When a Virtual Assistant says they can cover your admin tasks, that could mean a whole host of things. Gone are the days when admin was a bit of paperwork here and there and the odd bit of filing – the term now covers a cornucopia of mundane, repetitive tasks that you simply haven’t got time for.

But with the term being so broad, how can you determine what counts as admin? And how do you know whether you can outsource it or not?

Here at The Edwards Company, our General Admin Support service covers a variety of areas, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to talk you through a few of them in the hopes it makes your admin outsourcing decisions a little easier!

 

Managing your Inbox

In this digital world we seem to have found ourselves in, our inboxes have become our primary method of communication. Particularly over the last 18 months, where virtual and online working has been such a lifeline for so many businesses, our inboxes have been filling up at speed, day in, day out.

While this is great in some respects, it also means you have to take hours out of your day to wade through each message, determining which you need to reply to and which can be zapped from your inbox altogether. This is something your Virtual Assistant can manage for you.

A VA will quickly be able to establish which emails are urgent and need your attention while dealing with other less essential conversations themselves. They’ll work to reduce your piled up, unread messages and will spend time systematically flagging the rest for action.

While you’ll still have complete control over the conversations you engage in, the time you’d usually have to spend sorting through each email will be significantly reduced. So, if your inbox is looking a little crammed, outsourcing your email admin might be the right solution for you!

 

getting specific about admin what does it really mean

Social Media Scheduling

If you create social media content for your business, you’ll know how mundane the scheduling process can be. Words like Loomly and Hootsuite will no doubt elicit an eye-roll each time you see them on your to-do list, and you’ll wish you could cross them off for good. In fact, you probably feel that the repetitive copying and pasting, uploading images and going through the scheduling motions are a complete waste of your time – you could be doing so many other things!

Unfortunately, you also know that content creation is a vital component of the success of your business, and scheduling – as time-consuming as it is – is an essential part of that process.

Luckily, this is something that many Virtual Assistants now cover as part of their General Admin Support services. Once your content is created, all you need to do is ping the final copies over to them, and they’ll get everything scheduled and ready to go. They’ll be experienced in using a variety of different scheduling tools, so they’ll be able to get the job done quickly, and you won’t have to think about those social media posts again until they pop up on your feed.

If you’re constantly frustrated by having to take time out of your day to schedule social media posts, utilising this support service could really benefit you and your business.

 

Following up Queries

With the internet being as vast as it is, queries are no longer limited to phone calls. You’ll get queries via email, in the comments section of your blog posts, on your website, through Google Reviews – they’re everywhere, which means they can be incredibly hard to keep track of.

As a business owner, however, you’ll know how vital it is to respond to queries in a timely manner. Those that go unnoticed can lead to frustrations from customers or potential customers that could damage the reputation of your business.

Virtual Assistants are able to find and respond to these queries as part of their General Admin Support service. They’ll consistently monitor your inbox, Google Reviews and website and promptly respond to any queries in an appropriate manner. For example, there may be a customer who has been attempting to get in touch with you but has been unsuccessful. They’ve queried this on Google Reviews and have left a two-star rating – definitely not ideal!

A Virtual Assistant will pick up on this – they’ll contact the customer and alleviate the issue, keeping you in the loop at all times and letting you know if further action is required. Not only does this service ensure your reputation stays intact, but it also means you don’t have to spend the time doing it yourself.

If you constantly find yourself running out of time to follow up on queries, it might be the perfect task for you to outsource.

getting specific about admin what does it really mean

Research

You probably have lots of big business ideas floating around that you’d like to set into motion. Perhaps you want to branch out into offering a new service, or you’d like to target a different market. This is brilliant, but the one thing that so often gets in the way of these ideas becoming a reality is research.

You know you need to do it, you’re aware that putting the groundwork in is what will determine how successful your new venture is – but how are you supposed to find the time when you’ve got a business to run? Research needs to be in-depth and detailed, making it incredibly time-consuming and challenging to make any headway on if you can’t dedicate hours per day to it.

Some Virtual Assistants offer Research support under their General Admin services. You’ll provide them with the basics of what you want to know, and they’ll go away and compile a detailed research report that will stand you in good stead for making the next steps in your business journey. You’ll be presented with everything you need to know, without having to spend the time searching for the information yourself.

If you’ve got a brilliant idea knocking around but no time to research its potential, outsourcing this admin task could set your next venture in motion.

 

General Admin Support

Here at The Edwards Company, we provide expert support in inbox management, social media scheduling, query follow-ups and research, as well as:

  • Drafting letters
  • File management
  • Checking supplier statements
  • Emailing leads
  • Ordering supplies

There isn’t much we don’t cover! The aim of our admin support service is simple – to allow you to get on with running your business while we take care of all the boring bits. If you’re constantly finding yourself bogged down by admin – whatever that may be – there will be a Virtual Assistant out there ready and waiting to support you and your business.

If you think you’d benefit from our admin support service, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We provide support locally to clients in the West Midlands, including Wolverhampton and Birmingham, and across the UK. We’re looking forward to supporting your business!