In this blog, I look at the benefits of Virtual Assistants (VAs). And I’m not talking about the Siri and Alexas of this world. I’ll look at the services provided by people who have started offering remote assistance and therefore refer to themselves as Virtual Assistants. Working with these people has many benefits for business owners.
What is a Virtual Assistant
A Virtual Assistant (VA) is essentially a Personal Assistant (PA) that works remotely. Your VA could be located anywhere in the world and still be able to assist you and your business with technical, administrative and/ or creative tasks and more.
VAs have become quite popular (especially since the Covid19 pandemic) because of their flexible working style and cost less than hiring a full-time PA. They usually work as freelancers or for an agency, often have several clients, and work for either an hourly rate or a fixed fee.
An experienced VA can save as much as 78% in operating costs for your business. How, you ask? The answer is quite simple – VAs only charge for productive time, i.e. they charge you the hourly rate for hours they have worked for you in a day/week/month. The VA market is expected to grow significantly with the increase in remote working arrangements. Small and medium-sized businesses that cannot hire a full-time employee but need help are more likely to use the services of a VA than more prominent organisations. VAs need to be tech-savvy and are required to use a range of business software like Microsoft Office or Google Workspace.
Let’s see how hiring a VA can benefit your business.
- Increased Productivity – A VA can save time for you to focus on your work by taking over those daily business tasks accumulated during the day. Have you secured a big project? Your VA can provide valuable business support and keep you organised and on track during these busy times.
- Save Money – You don’t have to worry about employee-related expenses (office space, stationery etc.) and employee benefits when you work with a VA. Your VA can work as much or as little as you need them to work according to your workload and requirements – no weekly or monthly wages are involved.
- More time for Yourself – Working with a VA gives you valuable time to focus on what matters most, such as business growth, family, friends, and health. Work-life balance is always a good thing!
- No Training Headaches – The most challenging aspect for small business owners is training new employees. In revenue generation, the hours spent on training has a negative impact. Yes, working with a VA still requires a learning curve for both parties, but as it is a long-term investment, once you’ve navigated and established what your VA needs to do, the rest is up to them to deliver the desired outcomes. An experienced VA (someone already familiar with the latest tools and tech) means they require minimal training/handover and can hit the ground running sorting out your tasks.
- Guarantee for Confidentiality – When you work with VAs, they can sign non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements (NDAs) before they start working for you to ensure your confidential information remains private and safe.
- Access to Professional Services at Lower Cost – Your VA has a wide range of professional skills and working with a VA gives you access to all those skills. Specialised VA’s can do a range of different tasks – from bookkeeping to website design and development and at a fraction of the cost of traditional providers.
- Less Stress – Working with a VA helps you reduce stress levels by leaving them to manage the little details of running your business. You don’t have to worry about the day-to-day tasks necessary to running your business smoothly.
- Focus on Core Business Functions – When you are not worried about the day-to-day tasks and you don’t have to do them yourself, you have time to focus on core business functions and development. This helps your business grow – new product development, expansion into new markets, etc. More time to focus on business growth means an increase in profits!
What can a Virtual Assistant do?
Depending on their skills, an experienced VA can do many tasks for you:
- Administrative tasks
- Project management
- Customer service
- Social media marketing
- Data entry
- Internet research
- Documentation
- SOPs
- Email marketing
- Content creation
- Lead generation and much more.
With all the above-mentioned excellent benefits of working with a VA, we’ve got you covered if you want to work with one! As Cameron Herold said:
“Delegate or outsource everything except the stuff you are awesome at. It allows you to focus on the tasks you are amazing at.”
With Octopus Admin, you can work with a talented VA who can help with all your business needs – decreasing your operating costs and increasing your business stability and profits.
Schedule a Free Discovery Call with Octopus Admin today to learn how you can grow your business by working with one of our trained professional VAs.
