Relations/Business Development / Client Relationship
- Handle press releases
- Engage with influencers
- Perform market research online on events for prospective new clients
- Find ways to be interviewed, written about, and posted about online
- Send client invoices
- Create and send thank-you postcards to clients
- Follow up with clients for feedback on projects
- Advertise the company in various online groups for new client acquisition
- Manage online reviews of clients for reporting
- Create a soft copy of the company profile for sending to clients online
- Respond to emails
- Handle customer issues and make a report
How to Get Started Outsourcing
- Identify Your Pain Points: Review the list above. What activities drain you or keep you from completing more important tasks? Begin there.
- Batch Tasks: Organize similar tasks (all social media tasks, for instance) so it’s easy to hire out a specific function for your VA.
- Select the Right VA: Get someone with a specific expertise in your area of concern (a tech VA for WordPress, a creative VA for Canva, for example).
- Set Clear Systems: Write standard operating procedures (SOPs) down using something like Loom or Notion so your VA will know precisely what you need them to do.
- Start Small: Try it out with a 5-10 hour test project so you can ensure that you two click before pumping in more hours.
As you can see, all of these 50 tasks, when done with a team of Virtual Assistants to ensure everything is done and accomplished in a more efficient way, can certainly cause faster growth in your business.
There are more tasks that can be added to this list, but this should help you as an entrepreneur to determine how fast and efficiently you want your business to grow. Share your wisdom and vision to a group of Virtual Assistants who can help execute what you want to do and achieve, invest in their expertise, and you will see stability, consistency, and longevity in today’s fierce competition of acquiring and retaining customers.
What’s the first task you are going to outsource?
Hire a Virtual Assistant Now!