As Virtual Assistants, so many of us forget that structure within our business is vital to our success. We spend so much time just producing the client work, that we forget that it is important to work on our business and to set aside time to make that happen. As soon as I implemented structure within my business, my days became more productive and my business grew almost overnight. Here are three essentials to a well structured business that I attribute to my success:

GOAL SETTING

You have to have a purpose and a vision to strive towards. How can you decide if your business is everything you want it to be if you don’t know what it is that you want? When setting your goals, set both short term and long term goals and make sure you put them in writing. The thing that I have found helpful is adding pictures and rewards to my goals. For example, when I reach “x” goal, I will give myself “y”. Then you put a picture of “y” on your bulletin board as a reminder. My son has even adopted this ideal and recently cut out a picture of a dog and put it on his bulletin board. His goal is to get straight A’s in school this year and his reward will be a dog. Every night as he does his homework he looks at that picture and is reminded of his goal.

SET A SCHEDULE

When we set a schedule, oftentimes we simply set the hours we will work and call this a schedule. A good schedule will actually schedule time for everything including me time, family time and work time. The work time will be defined by such areas as billable hours, marketing, business development, etc.. The more structured your schedule the better. I find myself that even scheduling time for reading and answering emails has helped exponentially with being more productive in a day.

TO DO LISTS

As our businesses grow it is easy to forget tasks. Having a written to do list helps to keep everything straight. There are several on-line programs that can help with keeping your tasks from getting lost in a busy day!! Two things that I would stress about to do lists is the importance to prioritize and also to leave room for unexpected emergencies!!

I am positive that when you begin to implement structure in your business, your productivity will increase and even more importantly, you will feel and become more successful!!