Outsourcing is becoming an increasingly popular trend for entrepreneurs trying to save money and maximize their time spent on high value projects. One of the most popular places to find people to work projects for you is Elance. I’ve personally hired a number of people through Elance’s service.

Elance recently put out a list of the types of projects you can outsource to a virtual assistant. Some of the top suggestions are:

Sales Leads
Without sales, you don’t have business. But if you’re spending time meeting prospective clients and servicing existing customers, it’s hard to find new leads. A VA can find and research individuals, companies, and technologies, via blogs, websites and forums.  They can prepare reports and briefs to help you determine who to contact next. With the right information in hand you can focus on developing new business relationships instead of having to spend time researching.

Turn Business Cards into Outlook Entries
Networking is critical in most businesses. Putting information from business cards into your Outlook address book helps you stay organized and automatically organizes your phone or PDA. Who really has the time to do this? You can fax/scan the business cards you receive, or send Excel or Word contact listings to a VA who can transfer the information for you. You’ll always have the information you need at your fingertips.

Meetings
A well-planned and executed lunch meeting with one important client could be as important to your business as a meeting with 20 or more participants. Every meeting has the potential to make or break your company – make sure they are planned flawlessly! A VA can research venues, make reservations, schedule the appointment with participants, and even follow up a few days ahead of time to make sure your plans are all set. Let a VA take care of the details so you can focus on accomplishing your goals at your meetings.

Blog Posting
First a caveat: If you have a distinctive writing “voice,” only talented writers will be able to mimic it and create blog posts that “sound” like you. But don’t let that stop you from hiring a VA to help with your blog posts. Virtual Assistants can collect news, keep up with trends, do research… even write rough drafts of posts that you can then shape into your “own” distinctive style. And to keep the conversation among your readers going, a VA can respond to comments left on your blog, alerting you when a comment requires your expertise to answer. Many bloggers generate a mixture of posts. Some are simple news recaps and updates while others are more like opinion pieces. Let a VA help you make your blog more robust… while also making it easier to maintain and keep fresh.

Voicemail Management
Do you receive a lot of voicemails? Do you spend a lot of time in meetings and dread having to check your messages? A VA can check your voicemail on the schedule you set, prioritize your messages, and even email summaries to you in case you’re not in a position to receive calls. A VA can also return routine and emergency calls, saving the important or sensitive calls for you to make when you have the chance.

Have you used Elance to outsource some of your processes? What has your experience been?