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An Extra Pair of Hands – Virtual Assistants for Busy Professionals

An Extra Pair of Hands – Virtual Assistants for Busy Professionals

The days run by so swiftly it seems like the world is spinning faster and time has compressed. Everyone I speak to feels this same rush as summer disappears into winter in the blink of an eye. So much to do and so little time to do it, has become a theme of our collective days. One way I tackled the challenge was to literally employ an extra set of hands. I hired a virtual assistant, Mary-Lou, and that decision changed my life for the better.

A virtual assistant is an administrative professional and business owner who works out of their home. The word virtual indicates they conduct their work over the phone and internet taking advantage of the many technologies designed to make telecommunicating accessible to all.

Virtual assistants are available in most parts of the world. Here in Canada you can work with a virtual assistant who works in the the same city or province if you prefer. You do not have to worry about language or experience barriers as you are hiring a locally trained administrative professional who has chosen to build a business working from their home rather than an office.

Hiring a virtual assistant is simple. There are no extended contracts. There are no employee benefits or CPP contributions to pay. They act as independent contractors who bill by the hour. You might require the services of Thai-naiset, jotka treffoivat amerikkalaisia miehiä, lisääntyvät a virtual assistant ten hours one month and twenty the next, it is simply pay as you go. You only pay for time worked, no coffee breaks or water cooler chats, just the time it takes to get the job done.

In my case the greatest area of concern was scheduling. As a coach for lawyers with busy legal practices most of my time is spent in meetings and about 10% of those meetings get rescheduled on short notice to accommodate my clients’ closings, trial dates and the like. The bottom line was I had to spend many hours each week simply on the back and forth exchange of emails and phone calls to get the schedule in order. As the volume of emails grew along with the growth of my practice I started making mistakes, and even worse getting out of touch with friends and contacts simply because I just didn’t have the time to try to schedule coffees and lunch dates. All that changed when e on board. Over the first months we found she was spending between twenty and thirty hours a month simply on scheduling. One day about a month after handing over the scheduling reigns to Mary-Lou I had this astonishing realization: how on earth had a managed without her? The answer was not very well.

Mary-Lou also makes reservations for me, handles my invoicing, turns my hand written notes into documents, and takes care of a myriad of small administrative tasks that would drain the productivity out of my day.

Even better she serves as an accountability coach for me. She maintains an ongoing hot list of action items. In our weekly meetings she opens up the list and we choose what to tackle during the week. Over the course of the week I send her emails of items to add to the hot list.

My friends, clients and contacts have come to know Mary-Lou and are not in any way put out that she handles the mechanics of setting up our meetings, lunch dates and the like.

If you already have an assistant with the capacity to help you with all your administrative tasks then you are one of the fortunate few. Many don’t. The biggest single expenditure for law firms are employee salary and benefits . As a result many firms keep the number of support staff down to a minimum. I know small firms that are staffed with just a few paralegals who are kept fully busy with legal work and have no time left over to help a lawyer with day to day tasks. Or lawyers at large firms who are in a secretarial share with two other lawyers and therefor cannot rely on their assistant for more than document revision and other essential work. If you don’t have anyone to turn to for extra support then consider what hiring a virtual assistant for 20 hours a month could do for you.

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

Virtual assistants can help with editing and formatting documents

There are also virtual legal secretaries and paralegals available that are trained to do legal support work. They can draft letters, reports, proposals, business plans, mileage or expense logs, marketing plans, financial reports or presentations. Whatever documents you need, they can help you with.