Why hire a Virtual Assistant

Let's start with the basics

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an individual who provides a service to businesses and individuals from a remote location. They are not staff member, but someone who is self-employed and specialises in one or more areas.

These could include:

General Administrative tasks
Social Medial management (SMM)
Online Business management (OBM)
Accounting or bookkeeping
Marketing and Sales

What benefits does hiring a VA bring to your business?

Frees up your time!

Everyone underestimates the time it take to complete the general admin tasks or how much time is spent scheduling and responding to social media posts and these are not tasks that should be done by the person running a company!

If a VA was to do these things, your time could be spent on growing your business rather than working it.

Improve your customer service!

You're great at creating, marketing and selling your product or service, but thats where your time runs out. So many companies lose repeated business because they fail to meet their customers expectations. A VA can stay on top of email correspondence, schedule meetings or even answer a query in such a way that they customer feels they are speaking directly to the boss.

Reduce costs part 1!

This one always surprises people!

By hiring a self-employed VA you actual save money on your overheads. There's no holiday, sick, national insurance or pension to pay, the VA takes care of all them for themselves.

There are some grey areas where the employee/self-employed line must not be crossed, but having an open communication and clear expectations with the VA is vital to ensure no one gets into sticky water with the HMRC!

Reduce costs part 2!

As the VA will bring their own specialised skill set, you only need to train them in specific areas of your business. The also have their own equipment such as computers and programmes etc, so not need to provide this. All you have to do is invest a small amount of time in the beginning ang the benefits out weight that cost.

Flexibility!

You choose what and how much assistant you need. Majority of VAs will have a variety of packages to allow companies to pick the level of help they need. This allows you to control your budget, more than what you would do with an employee.

What are the signs that you should be looking to hire a VA?

Most people miss the signs that they should be getting help with their business. They focus on the cost implications and not the benefits that come from outsourcing.

So here are some of the signs you should look out for.......

You're spending too much time working your business than running your business
Too often you are working after the kids have gone to bed
Too many weekends are lost to 'catching up' on bits
Getting stressed over the little things
Unable to commit to new clients due to being overworked