Business owners often find themselves feeling overwhelmed and always running short on time. Twenty-four hours in a day seem very less at times. In fact, no time in the world seems enough for you to complete your tasks! All of this can lead to severe stress.
Business owners often find themselves feeling overwhelmed and always running short on time. Twenty-four hours in a day seem very less at times. In fact, no time in the world seems enough for you to complete your tasks! All of this can lead to severe stress.
The solution to all of your stress and time-related problems is hiring a Virtual Assistant. Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can take up your tasks, giving you more time to focus on other aspects of your business. The overarching benefits of hiring a virtual assistant have implications for your entire business and its growth. Outsourcing a job, no matter how big or small, allows clients to focus on what they do best and let a VA do the rest.
If you are looking to hire a Virtual Assistant or are one for that matter but dont know how to sell your services to a potential client, read this article to find out the benefits of a Virtual Assistant. This article will help you understand the benefits of a VA so you can hire/sell better.
At this point, we have all heard the term “Virtual Assistant,” but the majority still don’t know what it means. Or what a Virtual Assistant does. Previously, the terms “freelancers” and “work-from-home” were very much frowned upon. However, the number of virtual employees has increased to over 30% by the end of 2021.
Many of these freelancers who work from home are Virtual Assistants. They work from remote locations and are hired by companies to carry out specific tasks for them.
For starters, Virtual assistants offer a range of services. They provide administrative, creative, and technical support services for businesses.
Their skill sets vary, but some of the most common jobs they perform include:
The particular responsibilities of a virtual assistant vary. For example, different customers put forward additional terms and conditions. But to sum up the duties of a virtual assistant, then a well-rounded virtual assistant may manage travel planning, appointment scheduling, data entry, and online file storage.
Moreover, These mentioned duties are not at all all of the duties a Virtual assistant can perform. In fact, there is much more a VA can do. But the duties actually depend upon the demand of a company and their industry.
There are educational requirements needed when wanting to become a virtual assistant. However, employers prefer those with a higher-level educational degree or certified training. Not to worry, there are many community colleges, companies, and online courses that can help you become a certified virtual assistant.
Other than that, what is required of a virtual assistant in terms of qualification is that they should be tech-savvy. A virtual assistant needs to have a wide range of computing skills and an important level of proficiency with commonly used software and business programs.
Basic accounting duties, which include account reconciliations and double-entry booking, should be mastered by a virtual assistant who specializes in bookkeeping.
Sure, hiring a virtual assistant saves you a lot of financial trouble; however, the main advantage is not the finance, but the time it saves you. Hiring a virtual assistant helps you save time and lets you focus on expanding your business further. Your virtual assistant handles all the work you want them to do, allowing you to spend your time and energy on something else.
Hiring a virtual assistant helps you save a lot of costs, as we mentioned earlier. Moreover, a virtual assistant helps you improve the company’s performance for a lesser cost. In addition to that, a virtual assistant is way more cost-effective than expensive full-time office employees who require hefty monthly payments plus extra benefits. Furthermore, the company does not need to invest money or time in developing a virtual assistant’s skills, buying specialized equipment that will be of no other use to the company, or set up a workspace for them.
In this digital era, most businesses have an online presence. And this is increasing each day. Let it be Instagram, Facebook, or emails to websites; enterprises have some sort of presence on online spaces. Hence, with so much happening online, the demand/need to help with the digital side of the business is increasing drastically.
Long story short, a client might be very good at email marketing but not so much when it comes to social media. Here is when a virtual assistant comes in. a virtual assistant can help you in the area you have no expertise in. Hiring a virtual assistant will help you balance your workload.
Hence, making your life easier by saving you time and breath.
Business owners are usually so buried in their workload that they forget to take a relaxed breath sometimes. And who can blame them? They have the responsibility of a whole venture on their shoulder, and also, they have a lot to lose if things go south.
Hiring a virtual assistant may just be the perfect solution for such problems. You get to share your workload and go out or seep in once in a while. Also, you will be relaxed while taking a break, knowing you have handed over your tasks to someone professional and responsible.
Most virtual assistants play it fair and safe. It is very unlikely that a virtual assistant might be lying on their resume regarding their expertise in specific fields. Most VAs are experts in some specific areas, leaving you with the surety of hiring expert help. Since we cannot be good at everything, there always is some part of the business that we struggle trying to perfect.
This is where you can hire a VA who is excellent in that field and let them do the work!
It may take a bit of your time to find the perfect Virtual Assistant for your company, but once you do, you will be confident in handling your tasks to a definite expert.
There are many hours that we spend on our work daily. Tasks like checking the emails, answering phones, or managing the website. They are very easy-to-do tasks, but we often forget how time-consuming they are.
Now imagine if you had someone else to manage all of these tasks for you. Imagine how you could give all of the time spent on these tasks to more essential tasks like growing your business and marketing it.
Moreover, hiring a virtual assistant will save you the hassle of going through re-training your employees. Instead of going through the tiring and painful procedure of hiring a new employee for all that comes your way, why not hire a skilled professional who already has the skills and can learn new information if it comes their way.
Did you know that everyday workers only have 3 out of 8 hours spent productively? Yes, this is true information.
You are most probably paying most of your employees every month to just surf the internet and chat with other employees near the water cooler.
You have a better and more productive option: hiring a virtual assistant. Hiring a virtual assistant is a better idea because they do not get distracted by the office environment dedicating most of their time to work.
They are self-employed, which makes their first priority to satisfy their clients through their productivity. Because if they do otherwise, the client is unlikely to hire them in the future. Slacking and missing deadlines will cost them their livelihood.
For this reason, virtual assistants are a highly motivated bunch!
Unlike with your permanent employees, a VA works around your schedule. They do not work from 9-5 but have flexible hours and will be there whenever you need them.
Even if you are in a different time zone, a virtual assistant works to your advantage. Instead of asking them to work straight for 8-9 hours a day, you can assign them to work throughout the day in gaps. This way, you can maximize the output and also keep the costs in check.
Moreover, if you ever are dissatisfied with your VA’s work which is very much unlikely but still you can always end the contract and hire a new one.
Such things are always difficult to do with a full-time employee!
Even kids have social media accounts these days. An identity on social media accounts is a necessity since we are living in the age of the internet. Any business that does not have an online presence is doomed. In the corporate world, you are supposed to have an account on every platform (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.). You might not have the time to manage them at all, but your virtual assistant can manage them for you!
The easiest and most convenient thing about virtual assistants is that you can re-hire them whenever. If you hire one and are satisfied with their work, you can always re-hire them for another task in the future.
You can find a virtual assistant within seconds online. Yes, choosing the one that you think suits your company the best might take some time but finding a VA overall is very easy. You dont need to put up ads on billboards or in the newspaper. All you got to do is go online and search up virtual assistants on freelance websites, check out some profiles, short-list the ones you think fit your needs, conduct a few interviews, and you are good to go.
If you think communicating with your VA might be difficult, it’s not. Even though they won’t be present in person, but there are many mediums that will help you communicate. You can communicate through skype, zoom, phone, etc. In a hyper-connected world, communication with your long-distance VA is as easy and smooth as it gets; therefore, worry not.
Another good news for you is you won’t have to invest money or time in training a virtual assistant. They are already trained in both technical and soft skills. You do not have to worry about training them for the job because they are already prepared for it. They are ready to work as soon as you get them on board. Moreover, you will soon start seeing a heft return on your investment in a virtual assistant.
One of the most critical and important tasks for every business is to always stay one step ahead of their competition. And how do you do that? Obviously, focus on your core goals and building processes that are hard to replicate. And you can do all of that by hiring a virtual assistant. You can hand over your VA some tasks, and you can get to the ones that will walk your business up in the game.
A virtual assistant offers you emotional support and also effectively acts as a support system for your company as well. Furthermore, instead of hiring just one virtual assistant, you can hire a team of them. The best thing about this is even if your full-time team is down, you will have a team of Virtual assistants at hand.
Hiring full-time employees mean paying them regularly every month. In addition to that, you pay for their sick leaves, ML, CL, etc., for the days they dont even show up to work. However, virtual assistants only charge for the hours they work, which is fair and square. The business can spend the money saved elsewhere in the business where it would help more.
Furthermore, they are available 24/7 and not only 8-9 hours a day like your other employees.
There is no specific time to consider when hiring a skilled professional for your team. If you are positive that a specifically trained employee will help your team, go for it ASAP.
However, here are some points you need to consider when wanting to hire a virtual assistant:
In conclusion, if you can check all these boxes, then hiring a qualified and skilled virtual assistant is something you need to do. In fact, given how the business landscape looks after the pandemic, there are a lot of roles that you should look towards filling remotely. Gaper, for one, fills the software engineer demand-supply gap through team augmentation for businesses in need of tech teams. If you are in the market for such talent, feel free to contact us and see if our developers fit your team and business needs.
Moreover, if you are on a very tight budget but need to hire a virtual assistant, dont worry because hiring a virtual assistant is way more affordable than you might think.
Q1. What are the disadvantages of hiring a Virtual Assistant?
Hiring a virtual assistant is clearly a hard step. You can never be sure of entrusting a new person with sensitive information like passwords and decision-making for your company. There are advantages to hiring a virtual assistant, without a doubt. But then there are disadvantages to hiring one too. Here are seven disadvantages of hiring a virtual assistant:
Q2. Are Virtual Assistants trustworthy?
Hiring the right virtual assistant for your venture is a hard task. You are definitely taking a huge risk hiring someone to handle your work for you. You will have to entrust them with your passwords and other sensitive work information and give them the authority to make decisions for your business. Hiring a virtual assistant is a big step, but in the end, it will be worth taking the risk.
The only thing you need to make sure of before hiring a virtual assistant is to do a background check or at least check with their previous employer. Moreover, make sure to build a close relationship with them through effective communication.
Q3. How much do Virtual Assistants Earn?
The average salary for a virtual assistant is $19.68 per hour in the United States.
Q4. How to share sensitive information with a Virtual Assistant?
Trusting a new employee with sensitive information and major job decisions is a hard and sensitive task. Here are a few steps through which you can easily share sensitive information with your virtual assistant:
Virtual assistants have risen in popularity as small firms and startups have started hiring them to cut costs, and most companies have been using the internet for their day-to-day businesses. Because a virtual assistant is self-employed, a corporation is not required to provide the same benefits or pay the same taxes as full-time workers. A virtual assistant must pay for and provide their own computer gear, software, and high-speed Internet connectivity.
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