Balancing Business and Family: A Win-Win Solution for Task Management
In recent years, we’ve noticed how remote work has become increasingly relevant in the business landscape. In fact, we talked about it in an earlier article (available here). Remote work certainly has its own unique opportunities to balance work and family life more efficiently. At some point, we also discussed how delegating can improve your time-management skills (read the article here). However, this is just as true for many of our virtual assistants.
Remote work is particularly attractive for those needing more time at home, such as mothers. Many express their challenges of working full-time, as this doesn’t allow them enough time to spend with their children. It seems like the job market is becoming increasingly less flexible as demands increase.
The Balancing Act: Working Mothers and Virtual Assistants
The article “What Are The Challenges Faced By Working Mothers Who Seek To Maintain A Work-Family Balance?” highlights some of these issues.1 Many express how maintaining a healthy family life is of the uttermost importance, but their job impedes this. These challenges arise not just from long work hours or commuting, but also from a lack of empathy from colleagues. Remote work provides a solution, allowing them to work and be present for their younger children. In other words, this field allows them the flexibility to work from home and be present in their children’s lives.
The article mentioned how these challenges gave birth to several negative emotions, including anger, depression, and frustration. Anyone, after all, can experience burnout. However, for the modern mother, these issues often hinder their career aspirations. In fact, a 2013 survey demonstrated that women are more likely to experience career interruptions after childbirth.2 And this remains an issue, as many express discomfort due to the lack of available areas that allow for remote work.3
Gender roles and societal norms expect women to rearrange their lives once children enter the picture. And, although this is almost impossible to avoid, there are ways to work around this prevalent reality. Luckily, becoming a remote virtual assistant offers a flexible and viable solution to balancing work and family.
What do we mean by a virtual assistant?
In a nutshell, a virtual assistant is an outsourced professional who works remotely for you. A VA can provide general support for your company, or provide help in specific areas–finance, marketing, accounting, human resources, legal work, and real estate, among others. This wide range of specialized VAs allows entrepreneurs like you to meet diverse business needs efficiently.
Of course, all of this sounds magnificent, but how exactly would a virtual assistant help? The key word is delegation. As a company grows, so do the workloads and clients’ demands, which in turn can prove to be overwhelming. Moreover, often you might find that these responsibilities grow rapidly, and adjusting your time and space only adds stress. A big concern for many when hiring a new employee is not having any physical space in the company. By delegating to a VA, you find that your “To Do’s” pile decreases without the need for additional office space.
Similarly, by delegating lesser or routine tasks, you’ll have the time to focus on those tasks that are more demanding. Say, how many times have you postponed an important task to focus on those everyday tasks that you cannot ignore? Or have had to stretch your work time into the late hours of the evening to complete all of these tasks? It sure is a hassle, which brings us back to our keyword, delegation.
The well-known benefits of a virtual assistant
Naturally, we have to circle back to our original topic at hand: working mothers finding balance in this hectic landscape. Managing multiple responsibilities is certainly a strenuous thing to do. Handling work and family life simultaneously? This is something we all must learn to unify. And when worrying about our companies, it is crucial to find reliable and dedicated individuals to trust.
It is no secret that to balance different aspects of your life you need great organizational skills, as well as a strong sense of responsibility. This is what sets virtual assistants apart, especially those who are very familiar with task management. Our VAs are notorious for their strong communication and organizational skills which will prove crucial when you delegate your tasks to them. Additionally, these communication skills will also improve client relationships and customer service, primarily when talking about Customer Service VAs.
We already mentioned how remote work can offer a unique set of benefits that will undoubtedly propel your business. By outsourcing to a remote employee, you forget about extra office space and resources, making it a cost-effective solution. Similarly, with these employees working from home, the commute is no longer an issue, making it a time-saving solution.
For some entrepreneurs, these issues may not be a major concern, but for many, they are significant. Still, the perks of outsourcing to a remote worker do not stop there. Delegating to a virtual assistant gives you access to diverse skills that are tailored to your specific needs.
Often, you may run into a job profile that meets every item on your criteria list for a position. However, you may discover that this candidate lives in a different area, making the commute a major issue. By hiring a remote staff, this will no longer be an issue. Your candidate pool significantly increases and you have a more diverse range of profiles at your availability.
Adapting Business Strategies in Response to Global Disruption
Now, when COVID-19 struck the world back in 2020, it created a dynamic shift in the business landscape. Not everyone was familiar with remote work, creating new problems many lacked the tools to combat with. This sudden shift emphasized the need for adaptable business models that could sustain operations amidst global disruption
These natural occurrences are unavoidable, and though they do not happen as often, they require our preparedness. While not every task can be delegated to a remote worker, many can. Remote work certainly facilitates preparedness for such events. Not to mention how, regardless of the circumstances, working from home reduces absenteeism.
Empowering your business through remote partnership
So far, we have discussed two major aspects of remote work: how it elevates your company and how it enhances work-family life balance. What we have here is a practical win-win solution that allows everyone to meet their needs. However, it’s important to address any potential concerns to ensure a smooth transition to remote outsourcing.
Outsourcing to a virtual assistant is a lot easier than you’d expect. To make things clear: you are the boss. Once you hire your VA, you decide which tasks you would like to outsource. The range of tasks you can outsource, of course, varies depending on the type of virtual assistant you hire. However, some of the more typical tasks they can assist you with are meeting and event coordination, email checking, and other administrative tasks.
Still, depending on your workload, you can decide whether you need someone working full-time or part-time. In other words, what we are looking at is a customized solution for your business that will ultimately benefit both parties. Put differently, we aim to build long-lasting relationships.
Now, up until now, we’ve discussed the importance of a win-win solution to a seemingly ordinary problem: maximizing our time management. This goes for both you and your business, and virtual assistants. As a means to achieve guaranteed success, it is important that you leverage a committed team. As a company, we are committed to providing top-notch services through our highly reliable and dedicated workforce.
The business world is in constant change, and in order to thrive, it is paramount that we adapt. Perhaps your business could resolve its issues by redistributing tasks and addressing internal problems, but sometimes the solution relies externally. That is to say, it is required to look outward so as to move upward.
[1]https://linkedin.com/pulse/what-challenges-faced-working-mothers-who-seek-lynsey-swords-mccann/
[3]https://www.tatlerasia.com/power-purpose/front-female/motherhood-or-career-women-work-challenges
