With the internet as a never-ending source of entertainment and education, it's no surprise that more and more people are turning to online courses and training programs to enhance their knowledge or learn new skills.

Each entrepreneur has their own unique set of skills and experiences that help them build their business—either from previous jobs, hobbies, or passions. This makes them prime candidates for leaders of online training.

For many entrepreneurs, sharing all that knowledge and creating a digital course can be a very rewarding experience. Not only is it a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field, but it can also help raise the credibility of your brand and reach a wider audience.

However, it can also be time-consuming and stressful if you don’t have the right tools or structure in place. As your business grows, so will the demands on your time.

One way to decrease the time you need to invest in creating new content—and keep the quality high—is to hire a virtual assistant (VA).

What Is A VA?

Do you ever feel like you're being pulled in a million different directions at once? If so, you're not alone. Business owners often have to wear many hats, which can make it difficult to focus on the areas that will have the biggest impact on growing their business. That's where virtual assistants come in—skilled, independent professionals who can take care of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks that fill your day.

A virtual assistant can take care of a wide variety of tasks, from scheduling appointments and managing email to social media marketing and data entry. Hiring a VA means you not only benefit in terms of time saved, but costs saved, too. Because they are only paid for the time they spend working on tasks for you, you could save up to 90% compared to the costs associated with a full-time salary, employee benefits, office supplies, equipment, and recruitment for an in-house employee.

See: The Ultimate Guide to Finding a Virtual Assistant

How A VA Can Help You With Course Creation

Whether courses and webinars are the main focus of your business, a smaller project on the side, or something completely new you’re thinking of trying out, there is a lot that goes into making high-quality, effective online resources. So here’s how a virtual assistant can help you with some vital steps of the creation process so you don’t have to compromise your time or the quality of your course content.

Research

Research might be one of the most important parts of your business, but if you're not careful, online research can be a slippery slope that can lead to hours being lost without much to show for it.

If you’re looking for new ideas for course topics, a virtual assistant is a great option for gathering insights into your target audience and what their pain points are, current trends in your industry, or what your competitors are offering.

Alternatively, a virtual assistant can gather feedback from your previous courses, either through searching comment and rating sections or by sending online surveys to previous users. You can use this valuable information to continually improve and help make sure you’re always delivering the best content for your audience.

Writing

There's no escaping the written elements of online training resources, whether it's text on your slides, a script for your video presentation, compiling all your knowledge into an eBook, or a blurb or description summarizing the module. Writing unique and engaging copy can take considerable time and effort—both of which are often in short supply for busy entrepreneurs.

But the good news is that many virtual assistants are equipped with copywriting experience. By utilizing their support and taking advantage of these skills, you can be safe in the knowledge that your written elements will capture your audience's attention and keep them coming back for more, while you’re freed up to focus on other matters.

Template Creation

If you have created even one single course previously, you’ll likely be aware that using templates is the way to go. Having a basic framework in place helps you to save so much time in the future when you don’t have to start from scratch each time.

Once you have provided suitable guidelines, an experienced virtual assistant can do the time-consuming task of setting up templates for slide shows, handouts, Q&A pages, and so on. Once created, these customizable templates can be used to develop any new course going forward, either by yourself or your assistant.

Images and Graphics

In any professional course or presentation, line after line of text on every slide can be unengaging or difficult for your audience to focus on. But as the head of your business, the time you spend searching for the perfect visuals could always be put to much better use. A virtual assistant can easily source images for your courses on your behalf.

A virtual assistant with experience in basic design tools such as Canva could also create simple bespoke graphics and charts to enhance the information on your slides. The graphics created can be used not only in your courses but also in your marketing efforts via email or social media.

Publishing and Promotion

Once completed and in the correct format, an experienced VA can handle the tedious task of uploading your content to your choice of course platform. If you have a bespoke website and wish for your content to be available there, you may need to provide training for an assistant to do this on your behalf.

And all that effort to create your content is nothing if no one knows it exists, so it’s crucial to spread the word. Whether it’s email marketing, social media, or blog posts to link to your sales pages, a virtual assistant can be a vital asset for delivering your marketing efforts. With their help, you can ensure that your content gets the attention it deserves.

Support

With your marketing and promotion tasks being implemented and your content reaching its intended audience, more viewers will often mean more questions and queries. In an ideal world, everything would always run smoothly without a hitch. But sometimes, no matter how prepared we are, there's always a chance that something can go wrong.

Checking your customer support messages or your social media inboxes is a vital task, but when you have so many other duties and responsibilities to juggle at any given moment, this can all too easily slip through the cracks without us realizing it.

Fortunately, this is something that can easily be handled by a virtual assistant. Delegating this regular, recurring task can help you maintain high levels of responsiveness and show your customers that you care about their experience and are committed to providing the best possible service. This will help keep them satisfied even when things don't go according to plan.

See: Delegate These 25 Recurring Tasks To Save Time Every Day

What’s The Bottom Line?

If you're looking to build your library of online courses but are struggling to find the time in your hectic schedule, a virtual assistant may be the answer to your problems. Even if you do have the time at your disposal, you could save hours of time and energy with an experienced virtual assistant by your side.

A VA can help with everything from conducting initial research for your course idea to creating the materials. Plus, they can make sure all of the administrative tasks associated with launching and running a profitable online course are done for you, so you can focus on what you do best.

At Time etc, we’re dedicated to helping entrepreneurs do more, achieve more, and earn more by providing the best virtual assistants for their businesses. We have a vast talent pool of experienced professional assistants ready to tackle those tasks that are eating away at your time. We’re so sure you’ll be delighted with your assistant, we offer a complete lifetime satisfaction guarantee for all our members.

If you’re ready to do more of the work that matters and reclaim valuable time, speak to our expert team today to learn more about how we can set you up for success.

Related reading

• How A Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your Product Launch
• How A Virtual Assistant Can Help You With Project Management
• How A Virtual Assistant Can Help You With Research
• How A Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your E-Commerce Business
• How a Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your Digital Marketing
• How a Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your Social Media