Utilizing a digital assistant can shave hours out of your workweek, however figuring out which duties to delegate could be tough, whether or not you are beginning or rising a enterprise. Most digital assistants are contract or freelance staff who do their jobs from dwelling and give attention to administrative duties which can be much like these of an government assistant or secretary. Web sites focusing on contract staff, resembling odesk.com and elance.com, have 1000’s of listings for digital assistants.

With the variety of digital assistants are rising, their experience now runs the gamut, making it simpler to seek out somebody who suits your group, says Jaleh Bisharat, vice chairman of selling at oDesk.com, which relies in Redwood Metropolis, Calif. In 2012, oDesk had 25,000 postings for digital assistant jobs, in comparison with about 2,500 in 2008.

Entrepreneurs can use digital assistants for every part from making vendor or customer support calls to sending out thanks playing cards to potential shoppers. It is vital to construct belief, simply as you’ll with a everlasting worker. “They develop into a group member who simply occurs to work remotely,” Bisharat says. Undecided the place to start out? Listed below are 10 methods you need to use a digital assistant to enhance your enterprise.

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Bookkeeping:

Retaining tabs on payments and different bookkeeping issues could be one of many best issues to assign to a digital assistant, says Kathy Colaiacovo, advertising and marketing director for the Worldwide Digital Assistants Affiliation, a Henderson, Nev.-based commerce group. Many small companies select to share their bookkeeping programs with their digital assistants who can then comply with up on duties resembling excellent invoices or unpaid payments. “You will want at hand over some management [including] passwords and entry to accounts,” Colaiacovo says.

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On-line Analysis:

You possibly can simply farm out Web analysis to digital assistants. Widespread requests embrace discovering data on company web sites, exploring new merchandise and vetting potential workers or enterprise contacts, says Sue Kramer Harrawood, president of Peace of Thoughts Digital Help, an Orland Park, Ailing., agency that gives firms with digital assistants. Be sure you ship clear directions, together with consumer names and passwords so assistants can get entry to specialty search instruments or paid web sites. Tristen O’Brien, an eBay advertising and marketing skilled in Westfield, Indiana, asks his assistant to assist him discover weblog matters, in addition to often proofread his weblog [link: www.theebayentrepreneur.com] on eBay promoting. “She researches what’s trending and experiences again to me,” O’Brien says.

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Database entries:

Whether or not it is a slew of latest enterprise playing cards picked up at a convention or up to date data for current contacts, protecting databases present is an acceptable process for digital assistants. Be particular about your wants and expectations, and ensure the digital assistant has achieved this kind of work earlier than so there’s much less room for errors, Kramer Harrawood says. “Comply with up is a large factor for enterprise house owners. Generally shoppers will fax or scan enterprise playing cards to us, and [virtual assistants] will plug them into the database.”

Knowledge shows:

Turning uncooked information into a transparent PowerPoint presentation or summarizing analysis findings in a Phrase doc could be a large timesaver when prepping for conferences, says Wealthy Pearson, chief advertising and marketing officer at eLance.com, a jobs web site for freelancers in Mountain View, Calif., who makes use of a digital assistant himself. The information “comes again in a format I can share,” he says.

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Managing electronic mail:

To maintain you from losing time in your electronic mail inbox, some digital assistants will filter your most vital emails and reply to the remainder in your behalf, Colaiacovo says. Such electronic mail administration is straightforward to do remotely, however it’s good to present steering on how to select key emails and ask the assistant to repeat you earlier than sending out any responses to cut back the danger of errors.

Social duties:

Digital assistants could be a good guess to deal with duties resembling writing vacation playing cards or sending thanks notes, says Bisharat, who notes that social chores have develop into a quite common project. Such duties can develop into “all consuming” for enterprise executives, she says, “however digital assistant can deal with all of it.”

Journey Analysis:

Digital assistants are a fantastic useful resource for locating resorts, reserving airfares and mapping out journey itineraries each for enterprise and pleasure, Pearson says. The assistants can make the most of the rising variety of journey analysis instruments and evaluation websites on the Internet. They will additionally cope with the effort of navigating time zones when reserving or researching worldwide journey choices by cellphone.

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Scheduling:

As a result of many scheduling instruments can be found on-line, digital assistants are managing the calendars of many consumers, says Kramer Harrawood. Duties embrace coping with assembly invites from others, scheduling appointments with shoppers and serving to to plan occasions. “It is about being snug and letting go of that calendar” to a non-staff particular person working remotely, Kramer Harrawood says.

Chasing enterprise:

Prioritizing potential enterprise alternatives could be difficult, however digital assistants might help with the method. When deciding what to promote on eBay, for instance, O’Brien asks his digital assistant to go searching for merchandise that may be worthwhile to resell. “I give them fairly just a few web sites to go to, and so they take it from there,” he says. “They search for clearance objects and different forms of merchandise.”

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Business data prep:

With restricted time to maintain up with business information, some small companies have turned to digital assistants to maintain tabs on a very powerful happenings. Many executives then use the business data to replace their Twitter feed or carry up fascinating developments in dialog with prospects and prospects. This helps “executives seem to have well timed information,” Pearson says.