As an owner of a growing business, it's time to focus on the things that increase revenue. Unload your shoulders with countless roles, including responding to customers, handling administrative tasks, etc. You can increase your productivity by hiring a virtual assistant.
In this article, we'll walk you through the advantages of hiring a business virtual assistant and address some questions about the role.
What is a Business Virtual Assistant?
A business virtual assistant is an independent contractor who offers administrative services outside the client's office. A virtual assistant typically works in a home office and completes their tasks online.
New opportunities are available to virtual assistants who are experts in social media, content management, blogging, graphic design, and internet marketing. As working from home has become widely accepted, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for virtual assistants continues to grow.
Having a virtual assistant (VA) work for your company is similar to having your employee. They may finish their work during standard office hours. They may do it at different times, depending on the VA's and client's schedules.
Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant
Hiring a business virtual assistant comes with many advantages. They can help you save time, money, and effort, which you can re-focus towards the core aspects of your business. Read on for a detailed breakdown of the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant.
1. Saves time
Being a small business owner can be challenging. Your schedule needs to be updated with several tasks that must be done simultaneously. Rather than stressing yourself with non-strategic work, you can delegate tasks to your virtual assistant. Doing so will allow you to focus on achieving more significant and essential business goals.
You can hire a virtual assistant for your business from another time zone. Some business owners use this technique to increase their company's operating hours beyond the typical eight hours in their local time zone. In addition, this increases coverage regarding client communications and other time-sensitive tasks.
2. Improves turnaround time of time-consuming tasks
There are specific tasks that you put off doing every day. It could be responding to a client's emails or filling out forms. While these tasks are crucial for business operations and keeping clients happy, they may only sometimes need your personal touch. They may be better off assigned to an assistant.
So, instead of spending your day doing repetitive and time-consuming tasks, delegate them to a virtual assistant.
3. Allows entrepreneurs to focus on core business areas
Routine administrative work can be carried out by a virtual assistant without a deep understanding of the brand's mission. A virtual assistant can quickly complete these tasks. Tasks like note-taking, scheduling meetings, or generating invoices are examples of things your virtual assistant can do on your behalf.
4. Reduces staffing and operations costs
Hiring a full-time, office-based assistant can be expensive. Aside from paying their monthly salary, you will also provide medical insurance, other benefits, office space and supplies, and other costs.
With virtual assistants, you only have to pay them for the number of hours they work or for the tasks completed. Since virtual assistants work remotely, you can hire a professional from anywhere. This means you have broad options when looking for the skills you need.
When you hire a virtual assistant, you also save money on training costs. Likewise, recruiting virtual assistants is easy because of many freelancing platforms like Upwork.
5. Increases scalability
Hiring full-time employees and renting physical workspaces are significant investments that may only be possible for some companies.
Hiring a virtual assistant is a safe alternative that gives you all the benefits of having an extra resource without the corresponding financial burden. Add or remove virtual assistants from your team as needed and scale up or down with less stress.
6. Improves customer service
Providing good customer service must be a priority for any brand. Not only does this practice help you build lasting relationships with your customers, but it also results in increased revenue.
Virtual assistants can help you create a better customer experience in many ways. They can quickly monitor your business email and social media handles and respond to queries.
7. Improves work-life balance
The stress of founding, growing, and managing a business can affect an individual's physical and mental well-being. Separating your professional and personal life will become complicated if you continue to micro-manage all tasks.
Hire a competent virtual personal assistant who can take the more minor tasks off your hands and let you take some much-needed time off work. This allows you to maintain accountability with the confidence that your virtual assistant will complete your job. Maintaining your health and peace of mind is essential for finding long-term success.
8. Increases productivity
When you hire a virtual assistant with specialized skills, you can often complete tasks far quicker than if you tried to learn and do it yourself. Your team's productivity should increase, and the burden on existing staff members should be reduced.
Hiring remote assistants to join your team can also be more productive than getting more in-person staff. Since they work from home, virtual assistants can save time commuting or making small talk with colleagues. Virtual assistants are often paid for only the work they complete. This can make them more focused and productive than full-time employees drawing fixed salaries.
Common tasks to delegate to a virtual assistant
There are plenty of tasks that you can outsource to a virtual assistant. With advanced technology now at our fingertips, a virtual assistant can complete anything that can be done in a standard office setup.
Some everyday tasks that can be outsourced to a business virtual assistant include:
- Data entry
- Email management
- Taking incoming phone calls
- Calendar management
- Document creation and word processing
- Creating reports and presentations
- Social media content creation and management
- Updating website content
- Article/blog writing
- Booking travel and accommodation
