There is a lot of talk about what tasks productive entrepreneurs do and don’t do. Despite the amazing talents and skills of entrepreneurs, no one is designed to be good at everything. To truly succeed, it’s important to take time to focus on your zone of genius. You’ll get much further in business than if you try to do everything yourself.
That’s where it is important to stop doing what you shouldn’t be doing. Oh, don’t get me wrong, much of that extra work still needs to get done. It just shouldn’t be done by you.
“Time is money” as they say and to be a successful entrepreneur you need to make time. So I’ve listed 7 tasks entrepreneurs should not be doing themselves.
7 Tasks Productive Entrepreneurs Don’t Do
1. Managing Email
If you’re like me, you’d have an influx of emails sent to your inbox every day. Some important, some not so important and a few online shopping offers (don’t worry, we all get them). Setting up rules and staying on top of unsubscribes can help. With a virtual assistant, you can save even more time because they can add a human filter to your emails. They can respond to generic questions and notify you of the important ones.
2. Answering Support Tickets
It makes no sense as the owner of your business to be spending hours upon hours answer support tickets. Spend a little time training a virtual assistant and have them do it for you. With all the free time you’ve just made you can now focus on the more growing your business.
3. Research for future blog posts and potential SEO Keywords
Running a business and trying to post regular blog posts whilst maintaining a social/personal life can become time-consuming. Simply delegate this task to a virtual assistant and they will be able to compose a list of keywords and topics for future blog posts. If you are looking be even more productive, the possibility of having your virtual team write your content and then post is also available.
4. Scheduling
As busy entrepreneurs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with our appointments and meetings. Set up automatic scheduling services like TimeTrade or Acuity. For even further personalization and management, hire a virtual assistant. Use your VA to make reminder calls or follow up for specific details.
5. Following up with clients/customers
Many entrepreneurs don’t follow up or send thank you emails to their customers, so let this be a tip to start doing to. When starting out it’s easy to handle only a handful of customers on your own.Once the ball is rolling, trying to maintain a database of hundreds of clients and following up with each of them can become a difficult and time-consuming task. Allow your personal assistant to send emails and follow up with potential leads.
6. Managing Social Media
As an entrepreneur, you probably hear over and over that it’s important to be on social media. And, it is. In fact, I was able to secure an incredible opportunity to write for
LeadX.org by posting regularly (and engaging) on Twitter. However, it isn’t always easy to be all places. Pick your favorite social media and let your virtual assistant manage the rest.
7. Anything that isn’t directly making you money
Let’s face it, as an entrepreneur, you are well suited to do what you do best. When you stop doing tasks productive entrepreneurs don’t do you can stay focused on your zone of genius. The rest is all details. If you aren’t taking enough time to build and grow your business because you are busy MANAGING your business, you won’t be in business for long.
Each of these tasks is a simple, day-to-day task that, when starting out, is easy to perform. Once you’ve got a big enough client base, it gets harder and harder to manage the little details.
Who’s going to do it then when you aren’t ready to hire a full-time employee? A virtual assistant (VA) has the ability to do anything that doesn’t require them to be there, although this involves choosing the right VA for you.
By correctly delegating jobs to your virtual assistant, you will automatically feel less stressed and more productive.
These tasks aren’t something you should be focusing on full time and by doing so you are limiting your growth. By simply delegating these tasks to a virtual assistant today can improve your productivity and allow you to focus on the bigger more important aspects of your business.
Finding the right virtual assistant isn’t easy but managing your team is what we do best so our clients can focus on being productive entrepreneurs. Check out our services for more information.