Making the Case for Virtual Assistance
Simon is the General Manager at a leading battery manufacturing plant settled in the heart of Nairobi’s industrial area. He works long hours managing a team of 15 support staff as well as overseeing operations at the plant. He can often be found holed up in his office on Saturday mornings, trying to catch up on the mountain of paperwork that never seems to diminish every week.
While Simon enjoys his job and has a great relationship with his team, he has another passion. He devotes much of any spare time he can find to training and developing graduates on life skills. He has already established a curriculum and from his own pocket he pays the two trainers he usually engages, as well as for the training venue. Simon is thrilled to have come as far as he has with his vision, but he sees so much potential for his plan to grow, diversify and expand. His challenge is that he doesn’t have enough time nor sufficient resources to make this possible.
Many sole proprietors, SME’s and small organizations face similar challenges. Both the society and the economy call for more solutions to meet growing needs, more creativity to attract more buyers, more functionality to facilitate business operations and make general life easier. We operate in an economy that is highly unpredictable long-term and very competitive daily. As businesspeople we struggle to build, maintain, function and thrive in a constantly VUCA environment (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). Businesspeople are constantly on the lookout for exceptional features that will make them stand out from their competition, but many lack enough time and/or sufficient resources to enable some of their larger goals. Changes in the economy have resulted in many organizations doing budget cuts to mitigate the lack of profit growth. They can no longer afford to employ as many full time support staff. SME’s and sole proprietors are unable to purchase or increase office space to employ full or part time staff to run office administration.
Administration is a core necessity for business functionality. Having a strong administrative structure keeps your business organized, fluidly functional and buoyed for growth and success. In this article by Bryan Miles, CEO and Co-founder of BELAY, learn more about 3-Ways-a-Virtual-Assistant-is-the-Fastest-Ticket-to-Growth-in-2017.