The word is out. Many small businesses are finding there is a new way to get the administrative help they need. They are realizing the benefits of partnering with administrative talent that not only knows their way around word processing software, but has also harnessed technology and the internet to provide remote assistance in new and innovative ways. Not only are these businesses "working smarter" they're keeping their overhead down too.Old WayEmploy someone to take care of routine tasks in your office. Pay that person 8 hours a day for 5 hours work. Continue to pay while she's at lunch, off sick, on vacation or holiday, or just needs time off to take care of personal matters.Hire a temp to come into your office to cover a busy period. Provide her with a desk, computer, and phone. Train her, and pay her Temp Agency top dollar for 7 hours a day.Work late into the evenings and on weekends to keep up with your paperwork.At year end, give your accountant a shoebox full of receipts and pay him his hourly rate to sort through them all.Go through your Rolodex or business card file and pull out all the addresses you want to send mailers to. Produce a list of labels, stick them on your mailing piece, stamp them and get them into the mail. Spend many frustrating hours putting together an important document or presentation. Only to find the typos AFTER you've presented it to your customer.New WayAsk a Virtual Assistant to show you how to harness technology to share files, schedule your calendar, manage your email and a myriad other administrative tasks.Call a Virtual Assistant. She already has

her own fully equipped office and is trained in most major office software. She will only bill for time on task.Delegate to a Virtual Assistant, and regain your free time, while she takes care of the necessary behind-the-scenes work.Hire a Virtual Assistant to use appropriate software to keep track of you expenses, saving you hours of your accountant's fees. Hire a Virtual Assistant to build and maintain a contact database. Have her design a mailing piece, merge and send out to your contacts, record response rates so that you can measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Let a Virtual Assistant, proof read and/or edit your document. Better yet, let her produce a top quality professional document for you. (She'll probably do it faster than you too)This is the first in a series of articles on innovations in the workplace for the entrepreneur or small business owner.

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