Too much on your plate? Here are six tasks that
If you're overwhelmed by a long list of things to do It's probably time to bring in reinforcements. Here are 6 tasks you could outsource to a virtual or freelance assistant.
Being an entrepreneur, you're plate is always full.
The tasks just keep increasing in number. Your inbox is full, you have seventeen Excel spreadsheets open at the same time and you haven't even checked your social media notifications in a week, and you are constantly catching mistakes following the timeyou publish blog posts.
The list of tasks you have to complete is way too long for just one person. It's impossible to do everything by yourself -- and that's okay.
The time has come to bring in reinforcements. Namely, Virtual assistants (VAs) as well as freelancers.
The outsourcing of repetitive tasks will give the time you need to focus on growing your company. From entering data into your system to managing social media There's a myriad of activities you're juggling that can be outsourced to third party.
In this post this article, we'll discuss six jobs that you can delegate in order to cut down on time (and your mind).
But first to consider, is outsourcing actuallyworth it?
Yes, and we'll explain why.
Why outsource tasks for a virtual assistant or freelancer?
This is especially the case considering this perplexing statistic: workers typically devote 2.8 hours per day working on tasks that are productive.
If you're a business owner who is full-time, that number is definitely greater for you. It's likely that you're working on tasks that aren't the best utilization of your time.
When you outsource those low-growth routine tasks to contractors or virtual assistants (VA), you can get back time to focus on tasks that will grow your business.
Get an expert in to take on the work you don't have time for (or do not really enjoy).
You can save money and time when hiring a full-time employee.
These benefits are why 70 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) say they have engaged a freelancer. 81% saying they plan to hire a freelancer again.
Employing a virtual team similar to freelancers or VAs -- has also been shown to increase efficiency.
Researchers have found remote employees have an average of 13.5% more productive than their in-office counterparts.
All in all, outsourcing tasks to freelancers or a VA will help take certain of your most unpopular jobs, and ones that are not growing as fast your list, freeing the time you can focus on building your business.
There's one more question to answer: Which tasks should you delegate?
6 tasks to outsource if you're short on time
1. Organization and administrative tasks
When we think about outsourcing their the work of a virtual assistant They usually think of offloading time-consuming tasks like data entry and transcription -- and those definitely are a part of many VAs tasks.
They can also assist entrepreneurs with a array of duties this is likely the reason VAs are a huge part of the worldwide outsourcing market that includes VAs -- reached 92.5 billion dollars in 2019.
Some of the most common VA assignments comprise:
Calendar management and scheduling
Data entry
Management of projects
Event planning
Email marketing
Follow-ups and outreach for PR
Managing accounts payable, invoicing as well as expensing
Support for the customer, such as managing social media accounts
Management of CRM-related software
Analysis of competitors
Converting audio and video files
Vendor management
Webinar management
Social media marketing
Phew. If this list appears to be spanning a variety of abilities, it's because VAs are some of the most flexible team members that you can find.
If you're looking for the services of a VA be sure to know which tasks you want the VA to concentrate onin addition, you should have funds to reward the VA fairly, based on their skills.
Current rate of market for VAs are:
$25-40 per hour for general admin skills
Affordable rates of $30 to $50 per hour. abilities
A minimum of $50 per hour is required for specialized skills
In the meantime, let's proceed to more specific areas to outsourcesuch as bookkeeping and accounting.
#2: Accounting and bookkeeping
If you're like me -- you're nota number-oriented person, there's probably a hundred other options you'd prefer to do rather instead of crunching numbers.
In the event that you're making less than five figures in your venture and don't have lots of expenses to track then you're probably able to handle your business' finances using software such as QuickBooks .
If your earnings are higher than that, hiring an accountant who is freelance can help take the nitty-gritty of keeping the books in order off your hands and help simplify your financial management.
Accounting is one of the most often outsourcing business functions .
There's a valid reason why. Accounting is among the main tasks of small-sized businesses, especially when you consider the fact that nearly 29% of new businesses fail because they run out of cash.
Estimate, manage your finances, and pay taxes for each quarter.
Make sure you control your cash flow
Follow and keep track of the
Contrary to software for accounting and accounting software, an accountant or bookkeeper can provide you with individualized guidance and answer questions in greater details since they're aware of the specific tax issues you face.
Some bookkeepers even specialize in helping professionals in specific fields. Like, Friedman, Kannenberg & Company, PC offers accounts services for musicians and bands, as well as music equipment dealers, as well as music education institutions.
If you want to find an accountant who knows the ins and outs of your particular industry, Google "accountant specializing in [your industry]".
Look, as a small firm owner, accounting functions should be among the first areas services you need to outsource (unless you really enjoy analyzing tax laws (I won't make a judgement).
Alongside the tasks that require a lot of numbers like data entry and accounting outsourcing creative and technical work, as well.
#3 Designing and developing websites
It takes people about 0.05 minutes to make a decision regarding your website.
It's the reason having a reliable web developer in your corner important.
Your website needs to be visually appealing, easy to navigateand useful. And, in today's world of instant feedback your website should be fast.
26.9% of ecommerce website visitors will wait less than four seconds the page to load and 45.4% of visitors reported that they are less likely to purchase items if page loading times were less than what they expected.
It is also important to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly. Traffic from mobile devices accounts roughly half all web traffic worldwide And visitors who visit your site from mobile devices are nearly five times as likely to abandon your website when it's not mobile-friendly.
Additionally, Google announced in the year 2018 that they're increasing the positions of mobile-optimized websites on their mobile-friendly search results So the presence of a responsive or mobile-optimized website will help with SEO, too.
(You can check your site's current mobile-friendliness with Google's Mobile-Friendly Checker Tool .)
The outsourcing of your website's tasks to a seasoned web developer or designer will assist you in creating a site that is fast loading, performs well on smartphones and matches your branding image.
Where can you find web developers and designers to make your website shine?
Some of the most popular websites to locate web-based developers are:
The Website Builder allows you develop a website that sells an infinite amount of digital goods -- online courses subscriptions, memberships, as well as digital downloads -- without ever having to enter the code once, troubleshoot a finicky WordPress theme, or install a confusing plugin.
Take a peek at the site Mallika Malhotra brand expert and photographer. It was built using the editor for websites:
Mallika has customized her site to fit her brand and aesthetic without having to hire a developer or designer to build it from scratch.
Additionally, they take charge of mobile optimization, site speedsand all the technical problems as well, which means that Mallika -- and you can concentrate on selling and creating products instead.
An attractive, user-friendly website is a must-have, but without great content, it can only take you so far. Luckily, you can also hire copywriting or content writers.
#4: Copywriting, content and writing
Making and carrying out a successful content marketing plan takes a lot of time particularly when you consider that each blog post can take three hours and 55 minutes to create.
If you want to put up weekly posts, it's more than four hours every week, which most solopreneurs aren't able to afford.
Plus, different types of content need different kinds of writing.
There's an abundance of experienced, skilled freelance copywriters, content marketers and copywriters available to assist you create content that engages your audience and drives sales.
It is possible to outsource writing projects that are of any kind, which includes:
Blogging
Publishing press releases
SEO services, like keyword research, link-building, as well as backlinks
To locate skilled freelance content writers Jodi Harris, who is the director of editorial content and strategy at the Content Marketing Institute, recommends these tactics :
Connect with your professional network and ask if they have writers to suggest.
Make the task available on a writers' job board that is focused on freelancer services, like upwork.com or LinkedIn Pro-Finder .
Use a creative staffing agency or an online platform for content marketing like Contently . (This choice comes at a cost higher, however.)
Even if you manage the creation of content written in-house you can ensure that your blog posts and copy is top-quality by outsourcing proofreading and editing procedures.
#5: Editing (writing or video) and podcasts)
Your target audience is eager to view -- and hear or read amazing content from your company. Customers enjoy content.
Take podcasts, for example. 64% of Americans listened to some kind of audio streaming (like podcasts) in 2018, with listening to audio online on a weekly basis, and reporting an average of nearly 17 hours of listening per week.
That's a lot of content your audience could potentially enjoy from you. It's plenty of information you could use to earn the trust of your viewers, their loyalties, and money. But poor quality content will not convert your viewers into customers.
Editors are the ones to call. An experienced editor can be what differentiates good content and outstandingcontent.
When writing content, editors can help writers sound their best, get their message clearly across, and avoid frequent writing errors .
It's also possible to use a tool such as Grammarly to check your work, but it should never completely replace the human editor (even if you're editing your own writing. Grammarly's AI occasionally misses mistakes (or finds errors where there's none).
Based on the type of content you're seeking -- as well as the price you're willing to spend- podcast producers can help in a variety of ways, from cutting down background noise, to providing an editorial perspective that can help the show tell a more compelling narrative.
The last but not least is that editing videos is another tedious task that outsourcing can relieve you of your responsibilities.
For editors who are looking for freelancers to edit different types of content look into marketplaces for freelance editors such as the Upwork or Freelancer.com .
Remember this old adage that you only get what you buy.
Instead of choosing freelancers who claim to offer the best rates and the highest quality, look for an experienced editor. They'll ensure you receive the most efficient service possible- and will save you lots of time (and an enormous headache) later on.
As with audio and video editing the final job to complete is one that takes a lot of skill and patience to master. This makes it the ideal task to outsource.
#6 graphic design
Let's get this off the table: Photoshop is hard. (And I'm not just declaring that simply because I earned a C in my high school graphic design class.)
If you're a company owner, it's likely you don't have time to master the art of graphic design. However, visual content is important to branding and online marketing.
Actually, as much as 90% of purchase decisions are influenced by the visual aspect and 40% of marketing professionals reported that their original graphic helped them reach the goals they set for their marketing in last year.
Employing a graphic designer could help develop your brand's visual appeal across your digital downloads, your website as well as social media profiles and more.
Freelance graphic design deliverables might include:
Logos
Infographics
PowerPoint templates
Ebook designs and formatting
For even greater efficiency, you can make a commission for ebooks and slide templates that you can use for a number of times, which means you don't need to make those assets from scratch every time.
As an example, turning your data-heavy blog post into an infographic makes the content easier for the reader to comprehend Infographics are liked and shared through social networks three times more than other types of media.
For a graphic designer to find Look into marketplaces for design such as DesignCrowd and, naturally, UpWork's design section .
Both websites connect businesses to thousands of designers who are freelance, with design projects ranging from web design and email templates to packaging and t-shirt design.
Let's get to the point In the same way as all the tasks we've covered today, visual content is a vital element of developing your business and one isn't something you have to do alone.
Outsource these 6 tasks to shorten your to-do list
"There aren't enough hours in a time" is a common cliche that has reasons: It's true in particular in the case of entrepreneurs seeking to create a successful business single-handedly.
Working with a virtual assistant or freelancer can aid you to regain some of those hours. For a quick overview, here are the six things you should consider outsourcing
Administration and organization, like data entry, schedule management, transcription
Accounting and bookkeeping to keep you on top of your tax and cash flow obligations
Web development and design for creating a UX/UI that the audience will appreciate
Copywriting and content writing, so your content marketing and sales materials stand out from other copywriting and content writing (and those in Google search results)
Podcast, video, and written content editing, making it easier to not fret about spelling mistakes or poor audio
Graphic design and visual content to show off your branding identity and draw the attention of potential customers.
It can be overwhelming, and it's not uncommon to feel lots of pressure placed on entrepreneurs to do it all on their own. However, there's no reason to not consider outsourcing work so that you can focus on your best work- creating and growing your business.