The Benefits and Drawbacks of Hiring Virtual Assistants
When making a major business decision, business owners understand the importance of weighing the advantages and disadvantages. Hiring Virtual Assistants is no exception, but many business owners have little understanding of what a Virtual Assistant is or what they can accomplish for their organization.
To assist you, we have compiled a convenient summary of the benefits and drawbacks to assist you in establishing your business.
A Virtual Assistant is frequently the perfect option for a growing small business, whether you’re swamped with work and don’t have time to handle it all yourself, you need someone to keep you organized, or you need someone with a specialized skill set.
The Advantages of Using Virtual Assistants
They help you save time.
Isn’t there never enough time in the day? You labour tirelessly to complete all of your chores, yet there are always tasks on your to-do list that you are unable to complete. Friends, family, and leisure time are sacrificed for the sake of 15-hour work days spent attempting to get your business off the ground, or even just to stay afloat.
Consider how much easier it would be if you had someone to assist you with your growing list of time-consuming duties. The tasks that divert your attention away from what you should be doing to grow your company. Imagine having that time back to spend with family or friends, or even just kicking back and relaxing for an hour or two!
Maybe you’d like to get more sleep, eat healthier, or be a better person than you were yesterday, but you’re too exhausted to try. You are consumed by your work. You daydream about it, think about it constantly, living and breathing the emails you need to respond to and the things you need to change right now.
Whatever you’d rather be doing with a little additional time, employing Virtual Assistants allows you to reclaim that time. Consider how long it takes you to plan a trip or simply to do minor administrative work. What about promotion? Consider how much time you could save if those tasks were taken off your hands and completed by someone else.
In business and in life, time is the most valuable commodity, and having more of it boosts your chances of developing a successful company and living a less stressful existence.
They help you save money.
Money is just as crucial in business as time. Whether or not you can continue trading and doing what you love is determined by your overhead, revenue, and profit margins. So, anything that saves you money is always a good thing, right? However, how does hiring a Virtual Assistant help you save money?
To begin with, you don’t need an office for them to work from. There’s no need to invest money in premises for a new team member if you’re starting your business from home or operating from a small office that’s already full.
Second, you will not be required to purchase any equipment. Because virtual assistants work from home and bring their own laptops, you won’t have to pay for pricey machines for them to use. Consider how much money you may save on workplace furnishings.
A Virtual Assistant can save you money in the long run, in addition to the obvious and immediate cost savings. Increasing the quantity of work that can be done by making your firm more efficient and having someone dedicated to specific duties. This also helps you to consider strategies to increase profit and expand your company. All of these factors contribute to greater revenue.
Virtual Assistants can also aid in marketing, which has a direct impact on revenue and profit. To raise brand awareness, tasks like social media management, email newsletters, and even content marketing can all be combined. As a result, more individuals will visit your website, increasing the number of new and repeat clients you have.
Similarly, if you want to have your Virtual Assistant assist with customer support, a dedicated and courteous customer service representative can increase the possibility of returning customers, as satisfied customers are more likely to return!
They have abilities that you lack.
This is particularly true for duties such as social media marketing, trip planning, and event preparation. Remember that everyone has different skill sets, and having access to a well-rounded VA to assist you means that you’ll be able to take advantage of all of the skills they’ve earned over the course of their career.
Planning an event is an excellent example; it takes time and might be stressful if you’re also juggling a long list of other responsibilities.
Your skilled VA can complete the same duty in a handful of hours, and they’ll almost certainly enjoy it more. It’s quite fine if things like event organizing isn’t your strong suit — that’s what a VA is for! In fact, rather than striving to complete every duty in every area possible, it makes good business sense to delegate certain tasks to others on your team or to your virtual assistant. Furthermore, you can interact and provide some direction while maintaining control over the final product.
Cons Of Hiring Virtual Assistants
Despite the fact that there are so many compelling reasons for hiring Virtual Assistants, it’s reasonable to have some doubts about the procedure. Ignoring these can be detrimental to your business, so think about them carefully and analyse them as extensively as possible.
While there are a few imagined drawbacks of Virtual Assistants, the majority of these ‘drawbacks’ are unfounded and do not have the negative impact you fear. Let’s have a look at them.
Inadequate supervision
When it comes to employing a Virtual Assistant, this is one of the most common concerns. While using remote workers saves time and money, it’s natural to be hesitant when we can’t physically see our new team member working in the same room as us.
However, not being able to physically check over them and make sure they’re doing their job isn’t the drawback you may assume. These are seasoned workers who thrive in peaceful, self-contained environments where they can choose their own pace, take breaks, and work conditions.
They are significantly more motivated and productive than they would be if they were compelled to follow the norms set out in a regular office because they have complete control over their working day and do not have to commute in the rain.
Insufficient Availability
Another major concern about employing Virtual Assistants is that you might not be able to reach them when you need them because they aren’t right in front of you.
To fight this, it’s critical to not only properly describe jobs, provide precise briefs, and state your expectations about their capacity to support you from the start, but also to inform them of the specific hours during the day that you require them to be reachable.
Make sure they let you know if they won’t be able to talk at certain times, and vice versa. Before you get started, it’s also a good idea to lay down your expectations regarding whatever communication channels you prefer to use. There are numerous programmes that allow for instant messaging or video conferencing, but sometimes nothing beats a good old-fashioned phone conversation. When it comes to one-on-one or group chatting, Skype is a popular choice because it allows for real-time text conversations as well as video calling.
Speaking of calling, you might schedule a video or phone conversation with your VA at a specified time each day or week to catch up, assign new responsibilities, and get a debrief on anything they need to keep you informed about.
It’s important to note that workplaces where employees are continually interrupted from doing their jobs might diminish productivity and efficiency. As long as you trust your remote workers, you won’t have this problem.
At Votiko, we make it easy to hire a virtual assistant.
Through our flawless three-step procedure, we’ve made finding the ideal Virtual Assistant for your organisation as straightforward as possible.
Consultation is the first step.
Booking a consultation is simple and allows you to tell us exactly what you need. We can talk about the duties you’d like your Virtual Assistant to handle for you, the areas of your organisation where you’d like the greatest assistance, and any other important details, like working hours, software, and so on.
Matching is the second step.
Once we have your “brief,” we’ll match you with the ideal Virtual Assistant to meet your and your company’s needs. Everything will be taken into account, including your company’s culture and what makes you tick, the number of hours of help you require, the specific duties to be outsourced, and any particular expertise you require, as well as any industry experience you may find useful.
Attend a meeting is the third step.
You can talk to the Virtual Assistant directly after we’ve chosen the one we think would be the greatest fit for you. Speaking with your potential new VA allows you to determine if you two are a good fit for each other and allows both of you to explore the role in greater depth. This gives you the opportunity to choose whether or not this is the right VA for you.
If so, creating an account online is simple and takes only a few minutes.
Getting a Virtual Assistant isn’t difficult. It simply takes a little bit of thought, devotion, and patience to get it properly.
