Virtual Assistants are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s market, especially within smaller businesses. However, there are still individuals and businesses out there who don’t fully understand why they should hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) and how a VA can add value to them and their business. As such, we have put together what we feel are the top benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant.
Firstly, it is important to understand what a Virtual Assistant is.
The simplest way to put is it that VA’s are typically self-employed business and secretarial support professionals who work for a client (or multiple clients) from a remote location. There are some VA’s who solely work for one company and take on various different projects and tasks for that company and there are other VA’s who work with multiple clients and focus on a number of different projects at any one time. In addition to this, due to the rise in people wanting virtual support, there are now Virtual Assistant companies, such as ourselves at LS Virtual, who will match you or your business with an appropriate VA to assist with tasks such as, administration tasks, research, social media marketing, data entry and management and bookkeeping, to name but a few.
So, why hire a Virtual Assistant and what are the benefits?
- Reduced Costs – Rather than hiring a full-time employee to undertake duties which may not always be necessary on a day-to-day basis, you could hire a VA. Typically, VA’s are paid by the hour and, as such, you only pay them for the hours it takes them to complete the tasks at hand. Furthermore, because VA’s work remotely this will negate any operational costs such as, internet, laptop or any other office space expenses. In addition to this, the training costs would also be lessened considerably compared to bringing on-board a full-time office-based employee. As VA’s only work on the specific tasks that you set for them, which they should already be extremely well versed in, you don’t have to worry about training them and therefore don’t have to concern yourself with the costs involved in that training.
- Pass Over Non-Core Duties – It was found by Jennifer Maffei of VEA Services (an assistant placement and training firm) that the average entrepreneur spends at least two hours per day undertaking non-core duties such as going through emails, answering phone calls, scheduling/re-scheduling appointments and undertaking research. Looking at the bigger picture, that’s approximately 10 hours per week and 520 hours (almost 3 months) of a year that is spent on tasks which ultimately take the focus off making more money for your business. A VA can take all the non-core duties off you and allow you to focus your time on the core aspects of growing the business and connecting with new clients.
- Help Streamline Your Business – It is important when running or growing a business that you have effective and efficient processes in place. If you don’t have these processes in place yet, or you simply want a fresh pair of eyes to look at your current set up and suggest ways of streamlining them, then this is where a VA can come in handy. Typically, VA’s will have worked with several different clients on various projects using differing software. This therefore makes them extremely knowledgeable about what processes and systems are out there for you to make use of. Bringing a VA on-board can really help to streamline your business as they will recommend and suggest ways to make processes run more smoothly, different technologies to use in order to strengthen communication, as well as new programmes which may help to speed up tasks such as accounting, payroll, social media posting etc.
- 24/7 Availability – For many companies, especially those who have international clients and customers, the standard 9-5 hours don’t suffice. If you do have customers and clients who may need your support outside of the normal working hours/days then a way of creating a solution would be to look at bringing in a Virtual Assistant who is in a different time zone. This means that when most of the workforce is sleeping at home then you have a VA in place who is working during their daytime. This can also be important for any bank holidays that you have in your specific country where most people are off work. Having a 24/7 VA will ensure that productivity doesn’t drop off and that there is always someone at the end of the phone/email both out of hours and at the weekend.
- More Free Time For You – This may possibly be the overriding benefit of having a VA. Most business owners or people within Senior Management spend their free time undertaking the administration tasks and non-core duties that they aren’t able to get through during the normal working day. Hiring a VA to take these tasks off you means that you should be able to manage your time more effectively and thus, be able to get through your core duties easier and quicker. This results in you have more time to relax, do the things you enjoy and spend time with your friends and family which is a win-win situation in our opinion!
To find out more about LS Virtual and hiring a Virtual Assistant, contact the team at Lily Shippen on 0161 711 0767.