When you started selling your products on Amazon, it may have just been a side business.
Something you did to augment your bigger offerings, or the ones that were more central to your brand.
But as your business grew, dealing with your Amazon presence started to take up a whole bunch of time that you DIDN’T have to give.
Sound familiar?
Fortunately for you, many of the tasks that need to be done to maintain your listings are routine and don’t require deep knowledge of your business.
Which means they can be outsourced to a virtual assistant if doing so will help you focus on more strategic tasks yourself.
So how do you know if you’re ready to hire an assistant to manage Amazon? Keep reading to find out!
What does an Amazon Virtual Assistant Do?
While it’s true that a generalist VA can handle some of the same tasks, there are VAs who specialize in Amazon since the site and its infrastructure are so specific. (And because they’re so crucial to multiple business types and sizes!)
It’s important to know what they do before you decide if you’re ready to hire one … especially since you might not have planned to dedicate a team member to this workload exclusively.
An Amazon VA can do, but is not limited to, the following:
- Administrative tasks such as order processing
- Customer service
- Product sourcing
- Market research
- Copywriting for your listings
- Photography of physical products and graphic design for digital ones
- Programming of Amazon Ad Campaigns
- Fulfillment of orders
You might not need support on all of these tasks, and you might need additional support on ones not listed here!
This is just a starter list to give you a rough idea of what this potential new team member could take off your plate.
When is the right time to hire an Amazon VA?
If you’re just getting started with Amazon, you likely won’t need a dedicated VA to manage your presence.
But if you’re using Amazon FBA (meaning you store your products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and we pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products) or your business is big enough to need a professional seller, an Amazon virtual assistant can be an absolute life-saver.
If you’re still unsure, make a list of all the Amazon-related tasks you do throughout the week and note how long each task takes.
Review the list to see what you could outsource and what needs to be handled by you personally.
Then add up the time it takes to complete the tasks that you would outsource: that’s the extra free time you will have to put towards another part of your business!
If you’re using the list above as a jumping-off point, here’s how to decide which of THOSE tasks will be assigned out to your Amazon virtual assistant:
- What is taking up most of your time?
- Which tasks are the most repetitive?
- Are there workloads that someone else could do better than you?
Once you’re super clear about which tasks you want to outsource, that clarity will help you find the person with the exact level of expertise you need.
Hiring an Amazon Virtual Assistant is a great way to grow your business and free up your time to work in your zone of genius.
You may only outsource one or two repetitive tasks at the beginning, but as the demand grows within your business, you may find yourself handing over more tasks.
Hiring an Amazon VA may turn out to be the start of a whole new chapter in your expansion and success!
