Perhaps you are a small business owner or a very busy executive, stay at home mom, or the leader of a local group or organization. When you are juggling a lot of balls at one time, utilizing a Virtual Assistant, or Personal Assistant, can free up your time to concentrate on the things you really want, and need, to focus on.
From across the country a Virtual Assistant can help you manage your email, social media accounts, conduct research and compile surveys, and so much more. If you hire someone who is local to you, they can also help you in your office, run errands, and meet workers at your office or home so you don’t have to.
- When you hire a Virtual Assistant they are responsible for their own office space and equipment reducing your overhead.
- You are only paying for what you need. Pay by the project or by the hour instead of paying people to fill a seat.
- Virtual Assistants are less expensive than full-time employees. You are not responsible for employment taxes, benefits or insurance.
- Employees cost more than their base salary, and don’t always work the full eight hours you pay them.
- A Virtual Assistant can take on tasks you shouldn’t be doing because your time is more valuable, tasks that aren’t your forte, or tasks you simply don’t want to do yourself.
- Perhaps there is an activity or service you want to offer in your business, but don’t have the time to do it yourself. This is a great opportunity to hand that off to a Virtual Assistant.
- If you need more time to focus on your core business functions a Virtual Assistant can take on the less important tasks so you can focus on the important aspects of your business.
- It will reduce your workload.
- Hiring and firing can be time consuming, and expensive.
- Just because you have an employee filling the seat doesn’t mean they are competent, and able to perform all the tasks you need them to complete.
- Virtual Assistants can be available during ‘off’ hours to help you with events and unique projects.
- Consider how much your time is worth or how much you bill your clients and customers. If you are spending your time dealing with the simple tasks instead of someone making a portion of your salary, you are eating up all of your profits.
- You aren’t paying for coffee breaks and conversations at the water cooler. You are only being charged for time worked.
- You don’t have to worry about employee conflicts in the workplace.
- Virtual Assistants are unbiased and open to providing you with honest feedback when asked. Employees are often nervous to do so as they do not want to jeopardize their job.
- You will need to train a Virtual Assistant on company-specific tasks and proprietary software, however in all other cases the person you select will be proficient in the tasks you require.
- A growing business equates to more work, but that doesn’t always mean you can afford to hire a full-time employee.
- Hiring a Virtual Assistant allows you to hire several people to perform specific tasks for the same price, or less, than one employee. This is especially helpful if you have a project with a tight timeline.
- You won’t pay any overtime while keeping your projects on schedule.
- Because a Virtual Assistant is also running a business, they care about their business and livelihood, and will take extra care to ensure your satisfaction so that you will tell others about their services.
The article “Should You Hire A Virtual Assistant?” on Huffington Post covers some of the thoughts that may be running through your head related to hiring someone to work for/with you.
As the owner of two small businesses myself, I know it is often difficult to delegate work to others. I have learned along the way that there are some things that I am simply not that great at doing. I can edit photos, but I don’t particularly like taking photos of items to list in my shop or staging them to be more inviting. I can handle setting up QuickBooks, doing the daily or weekly bookkeeping; however, I hire an Accountant to handle my year-end books and complete my taxes. I like the peace of mind that they will back me up if the IRS has any questions.
You have to know where to draw the line in the sand. It’s a different place for everyone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help – it can be one of the biggest downfalls for a lot of small business owners and busy people in general. Know your strengths (and weaknesses). Be okay with giving some things up. One of my first managers used to tell me “You can never be more than you are today, if you aren’t okay with teaching someone else what you do today.” That was a life lesson I have taken with me everywhere. To move up in a company, to have time to work with more clients, to be more than you are today – you have to teach someone else. And, sometimes you have to hand them the reigns.
Not matter what business you are in, if you need to find more time and don’t have the resources to hire someone full-time – a Virtual Assistant is the way to go. If there is anything I can help you with, be sure to complete the Contact Us form to obtain more information. If you need something I don’t specialize in, I have a network of VA’s that I work with and would be happy to get you in the right hands!
Have you hired a Virtual Assistant? If so, how has it helped you?
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