Virtual assistants’ hours and pay can be complicated. One of the questions we are most asked is, “What hours should my virtual assistant work?”
We have found virtual work to be most productive when all people on the team are working the same hours.
pur remote professionals in Mexico are in the same time zone as me, so everyone is happy working during the same hours. Even when there are slight time differences, such as working in Eastern or Mountain Time while living in Central Time, it’s not a big issue and can sometimes be preferred.
Asynchronously Virtual Assistants Hours
Our recent guest on the Bootstrappers Podcast Liam Martin, a remote work advocate, supports the idea of asynchronous work. This means that workers can choose to work at any hour and from any time zone, with as few meetings as possible.
Martin believes in using technology to its fullest potential, like making videos for colleagues instead of having video calls and making sure written communication and documentation is thorough, reducing the need for meetings or calls.
Martin is the author of Running Remote and the founder of Time Doctor, a time management software as a service (SaaS).
Synchronously Virtual Assistants Hours?
As a business owner, I run my remote teams with a strong focus on teamwork. We have daily huddles where small teams connect live in the morning and work during the same hours. Video calls are frequently used to answer questions and Zoom meetings typically work for our needs.
Despite never meeting in person, I feel like I have known my team extremely well due to our online interactions.
This type of work is only possible when everyone is working during the same hours.
Should I Just Hire a Part-time Virtual Assistant?
When hiring a virtual assistant, I avoid part-time workers because it leads to unhappy clients. I’ve tried it in the past and it caused problems for everyone involved. The virtual assistants typically were unhappy because they lacked communication, training and felt like they were wasting their time.
The clients were unhappy due to low work quality and high turnover. This was not because the assistants were not talented, but because when someone is juggling multiple jobs, they don’t see the work as a career and therefore don’t put in extra effort or propose new ideas.
The lack of loyalty and focus on a paycheck instead of a career also meant that clients had to constantly train new employees, leading to more unhappiness.
Full-time Virtual Assistants Who Work Your hours is the best option
After trying the part-time virtual assistant program and finding it unsatisfactory, we decided to only hire full-time remote professionals for our clients.
We helped them design job descriptions that went beyond their expectations and included administrative tasks that would help their business grow or things they wanted to do but never had time for. This was a success for everyone involved.
It provided stable jobs for people in emerging markets like Mexico, allowed for skill development and learning new things, and created a more loyal workforce for our clients, solving their labor issues with minimal headaches.
For the Happiest VA Give Them Their Holidays off
One way to increase employee loyalty is to give them their country’s holidays off.
Recognizing different holidays within the company can be a productivity hack. For instance, the 4th of July is a great example. During busy work days, there are tasks like database cleanups that are often overlooked. However, if you have a motivated workforce willing to work during holidays, they can tackle these projects that never get done on regular days.
For example, if your contractors’ insurance and workman’s comp information isn’t updated in your system, have your remote professional review it on the 4th of July. If there were past customers who were not offboarded correctly and now your data is not clean, consider using Labor Day to clean it up.
By utilizing holidays with a motivated workforce, you can complete important projects and have your business running smoothly.
The Recipe for the Most Successful Virtual Remote Teams
To have a motivated and productive remote team, keep their working hours consistent and have regular virtual meetings like in an office. Hire in a location where the working hours are suitable, and ensure they are full-time employees to avoid distractions.
Include tasks that will move your business forward in the job description, not just the required ones. Utilize the different holidays in various countries to your advantage by using them for tasks like database clean-up that can’t be done during regular work hours. This can be a powerful tool for your business.
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Virtual Assistants: How to Delegate Responsibilities
How to delegate responsibilities to your VAs? As business owners, we all want the best for our businesses, but delegating responsibilities to our team of virtual assistants is one of the hardest things to do. This is our company and doing everything ourselves can feel like how we protect it from slipping through our fingers.
But to grow and scale, it’s important to understand that delegation is a vital factor. Delegating tasks to virtual assistants, which we often refer to as remote professionals, can enable us to finish more quickly. This frees up valuable time that you could be spending focusing on the big-picture elements of your business – ultimately helping push it to the next level.
In this blog post, I will outline how you can change your mindset to move your business forward and scale.
First: Change your mindset with virtual assistants
Delegating tasks to employees can be daunting due to the fear that mistakes may be made, but it’s important to remember this is a small price to pay for all the extra time you get from not doing everything yourself.
Mistakes aren’t the end of the world – instead, they can provide valuable lessons through retraining and coaching, plus a review of all necessary documentation.
The cost of potential mistakes pales in comparison to what you can achieve with the amount of time freed up from delegating: you can create an entirely new line of products or services, market your business more effectively and increase your customer base.
What and How to Delegate Responsibilities
Look at your daily tasks. Think of how much you would pay someone to do the tasks that you do. Likely you will have some tasks that you consider entry-level.
This can include things like administrative tasks, project management, calendar management, bookkeeping work, creating reports, social media management, responding to comments, administrative work, writing personal emails, etc.
Note the type of tasks or which tasks take a lot of time. Once you hire a virtual assistant start delegating these time-consuming tasks.
How to Delegate Responsibilities: Know which tasks drain your energy
If you’re considering what to delegate to a virtual assistant, it’s important to start by looking inward and identifying the tasks that regularly drain your energy or that you find particularly challenging.
These are likely the first tasks you should consider delegating, as they can quickly become time-consuming and that can often lead to feeling overwhelmed.
Once you have a list of these tasks, it’s then the time to start writing up playbooks and procedures – either with the help of a virtual assistant or before they start – so they know exactly how each task needs to be completed.
What new tasks should you be doing but you are not doing?
Think of the tasks that would really move your business forward. Some of these will be very high-dollar work that only you can do and some of it is just executing more client add-ons that a remote professional could take on, for example, more customer check-ins, or customer support.
Add the items that you have to do to your new job description as now that you won’t be doing the tasks you are delegating you will have time to move your business forward with tasks that are the best use of your time, and the other items are added to your virtual assistant’s job description.
What tasks would shore up your weaknesses?
It’s important to consider any tasks that can help you shore up any professional weaknesses that you may have, such as disorganization, email management and invoicing on time.
To make addressing these issues easier and more efficient, create specific tasks and add them to your virtual assistant’s job description. This ensures that your virtual assistant is able to take responsibility for these areas of your business and free up your own time.
Getting high-quality results with virtual assistants
Now you want to think about how you will manage success with these tasks. What does winning look like for all of these tasks?
How will you measure success with these tasks and can you make these tasks into a cadence for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly so nothing gets forgotten and when your virtual assistant sits at their desk in the morning they know exactly what they need to do right away without effort from you?
Finding the right person
Think about the skillset, mindset, and experience someone needs to be really good at these tasks. Also, think of someone you would want to work closely with – what kind of qualities do they need to have?
You want this to be a person you enjoy working with because life is short you might as well love your job. Think about what questions you would need to ask in an interview to get a good culture fit.
If you take some time to go through this exercise and really think strategically about what you are looking for a virtual assistant to do, how you will measure success and what the expectations will be you have a much higher likelihood of the role working out and the role being successful.
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Do you need to hire a virtual assistant? Hiring a virtual assistant, who we often refer to as remote professionals, for customer service and support can greatly benefit your business. When you hire support staff at U.S. prices, you may not be able to afford enough people to provide the level of support you expect.
This can result in long wait times and callbacks, as well as being unable to provide the small, personal touches that set you apart from your competition. But by hiring virtual assistants, you can keep your budget the same and have more staff to support your clients, without sacrificing quality.
This will provide the level of customer support you have always wanted for your business, making your customers loyal fans who will advertise your business and help it grow.
The real question is why have you not hired virtual assistants to support your customers already? Outlined below are the questions I most often receive about the benefits of hiring virtual assistants/remote professionals versus hiring full time employees.
Should I Hire a Virtual Assistant For Customer Service?
Trained virtual assistants can do anything for customers that a domestic employee can do for them from behind a computer. There was a time where people thought virtual assistants could only do easy administrative tasks or rudimentary tasks for businesses. Those days are gone.
Virtual assistants have varied skill sets and can do most anything a domestic employee can do without sacrificing quality. However you measure your domestic employees is how you would measure your virtual assistants.
Nothing is different except that instead of scheduled meetings in your office for feedback, you are meeting over a web conference.
Why Should You Hire a Virtual Assistant For a Startup?
Hiring a virtual assistant for your start-up can be a great first move because you can find high-quality talent at a lower cost in countries like Mexico.
Using technology to work remotely is easy and efficient, so there’s no reason not to consider hiring a virtual assistant as an assistant for your business for tasks such as creating time consuming process and procedure documents, drumming up business, or helping with marketing.
Why do Businesses Hire a Virtual Assistant?
Businesses use virtual assistants because they can get high-quality work at an affordable price from workers in remote locations with lower costs of living. Managing remote teams across international borders does require discipline and attention to quality control.
For example, if you are working in an office space and you hear your employee talking on the phone and you don’t like their tone, you would go over to them and give feedback. With remote teams, you would have to use feedback forms and listen to at least one call a day to make sure you like the quality of the call and give feedback. You would also have to have a playbook or procedure for how you want people to talk on the phone.
Using remote labor can help you implement best practices in management and business, which can make your business better sooner and give you the time to focus on your other business operations.
What Would You Use a Virtual Assistant For on a Daily Basis?
Virtual assistants can do whatever you would create a job description for a domestic employee to do that can be done in front of a computer.
There should be no difference in the activities, the expectation or the outcome, at least that is our expectation at Anequim where we hire high quality virtual assistants who work your hours, regardless of their time zone.
Are Virtual Assistants Good for Business?
Virtual assistants are a net positive for any business. Historically people thought that people in other countries could only do easy tasks but over time virtual assistants have proven the power of their skills, work ethic and ability to communicate effectively across borders.
With virtual assistants you may be able to make those stair steps to success, and making a profit less steep because good wages in emerging markets are less than in the United States. Everyone wins.
You as the entrepreneur get the help you need to grow and scale your business and the virtual assistant wins because they are gaining business knowledge and getting a good wage to support themselves and their family.
What Are The Businesses That Hire a Virtual Assistants?
Virtual assistants are commonly used by businesses of all sizes, but their use became more widespread among small and medium-sized businesses after the publication of Tim Ferriss’s “The 4 Hour Work Week” in 2007.
The technology for video conferencing also improved, making it easier for businesses to communicate with remote workers and making it seem like they were in the same office.
The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the use of virtual assistants, as many businesses were forced to adopt remote work, and it is now seen as a viable option for businesses of all sizes.
Managing remote workers is not difficult, and many businesses now realize the benefits of using virtual assistants.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant to Help Grow My Business?
Personally, the only way our property management company that we started in 2006 could have grown as fast as it did or sold for as much as it did in 2021 was not in spite of, but because of our investment in virtual assistants/remote professionals from Mexico.
The quality of the work and our ability to grow and scale without taking on debt and get the productivity we needed to become the business we wanted to become was only possible because of virtual assistance and their hard work, dedication and the ingenuity they brought to the business.
Virtual assistance enabled us to produce quality work, expand without borrowing, and achieve the productivity we needed to reach our goals. Their dedication and creativity were essential to our success.
Virtual Assistants Are The Future Of Customer Service
Do you need a customer service virtual assistant? Customer service is getting a high-tech makeover. As technology continues to improve, virtual employees are fully capable of providing businesses and customers with the personalized service they demand. Virtual assistants are quickly revolutionizing the way we experience and interact with retail brands from the comfort of our own homes.
Customer service virtual assistants can deliver fast and accurate assistance for customer service just as, if not better, than domestic personnel. We may not be ready for robots completely take over customer service just yet – but virtual assistant technology is definitely changing things up!
Customer Service Virtual Assistant For True Customer Satisfaction
As any business owner knows, keeping customers satisfied is the true ticket to success. Investment in customer service can sometimes feel cumbersome and overwhelming to manage, but virtual assistants are here to help you reach your goals faster than you ever thought possible.
You will be surprised how much further you can get with the same budget when you hire a virtual assistant, they will be helping out on the front lines. Instead of simply talking about wowing prospects and retaining clients as all the business books tell us to do, virtual assistants can make it a reality.
Customer Service Virtual Assistant Deliver The Best Service
Virtual assistants can be your virtual customer service dream team. Gone are the days of the dreaded phone tree for phone calls or just having one employee struggle to solve all your customers’ issues about multiple products and services. With virtual assistants, you can have multiple customer service professionals ready to jump on an issue at any given moment and make sure they’re actually solved while getting your customers what they need in a timely manner.
With virtual assistants, you can deliver good customer service that goes far beyond just answering phone calls because now you have full-time professionals to help get your top customers’ gifts easily and have enough resources to proactively check on them. Every interaction will then be followed up with a helpful and branded email courtesy of virtual assistants to make sure that attitude towards your business goes from lukewarm to super fan level.
When you hire virtual employees to help, the quality of service will be so good that your customers’ friends will start singing praises about how amazing you are!
Upgrade Your Service With a Customer Service Virtual Assistant
If you’re stuck in the stone age of customer service, it might be time for an upgrade. Investing in better customer service isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a need-to-have for your business to stay competitive and gain loyal customers. Building customer relationships takes work but ultimately your business will benefit because happy customers are more likely to come back and spread the word about your services.
Virtual assistants are how you modernize your customer support. Building your team of remote professionals ensures your customers receive the kind of attention and experience that makes them loyal and engaged clients. It’s clear why remote professionals are increasingly being called on for customer service solutions in the modern world.
The Right Phone System Is a Versatile Tool For Your Remote Team
Want to take remote customer service to the next level? Then you need to equip yourself with a phone system that offers thorough analysis of how remote professionals are performing and how customers are responding. After all, understanding the wait times, average call duration, and call volume per hour can help you accurately staff up on remote feature handling pros.
With this insight, you can then provide feedback for further improving production quality. From the quality of administrative tasks to the challenges of time zones and everything in between, Remote professionals will excel when given the right tools. Forget about settling for “good enough” – make sure your virtual customer service is actually great with insightful reports.
Don’t Skimp On The Phone System
Also, you will need a system that records calls or allows you to monitor while the calls are active so you can give feedback and coach the agents. A high-quality phone system like 8×8, RingCentral or NDT is imperative to an impressive customer service experience.
Anyone wanting to take remote customer service up a notch needs to arm themselves with a phone system that lets them go deeper into remote professional performance and customer response. Accurately staffing remote teams requires insight on wait times, average call duration, and call volume per hour – and these stats help you deliver high-quality customer service.
Don’t settle for “good enough” – use an analytical phone system to ensure remote customer service is GREAT.
Create a Playbook for Your Customer Service Virtual Assistant
When it comes to remote professionals providing customer service, you want to make sure the questions that come in are not just answered correctly, but also with a pleasant tone.
When your virtual assistants are answering the phone, make sure your remote workers start by saying “Thank you for calling [company name], this is [name], how can I help you?” After they answer any questions, be sure they end with a friendly phrase such as “Is there anything else I can do for you today?”
To ensure remote professionals always get it right and maintain positive customer relations, develop a FAQ document covering hours of operation and other basics regarding how your business operates. This way remote professionals have an accessible resource of accurate information to reference when responding to customer inquiries.
A Formula For Successful Customer Service
For remote professionals who specialize in customer service, having a “playbook” is essential. This playbook should contain all the soft skills necessary for interacting with customers, as well as some language pro tips. For example, it’s important to stay consistent when using terms to refer to apartment living spaces; make sure remote professionals know whether they should be calling them “residents” or “tenants,” and that they’re referring to an apartment rather than a home.
Keeping these things straight in the playbook helps remote professionals stay on brand and serve customers effectively. Developing a playbook for each of your company’s departments is what will make your business efficient, and profitable, and maintain your quality standards. If you don’t have time to write up your playbook don’t worry, this is something remote professionals can help you with too!
Customer Service Virtual Assistant Processes And Procedures
Now that your remote professional has their playbook in place, it’s time to put together the how-tos of all the things they need to do, which is where procedures and processes come in. Instead of telling them what to do, these documents give instructions on exactly how to go about getting those tasks done.
Systematize the ‘checklist’ for functionally answering calls on the phone, pulling up customer information, writing notes about the interactions, or invoicing — remote professionals can rest assured knowing there are step-by-step instructions for our customer service team out there making sure every customer receives amazing service with a smile.
Key Performance Indicators = Accountability
How many calls is an agent expected to take? What are the expectations on how many rings they pick a call up on? What is the average call time you would expect? How many calls can they miss and still be a successful customer service agent? Setting expectations is key to making sure that the customer service your customers receive is incredible.
But you have to be able to communicate and measure what success looks like. Measuring output on a regular basis lets agents know that performance matters and that you are serious about your goals and have high expectations.
Quality Control You Can Repeat and Predict
Having the game plan in place is great, but remote professionals need to know how to apply it. That’s where procedures and processes come in! These handy documents allow remote pros to keep running like a well-oiled machine. No more confusion about how to field calls, locate customer info, make notes on interactions, or send out invoices — these guides give employees precise directions for every task required.
Our remote professionals now have the clarity they need to thrive and will make our customers smile with the awesome care they provide.
Keep Your Remote Team Engaged
Being a remote customer service professional can mean isolation from other team members and their supervisors. That is why it is crucial for managers to keep their remote agents excited, engaged and performing at a high level. Doing weekly meetings or offering spiffs (bonuses) for great customer service or online reviews are just some of the ways to do this.
Managers are also encouraged to come up with silly games during the day that will break up the monotony and spark engagement in the team. Lastly, make sure remote employees get recognition for their hard work – feeling like they’re part of something bigger and that their work matters will keep them motivated!
Allow The Opportunity For Advancement
Customer service is a hard job especially if it is a high-pressure, high-stress environment where it is one call after the other. If you want to prevent turnover and you are doing all the things mentioned above the next step is to show the agents that there is truly a way to move up in the organization.
If you can create a path that you can show them where if you execute your job in a specific way and meet these metrics you can move on to other positions and get promoted that can keep high-quality people on the phones mesmerizing your clients with their expertise and service mindset.
Show employees at your organization examples of people who moved up from the call center to positions in management, operations, or other departments in your company. Being a part of something bigger, something fulfilling in new and challenging ways, is how you will inspire your entire team.
Let Anequim Make It Easy For You
If successfully managing remote teams isn’t your cup of tea, you’re in luck! Anequim is here to help you every step of the way. Whether you want to empower and recruit remote professionals for your customer service team, or just manage the entire process yourself – that’s all possible with us.
We have a vast range of experience across various types of customer service and call centers, so feel free to rely on the experts! Let us join forces with you to turn your customer service vision into reality.
How Do I Find My Customer Service Virtual Assistant?
Creating the perfect customer experience at your company means being prepared for any situation. It’s not just about responding to customers promptly and professionally, but also making sure that they are left feeling truly heard and taken care of. With remote professional teams made possible through virtual assistants, you can know with confidence that every customer will soon be talking about how amazing their service was!
Providing top-notch customer service is definitely possible today – it’s just a question of aiming for the ideal experience every time and making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible for remote professionals.
Keeping track of your goals is essential to monitor the progress of your business. Save some time and use our FREE milestone assessment format to keep your objectives going
Is a Remote Professional a Good Fit For Your Business? 5 Questions
Have you ever hired someone who aced the interview but struggled in the position? Does hiring the right person feel like a gamble?
We know that these headaches can be avoided with the correct interview philosophy. Instead of settling for “good enough,” we need to ask the questions that reveal who candidates genuinely are and what they bring to the table.
The Key to Better Hiring: Ask Smarter Questions
Most interviews focus on what candidates say they can do. A better approach is to explore what they’ve done and how they think. Here’s how to dig deeper.
If you find yourself bogged down by repetitive or administrative tasks, a remote professional might help free up your schedule for bigger-picture business activities. However, you may set up a new hire to fail if your workload is too unpredictable or specialized.
Ask yourself: Which tasks consistently distract me from high-priority responsibilities? Could someone else handle these tasks efficiently with minimal training?
What Are Your Goals for the Next 3–5 Years?
Hiring a virtual assistant isn’t just about solving immediate problems—it’s about setting up your business for long-term success. If your goals include scaling your operations, boosting ROI, or building a globally aligned team, a virtual assistant might help you get there.
Ask yourself: Do I want to delegate tasks to focus on strategy and growth? Am I looking to create a more agile and cost-efficient team? Will working with a remote professional align with my company’s values and vision?
If your 3–5 year goals point toward growth and operational efficiency, a virtual assistant could be an integral part of achieving them.
1. Behavioral Questions
These reveal how candidates act under pressure, showing their problem-solving and adaptability.
Example: “Tell me about a time you had to step up when others dropped the ball.”
2: Situational Questions
Situational questions help assess critical thinking and decision-making in real-world scenarios.
Example: “How would you handle a project if resources were suddenly cut?”
3: Demonstrative Exercises
Seeing candidates in action shows how they’d perform in the job’s daily challenges.
Example: “Let’s role-play a call with an upset client.”
4: Finding Cultural and Ethical Fit
Skills matter, but so do values. Cultural and ethical alignment ensures long-term success. Ask questions like:
“Tell me about a time you faced an ethical dilemma. What did you do?”
This helps gauge their integrity and decision-making in challenging situations.
“How would you respond if a senior manager broke company policy?”
This reveals whether they’re willing to stand up for company values, even when it’s hard.
5: Understanding Work Habits and Problem-Solving
Work habits can make or break productivity. To assess these, ask:
“If you inherited a messy, outdated system, how would you fix it?”
This question shows their organizational skills and ability to prioritize.
“A client hasn’t heard back from the team and is upset. What do you do first?”
Their response gives insight into how they handle high-pressure, client-facing situations.
Hiring Process Matters
Consistency is key. Asking all candidates the same well-crafted questions not only deepens insights but also ensures fairness. A structured approach leads to better comparisons and removes bias from the process.
Can You Build The Right Remote Team? YES!
Hiring a virtual assistant is no harder than managing any other employee – it just requires a few tweaks, best practices, and the right technology tools! Seeing the value they can bring to your business with those tools, and keeping expectations high – that’s all it takes to make this year awesome(ish). Don’t forget about your virtual assistants because remote professionals need love too.
Having Trouble Hiring The Right People?
Superficial interviews lead to costly mistakes. By adopting a thoughtful, strategic interview framework, your company can save time, hire better fits, and build teams that truly move the needle. It’s time to stop settling and start finding the talent that will drive your business forward.
At Anequim, we have an experienced team dedicated to match-making growing companies with their ideal employees. Don’t have the time to interview and onboard new employees? Let us do the job for you and grow your global team.
A Virtual Executive Assistant Can Change Your Life!
A virtual executive assistant or virtual administrative assistant can be a game-changer for any business person, but it is essential to design the role for success. If not done correctly, these virtual assistant positions can add more stress to already strained professionals.
Executives often become overwhelmed when taking on operational tasks such as accounting or customer service. To reduce their stress levels, it’s best to create a role that efficiently focuses on these tasks. This can help the executive to feel more in control and make work easier to manage, and virtual assistants are the way to do it.
Hiring A Virtual Executive Assistant
When hiring a virtual assistant, it’s important to think beyond the immediate crisis and design a role that will be successful in the long term. Otherwise, the business professional may find themselves caught up on tasks after a matter of weeks and then struggling with what else to give their virtual administrative assistant.
A virtual executive assistant should help alleviate stress, not add to it – especially while the executive is trying to relax while on vacation. Designing the right role can avoid these issues and make life easier, happier, and less stressful.
A Virtual Executive Assistant Role That Works For the Busy Executive
Making this role work really is in the initial design. As consultants, we often find that overwhelmed executives are taking on operational tasks they shouldn’t be doing, such as accounting or customer service. Designing a role that focuses on these operational tasks in an effective way can help relieve the executive’s stress levels significantly.
What Tasks Can A Virtual Executive Assistant Do For Your Business?
A virtual executive assistant or remote professional can provide invaluable assistance when it comes to operational tasks that need to be completed directly by the executive. These tasks are of a sensitive nature and can range from overseeing customer service efforts to managing vendor relations. By delegating these responsibilities, executives can ensure that their job is completed efficiently and with minimal stress.
Virtual Executive Assistant Can Do Quality Control
When problems arise, a virtual assistant or remote professional can be invaluable. They can research the issue to determine the cause, no matter if it’s due to processes and procedures or a lack of training. After figuring out the root cause, they then help solve the issue – whether that means rewriting unclear procedures or reviewing task documents with those executing them.
If any flaws are noticed in the entire process or workflow, leadership teams must be consulted to determine the next steps. Quality control is an ideal role for a virtual assistant or remote professional when not occupied with executive assistant duties.
Audit Your Sales Team
Having a remote professional on board to support sales teams can help make sure sales people are following guidelines and following up with prospects.. They can ensure processes and protocols are followed, as well as take notes that help operations stay informed of the business coming in. This helps create a better relationship between sales and operations, reducing potential conflicts and crises that may arise from miscommunication.
A remote professional can make sure the sales pipeline is properly audited and all necessary rules for follow-up are enforced. Utilizing reporting tools will provide visibility to both operations and sales teams, resulting in better harmony between them and avoiding blindsiding operations with unexpected business.
Audit Your Processes and Procedures
As businesses grow, virtual assistants and remote professionals can be a huge help in keeping operations organized, up-to-date, and running smoothly. The audit and management necessary for these tasks make them ideal for an executive assistant’s workload – especially when personal tasks are scarce or their workload is light.
By engaging virtual assistants and remote professionals, leaders can trust that the operations will remain clean, documented, and consistently compliant with all software changes.
Do A Full Financial Audit
Leaders who want to increase their profits this year might find it hard to find the time to research and answer important questions. Here is an example, “Are salespeople taking an extra day in Nashville and charging the company?” or “Is the SEO vendor really doing what they say they are doing?”. Taking a closer look at these issues can help to identify potential cost savings.
A virtual executive assistant can be used as your eyes and ears in the company to ask questions, get answers, and provide valuable insights. They can help you assess whether activities such as marketing campaigns, sales commissions, and HR departments are actually making a difference in your bottom line.
Virtual Executive Assistants Can Do Research
Staying ahead of your competition can be difficult without the assistance of a remote professional. They can help you investigate new technologies, research CTOs from “XYZ Company” on LinkedIn, and review feedback for coaching programs online.
As busy executives, we often lack the time to do the necessary research and background digging that can lead to better decisions. That’s where remote professionals and executive assistants come in. Your remote professional can research potential software, coaches, team members, private equity companies, and clients – giving you all the data you need to make an informed decision. With their assistance, you can be confident that you are making the right choices for your organization.
Project Management for Virtual Executive Assistant
Having a remote professional or executive assistant can take your organization’s progress to the next level. Track project development, spot obstructions, and organize meetings to quickly address problems. Virtual Assistants can monitor and oversee vital projects to ensure they are completed on schedule and within budget. This facilitates efficient operations and maximizes outcomes.
High-Level Reporting
As entrepreneurs and business owners, we often have to generate reports for investors, silent partners, and other stakeholders. Rather than spending the effort to gather the data by yourself, let your virtual assistant do the job of obtaining the pertinent data and creating a thorough report.
Initially, collaborating with your virtual executive assistant can help determine necessary information, procedures for locating it, and formatting it in an engaging way that resonates with the target audience. Once these specifications are outlined, your executive assistant can then produce detailed reports on a regular basis according to your instructions.
Manage Your Engagements, Events, Podcasts, And More!
Utilizing a remote professional as your executive assistant can be one of the best investments for your business and personal brand. Have them apply for awards that recognize your accomplishments and progress.
They can also reach out to podcasts and request you as a guest, increasing your online visibility and the potential for new clients. Furthermore, they can propose speaking engagements at events and conferences, allowing you to showcase your expertise in a more engaging format.
What tasks can an executive assistant perform for your personal life?
A virtual executive assistant can manage a variety of tasks in your personal life, including organizing appointments, making travel arrangements, managing expenses and more. Virtual executive assistants make sure you never miss a special occasion for your family or clients.
Virtual Assistants can take the hassle out of shopping by sending gifts on your behalf. Furthermore, they can help you create processes for gifting to ensure that your clients always feel appreciated on holidays, anniversaries, and other important days.
11 Personal Tasks Your Remote Professional Can Help You With:
Kids’ sports calendars and school calendars
Make sure all their important events get on your calendar so you never miss another holiday show
Book vacations and travel
Pay your kids’ school fees for lunch and sports uniforms
Buy your kid’s school supplies and books online for you
Book your travel and hotel and make sure you get all the points
Book orthodontist appointments, cosmetic appointments, and doctors appointments for the whole family
Book home maintenance appointments or schedule your oil change
Book your kids’ teacher conferences
Book all the family’s after-school activities and fill out all the forms
Book your kids for summer camps and fill out all the forms
My executive assistant Jorge is essential to my success as a working mom. He handles all of the form-related tasks, ensuring I never miss high school admittance test deadlines or my kids’ sports and music competitions. My virtual executive assistant helps keep our family organized, on time, and at the right places for their activities and I don’t know what I’d do without him!
Get The Most Out Of Your Virtual Executive Assistant
As an overworked professional, hiring a virtual executive assistant can be a real lifesaver. It’s important to take the time to carefully consider what their role should entail. Think about how you can structure the role in a way that streamlines your operations, while also freeing up your time and reducing your stress levels. With the right system in place, a virtual assistant can make all the difference!
ICYMI: The Future is With Virtual Assistants
At Anequim, we’ve seen first-hand how the rise of virtual assistants, remote professionals, and executive assistants has been a game changer for modern businesses. With the introduction of virtual assistant technology and remote executive assistant services, companies are now better equipped to manage their operations with ease. Let Anequim help you scale your business faster than you ever thought possible!
Reduce Your Staffing Costs
Virtual assistants can be employed at a fraction of the cost of traditional employees while providing the same level of expertise and efficiency. Remote assistants offer the same benefits as regular office-based employees but come without the need for physical space or extra personnel.
More Productivity and Flexibility
Companies benefit from having more flexibility in terms of scheduling remote professionals to fit their needs. Virtual executive assistants provide experienced support at all stages from onboarding clients through ongoing customer services tasks such as appointment setting and data entry.
The Demand is Increasing For Good Reasons
As businesses recognize the value virtual assistants bring, there is an increasing demand for these services, making them an essential part of any modern enterprise. For those looking for additional help with their business, hiring a remote professional is how you do it, without having to invest in physical infrastructure or additional staff costs.
Keeping track of your goals is essential to monitor the progress of your virtual executive assistant and business. Save some time and use our FREE milestone assessment format to keep your objectives going.
Listen to The Bootstrappers Podcast with Gwenn & Jeremy Aspen for more tips, tricks, and techniques to enhance your business and accelerate growth with virtual executive assistant!
At the Property Management Mastermind Conference, Anequim attends as a company that was born out of a real pain point that most property management companies face because it was conceived to help our founders’ own property management company.
Today, Anequim is the leading virtual assistant partner for property management companies, providing highly skilled virtual assistants to property managers across the country. While Anequim has grown, so has our fondness for conferences like PMM Con, serving a vital need for the property management industry.
Why Attend the Property Management Mastermind Conference
Anequim has attended the Property Management Mastermind conference since its debut many years ago, and it has always been a rewarding experience to build relationships and network within the property management industry we know and love so much.
Every year we look forward to attending the conference and Gwenn Aspen’s opportunities to speak, present, and join panel discussions to help other property managers learn and grow their companies.
Property Management Mastermind
The conference focuses on building in the Mastermind Idea. Masterminds are not a new concept, but they are stronger today than ever before because of how effective they are at growing businesses.
This unique approach encourages small group interaction, which helps us learn better. We exchange ideas, share experiences, and find solutions together. A combination of big-name speakers and breakout sessions strikes the perfect balance of networking, education, and relationship-building for a strong and vibrant property management industry.
The mastermind concept truly unlocks our potential for success.
Conference Are Learning Opportunities
It doesn’t matter which city PMM Con is held in; the opportunities for learning and growth are always apparent and obvious to attendees. Founded by Brad Larsen of RentWerx, PMM Con has evolved into one of the country’s top-tier Property Management conferences year in and year out.
With a range of topics, from digital marketing to tenant management and legal updates, there’s always something new and valuable to learn. Business owners are information seekers who naturally want to solve real-world problems.
Knowledge workers, as they’re often referred to as, will always be in demand. In an industry like property management, where margins and markets are traditionally challenging just like many industries today, problem-solving becomes the pivotal decider between those property management companies that succeed and those that do not.
Opportunities like PMM Con are tremendous for entrepreneurs in the property management industry because they are centered on learning, growth, and networking among peers.
The conference format building ensures that attendees make the most of their time there.
Connecting with Like-Minded Professionals
One of the most significant benefits of attending the Property Management Mastermind Conference is the small group interaction. Our founder and CEO, Gwenn Aspen, has had the privilege of both speaking as a keynote addresser and leading small group discussions and panels – both being high-value aspects of the PMM Conference.
These sessions provide a comfortable space for us to connect with other property management professionals. Call it a “safe space” for property management employees, leaders, owners, and team members to ask real questions, have real debates, and learn in very tangible ways.
Asking the right questions is the only way to get the answers business owners need to learn in order for them to build successful and profitable companies for the future. These small group interactions and breakout sessions are of a sizable value to attendees who leave the conference armed with everything they need to take their businesses to the next level.
It’s amazing how much we learn from each other and the friendships we’ve made along the way.
Property Management Mastermind: Learning from Industry Leaders
The mastermind concept brings industry leaders to share their knowledge and experiences with us. Masterminds are unique in the way that they bring together some of the top leaders, shakers, and movers in a given industry, and property management is no different.
These experts offer practical advice and insights that we can apply to our property management businesses. It’s like having personal mentors guiding us toward success.
Hearing from, having discussions with, and collaborating alongside the titans of the property management industry is a truly rare experience that is alone worth the price of a ticket to attend. Learning directly from the most successful names in the property management industry is the opportunity for unprecedented individual, personal, and professional growth by all attendees.
PMM CON: A Memorable Experience
Each year, our team is filled with anticipation to discover where PMM Con will be held next. From Las Vegas, Nevada, to Nashville, Tennessee, the Property Management Mastermind Conference never disappoints in its latest home city.
Brad Larsen and his team at RentWerx will likely tell you that the birthplace of PMM CON is based in Texas, where he and his team are based out of, but the true home for the Property Management Mastermind Conference is in the hearts of each and every attendee.
Property Management: Boosting Our Business
Attending the Property Management Mastermind Conference has helped us boost our businesses in many ways. We have built many relationships that last to this day and have had the opportunity to help so many other property management companies who are in desperate need of our highly skilled virtual assistants.
We’ve gained valuable knowledge, expanded our networks, and discovered new strategies for managing tenants and marketing our services. It’s an investment that pays off year after year.
If you’re in the property management industry, we highly recommend attending the Property Management Mastermind Conference. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting, there’s so much to gain from the experience.
Don’t miss the opportunity to learn, grow, and network with the best in the business.
To get even more amazing tips, tricks, and techniques for scaling up your business, check out The Bootstrappers Podcast! Get the free advice you need to turn your vision into reality.
Accountability is possible with an entrepreneurial operating system (EOS) that Anequim has implemented, like many other successful businesses today.
As business leaders, we have all been through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, which means we know firsthand how challenging it can be to grow and maintain success in a competitive market.
That’s why implementing an approach like the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is helping so many businesses thrive.
The Entrepreneurial Operating System: A Game Changer
Created by Gino Wickman, the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is a set of simple concepts and practical tools that have transformed the way thousands of businesses operate.
For you, as a business owner, the benefits of implementing EOS are impressive and impactful from the start. EOS will help you and your team clarify your vision, instill focus and discipline, and create a healthy leadership team.
EOS is designed specifically for busy entrepreneurs like you. It addresses the six key components of any business:
Vision
People
Data
Issues
Process
Traction
By strengthening these components, EOS helps solve issues at their root cause and gain traction toward your business goals.
Vision: Uniting Your Team Under a Common Goal
One of the most powerful aspects of EOS is its ability to help everyone in your organization get 100% on the same page about where you’re going and how you plan to get there.
For many business owners, it often feels like their team was constantly pulling in different directions, struggling to align your efforts toward the same end goal. EOS will help you clarify your vision and unite as a cohesive unit, all working towards the same goal.
In Gino Wickman’s book, Traction, he describes this process as “letting go of the vine.” Imagine yourself hanging from a cliff and clinging to survival by literally clinging to the root of a vine protruding from the dirt wall.
It appears as though you will fall to your demise if you let go of the vine, but the same is true for any chance at making it to the top of the mountain if you don’t let go. Progress can’t be found when you’re simplifying ‘treading water’ to keep yourself from drowning.
As with being stuck in any old routine, letting go is actually the only way to progress forward. We must first let go of the ‘old ways’ that we are clinging to in order for us to embrace new ideas.
People: Building a High-Performing Team
EOS emphasizes the importance of having great people in your organization, from top to bottom.
This is an example of what happens far too often with many businesses: The best salesperson on your team is great at their role, so you promote them to sales director.
When they are sales directors, they are not a good fit for this new role at all. Why did this happen? Was this their fault or yours?
The key to building a high-performing team is ensuring you have the right people in the right roles. When we moved the hypothetical ‘greatest salesperson’ out of a role they were excelling at and into a completely new role, it was not their fault they didn’t succeed.
By helping you identify the right team members for your business, EOS ensures you have a talented, motivated, and dedicated workforce.
Finding out what an individual’s strengths and weaknesses are is a start, but clearly identifying the expectations of each role and defining what measurables (Key Performing Indicators) are equally crucial.
Think of each role in your company as a seat on a bus, with the bus being your business. Placing the right people in the right seats is what will eventually set up your bus for ultimate success.
Teams utilizing EOS, they’ve seen how investing in the right people can transform a business and propel it toward long-term success.
Data: Getting a Grip on Your Business
As business owners, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by emotions, opinions, and personalities.
EOS cuts through the noise and focuses on the data that truly matters.
By boiling down your organization to a handful of objective numbers, EOS gives you a clear pulse on your business’s health and performance.
Issues: Solving Problems Once and for All
Before adopting EOS, most businesses and their leadership teams often address symptoms of problems without addressing their root causes.
Cultivating a supportive environment where issues are openly and freely discussed, debated, and solved, is the only way you’ll eliminate the same problems from arising again and again.
With EOS, businesses have learned to tackle issues head-on, setting them up, knocking them down, and ensuring they don’t resurface.
This proactive approach has made a world of difference in the smooth operation of countless businesses today.
Process: Creating Consistency and Scalability
EOS encourages businesses to identify and document the core processes that define how they operate. It is not reasonable to have the steps to doing something “all in your head.”
There is no opportunity for a business to grow and scale without having systems in place that allow for it. The first step in this systematizing of your business is creating processes and procedures for everyone on your team to follow.
Systemization helps create consistency and scalability, ensuring everyone is on the same page and following the essential procedural steps.
This allows your business to maintain high quality while expanding and growing to new heights that would not be possible without these processes and procedures in place.
We don’t go to the grocery store without a list or want a doctor operating without a procedure to follow. We wouldn’t want someone building our house without a checklist and plan to follow. Why would we assume our businesses are any different?
As you will find with your own business, developing a standardized process can be invaluable in managing your remote professionals effectively.
Traction: Turning Vision into Reality
Finally, EOS brings focus, discipline, and accountability into your organization. Every successful business is a metrics-based business.
This sounds fancy, but it is merely having measurables to hold yourself, your team, and your business accountable.
By assigning specific goals and numbers to each team member, EOS helps ensure that everyone is working together to turn your vision into reality.
This is a level of accountability that is crucial for maintaining momentum and achieving consistent results.
Success Stories: How Entrepreneurial Operating Systemhas Transformed Businesses
There are so many businesses today that have experienced the transformative power of EOS.
One notable example is a property management firm that was struggling with inconsistent processes and a lack of accountability.
After implementing EOS, they saw a significant improvement in their team’s cohesion, streamlined operations, and experienced substantial growth.
Another success story comes from a small business owner who felt overwhelmed by the demands of managing a growing team.
EOS helped them establish clear roles and responsibilities, ensuring that everyone was working towards a unified vision.
As a result, the business saw a boost in productivity and efficiency, allowing the owner to focus on long-term strategic planning.
The Role of the EOS Implementer
An EOS Implementer is a valuable resource for businesses adopting the Entrepreneurial Operating System.
These trained professionals guide business owners and leadership teams through the EOS process, providing support and expertise to help companies gain traction and achieve their goals.
Implementers can seem like a scary investment at first, which is understandable considering that many startups and small businesses are already operating on a ‘shoe-string’ budget.
However, EOS implementers are most often times a very sound investment considering the ROI that they bring to your company.
Self-implementation of EOS is always a very respectable and more affordable option as well. It starts by simply reading Gino Wickman’s book ‘Traction’ and then working through the process with your team.
The biggest challenge with self-implementation has the discipline to be accountable in installing this new system of accountability.
If you believe you need some extra accountability for yourself and your team or if you want to ‘go all in’ and do it right the first time around, then hiring an EOS implementer is a sound investment into your company’s future.
Achieving Long-Term Success with Entrepreneurial Operating System
Business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders who have implemented EOS have seen firsthand the impact that EOS can have on a company’s success.
Applying the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to your business can bring undeniable benefits.
It provides a simple yet comprehensive framework to improve management, challenge your status quo, and take your organization to new heights of growth and success.
Whether you are just starting out or pivoting for long-term success, you will find that EOS offers valuable insights and processes to guide you forward.
The bottom line is that accountability from the top to bottom and every person on your company’s team is crucial to its success and viability overall.
Accountability is a scary thing for many entrepreneurs, but it is truly the only path forward to accomplishing those “big, hairy, audacious goals” we dream about.
By taking all of these key components into consideration and taking action on them, you will be able to make valuable changes in the near future.
EOS is truly a game-changer for businesses, and if you decide to move forward with implementing it yourself or through a professional EOS implementer, the truth is that you will not be disappointed!
Accountability is a requirement for your company’s success, but with that comes a vow to discipline and commitment to a process that can appear daunting and intimidating at first.
After Entrepreneurial Operating System
Once you do commit to EOS, however, it will undoubtedly be one of the best decisions you can make for your business today.
Anequim connects entrepreneurs, property managers, and small to midsize businesses with highly skilled, bilingual, full-time virtual assistants, who we refer to as Remote Professionals.
To get even more amazing tips, tricks, and techniques for scaling up your business, check out The Bootstrappers Podcast! Get the free advice you need to turn your vision into reality.
