Why Hiring A Virtual Assistant Is A Really Good Idea...

Virtual assistants — VAs for short — have become increasingly popular in today’s remotely working world. In fact, VAs are arguably the most flexible workforce out there. 

They can take on as many or as few hours as you need, and you can hire one or several depending on the tasks you need to delegate. What’s cooler, is that you can source them from all over this floating rock we call earth. This might be beneficial if your business runs 24/7 like mine. 

In this article, I'll do my best to describe what virtual assistants can do and how they can help you save time, money, and headaches, as well as help you scale your business more efficiently! I'll also talk about how to find the right VA (or VAs) for your exact business needs. 

Keep reading to learn more... (Or get distracted and potentially miss out on something rad that could help you out... your call) 

What Is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is an independent and remote worker who assists with the various aspects of running a business. This typically includes taking on recurring tasks and handling everything from administrative duties to social media scheduling, data entry, and posting. 

By taking on all of these various tasks, virtual assistants can free up valuable time for business owners so they can focus on staying in their primary "lane of genius." They’re also way more cost-effective compared to hiring a traditional personal assistant who requires a salary, insurance, special benefits, and more...

Since virtual assistants work remotely, you can hire one or several from various parts of the world. Again, this can be incredibly beneficial for businesses that run 24/7, especially if you require customer service for a global customer base.  

How Virtual Assistants Can Help Your Business

As mentioned, virtual assistants generally do everything from A to Z. Of course, each VA will offer up different experience levels in regards to what they can do and what they can’t do. 

For example, you can hire VA to take care of basic needs such as scheduling meetings, generating warm leads, making travel arrangements, and organizing files. Or, you can hire a VA to handle important bookkeeping tasks.

Generally speaking, virtual assistants can take care of one or more of the following;

• Administrative tasks: Scheduling appointments, answering phones, organizing files, etc.

• Bookkeeping: Maintaining financial records, tracking business expenses, managing a budget, and making purchases.

• Personal assistant duties: Organizing tasks outside of work, such as arranging travel, keeping your calendar organized, purchasing gifts for friends or family, and so on.

• Customer service: Acting as the first point of contact for customers in need of assistance. They can address basic or ongoing concerns, initiate returns or special discounts based on the situation, or escalate the matter to the appropriate person within the company to further assist the customer in need.

• Data entry: Taking on data entry jobs that require compiling, checking for accuracy, deleting incomplete or unnecessary records, billing, postal work, etc.

• Social media production and management: Managing ongoing social media needs such as responding to comments and engaging with followers as well as maintaining a posting schedule and analyzing the account metrics to provide growth insights and more.

• Content management: Managing a production calendar, organizing writing resources and taking care of the various other elements of content publishing.

• Research: Conducting and analyzing market research, customer engagements, or performance. 

All of these things are incredibly time-consuming and can take the focus away from production and productivity. They’re also not things a business owner can do on their own. These are elements of a business that require a team, and by hiring a virtual assistant, you can create that team without having to onboard full-time employees that require a standard salary and benefits.

It should be noted that If you need a virtual assistant for most of the above tasks, you’ll want to consider hiring multiple VAs that specialize in various tasks. This is especially true when it comes to data research, lead generation, as well as social media marketing. These things are not for the inexperienced, and hiring a virtual assistant means hiring someone that’s familiar with performing these tasks and is either adept and learning new software or already experienced with the various platforms out there.

Now to the tactical part!

How to Find the Right Virtual Assistants For Your Needs...

So far, you know that virtual assistants each come with their own set of skills that can contribute to your company in various ways. More importantly, they can handle all of the tedious and ongoing tasks for you so that you can spend more time and energy on other areas of your business — and at a more cost-effective price since they aren’t paid as full-time employees.

Not to mention, they can provide you with a lot of flexibility since you can designate their working hours by what you need to be done as well as hire multiple VAs in different time zones for a continuous workforce. 

But how do you find the right virtual assistant — or assistants — for the job? Here’s what you need to do:

• Assess your business’s needs. Make a clear list of the business tasks you need to be taken care of. This will let you know the type of skillset you’re looking for in a virtual assistant as well as how many you’ll need to hire.

• Establish your expectations. Once you’ve assessed your business’s needs, you’ll want to elaborate on how you would want these tasks completed as well as their deadlines for completion. You’ll also need to establish guidelines for communication, and anything else you think is important regarding a working relationship.

• Establish your budget. Pay for VAs will vary depending on things like experience level, areas of expertise, and whether the VA in question works through an agency or as a freelancer. Be sure to figure out “how much VA” you can afford.

• Start sourcing VAs. Once you know what you need, can afford, and how you would expect your future VA to function as a part of your team, you’ll need to find a VA that fits the bill. Working off of referrals is always a good start. Or, you can hire a VA through an agency or post a job listing. I highly recommend hiring your VA's direct instead of going through a re-seller or brokerage website. (this will save you money and allow you to build your internal team. Not just hire a freelancer.)

Keep in mind that you want to hire a virtual assistant that you’ll get along with and who communicates well. After all, this will likely be a long-term work relationship that’s geared towards helping your business grow. So, make sure to have a virtual meeting with any candidates you’re considering to get a feel for who they are and how they respond to you and your requirements. 

Want to learn more about hiring remote virtual assistants?

Shoot me a direct message, I would be glad to share some of my personal experience and strategy that has served me well over the years.