By Lana Goldenberg, Marketing Strategist, Trainer & Speaker
Last year I included 2 hours of my VA’s (otherwise known Virtual Assistant’s) time as a bonus for one of my programs. My VA is strong in everything from billing to HTML, so whe I heard that my clients didn’t know how to spend those 2 hours with her, I was shocked!
These brilliant women entrepreneurs and speakers were doing it all! While I admire them for their talents and hard work, I also know that freeing up as little as 1 extra hour per week can be very profitable if you use that time for the right activities to grow your speaking business.
Here are my personal top 5 projects to outsource to a Virtual Assistant this year:
1) Re-purposing my articles to be posted on blogs, newsletters, article marketing sites, guest blogs, etc. This is a technique I recommend to many speaker clients who are looking to increase their SEO and exposure online; yet for my own brand, I am often the proverbial “shoemaker’s daughter.” No more!
2) Newsletter production: as a woman speaker, you may be sending a newsletter to your audience. While your own voice and writing will create the most authentic connection with your readers, the production piece (formatting, proofreading, finding images, pre-scheduling) can easily be outsourced. I know that finding the write image for my newsletter can take me a good 30 minutes, but if I send this task to my VA and ask that no more than 10 minutes be spent on it – it will be taken care of.
3) Creating sales pages for my programs and products. As a woman speaker, you may be creating products for “back of the room” sales or on your website. Even with an easy-to-use system like WordPress, this can be time consuming and tedious. An experienced assistant can easily
take these updates on and give you more time to focus on your speaking business.
4) Setting up speaking engagements: as I come across new speaking opportunities, I am finding that an increasing amount of my time is spent on administrative details: scheduling, agreements, and communication with event organizers. Virtual Assistant to the rescue!
5) Updating and keeping current all my professional membership profiles on various sites with the latest bio, pictures, and contact information. A professional presence online is crucial for speakers, but keeping up with dozens of sites can be overwhelming. I am making a checklist of all networks where I am a member, so my assistant can set up a quarterly update process.
What are the tasks and projects in your speaker business that are taking up your valuable time? Which if these can be delegated to an employee, and intern or a virtual assistant? How much of YOUR time will that free up?
I’d love to hear your comments!
Lana Goldenberg is a marketing strategist, trainer, and speaker who helps business owners and entrepreneurs Be Seen and Be Found online. Leveraging a virtual team has allowed her to triple her business in a year, and she helps her clients reach similar results.