What is a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant, sometimes called a Cyber Assistant or Virtual Secretary provides basic office support from their home office, all the services you would expect of an ‘in office’ secretary, plus a whole lot more. With a Virtual Assistant, not only do you not cover payroll taxes, insurance or buy additional equipment or office space, but most VAs bill only for ‘time on task,’ saving your bottom line. A Virtual Assistant will also partner with you to solve your business services needs for the long term, unlike most temps, who can be very transitory and usually require constant training and supervision. With a Virtual Assistant, you get temporary or ongoing office or staffing support that can hit the ground running. Virtual Assistants are also available around the clock for those emergency office tasks and projects, not just "9 to 5."

Why Should I Hire a VA?

Growing your business can be a challenge, especially when you're trying to balance the needs of your business against your available budget. What can make things even more difficult is the increased load of administrative work that comes from successfully growing your business. A Virtual Assistant can help you lessen the burden without paying a small fortune. Why should you be swamped with a desk full of work when you could be out doing the tasks that you enjoy doing, the projects that inspired you to start your own business in the first place? Outsourcing your administrative functions will increase your productivity by 50% or more. How so? Well, how much is your time worth per hour? Would you pay yourself $100 per hour or more? Then it's easy to see that it would make much more sense for you to outsource some of your tasks to a partner who's hourly rate is much less than your own. That way, you can be out doing those things that "grow" your business and the assistant will complete the tasks that "go" your business.

How does working with a Virtual Assistant work?

It's easy! You simply communicate via phone, fax, email or snail mail. Do you have a Quickbooks file that you'd like your Virtual Assistant to update? Just email a back up copy to your Virtual Assistant and they can make those changes. Do you have a marketing campaign you'd like your Virtual Assistant to manage? Just send instructions via email or fax, possibly even discuss the particulars over the phone and turn your outsourced administrative professional loose. Do you have big files to transfer to your Virtual Assistant? There are many ways to do so, either via FTP access or through file sharing - most Virtual Assistants are highly experienced and can hit the ground running on your projects. Imagine never having to worry about technology again - your VA has all of the high tech solutions and can easily implement them for you to increase your productivity (and your bottom line!)

How can I be assured my projects are getting done?

Your Virtual Assistant won't succeed unless you're getting solid results. Therefore, their top priority is communicating with you to ensure you're seeing the results. You should initially work with your VA to allow her to get familiar with your business and your core competencies.  Your VA can then make recommendations on how to engage systems and processes that will maximize your free time and increase your bottom line.

A Virtual Assistant should then update you weekly on progress and advise you on the next steps to continue progress moving forward.

Wouldn't it be more practical and affordable to hire staff?

Consider this: If you hire an employee to handle your administrative tasks, you'll need to provide them with a desk, computer, training, enough work to fill their day, vacation pay, sick pay, 401k and a whole host of other expenses. That can be a real headache for the small business person on a budget. The cost of employees rose 1.3 percent between December 2002 and March 2003, says a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. That's a substantial increase! The cost of benefits increased 2.2 percent and continued to substantially out pace the 1 percent gain in wages and salaries for civilian workers in March. Employer costs for benefits account for nearly 30 percent of compensation costs and include such areas as health and other insurance, retirement plans, paid leave and legally-required benefits like Social Security. (Taken from the Business Examiner Daily)

With a Virtual Assistant, you avoid all of these costs! Plus, do you really want the headaches involved with training and managing an employee? What if this person takes what they've learned from you and starts their own business? You would now have competition! A VA is very happy in their position and will never become your competition. Plus, many VAs have been working with clients all over the country and they can share any successful methods they've used in the past to help you beyond what you may have even considered for your business. Now, what entry level employee can do that?

Just remember - Virtual Assistants are independent business people, not employees.   

What if working personalities don't mesh?

This can indeed happen from time to time. Differences in personalities do occur, and if that's ever the case you can certainly suggest to your Virtual Assistant that while you're confident in their abilities you'd feel more comfortable working with someone else. If necessary, your Virtual Assistant should be able to recommend another highly skilled and experienced Virtual Assistant and can even submit an RFP through one of the Virtual Assistant organizations should you feel it necessary.

What should I look for in picking a Virtual Assistant?

There are several qualities you should keep in mind when choosing a Virtual Assistant. First, do they have experience? How long have they been in the industry? Do they have a solid reputation among the business community? Do they have experience in your field? Are they communicative? Do they seem to share your same business values? Are they responsive? Are they tenacious? You may not be able to ask these questions directly to your prospective Virtual Assistant, but they are questions to keep in mind as you visit their website, read their testimonials and even as you run a Google search on their business. After all, they will be representing you and your business. You should certainly ask for references from their current clients. Also, interview them about some of the work they've done for other clients. What successes have they had? What problems have they been able to solve for clients? These types of questions should give you a better idea of the working style of the VA you're interviewing.

What kind of projects can a Virtual Assistant do for me?

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. What tasks seem to take up most of your business day? You could easily hire a Virtual Assistant to manage your marketing, increase your search engine rank, answer your emails when you're on vacation, field phone calls, make appointments, handle your listings, send out postcards, write press releases, design a website, manage your books, create flyers, and much more! You're in business to do business, not be an administrator. Handing off your administrative work to a professional administrative services person enables you to focus on your core competencies. Don't "BE" an assistant, hire an assistant - otherwise, you're paying top dollar for amateur results.