September 5th, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
The advent of the internet has opened a new universe of possibilities for modern businesses, large and small. One such possibility is utilizing the skills of virtual assistants to help with business travel arrangements .
Need to make travel arrangements for that sudden business trip on Wednesday, but don’t have the time to do it yourself, what with the preparations for the trip? Hand it over to your virtual assistant, who can take care of it in no time at all, airline tickets, hotel arrangements, maybe even the car service to pick you up at the airport.
And don’t forget, your virtual assistant can often help out with creating or preparing presentations, too. I don’t know about you, but my Excel skills aren’t what I’d like them to be, and I’d find it a huge relief to be able to hand over the data and know that the virtual assistant can return it to me in Excel format, quickly, efficiently, and – most importantly – accurately.
Another way your virtual assistant can be a great asset when planning last-minute business travel is that when she’s in charge of your calendar, she’ll be able to take care of rescheduling any appointments for you, saving you time and energy that you can instead focus on business trip preparations.
Virtual Assistants Tip: A virtual assistant helps keep your office running even when you’re out of the office.
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services, Virtual Receptionist

September 5th, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
For many “clients” and viewers, Pam Beesley the receptionist is the face of fictional Dunder-Mifflin on television. But what if your company needs your own Pam but doesn’t have the space or funds for a full-time receptionist? A great solution for your company is the virtual receptionist.
A virtual receptionist can handle an enormous number of office tasks while not actually being located in your office. Fielding incoming phone calls, faxes, mail sorting, making business travel business arrangements, these are all tasks that can be handled by a virtual receptionist.
Having such a person to help run your business is particularly helpful when the company is based out of your home or even your car. A significant number of small businesses in the service industry today find that they need not lease office space in order to conduct business. A virtual receptionist can act as a professional business presence for your company without the added expense of office space.
However, you should not assume that you may call your company’s virtual receptionist Pam, especially if that’s not her real name.
Virtual Receptionist Tip: In general, businesses employing a virtual receptionist find that they are seeing major cost savings over hiring a traditional receptionist.
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services, Virtual Receptionist

September 3rd, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
Odds are, if you’re a small, growing business, consultancy, or firm, you may be exactly who would benefit from having a virtual receptionist on staff. If your company call volume doesn’t justify the hiring of an on-site assistant but it’s clear that a professional phone presence is key to the continued growth of the company, then your company woulc most likely be very happy in choosing a virtual receptionist.
We’re not just talking about answering phones, by the way. Answering company phone lines is a vital part of doing business, but when the calls aren’t coming in, the virtual receptionist can do a number of other business tasks for your company. A virtual receptionist is capable of handling customer service inquiries or taking orders, making sales calls, screen and/or announce your calls, just to name a few.
In addition, with a virtual receptionist, you can see your incoming call history online and in real-time, as well as easy online management of emails and faxes. Best of all, virtual receptionist service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Weather, illnesses, or personal issues won’t keep a virtual receptionist from answering your calls.
Virtual Receptionist Tip: Huge calling capacity lets every caller or fax get through – no busy signals!
Relevant Tags:Virtual assitant, virtual business services, Virtual Receptionist

September 3rd, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
In the past few decades, the number of businesspeople working on-the-go has been increasing steadily. Cell phones, email, and faxes all have become part of the mobile repertoire. We’d like to add another useful tool to that list: virtual assistant.
Virtual assistants can hold down a home office for you, even when you don’t have a physical office space to speak of. When you hand out cards with contact information on them, rather than the number on the cards going directly to your cell phone (and you have to figure out in a split second before answering: is this business or is this personal?), it’ll go through your virtual assistant, who can very often handle the call for you.
Virtual assistants can also take care of business-specific tasks. For instance, if you are a real estate agent and have a househunting client who changes his mind every other day about what he’s looking for, your virtual assistant could pull possible house listings and comps for you, while you’re in-between showings.
Virtual Assistant Tip: Many virtual assistants can be hired on an as-needed basis, so that if your business has a “busy season,” you could easily keep a VA busy for that timeframe and then transition back to running a solo show when the busy season is over. But we have a feeling that once you try and get used to having a VA to help you, you’ll decide to rethink the DIY approach.
Relevant Tags:Virtual assitant, virtual business services

August 29th, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
As a new solo-practitioner financial planning firm, Denise Wilcox was looking for a way to maintain a professional image on a new-business budget. Signing on with Davinci’s Suites virtual receptionist services was a decision that she would not regret.
With Davinci’s virtual receptionist services your company can have an impressive office setting, an expert receptionist, and many other support services that allow you to maintain a professional appearance with limited expense. Your clients won’t even know that your office is not on-site. In fact, they’ll appreciate how nice the building is as well as compliment you for hiring such a great receptionist!
Having the Davinci virtual office can free you from worrying about maintaining an office and managing staff. This will allow you to concentrate on building your business and serving your clientele. That should be the goal of every business owner.
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services, Virtual Receptionist

August 29th, 2008 by Stacey Barrus

Virtual assistants can be a big help for a small business. With more people working virtually from different locations or even from home, our staff maintains a consistent, professional image. We take care of the details that small businesses often let suffer because they lack time or resources.
They can provide services like creative, managerial, technical, business, office, and/or personal support services. The best part about virtual assistants is that they allow you to provide service to clients anywhere in the world.
Imagine what you could accomplish as a small business owner if your time was freed up to work on doing what you do best – growing your business. Virtual assistants allow you to free up valuable time because they take your calls, handle your customers, and give your small business a professional look and feel. And all of this without the cost incurred by hiring and staffing your own office.
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services

August 25th, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
One customer the airline industry can count on always having is the business traveler. After all, business travel is a common thread among companies, no matter their industry. And while a number of large corporations have a department that they can turn to for making their business arrangements, most mid-size to small businesses usually end up doing it for themselves. However, if you instead utilize the skills of virtual assistants to help with business travel arrangements, you and your company could save innumerable hours a month.
Did you just find out you’ve got a last-minute business trip on Thursday, but don’t have the time to make the travel arrangements yourself, what with the preparations for the trip? Hand it over to your virtual assistant, who can take care of it in no time at all, airline tickets, hotel arrangements, maybe even the car service to pick you up at the airport.
Your virtual assistant can also often help out with creating or preparing presentations, too. I know that my Excel skills aren’t what I’d like them to be, and I’d find it a huge relief to be able to hand over the data and know that the virtual assistant can return it to me in Excel format, quickly, efficiently, and – most importantly – accurately.
Virtual Assistants Tip: When planning last-minute business travel, your virtual assistant can take care of rescheduling any appointments for you, saving you time and energy that you can instead focus on business trip preparations.
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services, virtual receptionist services

August 25th, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
If you’re a small business you may be giving business to your competitors without even realizing it. As a small business owner, chances are that the majority of your workday is spent running the business. But if you can’t be there to take the call, we bet your competition will. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a receptionist who was there when you needed him/her? Well, stop wondering and get your own virtual receptionist.
Your virtual receptionist will answer all your calls professionally and promptly. You can choose to send calls to your virtual receptionist as often or as seldom as needed. Your virtual receptionist will take a message for you, and then forward the message to you by either email, or text message right to your phone. Virtual receptionists are a great way to capture that business that you might otherwise lose while you’re away from your desk.
Small businesses find that virtual receptionists are an ideal solution for fielding after-hours business calls. Your virtual receptionist won’t mind working late and you’ll appreciate the potential new business.
Virtual Receptionist Tip: A recent study showed that nearly 70% of people who call to enquire about a business service will not leave a message if they encounter voicemail—this isn’t an issue when you’ve got your virtual receptionist manning the phones.
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services, virtual receptionist services

August 22nd, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
It’s amazing to think about the progress that business tools have made over the years. From the Pony Express to Federal Express, the tools that businesses (no matter their industry) all over the world need and use have made some incredible advances. The 2007 businessman’s vitally important business tools include cell phones, email, and faxes. We’d like to add another useful tool to that list: virtual assistant.
Virtual assistants can hold down a home office for you, even when you don’t have a physical office space to speak of. When you hand out cards with contact information on them, rather than the number on the cards going directly to your cell phone (and you have to figure out in a split second before answering: is this business or is this personal?), it’ll go through your virtual assistant, who can very often handle the call for you.
Virtual assistants can also take care of business-specific tasks. For instance, if you are a real estate agent and have a househunting client who changes his mind every other day about what he’s looking for, your virtual assistant could pull possible house listings for you while you’re in-between showings.
Virtual Assistants Tip: Many virtual assistants can be hired on an as-needed basis, so that if your business has a “busy season,” you could easily keep a virtual assistant busy for that timeframe and then transition back to running a solo show when the busy season is over
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services, virtual receptionist services

August 22nd, 2008 by Stacey Barrus
Having a virtual receptionist to help run your business is particularly helpful when the company is based out of your home or even out of your car. A significant number of small businesses in the service industry today find that they need not lease office space in order to conduct business. A virtual receptionist can act as a professional business presence for your company without the added expense of office space.
A virtual receptionist can handle an enormous number of office tasks while not actually being located in your office. Fielding incoming phone calls, faxes, mail sorting, making business travel business arrangements, these are all tasks that can be handled by a virtual receptionist. Whether using virtual receptionist services once in a while or every day of the year, companies are finding an easy, professional, efficient, and wholly capable solution.
Companies using virtual receptionists find that –- by utilizing virtual receptionists — they are freed from worrying about maintaining an office and managing staff, allowing a concentration on building the business and serving their clientele.
Virtual Receptionists Tip: A rather large number of businesses employing a virtual receptionist report that they are seeing major cost savings over hiring a traditional receptionist.
Relevant Tags:virtual assistant, virtual business services, virtual receptionist services
