Is your to-do list keeping you up at night? Are you counting tasks rather than sheep to fall asleep?

1. Wade through emails – 2. Finalize the presentation for tomorrow’s meeting -  3. Get handouts ready for Wednesday’s meeting -  4. Make follow up calls zzz  – 5. Schedule sales meeting zzzzzz – 6. Buy anniversary gift. – 7. Call my kids.zzzzzzzz

If it’s been a long time since you laid your head down on the pillow at night without a care in the world, rest assured – there is hope. You can have sanity and sleep, too.

When business worries and personal commitments get to be too much, you need to get help.  Businesses owners are faced with more and more challenges every day—finding clients, keeping clients, creating products, article and press release distribution, social networking, and the economy. So if you’re spending more of your time on administrative tasks or just plain spinning your wheels going no where fast, it’s time to make a change. It’s time to partner with a Virtual Assistant.

So what exactly is a Virtual Assistant and what can one do for you?

A virtual assistant, or VA, is an independent business professional who among many things, can help overwhelmed business owners handle administrative tasks so they can remain focused on their business. Utilizing the latest technology your Virtual Assistant can manage your social networks, write press releases and correspondence, tweak or create a presentation, make travel arrangements, be your own personal concierge, write letters, follow up on trade show leads, handle literature fulfillment, and even prepare your expense and call reports. The possibilities are endless once you start to see how many tasks you really can delegate.

“I don’t know what I’d do without my Virtual Assistant. As a sales professional who works out of my home and travels extensively I don’t have an on-site staff to keep things moving. I can rely on my VA to prepare marketing materials, organize my contacts, send out letters, and keep me on track with special projects. Delegating routine tasks and special projects to my Virtual Assistant allows me to spend more time growing the business,” says Mark Loudenslager, VP of Sales.

Partnering with a virtual assistant affords you the luxury of spending more time in front of your clients and less time behind your desk. Because virtual assistants are independent professionals they come equipped with their own office, their own equipment, the latest software programs, and the know how of running a successful business. They don’t, however, come equipped with added expenses like payroll taxes, expensive benefit packages, paid vacations, holiday pay, or “free time” (that you pay for) for talking to co-workers. They’re only there when you need them. Sometimes they’re even there when you don’t think you need them!

Virtual Assistants are also invaluable in helping to keep your business from being lost among its many competitors or overlooked because of lack of professionalism.  Amidst the Internet and Social Networking craze, millions of email exchanges, and web and teleconferencing many professionals have literally ‘lost sight’ of their clients. In a day and age where we thrive on customer relationship management, personal sales calls have taken a back seat to technology. Further, today’s economy has forced more layoffs and corporate downsizing, which has impacted the availability of internal support systems and other such resources. The lack of internal resources has forced companies to rely on already overburdened staff to pick up the slack.  Staff such as sales people who are now spending more time doing administrative tasks than they are generating sales. Where does the madness end?

It’s time to wake up and get back in the field. Get ahead of the competition and you won’t find yourself saying, “Oops, I could have had a VA!�

Kelly Poelker and Diana Ennen are successful virtual assistants and co-authors of numerous books including Virtual Assistant – The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After Virtual Assistant and accompanying Virtual Assistant the Series Workbook,  Stop by http://www.vatheseries.com for information on starting a VA business or contact authors at nhgubef@in-gurfrevrf.pbz if you need a virtual assistant. Follow us on Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/DianaEnnen and http://www.twitter.com/KellyPoelker

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