Process Management, Systems & Organization – 5 Key Tools Every Virtual Business Assistant Needs

Starting a new business can be exciting and overwhelming, but if you can master five basic process management, systems and organization tools, it will make things a lot easier for you. Just remember, investing time and energy into developing and maintaining sustainable business processes and systems (sustainable is key here) that keep your day-to-day activities organized will align your business for growth and success.

You want to start by developing your Business Operations Manual. Make a comprehensive list of your administrative and operational procedures; and then outline what is required to carry out each procedure. Include tasks such as client intake, marketing strategy (both traditional and social media activity), networking, billing, time keeping, back office systems, backup processes (detail on this to follow), vendors and suppliers. As you craft your biz ops manual, imagine a situation where you could hand the manual to someone, and he or she could select any process and carry it out from start to finish based on your documentation. With that in mind, do your best not to leave anything out!

Once you have your systems and procedures documented, you are going to need documents and templates to support them. For example, consultation forms, contracts/agreements, invoices, and time tracking forms should be ready to go before you have your first client interaction. As you take on clients, your documentation should also include step-by-step guides for the support services you provide to those clients. Why? Because having the steps and templates to reference when it comes time to work on a task (especially one you haven’t completed in a while) will ensure you don’t miss anything. You’re saving time and avoiding errors!

Business resources are just as important as business documents. Create and maintain a database to track your system access, memberships, affiliate programs and passwords. Be sure to include the name of the system/organization, URL, login, password, costs and expiration dates. For security reasons it is a good idea to password protect this file.

All of the business documents and templates that have been discussed are essential for managing your business; therefore you need to ensure that you back them up regularly. The system for this does not need to be complicated – a disc with everything on it is an easy solution, but does require you to set a schedule and hold yourself accountable for getting it done. Consider an automatic backup software or cloud storage tool. Just remember that losing your important data means losing billable time for clients as you recreate those critical documents – so don’t skip this one!

Finally, be sure to re-visit and update your systems and processes on a regular basis. In the beginning you may want to do this more often, but once your business is up and running smoothly, yearly reviews will probably suffice. With any luck you’ll create systems that can sustain growth and only need tweaking as your business grows.

One final thought. We all get caught up working “in” our business rather than working “on” it, but developing tools to keep your business organized will not only eliminate some of that tendency, but serve as a skill to attract new clients. Creating systems that are easily repeatable and sustainable as business increases should become a top priority and a best practice.