| On-line businesses are becoming more and more | | | | and maintaining this activity is ridiculous. Get a |
| popular. That means more competition. You are | | | | virtual assistant to perform this for you. Time |
| to some extent in a race to establish yourself in | | | | Saved: 2-5 hours |
| your chosen niche(s) before others beat you to it. | | | | - Appointment Scheduling and Confirming - As you |
| Your focus needs to be on mission critical items | | | | grow, this will become more of a burden on you. |
| that can assure success and not on lower level | | | | The trick is to get this accomplished without |
| tasks that drain your resources. | | | | having to hire a full time assistant.I have seen |
| At the inception of your at-home business, it can | | | | Virtual Assistants perform this. Alternatively, have |
| be difficult to balance at-home tasks with building | | | | someone come in for a few hours per week. |
| your business. However, you have to be able to | | | | Time Saved: 2-3 hours |
| break through and achieve the laser like focus | | | | - Website design/development - Unless you |
| necessary to give yourself a fighting chance. As | | | | already have this skill, don't waste your time |
| such, there are certain mundane tasks that cry | | | | learning it. I learned the hard way and burned |
| out to be outsourced. Some are housekeeping | | | | weeks and weeks with little to show for it. On-line |
| and some are business related. Some can be | | | | resources will perform this for you remotely for |
| accomplished through the use of a Virtual | | | | surprisingly little cost. Time Saved: 1-5 hours |
| Assistant and some require part time assistance | | | | - Shopping Cart/Auto Responder linkup - This is a |
| from others. | | | | necessity for most on-line businesses but once |
| You could save 13-26 hours on average per week | | | | again should not command your attention. This |
| if you outsource just these tasks... check it out... | | | | can be tricky but is not overly value-added for |
| *all times include travel and prep if any* | | | | what you need to accomplish. Get a virtual |
| Lower Level Tasks That Need to be Outsourced | | | | assistant to perform this. Time Saved: 1-3 hours |
| - Grocery shopping - A needless time sink that | | | | Higher Level Tasks That Require Your Full Time |
| compounds because you have to be out of your | | | | Focus |
| at-home office to accomplish it. Alternatively, use | | | | (a) Networking and customer building |
| the grocery delivery services that a lot of the | | | | (b) Strategic direction |
| larger grocers off after choosing your groceries | | | | (b) Copywriting |
| on line. Time Saved: 2-4 hours | | | | (d) Identifying niche markets to enter |
| - Clothes washing/drying - free yourself from this | | | | (e) Understanding the target customer |
| complete waste of time. You don't need a full | | | | (f) Capital resource management |
| time maid to do this. More than enough people will | | | | Consider the above lower level tasks as a sort of |
| be grateful for the opportunity to perform this | | | | "Self Worth Checklist". Work towards ticking off |
| task for you. Time Saved: 5-6 hours | | | | every one of them and you will be amazed at |
| - General home cleaning - Ditto for the previous | | | | how much time you wasted when you look back. |
| task. Get the same person to accomplish both. | | | | You owe it yourself to provide the best |
| - Bookkeeping/Bill Paying - You need to become | | | | environment for your at-home businesses |
| generally familiar with the basic concepts of | | | | success. Invest the money now to achieve higher |
| recordkeeping, but getting up the learning curve | | | | multiples of your investment back. |