Virtual assistants are fast becoming the new norm in many industries. A virtual assistant is a location independent service provider who can provide a myriad of different services to your company from a remote location. Virtual assistant work has grown to include many different positions that can be utilized to ensure that your company runs like a well-oiled machine and saves your company costs at the same time.
The top 5 reasons to hire a Virtual Assistant:
1. Reducing running costs
Many companies that hire full-time employees have found that the employees are not being as productive during the working day as what they could be. By hiring a virtual assistant you only have to pay for work that has been done.
Cost savings also include overheads like office space, internet connection, refreshments, electricity, training. Your company would be able to pay a virtual assistant that is proficient in the tasks that you require and you would not need to spend any additional costs on their training. Virtual assistants are continuously upskilling themselves to stay on top of ever-changing market trends.
2. Increased efficiency
A large number of a business’s employees day can be used up doing many repetitive tasks during the working day. Many of these tasks such as e-mails, customer queries, research, meeting scheduling, data entry etc. These tasks can sometimes take up so much time in your day that you are taken away from the more important work that is suited best to your skillset and qualifications. You could be paying an engineer 5 times more than a virtual assistant to be doing these tasks when their time could be spent on work that creates a larger income and faster output for your company.
3. Broader working hours
Because virtual assistants are spread across the world and work remotely, you can hire a VA to manage your business with clients outside of your time zone, without actually having to be available yourself.
4. Easier recruitment
If your company often has projects that come up suddenly and require a certain skill set that is not required regularly in your company, instead of going through the time-consuming process of hiring a full-time employee to do the work for you. For example, you might want to start advertising your business online but there is nobody in your employee who has that skill set. This is where a virtual assistant can be hired for only the time it takes each day that the project requires at a fraction of the cost of what it would cost to hire a full-time employee. You would also be able to make sure that the VA has referrals and experience in this line of work. For several reasons, a virtual assistant costs a lot less than a full-time employee.
5. No more micromanaging
When full-time staff is employed it is always a task to ensure that everyone is doing what they are paid for in the time frame required of them. Many hours are spent by full-time staff being non-productive. Sometimes you might even have to hire a manager to manage the staff for you. By hiring a VA this eliminates that need. You only pay for the work that is done and the time spent.
There are many tools and apps available in the virtual world to do that for you. And any VA worth their salt is focused and self-disciplined enough to ensure that the work is done in a professional and timeous manner. Messaging tools such as Slack and Microsoft teams enable you and your virtual assistants to run even more productively than you would in an office environment. There are also several time and project management tools such as Toggl, Trello, and Asana to ensure that all projects are communicated and done within the time frame required. Gone are the days of a lengthy project meeting. Everything can be done virtually.
The tools and information given above is only the tip of the iceberg of the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant. You will not regret it and find yourself with a more cost-efficient and streamlined company as a result.
