Why you need a virtual assistant for your business

As the business world continues to evolve, professional relationships are becoming virtual. Consequently, the demand for virtual assistant services is continuing to rise. Whether you are starting as an entrepreneur or planning to expand your business, you will need help in carrying out day-to-day tasks.

Hiring an in-house person was the traditional option, but this trend has changed as most common administrative tasks today are now executable virtually. As a result, you only need a virtual assistant to get the work done.

A virtual assistant is a person who works remotely to provide various services to businesses or entrepreneurs. As a result, they have virtual access to the data and tools they need to accomplish their jobs, even if they aren’t in the office.

Virtual assistants can assist you with customer support, administrative tasks, social media management, data entry, accounting, and other tasks to support your business.

Top 7 Reasons Why You Need A Virtual Assistant
If you feel a little hesitant to take the plunge, then here are seven reasons why you shouldn’t waste any more time.

1. Only Pay for the Work Done
   Trying to boost productivity while reducing costs can be very difficult as a business owner. There will be times when you’ll need all the help you can get, but there will also be times when you’ll have little going on. For example, with a regular employee, you will have to pay full week’s wages whether they work the whole 40 hours or not.

In reality, you’re most likely going to need their service for half of this time. And that’s where virtual assistants come in – you only pay for the work done. You can decide to hire when you need some work and set the specific hours they will work per day or week to accomplish the tasks. You can always quantify the output per hour using time-tracking software or just by seeing the number of hours worked vs. the output.

2. Save More Money on Resources
   When you run an in-house team, you have to pay for a lot of things in addition to the service you’re getting. This includes but is not limited to rental charges, furniture, workspace, office equipment, electricity bills, amongst other charges. However, when you outsource to personal virtual assistant services, you don’t have to cover these expenses. You also do not provide virtual assistants with health care, paid vacation leaves, and other benefits as you would to an in-house team.
3. You Save Time with a Virtual Assistant
   If your business requires you to attend to a lot of calls and emails or do some data entry, then you’re better off delegating those tasks to someone else. Answering a call or replying to an email is not the best use of your time. Rather you can assign these administrative tasks to a virtual assistant while concentrating on bigger matters like sales or networking with other businesses or individuals.
4. Hiring a Virtual Assistant is Easier than an in-house Employee
   Hiring in-house often presents a lot of challenges. You often have to hire, train, fire, and rehire until you find the right person for the job. In the end, you waste a lot of time and resources, which is not economically healthy for a startup. Using the best virtual assistance services is the best option. Most virtual assistants are already trained; you need to give them clear instructions, and the task will be handled.
5. Use Virtual Assistant Services to fill Areas You Lack Competence
   As an entrepreneur, there might be areas of your business where you may feel less competent to handle. This could be anything from project management, keeping inventory to executing ideas. Since virtual assistants have a wide range of expertise, they can offer valuable input to improve your services. This could be suggesting how to bolster customer service experience, new technologies for better inventory management, or new ideas in email handling.
6. Increase Your Efficiency and Reduce Burnout
   Do you feel like you’re not accomplishing much even after putting in a lot of effort? If so, you’re likely taking on so many small tasks that are reducing your efficiency. Hiring a virtual assistant can greatly benefit you. Whether it’s your travel arrangements, an invoice that needs to be updated, or an appointment you need to make, you can have your assistant take care of it while you focus more on decision making. Doing this will greatly reduce your chances of burning out and improve your productivity in the end.
7. 24/7 Virtual Assistant Service
   Some businesses require you to be there all the time to handle customer inquiries and queries. A good example is an online shop or e-commerce business. Managing such businesses can be challenging, especially if you don’t have someone that works overnight to keep the business line open to customers. You can save yourself from all the hassle by hiring someone in a time zone that is different from yours. This ensures your business or service is available round the clock, whether you’re there or not.

Now that you know the top reasons why you need a virtual assistant, you may be wondering when you can get to the hiring process? This is what we will address in the next section!

When to Hire a Virtual Assistant?
When minor tasks or one-off projects are involved, employing a virtual assistant from a distant specialist is preferable. However, if there are non-core duties such as answering phone calls and emails, then you should employ a virtual assistant. They can efficiently perform these tasks allowing you to concentrate on other core responsibilities.

Considering these reasons, it could be cumbersome to land the perfect fit with your VA. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the important factors while choosing your VA, which is why we will look at the best way to hire your VA.

Step by step: How to Hire VA?
Employing the best virtual assistant service will enable you to deal with more projects, further build up your services and products, and have additional time for a new venture. To ensure that the person you will hire is the right fit for your business, you should look at these six tips to hire a perfect virtual assistant.

1. Decide Whether You Are Ready
   Hiring a virtual assistant is cumbersome and costs money. In addition, it requires abilities that you may have to learn, such as management and delegation. More than anything, in the initial stages, it takes some time. Thus, before you decide on hiring your VA, you should be definitive that you need a virtual assistant.
2. Consider Budget and Location
   The distinguishing feature of employing a virtual assistant is the difference in time-zone and location. You can hire a virtual assistant online working for you from anywhere in the world. To capitalize on your working relationship, you should ensure that you and your virtual assistant can meet online and talk about tasks in a routine. It is also of extreme importance that you have a budget to avoid wasting time talking to the applicants with rates higher than what you can afford.
3. Shortlisting candidates
   To begin with, make a list of qualities you need in your VA. Then, you will be able to choose your preferred candidate to call for the interview easily. During the interview, you can observe their personality, communication skills, how they present themselves, and how well they react to potential problems.
4. Prepare a Job Description
   This point ties to the first tip – you need to know why you are hiring a virtual assistant and what you are getting them to do. A job description helps in cutting down applicants based on how adequately they meet your requirements. From the candidate’s point of view, it causes people to put themselves in or out depending on how well they believe they meet the description.
5. Define Goals
   To set clear goals for your business, you can organize a trial work with the candidates. This can be done by giving out a model task of what they will be doing at your company. This is to get them acquainted with how things work at your place. You can also develop a detailed list of steps they have to take to complete your assignments.
6. Begin with a Small Project
   Regardless of how incredible a virtual assistant may perform during the interview, it is still better to give out your tasks one at a time. After hiring a personal virtual assistant, begin with a small task, and afterward, add more tasks based on their performance. As time goes by, you can transform your virtual assistant into a crucial part of your brand and give them incentives for a job well done.

To wrap up, if you feel like there’s a lag in your business, then this is the perfect solution for you! Hire virtual assistant services today to start flourishing. With virtual assistants, you can focus on your core business as we take care of the rest. We will help you propel your business to the next level.

WHY YOU NEED VIRTUAL ASSISTANT