5 Tasks a Virtual Assistant Can Do for a Professional Speaker

You are a highly sought after professional speaker traveling the country and motivating your audiences. So how do you keep up with all the administrative tasks when you are back in the office? Who is motivating you to get these tasks off your desk? Do you wait until you get back in the office and then find yourself going through emails from the past week as well as deleting that endless supply of SPAM messages? A solution to this administrative overwhelm, partnering with a Virtual Assistant. Using a Virtual Assistant to handle some of these administrative tasks will allow you to the time to debrief your recent speaking engagement with your client and prepare those new programs that have been on your task list. Below are 5 tasks you can easily delegate to a Virtual Assistant allowing you the time to generate additional revenue and focus on growing your practice.

1. Travel Arrangements. The VA can research flight options for your upcoming speaking events as well as handle your hotel and car arrangements. While you are out of town, the VA can monitor your email and voicemail and most importantly delete all those SPAM messages that are clogging your inbox. Upon your return, all your telephone messages can be typed up and any important email messages noted. One other thing, the VA can ensure that your letter of agreement is sent to the new client upon initial contact of engagement and returned prior to your speaking engagement.

2. Update Website. The VA can update your website with your current event schedule as well as update your product page with any new products being offered or articles written.

3. eNewsletter. If you have been thinking about sending out a monthly eNewsletter, the VA can set up your template in your email marketing program such as Constant Contact or Vertical Response. Your client database can be converted and uploaded to the email service provider you will use. You then provide the VA with the copy and the VA will draft, edit and proof before sending the final draft for your approval. Once finalized, the VA can set up the launch date and then provide you with bounce, opt-out and click through reports.

4. Fulfill Product Orders. Your new book is just about ready to launch and you have a few DVD products that will be launching in the next few months. You wonder how you are going to be able to handle the processing and shipping of these orders when you seem to be on the road more than in your home office. Well worry no more, your VA can process the credit card payments, prepare the invoice, prepare the product and ship as well as add the new contact to your master database for future announcements. A VA can also get you set up in 1Shopping Cart.

5. Bookkeeping Services. A VA can assist you with your monthly invoicing using QuickBooks or preparing manual invoices.

The VA can also assist the professional speaker with monthly bank reconciliations and preparing monthly Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet financial reports. It is important for you as a business owner to review your financial reports each month. This will allow you to see which services are profitable for you.

6. BONUS TASK: Database Management. When you return from your seminars with the list of seminar attendee's who asked to be added to your mailing list - do they sit in a pile until you have time two months from now? Upon your return, you can fax the list to your VA who can update your database file and eNewsletter subscriber list. Also those business cards you have collected over the years, they can be scanned and then imported into your database file as well as into your eNewsletter program for future mailings.

If you are working on your CSP designation with The National Speakers Association, the VA can maintain a spreadsheet listing all the details of your speaking engagements for submission to the National Speakers Association.

It is important to communicate to the VA what tasks you really feel overwhelmed with or perhaps just don't like to do. The VA will work with you in finding ways to easily transition those tasks. The next stage will be the letting go, which is hard for all small business owners - this is your business, you have been doing most or all of these tasks yourself. You have found the perfect VA to work with so just start off with smaller tasks and once you start seeing the benefit and the extra time you now have, those other tasks will be much easier to let go.