Have you ever cringed at the thought of hiring an assistant or someone to come into your home or office to coordinate your email, do research for you, or write articles for your blog? Do you hesitate to hire someone who may end up cruising Facebook? Does the thought of paying someone the current wages for such a position to come in and work a typical workday make you nervous? Have you ever thought of hiring a virtual assistant instead? Do you know what one is?
Even though the term virtual assistant has gained some recognition, there’s still some confusion about the benefits of making the decision to use a VA for your business. Since virtual assistant’s work, by definition, remotely, as a business owner, you may feel that you will lack the control you have over what an onsite employee does or the one on one time to collaborate. The reality is though that most VA’s are more than happy to confer on the phone, send in daily or weekly progress reports, and, where practical, even come to you for a status meeting.
One big reason those who could benefit from a VA don’t hire one though is that they just are not aware either that they exist or what a VA can do for them.
There are lots of virtual assistants out there and the important thing to remember is that a VA can do for you whatever someone sitting in an office which you may be paying rent on, can do.
The economic benefits to you of hiring a virtual assistant, or VA as we call ourselves are many. Though most VA’s do not specialize in just one area, some do. More often than not, you will find a VA is more than capable of doing pretty much anything you ask. Due to the fact that we are virtual and work out of a home or their own office and the flexibility this affords us, we are more able to pursue educational opportunities to improve our business, which in turn helps those who choose to contract with us.
One of the reasons I hear business owners say they chose to hire virtual assistants is to save time.
You as the business owner are busy running the business, meeting with potential investors, and completing all of the tasks that may call for your attention. Maybe you’re busy trying to produce the next Wow-The-World product and don’t have time to put all your potential clients in a database, write articles, or research postal rates to Australia. Tackling tasks like this is typically where a virtual assistant shines. We’re all about details and taking small tasks off of the employer’s hands.
And, unlike regular employees who come to your office, must be there, and must be paid for, their 8 hours or what have you, a VA can, in effect, write up a schedule based upon your needs, and free up time during her day to pursue educational opportunities which may range from online seminars and Excel training to classes offered at a local institution of higher learning. At her own expense!
Tired of paying for employees playing computer games? Well with someone who comes into your office and sits at a desk all day, you may find that that person does a lot of, well, sitting. Having worked myself as a file clerk and also as an office manager, I kept my eyes open for other ways to benefit the company when the files were all tucked safely away but I can attest to the fact that at some point during the day, everything that needed to get done, well, got done and there was definite down time. There’s a point at which there are just no more reports to file and the phones just are not ringing. But the person sitting there with time on his or her hands still gets paid.
With a VA, you only pay for the time your assistant spends on your project. That being said, I’d have to include the caveat that many VA’s do charge retainers and for minimum hours, sometimes called “Over/under packages”. This has no bearing on their ability to complete tasks though.
So the next time you need someone to complete tasks you just don’t have time for, need some supportive feedback, need to get your message out, or just need help to get going on your next brilliant idea, consider a VA – we are virtually everywhere.