Category Archives: Mompreneur

How A Virtual Assistant Can Help Grow Your Business

April 29, 2019 Lasonia Leave a comment

As a business owner, you are certain to wear many hats. Building your brand, reaching your target audience, fostering professional relationships, marketing yourself – it’s all a necessary part of being your own boss, yet it can oftentimes be too much for one person.

As a successful business owner, there may come a time when you have the need to bring in additional help. I know, in the back your mind you are calculating the costs and wondering how much it’s going to cost you to bring in more help and how it will cut into your business profits.

But what if I told you that you could hire the additional help that you need without breaking the bank. It’s simple – hire a virtual assistant!

A virtual assistant (VA) is an independent contractor who provides administrative and creative support services to businesses and individuals on an as-needed basis from a remote location. They use their own tools and equipment and work virtually, communicating via phone, email and the internet.

Virtual assistants are especially in demand by entrepreneurs and online businesses that need help but don’t want to bring in staff to their location. They hire these professionals for virtual support, especially for specific tasks such as social media management, blog management or graphic design.

If you are considering working with a virtual assistant in your business, here are a few reasons why a VA can help you grow your business.

A virtual assistant (VA) is an independent contractor who provides administrative and creative support services to businesses and individuals on an as-needed basis from a remote location. They use their own tools and equipment and work virtually, communicating via phone, email and the internet.

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How A Virtual Assistant Can Help You

1. A virtual assistant can save you money

Your time is valuable, and I mean that literally. Your time should be spent on the most important aspects of your business that can’t be done by anyone else. You can delegate those mundane tasks to a VA while you focus on the more important tasks.

Also, keep in mind that a VA costs less compared to a regular or full-time employee because as a business owner, you don’t have to pay benefits. Not to mention the savings on office space and equipment!
Working with a virtual assistant gives you all the benefits of the help you need without the hassles you don’t.

2. Using a virtual assistant saves you time

A VA can free up precious time in your schedule so that you can network with other professionals or spend much needed time with your family or friends. Delegating the small stuff allows you to maximize your time.

3. No training required

With the exception of tasks that require a specific type of training, an online staff is generally experienced when it comes to common tasks. They know what tools to use and how to set up a system that is workable for both of you.

Training a new employee can mean time and money down the drain, whereas a VA has a home office that is completely set up. Their virtual workplace ensures that everything is properly shared and tracked from start to finish. Thus, it makes it easier to delegate work, collaborate, and track performance.

Not only that, they have the necessary skills to get right to work on that project that needs immediate attention.

4. You can use a virtual assistant as needed

You may be in need of additional help but not on a full-time basis. Many business owners don’t have enough tasks to justify bringing on full-time help. Others might simply need help during busy times of the year. Or you may simply need help for a particular project.

With a VA, you have the option to use them for a couple of hours per week, or several hours per day. And, you can adjust the amount as your business needs change.

By being able to customize the amount of time you use a VA, it ensures that you are only paying for the time that you need.

5. Benefit from specialized skills

Over the years, the virtual assistant industry has opened its doors to more specialized and technical skills to accommodate demand across the online marketing world.

They accommodate demand across a wide scope of services. Here are a few examples of the areas a virtual assistant may be specialized in:

Website design and development
Domain registration and Website hosting
Digital Marketing
SEO
Real Estate
Content Creation
Blogging
Bookkeeping
Audio/Video transcription
Research
Translation Services
Graphic Design
Project Management

The possibilities are endless when it comes to finding a virtual assistant to accommodate your specific business needs. When properly utilized, a VA can become one of the greatest assets in growing your business. They are sure to lower your business costs without compromising on quality and productivity.

If you find yourself in over your head, stressed out and lacking time to organize your business, then maybe it’s time for some help. I would love to help you with your business needs. Contact me for a free consultation.

Lifestyle, Mompreneur

Four Productivity Apps That Will Help You Get Your Life Together

October 8, 2018 Lasonia 2 Comments

As the saying goes, time is one of our most precious commodities, and if you’re a girl (or guy) boss there just never seems to be enough of it. Oftentimes our mobile phones and electronic devices can tend to be a huge distraction. However, with the number of productivity apps available, our devices can now become powerful productivity tools for us.
Here are the four productivity apps that I use daily:

Canva

If you need help designing a blog post header or image, Ebook cover, or Facebook and Instagram images, then Canva is the app for you! With the use of this app, I can design both blog and social media images in as little as 5 minutes. The absolute best thing about this app is that you don’t have to know graphic design to use it. Awesome sauce!
Canva is available in both free and paid versions.

Buffer

How would you like to be able to manage and schedule all of your social media posts in one place? With Buffer, you can do just that. You can schedule your social media content for the week or for the month. How cool is that!
I have tried a couple of other scheduling apps, but this one is by far my favorite. There are several versions that are available (including a free one) depending on the number of social media accounts you need to manage.

Google Keep

Google Keep allows you to quickly add your to-do items from your mobile device or a desktop computer. It has a Post-It note style memo format that allows you to add quick reminders and to-do items within seconds. You can also customize the colors of your memo to visually indicate the importance of your task.
I am actually a paper and pen kind of gal, but I use Google Keep as a back-up to my daily planner, or when I am on the go and don’t have a pen and paper handy.

Snapseed

Snapseed is a free photo editing app. With this app, you are able to enhance photos and apply digital filters.
I use it to edit my photos before posting them to Instagram. You can whiten whites, remove red eye, blur backgrounds, and more. This is by far the best photo editing app that I have tried!

What are some of your favorite productivity apps?

Lifestyle, Mompreneur

How To Increase Productivity While Working From Home

July 3, 2018 Lasonia 13 Comments

Do you struggle to prioritize your business with all of the other things going on in your life?

Juggling the demands of work, husband, kids, household chores, and all the other things that life tends to throw at you can be overwhelming. Trust me, I know the struggle all too well.

Here are five habits that you can implement into your day so that you can increase your productivity – and maintain your sanity.

WAKE UP EARLIER

I know there a lot of people who are on the fence about this one, but I have found that waking up at least 30 or 45 minutes before my family allows me to sip my coffee in peace, gather my thoughts and mentally prepare for the day ahead.

If I sleep in, I tend to feel rushed for the majority of the day. Now don’t get me wrong, if I feel that I NEED the extra sleep, I have no problem snoozing an extra hour or two.

I have just made it a habit to wake up earlier in order to plan for the day ahead. And I feel so much better when I do.

GET DRESSED

I know, I know. Many of us who work from home consider wearing pajamas all day an added perk. But staying in your pj’s can actually have a negative impact on your daily productivity.

By wearing pajamas all day, it sends signals to your brain to relax.

Dr. Karen Pine, Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire says, “When we put on an item of clothing it is common for the wearer to adopt the characteristics associated with that garment. A lot of clothing has symbolic meaning for us, whether it’s ‘professional work attire’ or ‘relaxing weekend wear’, so when we put it on we prime the brain to behave in ways consistent with that meaning.”

While there is no science that proves wearing a full business suit while sitting at your desk at home will make you more productive than wearing say, a pair of sweats, according to Dr. Pine, the symbolic meaning of the clothes you wear does matter.

I make it a habit to shower and dress daily, even if I have no plans to leave the house. Most days I wear leggings and a tee, but I add a bit of lip gloss and put on earrings. When I make myself look good, I feel better and actually get more accomplished during the day.

By having a designated workspace, you can actually focus on your work when you are in that space. Without a designated workspace, I can get distracted by the dishes in the sink or the clothes that need to be put in the wash. Next thing I know, I’ve wasted a whole hour running back and forth throughout the house instead of focusing on a single task.

I am fortunate to have an extra bedroom that I use as my office. You don’t have to have an actual office, you can create a separate workspace in a small corner of your home. When creating your workspace, you will want to accomplish three things:

1) Make sure it is a comfortable space.

2) Make sure your space is clutter free.

3) Make sure your space is free of distractions.

Creating a designated workspace helps signal to your brain that it is time to work.

TIME BLOCK

I am definitely a pen and paper kind of girl. By writing things down in my planner, it helps me to remember it, and I also get a sense of accomplishment after going over my calendar and actually seeing how much I’ve accomplished that day. Time blocking has increased my level of productivity tremendously.

What is time blocking you ask? A simple definition of time blocking is “blocking off” a time of day in order to accomplish a certain task. You can do this by assigning a task to every hour of each day, or by blocking off 2-3 hours at a time in order to tackle different projects or tasks.

What I do is set aside blocks of time each day for all of my daily tasks such as checking emails, making/returning phone calls, housework, blogging, etc.

While the time blocking method may seem a bit rigid for some, for me, it enables me to plan my day more easily because I know exactly what I have to do and when I need to do it. I also focus my attention on a single task until it is completed. This helps me out so much because I am one who tends to get easily distracted.

Of course, my schedule has to be a bit flexible because I am a stay at home mom and my husband doesn’t work a traditional 9 to 5 job, but time blocking helps to ensure that I will have enough hours set aside to do what is needed for that particular day.

LIMIT SOCIAL MEDIA

In this day and age, I think this is one that we all struggle with. If I am not mindful of what I am doing, I will have spent a full two hours on social media without even realizing it!

Set aside specific time slots each day for social media. But limit that time! Apart from my specific work time (posting, scheduling and responding to comments), I spend time simply enjoying social media, and interacting with friends.

Try setting your phone timer for 20 or 30 minutes and enjoy scrolling. And then when the timer goes off -STOP, and move on to the next task. You can always spend a bit more leisure time on social media during the weekends.

IN CONCLUSION

Simply put, get up a little earlier so that you can mentally prepare for your day. Plan out your days ahead of time, both business and personal. Create a designated environment free of distractions that will allow you to be more productive so that you can get more done. Rid yourself of time wasters and try not to get sucked down the rabbit hole that is social media.

Lasonia B Graves