Why Hire a Virtual Assistant?

There has been a lot of talk in the business world lately about the perks of hiring a virtual assistant, but many business owners are still hesitant to try it out. Trying anything new can be intimidating, and in business, taking a poorly calculated risk can sink a company. But with the growing number of entrepreneurs who have hired virtual assistants having successfully scaled their business, maybe now is the right time for you to join the virtual staffing movement.

If you want to know more about why hiring a virtual assistant, or even a team of VAs, is a brilliant business move, this article is for you.

Why should a business owner hire a VA?

Why hire a virtual assistant anyway? The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant have been touted by many entrepreneurs for several years now. Many small business owners have said that hiring a VA has allowed them to scale quickly even with a limited budget.

Don’t believe it? Here are some of the most inspiring things that business owners who have found VAs from top virtual staff finder 20four7VA have said about the benefits of hiring a VA.

Why business owners love virtual assistants

“20Four7VA has been a great asset to our company. We found some smart and reliable people through them and we are very thankful for that.” – Roxana Chumpitaz

“20four7VA has been a great way to augment our staff. We have found that mixing in-house staff with 20Four7VA people has given us a great blend of the culture and tribal knowledge we need while also reducing our costs. They have brought us excellent candidates, many of which we count as invaluable members of our team.” – Keith Tessler

“20four7Va is extremely helpful in all areas of business! They have really adapted to my needs in every way and I have successfully used them for the past year with no end in sight. Very grateful!” – Greg Mills

These glowing reviews from clients show just how much of a good fit virtual assistants can be when it comes to maintaining and growing a company. Still not convinced that hiring a virtual assistant can work wonders for your business? Here are 5 reasons to hire a virtual assistant now:

1. Get back 40% of your day — or more.

According to an article from Entrepreneur, small business owners spend up to 40% of their day doing time-consuming tasks. These are tasks that are necessary to keep their business afloat but don’t help at all in generating sales and additional revenue. These tasks include everything from monitoring and answering all emails, doing customer service, data entry, HR and payroll work, social media management, and so on and so forth.

2, Avoid the tasks you hate and reduce your stress levels.

Did you know that your mood and general disposition can have a major impact on your company? A happy CEO is great for business. With a positive outlook, you can increase your team’s morale and boost productivity. On the other hand, a stressed and angry business owner can lead to a team that feels pressured and upset.

If you’re constantly doing tasks that you hate and are constantly overworked, you’re inevitably going to pass it down to your team and bring down your business. To avoid this, you can hire a VA and delegate the tasks you hate doing most to them.

3. Improve productivity and efficiency in your company.

To save money, many small business owners try to do as many things as possible by themselves. It’s not surprising to see many of them managing their calendars, answering calls, responding to customers, managing their social media pages, optimizing their content, doing their email marketing, or even building and maintaining their own website.

Unfortunately, trying to do everything yourself has several negative effects that could potentially cause your business to crash and burn. This is especially evident in the case of business owners trying to do tasks that require specialized skills such as accounting, graphic design, web development, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and more. You might think you’re saving a lot of money by taking on these tasks yourself, but if you’re not trained to do these things, you’re probably just making it worse.
Instead of forcing yourself to do specialized tasks and consequently churning out subpar results, hire a specialist virtual assistant to do them for you instead. Specialist VAs cost much less that outsourcing to an agency or hiring a full-time employee, but they can also address the issue of your company needing someone with a special set of skills.

Hiring specialist VAs such as a web developer virtual assistant or a content writer virtual assistant can help improve productivity and efficiency in your company by a huge percentage.

4. Spend less than if you hire a local employee.

Hiring a local, full-time employee doesn’t just mean paying higher hourly rates than if you hire an overseas virtual assistant. It also means that you’re going to have to pay a LOT in terms of overheads. From office equipment and space rental to employee insurance and benefits, there are so many overhead costs that you won’t need to pay if you choose to hire a virtual assistant.

5. Scale quickly at a lower risk.

There are many virtual assistant providers, such as 20four7VA, who offer incredible flexibility when it comes to forming your virtual team. You can start with hiring a single admin VA for 10 hours a week if that’s all that your budget allows. If you just need a VA because of the seasonal influx of work, that’s fine too. You can cancel your VA’s services anytime. You can add to your VA’s hours or reduce their hours as needed, within reason of course, and add or reduce the number of VA’s in your virtual team depending on where your company is at financially.

This level of flexibility means that it’s a lot easier to scale your business without the usual risks involved in the usual methods of growing your team and company.

 

60 things to outsource to a virtual assistant

It’s pretty clear that hiring a virtual assistant can save you from tedious tasks and give you several hours of your work week back. But what tasks should you outsource to a VA?

Choosing what tasks to hire a VA for can be tricky, especially if you’re not used to delegating work. After all, for business owners, every single task probably seems like it needs their full attention. But the first step toward growing your business is to know what to put your focus on and when to step back.

To help you figure out what tasks to assign to your VA, here’s a list of things you can outsource to a VA.

Administrative Tasks and Personal Assistance

• Calendar management and scheduling
• Travel planning
• Making reservations
• Scheduling personal and business meetings and appointments
• Online shopping and reservation of products
• Finding contractors
• General online research
• Creating, sending, and tracking invoices and payments
• Creating reports, charts and graphs, and presentations
• Data entry and data quality checking
• Documentation of processes
• Receptionist duties and call routing
• Scheduling bill payments
• Management and extraction of important files and records
• Lead generation and nurturing

eCommerce Tasks and Sales Assistance

• Providing phone, chat, or email support
• Amazon seller virtual assistant duties
• eBay seller virtual assistant duties
• Product review monitoring
• Feedback management
• Product research
• Competitor research
• Managing and monitoring product listings
• Managing and monitoring product prices
• Product sourcing and procurement
• Coordinating with suppliers and warehouses
• Managing product shipments
• Optimizing product listings
• Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) or Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) management
• Online store or dropshipping setup

IT and Development Tasks

• Website development (custom-built websites)
• WordPress website development
• Shopify development
• Amazon store setup
• Google Business Suite setup
• Woocommerce management
• App development
• Content Management System (CMS) setup
• Web server setup and management
• Mail server setup and management
• Website security setup
• IT support for your company

Creatives and Marketing Tasks

• Content writing (for blogs, websites, emails, eBooks)
• Copywriting (for ads and marketing purposes)
• Proofreading and editing
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Keyword research
• Email marketing and email automation
• Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) management
• Facebook Ads management and Instagram ads management
• Blog management
• Social media management
• Clickfunnels management
• Influencer outreach and influencer marketing
• Reputation management
• Graphic design
• Video editing
• Photo editing
• Web design
• UI/UX design

If you’re looking for a more in-depth look at what these tasks are, check out our articles about the tasks an Administrative VA, an eCommerce VA, and a Specialist VA can do for you. Knowing what you can hire a virtual assistant for will really help you figure out which tasks you can outsource.

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant

How and where to hire a virtual assistant are very common questions that business owners ask when they’re just starting out with virtual staffing. Fortunately, there are many reliable virtual assistant companies today that can make the job a lot easier for you.

For example, take a look at 20four7VA, a virtual staffing company that has been around since 2010. To maximize the cost benefit that they offer to their clients, they source talented individuals based in the Philippines, India, parts of South America and Europe, and many other countries where the cost of living is lower but where English proficiency and internet stability are high. This also allows them to provide VAs who can work in the clients’ preferred time zones. Whether clients want to hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines or hire a virtual assistant in India or in any other country, a trusted virtual assistant company can help.

If you do the hiring yourself, you will probably have to look at different social media groups and sign up to different freelance hiring platforms to find some candidates. You will then coordinate with all the candidates yourself, vet them one by one, and do the onboarding for your chosen candidate. A company like 20four7VA takes care of most of these things for you, so if you don’t want to waste too much of your precious time, it’s best to get help from a professional virtual staffing company.

Found a task that you’d like to outsource to a VA? We can help! Fill out this form to schedule a FREE, no-obligation consultation with us today and let’s get started on finding the perfect VA for you.

 

Recommended Reading: What is a Virtual Assistant?