5 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Virtual Assistant

Many entrepreneurs are reluctant to take the plunge into getting a virtual assistant. So often they don’t get the help that they need because they think hiring a full-time, physical assistant is their only option and it’s not. The truth is, many professional relationships today are virtual. Almost all business transactions are conducted via email, Skype and phone.

As we celebrate STAFFVIRTUAL’s 5th anniversary of responsible outsourcing, here are 5 reasons why you should hire a virtual assistant.

Productivity

While you might wish that there were more hours in a day, the reality is that business moves fast and in order to keep up, you need to segment your day and employ professional help.

Hire a virtual assistant to focus on time consuming, repetitive tasks. Create a weekly to-do list of tasks for her/ him to complete.

The tasks can vary from email management, data entry, research, to booking travel arrangements.

All of which are tasks that slow your productivity down when you do them yourself as a business owner.

A virtual assistant can easily shave hours off your day. Imagine being ahead of schedule for once and having free time to work on a new product or add a new service for your clients.

The Money Factor

Most businesses deal has a crossroads at some point. You face the prospect of growing but struggle making the transition. Costs increase and you have to put the brakes on new expenses.

When it comes to hiring a virtual assistant you might not see how there is room in the budget. As a result, you keep on doing the mundane tasks yourself and your business remains stuck.

Most business owners are surprised to learn that hiring a virtual assistant is considerably more affordable than what is initially believed. The total cost is 50% or less than hiring an in-house employee, plus there is no need to pay for extra office space, insurances, taxes or any other employee associated costs.

Being able to cut down on your weekly tasks and administrative duties in order to grow your business makes justifying the costs of hiring a virtual assistant a no-brainer.

Additional Employees Too Soon

When businesses start seeing growth there is a temptation to grow even faster. To do this, companies often hire more employees.

Hiring too soon is a big risk and can be a business destroyer.

If you don’t have evaluation processes in place you could hire someone that doesn’t fit your culture and that potentially can’t handle the job.

Instead of hiring a full-time employee during your transition period and going backwards, there is another viable option:

Have someone that takes care of the hiring, providing office space and takes all of the risks for you.

This also means that you don’t have to deal with the administrative and legal issues of employing staff.

You Do Everything Yourself

This mindset is all wrong, not to be too harsh. Primarily because when you truly evaluate that statement, it is not that you are in not “in control” of your business it is that you have fear of releasing control.

However, you can benefit tremendously from having a personal assistant helping to run your business more efficiently. By handling everything yourself you cut into opportunities that might arise.

For example, by spending 2 hours each day reading and replying to email you’re cutting into time that could be spent finding new clients or working with partners on new revenue streams.

The main attraction of a VA is the flexibility.

They can do a lot of admin tasks, which are time consuming but not high value activities, such as updating social media, writing newsletters, sending out emails or even responding to customer’s inquiries.

Those looking to hire a VA should work out what they don’t like doing first. That way you can do what you are good at.

A reputable virtual assistant will be able to step up to any challenge your business may dictate, regardless of geography, due to the ever-growing technological tools and resources that are within reach. Therefore, a virtual assistant is an all around savvier choice for your business budget.

Is it worth your time to reply to an email or to develop more revenue?

Entrepreneurial Burnout

You may believe that you must churn out 80-hour weeks in order to reach a pinnacle of success as an entrepreneur.

However, burnout is a common fault of many entrepreneurs at all stages of business.

Humans need sleep. We work better when our brain is rested and functional. When we burn ourselves out we’re cutting into personal and business efficiencies.

Spending hours each day entering data or handling email or sending tweets is not using your abilities in the most efficient manner. You’re working hard, but not smart.

Hiring a virtual assistant will allow you to reach your business goals faster because your company productivity will improve.

This is what STAFFVIRTUAL does: We build dedicated teams of highly skilled Filipino outsourcing professionals who help our clients’ companies to become more efficient, productive and profitable.

We focus on three core aspects of responsible outsourcing. We believe that it is better to do a small number of things well rather than many things poorly. We can quickly find individuals with specific skills, or build an offshore team so that an entire department or business process can be outsourced.

Outsourcing companies like STAFFVIRTUAL help train and more importantly, manage your employees day to day ensuring the staff are happy and productivity goals are met. Our services are fully customized to your needs therefore we can work with any type of organization, from small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to large corporations.

You free up time to rest and when you’re working, your mind will be operating at peak performance. You’ll be working smarter and harder!