There are many businesses that start up and after a time begin to become profitable. In many ways, it is not difficult to make money, but keeping hold of it and not giving it back to the taxation department can be. Financial intelligence is not a god given talent, but is a learned behaviour and there are professional organisations around that can assist you to learn these skills.

Asset Protection and tax minimisation are two very important areas for businesses to be in control of. There are a few things that can be done and Tangible Assets are in the forefront of assisting you to be set up in the right way. Things that you must do include getting a water tight company/trust structure in place and be advised on how best to use these structures.
Leigh Barker and the team at Tangible assets can help you to manage your wealth and their new site Managing Wealth Creation will be your first stop in the process. You can get your hands on a free DVD from this site and it will take you through the most important information to get you educated in the whole process. Leigh has many years experience dealing with clients and his company Tangible Assets are leaders in providing financial and corporate advice.

With Asset protection, you basically want to protect your assets from potential creditors. It is not based on illegal dealings, but based on having sound planning in place to ensure that businesses are protected. Quite simply, the process involves the changing of ownership of assets from the name of individuals to trusts and company structures. You want this in place when things go wrong. This is the time when it is needed. Apparently there are over 100 million cases a year recorded in the USA, of people filing lawsuits. All for the purpose of getting some easy money. This is what you want to avoid by protecting your assets.

Tax Minimisation is all about reducing your tax liability. There are many things that can be put in place including superannuation, which may include personal deductible contributions, government co-contributions and un-deducted contributions. You can also pre-pay expenses to reduce your taxable income including interest on investment loans (up to 12 months). Tax effective instruments and gearing strategies are also effective ways to reduce your tax liability. Again, however, you should get advice on this and any other strategy so that you know exactly where you stand.

So, before you decide to do anything, give Tangible Assets a call or go directly to their new Managing Wealth Creation website to get the free DVD and then you can find out all about the best ways to financially protect yourself. Give Leigh Barker a call and let him and Tangible Assets get all of your affairs in order.

Several of my clients have come to me with their individual experiences of hiring a VA – Some good, some bad, and some very ugly….

So what are they doing right, and what are they doing wrong? There may be several reasons why one arrangement could have been considered as “couldn’t be better”, while another was simply “stress and aggravation”. It could be the VA and it could be the hirer, or the situation could be caused by both. If you are thinking of hiring your first virtual assistant, be sure to follow these basic rules of survival.

Rule # 1 – Evaluate your work. Begin thinking about the bigger picture, and ask yourself, of those things which keep being placed on the bottom or your ‘To Do’ list, what can you outsource to someone else? What causes you the most frustration? What things do you really like and what do you usually stay away from? With every project you work on, always ask yourself the question, “Could a virtual assistant be doing this in my place?”

For instance, if you’re marketing your online business and submitting articles for the primary purpose of creating wealth, this can take up quite a bit of time, and you’re much better off outsourcing this work to someone else while personally working on tasks which only you can do. Other outsourced tasks may include networking, managing affiliates, research, web development, email marketing, bookkeeping and much more… Before hiring, make sure you are clear on what you would like to achieve. Finalise your guidelines and the processes of your working methods before bringing a VA into your business.

Money Saving Tip: While going through your evaluating process, it would be a good idea to consider what you can delegate – and eliminate. Is every one of your tasks necessary? Can some aspects of your work be automated? A good VA should be able to assist you with automating your business. I know – as a VA myself, when dealing with several projects and clients simultaneously, a VA can soon perfect a multi-tasking state of mind!

Rule # 2 – Take the plunge and start hiring (we usually charge by the hour). If you have little or no experience with commanding a virtual worker – there’s no time like the present! Most VA’s work on a “pay as you go” hourly rate. Start by assigning menial or repetitive jobs which need doing, and test out at least a few VA’s before making any sort of commitment to one in particular.

Rule # 3 – Know how to assign your tasks. Many VA’s will have their own systems and methods for working with their clients. Explore these methods in detail from the offset, and make sure their way of working fits in with your plans. If you are someone who likes to deal with your VA on the phone, and he or she prefers to deal with clients through email, then that VA is not the best match for you. Generally, when assigning any tasks to your VA, delegate only one task at a time, for example, send individual emails rather than 6 tasks on a single email. This way each task can be completed, responded to and closed.

A good task assignment should be made up of 3 things. 1) A title or reference. 2) A project brief or task description. 3) A timescale and deadline – e.g. spend a maximum of 2 hours, to be completed on dd/mm.

Try to set your deadlines in advance, and when using a solo VA, make this your golden rule – one person can only do so much. If you employ a VA who leads a highly trained specialist support team, it’s much more likely that they will be able to meet tough deadlines. If assigning multiple tasks, always set an order of priority.

Rule # 4 – Common fears – and how to overcome them.

- Confidentiality. All good VA’s will have a Privacy Policy and/or Confidentiality Agreement. When working with a VA, electronic business is the most common practice. Make sure your VA has sufficient security measures in place to keep your valuable information safe.

- Finance. Never give your VA your debit card for online transactions. Credit card charges can more often than not be easily reversed, however debit cards work slightly differently, resulting in issues being much harder to resolve.

- Passwords and Logins. If your VA will be accessing websites and online systems on your behalf, then wherever possible, create a unique login for your VA. Issues can be better identified and dealt with from knowing the exact user who was logged in. Also, if you’re one of those people who tends to use the same passwords for various applications, these passwords can remain undisclosed.

- Leap of faith. More often than not, letting go is the hardest thing of all. You know how you like to do things, you have perfected your work ethic, and now you are going to just hand it over to someone else. There are only so many hours in the day, and unless you want to spend the entirety of every day working, outsourcing is the most cost effective way to stay productive while freeing up your time to do other things. Hiring a good VA who can understand your business, your work, and above all understand you, can be one of the most rewarding decisions you ever make.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an Experienced Executive Virtual Assistant who collaborates with businesses and individuals with the sole aim of accomplishing their professional goals. Want to learn more about these comprehensive online business building success strategies? Join the Campaign for FREE Virtual Assistance right now!