At one stage or another, in our personal or professional life, how many of us have thought, ‘‘I could really do with an Assistant right now’’ – a fair few of us, right? Sometimes we need someone to tackle our to-do list, free up our time, co-ordinate projects or help us improve our work/life balance… or all of the above!
Traditionally speaking, large corporate firms would hire permanent, fulltime, in-house Personal Assistants to support their Executive Directors, but times have changed and as we embrace a flexible, hybrid way of working, more and more business owners within different industries are hiring Virtual Assistants to support them with day-to-day business operations and achieve key objectives - from small start-ups to international corporate giants, every business can utilise the skillset of a Virtual Assistant (VA).
What is a VA?
‘‘What do you actually do?’’ I’ve heard this question many times and in short, I provide administrative and creative support to businesses remotely from my home office. Simple, eh?
The ultimate goal of a VA is to make our stakeholders’ lives easier and in today’s modern world, social media and marketing tasks, including copywriting, are in high demand, but no two businesses have the same requirements, and every VA has their own skillset (or ‘niche’) so it’s important to find a VA that has the right experience to support your business.
I spend a lot of my time creating content for blogs, web pages and email campaigns, as well as co-ordinating ongoing projects to meet key deadlines and creating & scheduling eye-catching and punchy content for social media. But that’s not all VAs do – we can support your business with note taking services, email & diary management, travel bookings, transcriptions and so much more. You’ll find a full list of my services here.
The Benefits of a VA
The list of benefits that a VA can bring to your business is endless! But if I had to pick three firm favourites, I’d say:
· Save Time: sometimes 24 hours in a day just isn’t enough. When you hire a Virtual Assistant, you can delegate those mundane and repetitive - but important - tasks to your VA giving you more time to focus on other things including future development and business growth. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much more work you can complete in a day with a VA on your team.
· Save Money: hiring another permanent team member is a pricey task as it’s not just their salary you need to pay for, but their desk, IT equipment and phone, as well as holiday & sick pay, and pension contributions. But with a Virtual Assistant you pay an hourly rate for their productive time… there’s no thumb twitching around here! For context, take a look at my pricing page here to help you determine how many hours of support you require, and how much you can expect to pay for the services of a Virtual Assistant.
· Boost productivity: a smart entrepreneur’ knows how to delegate, and by hiring a VA to take care of the tasks you haven’t got time for (or perhaps just don’t want to do) you can simultaneously focus on what you’re good at, achieving more in the working day.
Now, if they’re not three great reasons to hire a Virtual Assistant then I don’t know what is!
Can I Afford a Virtual Assistant?
Think of a VA as an independent contractor – we all have different hourly rates and pricing structures.
We touched on it earlier, but the beauty of hiring a VA is that you only pay for their productive time as opposed to hiring a fulltime member of staff who doesn’t have enough to do to fulfil their contractual working hours.
How to Partner with a VA
Whether you need a little assistance here and there or saving from a mountain of work, a Virtual Assistant can help.
1. I’d recommend taking 5 minutes out of your day to determine what tasks you want to outsource. Ask yourself, ‘‘what takes up the most time? What’s repetitive? What don’t you want to do yourself?’’
2. The next step is finding a VA who will be a good fit for your business. You need a VA who you will get along with, but who has the skillset to do the jobs you want them to do. The good news is there are lots (and lots!) of Virtual Assistants on the market so you may find that you have the pick of the bunch, but I’d definitely recommend checking for testimonials and reviews (mine are on my website, here) to determine how other business owners, just like you, have benefitted from their services.
3. Fancy partnering with me? Each VA will have their own onboarding process, and I pride mine for being so simple. There’s no scary contract, just a small T&Cs document to provide clarity on responsibilities and ways of working for both parties. Why complicate things, right?
If you could benefit from an extra pair of (virtual) hands and are considering partnering with a Virtual Assistant, please get in touch. We’ll have a chat to determine your requirements and find a solution that supports your business goals and objectives. And if everybody is happy then we can get to work… it really is that simple.
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