5 Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant
As a business owner it is nearly impossible for you to do everything on your own. Whether you have a strictly online business, a direct sales business, or a traditional bricks and mortar business you are going to need help getting various tasks done either due to not enough hours in the day, or due to a lack of skill. Thankfully, with the wonders of computer technology, and the speed of broadband, the great thing is, you can do all this without hiring a single employee. Instead, contract with an independent contractor that markets themselves as a Virtual Assistant (VA). Here are five benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant.
1. Free Up Your Time - Hiring a VA can help you pass off various tasks to others so that you can concentrate on the money makers in your business rather than tedious tasks you don’t want to do, but are still essential to a well run business. Virtual Assistants may offer a variety of skills such as bookkeeping, customer service, uploading information to your website, posting blog posts, article marketing and many, many others.
2. Business Building Strategy – Hiring a Virtual Assistant can help you take your business to the next level. It does not matter if you have a bricks and mortar business, or a solely online business, you can still hire a VA to do various tasks that either you find tedious, or that you don’t know how to do well. You could be holding yourself back from having a successful business if you don’t let go of some of these activities by assigning them to a Virtual Assistant.
3. Saving You Money - When you hire a Virtual Assistant you only pay for the actual time spent on your tasks, not benefits, breaks, or extra taxes. In fact, everything you pay your VA is a deductible business expense, dollar for dollar. You don’t even pay for training because a VA is an expert in his or her niche. Virtual Assistants can be terrific resources regarding technology and business organization so take advantage of that fact by asking your VA for advice regarding various aspects of your business.
4. Supporting Another Business Owner - When you hire a VA, you are helping to support a small business owner. Most Virtual Assistants are independent business owners in their own right. Their Virtual Assistant business is an income stream, possibly to help subsidize, or support their own family – just as your business is for you. Hiring a VA is a win/win situation for both of you.
5. Peace of Mind - The very best reason to hire a Virtual Assistant is the time savings and freedom that you will experience due to outsourcing some of your tasks to a VA. You will once again regain your nights for movies and family, your weekends for time with your spouse and your friends all without even one employee being on the payroll. Instead, you’ll have an assistant who will be conducting these tasks on your behalf and cares about your return on investment because if you’re successful they are successful.
As you see, hiring an experienced and dependable virtual assistant to help you run your business, or manage your blog can pay off in many ways. You’ll have more time for family, or other money making activities, and if you play your cards right you’ll have one or more experts at your finger tips to help make your business more successful than you ever imagined.
Thinking about hiring a Virtual Assistant. I offer several VA services to help online business owners get back to building their business. I enjoy doing what others might consider “the meniil tasks”. Lets see what I can do for you!
Are Your RSS Feeds Auto Discovery Friendly?
Just imagine. Every time someone visits your website, their browser notifies them of your RSS feed. No, it’s not as interuptive and no where near as annoying as pop-up subscription boxes but still a good chance to get people to subscribe to something you have to offer. In a nutshell, that’s how auto discovery works. There ‘s usually a small flag somewhere in the browser telling people your feed is available for them and if the visitor is interested in subscribing, they will simply click subscribe – much like bookmarking a page.
Now you know how it works, why is it so important? For one, many feed readers and browsers already support auto discovery RSS feeds. But perhaps what’s more important, Microsoft is incorporating this starting with Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer still commands a good chunk of browser share out there, especially those who are new to the Internet or non technical Internet users. If your RSS feeds are not auto discovery enabled, it’s a good chance you’ll lose out on a bunch of subscribers.
As it is today, browsers like Firefox, Opera and Safari can auto discover feeds. Many use this to subscribe because it’s just so much easier. While this group may not be that large but why should you not take advantage? If just making your feeds auto discovery friendly you get an extra subscriber, even if it’s only one it would be worth it because it costs nothing but maybe 2 minutes of your time.
So how do you find out if your feeds are auto discovery friendly? The good news is, if you’re using a blog to manage your content, many have this feature built in. But it doesn’t hurt to just check it anyway. If you don’t use a blog, chances are, your feed is not auto discovery enabled.
Before I go, here are two little tips that would help your RSS distribution and subscription using auto discovery.
1. Put the auto discovery tag in other web pages too. Just because it’s not a blog doesn’t mean you can’t have an RSS feed on it. Take advantage of that, put your feed in your main website’s template. Now you have two opportunities to get in touch with people. When you update your website and when you update your blog.
2. If you use a service like FeedBurner to track your subscriptions, remember to update the feed URL in your blog or website template. This way, you’re capturing all your feed traffic statistics.
What’s next? Go make your RSS feeds auto discovery friendly right now. Because RSS is not always visible to us, don’t run the risk of forgetting this.
About the author
Lynette Chandler helps entreprenuers leverage readily available technology for their marketing. Learn more about RSS and blogging at TechBasedPlugins.com
Furnishing Your Home Office with Thrift Store Finds
by Alyssa Davis
When you work from home, the decorating budget for your home office can be severely limited. There is often not a lot of money to spend on a new desk, chair, and all of the office accessories that you would like to have. Instead of resorting to using the kitchen table, because your office does not have the furniture you need, think outside the furniture store for your supplies. The thrift store is a great place to find all, or almost all, that you need to get your home office in working order.
Darling Desk
Thrift stores often carry furniture that has been donated and that is slightly out of style. While the bright orange desk may not be what you had in mind, its solid wooden construction is a testament to its quality and how long it will last. The first thing to do is measure the space that you have available in your room. Take those measurements, and a tape measure, with you to the thrift store. Examine each desk and table to see which ones fall within the size that you need. After you have narrowed down the field, examine each piece. Are there obvious cracks or broken pieces? If the desk is made of metal, is it dented and rusted? Do all of the drawers open properly or do they stick? Can the surface be refinished if need be? By thoroughly inspecting each desk and evaluating it without getting emotionally attached to its style or shape, you will be able to find one that will work for you.
Office Chair
It may seem unlikely to find used office chairs at thrift stores, but with many businesses closing in recent years, office furniture is often donated. You can find a high-quality office chair for a fraction of the cost that you would be able to purchase it new. Make sure that you thoroughly test each chair. Sit in it for awhile to see how you back and hips feel after being seated in it. If you feel any discomfort, skip the chair and move on to another. There is no sense purchasing a chair that is uncomfortable, no matter how attractive it looks.
Supplies
While you probably will not be able to find staples and paperclips at the thrift store, chances are that you will be able to find other office supplies. Paper stacking trays are usually readily available, as are pencil cups and desk clocks. Search the thrift store for a variety of office supplies and you may find almost everything you need.
Thrift stores not only help you save money, they also help you save the environment. By purchasing pre-owned items that are still in good shape, you keep things out of landfills and your money in your wallet. Thrift store inventories change on a daily basis, so if you are searching for something specific, check back often. It is also a good idea to befriend the store workers or manager and let them know what you are looking for. If an item comes in that matches what you need, they may just call to let you know.
Home design expert, Alyssa Davis of Metal-Wall-Art.com, your best online metal wall art store, is particularly skilled in designing with sun metal wall art.
Article Source: WAHM Articles
