With an increasing number of people setting up their own businesses and the rise of remote working accelerated by the pandemic, there has never been a better time than now to utilise the support on offer to help steer your life and business in the direction you wish to go.
So, you’ve probably heard the term ‘Virtual Assistant’ mentioned once in a while but do not know much about what this entails. Or maybe this is a completely unknown world to you and you’re wondering what the heck is this?!
Without further ado, let’s dive in…
What is a Virtual Assistant and what do they do?
In short, they are freelance professionals who work remotely with entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and all kinds of small to medium business owners who do not already employ a PA/secretary/admin assistant.
The majority of Virtual Assistants (or VAs) come from an admin background and provide administrative services, although some VAs offer services in other areas such as Legal, Marketing, Copywriting, HR, Social Media, Tech and Bookkeeping to name a few.
Features of Virtual Assistants
I should stress that each VA is unique, in terms of the industries they support, skillset, experience, ideas and gifts they bring to the table. As mentioned previously, most VAs offer admin support but others offer different services. In addition, VAs are always eager to learn, which enables them to expand their service offering over time and of course help your business as you benefit from their newfound knowledge and skills.
There are however some commonalities that the very best VAs have:
- Great problem solvers
- Great communicators
- Highly organised
- Adaptable
- Great with technology
- Love learning – new tools, technologies, skills etc.
- Unflappable
- Reliable
- Exercise a high level of confidentiality
- ICO registered
- Insured
- Aware of GDPR and Data Protection regulations
- Detail oriented
- Resilient
- Self-disciplined
- Self-motivated
Why should I hire a Virtual Assistant?
- You’re a business owner who is either in the early days of setting up or established, and burnt out from spinning too many plates
- A big chunk of your time is spent doing tasks you do not enjoy, leaving less time for the things you love and working on growing your business
- There are particular jobs you should be doing for your business but do not know how to do, and so you would benefit from outsourcing these to an expert
Benefits of working with a Virtual Assistant
- Cheaper than hiring a full-time employee
- VAs only charge for the time they work on your tasks – you can work with a VA for as much or little as you need depending on how much support you require – this can be for 10, 20 or even 40 hours per month
- No costs incurred for equipment, office space, holiday pay, sick pay, maternity pay, tax, NI, pension contributions, recruitment or agency fees
- VAs don’t require extra training or motivation as they are already self-motivated individuals
- Flexibility – some VAs work part-time and others full-time, some may choose to work within the Monday to Friday 9 to 5 pattern and others on evenings and weekends
- Increased work-life balance and wellbeing – so you can take that holiday you’ve dreamed of, pick your kids up from school or play a round of golf
- More time to work in your business doing the things you enjoy – whether that’s on strategy, innovation or networking
- High standard of work delivered according to agreed deadlines – VAs work closely with you, they care about solving problems and making improvements to increase the success of your business
If you’re sold from reading all of this – that’s amazing!
If you are keen to move forward, or you’re not quite there yet and you still have further questions, the next step to take is to book a free 30 minute discovery call with me and go from there!
