I hate hoovering.
Always have.
Of all the household chores, that is the only one that I really dislike. I don't mind dusting, I have no problem taking out the rubbish and recycling, I don't mind cleaning the toilets and I actually enjoy doing the ironing but when it comes to hoovering, it's really not going to get onto my favourite list anytime soon.
And what about business tasks? Again, personally speaking, I love invoice day as it means that the pennies will be rolling in soon but I really don't enjoy the process of preparing the invoices. You see, numbers just aren't my forte. Give me a complicated, 'packed to the rafters' diary for a CEO any day of the week.
But when it comes to your own business, how much of your time are you spending on tasks which are draining you of energy? Tasks you don't enjoy, tasks you don't understand and tasks which are preventing you from getting on with the important stuff such as developing the business.
I use a time tracker for all my clients so I can see at a glance just how much time I'm spending on the tasks that I undertake for them. Obviously it differs for each client but it's interesting to see just how much time I spend on the everyday tasks that allow them to dedicate their time to running their business.
As an example, I wanted to share the time I spent in one month for just one of my clients:
Administration - 38 hours
This can be anything from reading and responding to emails, filing documents, checking other team member inboxes, renewing insurance policies, ordering materials and gifts, reminders for the CEO, updating documents, sending information to my client's clients, researching venues, booking meeting rooms, maintaining databases...
Diary Management - 6 hours
Scheduling meetings internally and externally, booking in client events, sending event invitations, checking availability for various team members.
Meetings - 2.5 hours
Calls with the CEO and a regular team update once a fortnight.
Research - 2 hours
This can be online research on people, companies and industry events.
Travel - 1.25 hours
Not much of this going on at the moment but this is generally train journeys, taxis and timing directions.
As you'll see from the above, administration can be a real drain on your time, whatever business you're running. If someone could give you the gift of time, by putting an additional 10 hours per week into your diary, just think what you would do with those hours...
A Virtual Assistant could be just what you need to take those unwanted tasks from you and give you the time to bring your business to new levels.