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What's a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant is a business owner who provides administrative support and specialized services to assist businesses and executives with their overflow. A Virtual Assistant can handle any task that is usually handled by an in house employee, but unlike an employee, a Virtual Assistant shares your goals to succeed in business -- we only succeed if our clients succeed.

How to Establish Your “Must Have” List versus Your “I Really Want” List

When you first start your business, your list of “wants” will probably be quite long. Identifying what you must have as opposed to what you really want is critical to responsible financial management. In other words, you’ll never create a thriving business if you spend all your money on everything you want.

Although we may really want EVERYTHING for our business, we must know how to determine a must have versus a really want for our business – budgeting is important. Did you hear that? Budgeting is important. No business can survive without it...well, not for very long at least. Make a list of what you have coming in as income, what you have going out in expenses and what you have leftover. Then from what you have leftover, determine how much of that you can spend on things that you need for your business. Based on how much you have to spend, prioritize the purchase of things you really need, not things you really want.

Determining what we truly need today and what can wait for tomorrow can be hard at times. We all want to have the latest and greatest software, computers and accessories, but do we really need them? Now make a list of what you really need to run your business versus what you really want. Put them in separate columns. Be sure to think about each one and be honest about whether or not you really need it or you just really want it. One way to make a decision is to look at the numbers.

Determine the return on investment of each cost associated with your business. For example, buying a $2,000 software program that will be utilized to bring in revenue of $400 per year is not a good investment, but spending $200 for a product that will make life easier and save hours each day is a good investment. So determine the return on investment for each of the items in your “really need” list and see if that process results in any of those items being moved over to the “really want” list.

Once you’ve moved everything you can from the really need list to the really want list, prioritize your really need list. Again, be honest and use the information from the return on investment analysis you performed earlier to assist you in your decision making. Careful planning and smart spending are critical when developing a thriving business.

Hopefully by now your really must have list is probably much shorter and much more manageable. On the same token, your really want list is probably much longer and more overwhelming than you had originally planned. That’s fine – just perform the same process and move some of the items to a new list. Call it the stuff you really don’t need list. There are bound to be several things you can move to that list.

Remember creating and maintaining a thriving business means planning carefully and spending wisely. When you carefully consider what you need versus what you want using a process, you’re business is sure to thrive as is your bottom line. Budgeting is important!
 

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