It has been a challenging few weeks in all aspects of our lives from family to our businesses. I hope everyone is managing to juggle looking after the kids, home schooling around Zoom calls and trying to focus on their businesses, whilst keeping sane!
You might not think this would be the right time to start thinking about how to grow and expand your business or how bringing on board a Virtual Assistant might be of benefit to you, but this in fact may be the perfect time.
A key point highlighted by Forbes at the end of 2019, was how to position your business for growth in 2020 and their recommendation was to create and maintain human connection. The increased advances of technology in every aspect of our lives has resulted in many individuals left feeling isolated and lonely, something that is becoming more evident than ever due to our current circumstances. Using this time to reconnect with your client base could prove to be the best investment your business makes at the moment. It can be something as simple as creating a live online event or a workshop, where your customer base can reconnect with you and your brand. A Virtual Assistant can help you plan, create and launch the newly adapted ways of working. They could also help you arrange online meetings and calls with prospective new clients or guide you and your staff to become more familiar with using online technology such as presentation sharing software, podcasts, online courses creation, the list goes on.
As a Virtual Assistant our aim is to help you grow your business by taking on some of the workload that you don’t have time for and in truth might not enjoy, resulting in it ending up at the bottom of never ending to do list. You might be one of the lucky ones and find that your business is booming at the minute due to the changes in the current economic environment and we can help support you without the added stress of sourcing and establishing a variety of different partnerships to complete the new and unfamiliar responsibilities that have landed on your desk. That is one of the many advantages of bringing a VA onto your team, we wear all different types of hats! It is not only administrative areas that are covered, we also look after marketing and events for your business, project support and management, customer service, financial areas, business development as well as digital comms.
It might be that your business has slowed down slightly due to Covid-19, but what initially might look like a negative consequence, instead I would urge you to look upon it as a positive. You might now have the time to reassess which direction you want to take your business and the best way to do this. Do you want to expand your products, or perhaps you want to provide a different style of service? Whilst you may be investigating these areas, we can help maintain the core aspect of your business and let you progress with business development.
This time should be used to consider if you are you are doing the following well within your business, or if there is room for improvement:
- Using your social media presence to your best advantage
- Have you got a content plan devised that reflects the current situation and adapts when required?
- Are you reaching out to your customers via mailing lists to ensure contact and visibility still remains?
- Looking at more cost effective ways to run your business
- Are you exploring a different range of suppliers? Everything from utilities to subscriptions should be reviewed
- Have you made a list of what could be outsourced?
- Adapting your business to operate digitally
- Have you reviewed your website recently? Is there a way to add online resources?
- Think about how you could expand into new areas using what you currently offer but adapting to what your clients need right now whilst on lockdown.
I hope the above is helpful when deciding what areas to focus on. A previous blog I wrote on Plan, Prepare and Perform may also be worth checking out as a back to basics on how to organise yourself and your business.
My team and I have the enthusiasm, passion and knowledge to assist with implementing all of the above within your business and would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you in more detail. Please do get in touch.
Stay safe and well.
Lauren
LJM VA Services
