What to Delegate to a Virtual Executive Assistant 

Virtual executive assistants have become very useful for busy entrepreneurs and executives who want to lessen their work and get more done. Whether you're a busy business owner or a top professional, assigning tasks to a virtual executive assistant can free up your valuable time and energy so you can focus on more important and strategic tasks.

In this article, we will cover the list of tasks and responsibilities you can delegate to make the most of a virtual executive assistant. 

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What Is a Virtual Executive Assistant? 

A virtual executive assistant is a highly skilled professional who provides administrative support to businesses and executives remotely. They are proficient in a wide range of administrative tasks and can handle everything from scheduling appointments, managing emails, conducting research, and coordinating projects.  

Delegating Administrative Tasks to a Virtual Executive Assistant 

It can be overwhelming to handle lots of administrative tasks while working on core business activities. Delegating administrative tasks to virtual executive assistants can be a game-changer for busy executives and entrepreneurs. 

Here are some of the administrative tasks that you can delegate: 

• Travel management. A virtual assistant can handle all your travel needs if you have a business trip and can manage everything from booking flights and hotels to arranging ground transportation. They can look for the best deals, work with travel agencies, and make specific plans for your trip, so you can relax knowing that your plans are in good hands. 

• Planning and organising meetings. Planning meetings, sending out reminders, and setting up conference calls are among the tasks that virtual assistants are good at. They can also assist in meeting preparation by gathering necessary documents and data, creating agendas, and recording meeting minutes. 

• Data entry and organisation. For good decision-making, you need to keep your business data structured and up to date. A virtual executive assistant can make reports or outlines for you to look over, organise and categorise data, and input the data into spreadsheets or files. 

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Delegating Scheduling and Calendar Management to a Virtual Executive Assistant 

Virtual executive assistants are experts in handling all aspects of calendar management, including scheduling meetings in your personal calendar, blocking off time for important tasks, and communicating with others from time to time to find a suitable meeting schedule. They have the skills and tools to do it well.   

They use different tools to manage your calendar to keep track of your appointments, set reminders, and check for any conflicts with scheduling. This allows you to focus on your high-value tasks without worrying about missing important meetings or appointments. 

Delegating Email Management to a Virtual Executive Assistant

According to Clockify, executives usually spend 13 hours a week managing their emails. This equates to roughly 675 hours spent on inbox management throughout the year.  Executives and business owners receive a lot of emails every day, which is why delegating email management to a virtual executive assistant might be a smart choice to effectively manage your emails with the Inbox Zero method.

Inbox Zero is an efficient way to manage your emails to help you maintain your inbox clean and organised by deleting or responding to emails as quickly as possible. Keeping your inbox empty or almost empty all the time will help you handle your email better and lessen the stress and anxiety that come with having a cluttered inbox.

Virtual executive assistants will help you organise your emails to see which ones require immediate attention, which ones can be put off until later, and which ones can be safely archived or deleted based on their content and priority level. They regularly sort new emails and identify which ones are important and relevant. By doing this, they ensure that you only see the most important emails and keep you from getting too many that aren't necessary. 

Additionally, they can also draft an email template and send email messages on your behalf. They can write replies that are professional and on time, so you don't have to spend time and energy replying to each email yourself. Once they know your communication style and personal preferences, they can keep a consistent tone that accurately portrays you.

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Delegating Research Tasks to a Virtual Executive Assistant

Virtual executive assistants are skilled at conducting extensive research and collecting useful data from different sources since they can use online databases, business reports, and social media to find information and put it in a way that is clear and simple to understand. 

They can also help prepare presentations or reports based on the research they have conducted. They can create key tasks such as slides, charts, and graphs that look appealing and effectively present information.  

Aside from collecting data and creating presentations, a virtual executive assistant may also assist in analysing and summarising the information they gather. They may be able to identify significant findings without you having to read through long documents or reports. With this information, you can make quick and smart choices. 

Delegating Social Media Management to a Virtual Executive Assistant

Social media platforms have become essential for marketing, but managing multiple accounts and staying active on them alone is not easy, especially if you have other core business responsibilities.

Virtual executive assistants can do things like write captions, do social media postings, interact with your audience, and even make graphics for your content. You can also have them check your social media accounts for likes, comments, and messages.

They can look into what's trendy and relevant in your industry and craft posts that resonate with your target market. This is a great way to enhance your social media presence and engage with your target audience effectively.

With HireHarbour, you will receive dedicated 5-hour support per month from a specialist marketing team that the virtual executive assistants can lean on, such as copywriters, graphic designers, and social strategists.

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Delegating Project Management to a Virtual Executive Assistant

Virtual executive assistants can also be your project manager, as they are capable of managing different aspects of project management, including creating project timelines, assigning tasks to team members, monitoring progress, and facilitating communication among team members.

With their experience and proficiency with project management tools such as Asana and Microsoft Project Planner, they can work well with your virtual team members and ensure that project goals are met.

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