
Entrepreneurs have a lot to do every single day just running their business; most have a hard time finding balance between work and their home life. I know, because I used to own a catering/personal chef business, that eventually turned into a bricks-and-mortar restaurant. I barely had time to get everything done on a day-to-day basis – ordering food, dealing with employees, serving customers, doing payroll/accounting/taxes, designing menus, working with other local businesses on marketing ways to get more traffic into the area, the list goes on!.
So I know it can be very difficult getting all the tasks on that To-Do list done every day, let alone having time to spend any quality time with your families. But I can provide help; at least with the computer side of things! I tend to specialize in the marketing aspect of small local businesses; it was actually a favorite part of running MY business!
I guess you could call me a ‘Virtual Assistants’ – I assist you, the business owner, in virtual ways. Some virtual assistants have many and varied skills, some VAs become specialists for particular markets (like real estate). But I have found that the most common help most businesses need (and can’t find the time for, or have the know-how) is either get a website up and running, or to refresh the look of their current site, including making it easier to view on mobile devices (mobile-responsive). The second item most business owners want help with is for someone to handle email and newsletter campaigns. Below are the most common tasks I help my clients with:
- Quarterly Backup of your site, update softwares, malware scan, clean out of spam comments. (WordPress only) View my Care Plans
- Email Marketing Campaigns – I can set up for collection of emails if you don’t already (usually via a signup form on your website and/or facebook), and help design marketing offers (typically a weekly or monthly newsletter). For the newsletter or ezine itself, I can set up a program; weekly, monthly, or quarterly, then you supply me with promotions and content and images (or I can do all of this for you for an additional charge), then create the newsletter or e-zine, and send it out to your email list. There are a number of very affordable cloud-based softwares
designed for this. I work with many of these; such as ConstantContact, GetResponse, iContact, and MailChimp. Most cost $10-15/month to get started, one is even free to use as a small account. Most of these have good AutoResponder systems. If you are selling something, the 1ShoppingCart has a great AutoResponder system built in. I can also recommend a shopping cart called WooCommerce; it was built to work on WordPress!
- Blog Entries – send me your basic article; I’ll copy-edit it and post it for you – I can also make the blog article automatically post to your Facebook and/or Twitter and/or Instagram pages. If needed, I can do more than just copy edit it for you; you may need more filler, images, or research. Just let me know!
- Social Media – I can do your business page Facebook and Twitter postings for you. If you don’t have any social media set up yet, I can set them up for you.
- Data Entry & Word Processing – Catalogs, Manuals, Reports, Presentation Materials, Menus, Spreadsheets, Databases, Customer lists
- Copy Editing
- Meeting & Event Planning – Conferences, Travel Arrangements, Teleseminars and Webinars
- Other – Internet Research, Photo Scanning
- Websites – New, Modifications or Maintenance, on-page SEO – please visit my Websites page for information and pricing
I mostly work with my clients on the above-listed items: projects they either don’t know how to do, or just plain old don’t have the time to do. But there is a host of other types of projects I can help you with. Click here to open a pdf file called VA Assessment. Reading through this 3-page document helps clients figure out what should likely be delegated to someone like me.
I offer a free 20-minute consultation by phone to hear about the project you have in mind, and how I can help. After 20 minutes, I bill at $40/hour for either phone help or work done for you online. If you prefer, contact me via my form on the contact page.
All completed work is invoiced via email at the end of the project. Deposits may be required for larger projects. On-going work may be billed bi-monthly or quarterly. Cash, business checks and major credit cards are accepted for payment.