How to Use Votiko’s Virtual Assistant Effectively in Your Small Business
When it comes to increasing productivity as a small business owner, one of the first steps is to successfully delegate tasks that you don’t need to complete yourself. And, with so many things to complete in order to run (and ultimately expand) a company, having skilled staff is essential. However, not all business owners want or require the expense and commitment of a full-time employee. Virtual assistants (VAs) may relieve many productive small business owners of the load of routine tasks, allowing them to focus on activities that expand their enterprises.
Consider hiring one—or more—virtual assistants if you need to get more done right away but don’t have the means or willingness to hire additional staff. Here’s why you should hire a virtual assistant, what they can do for you, where to locate one, how much they might charge, and what to avoid.
What is the definition of a virtual assistant? Basics of VA
A virtual assistant (VA) works from a different location than your company, usually from their own home or office, and may even live in a foreign nation. As a result, your professional relationship is “virtual,” which means you communicate with each other over the phone and/or computer.
A virtual assistant is most typically employed as a freelancer or independent contractor, and is frequently a small business owner or solopreneur. Many of these aides provide secretarial or administrative support.
Note: This page is about human virtual assistants, not the increasingly common computer virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri.
Tasks a Virtual Assistant Can Complete for You
VAs help small businesses of all kinds with a wide range of jobs, from daily, repetitive tasks to more specialised activities and projects like website creation and maintenance and online marketing campaigns. Of course, the types of jobs you want your VA to handle will influence the skill level required—and thus the amount you pay them.
Any of the following jobs could benefit from the assistance of a virtual assistant:
- Organizing appointments
- Making travel arrangements
- completing responsibilities related to event planning
- Managing and/or responding to email
- Data entry for customer orders
- Database updates
- document proofreading and/or editing
- Contacting customers by phone or email
- Calling sales prospects for follow-up
- Bookkeeping/accounting/invoicing
- Creating and posting to social media on a regular basis
- Creating and scheduling blog posts, as well as conducting research and establishing internal links
- Finding and editing photos for social media and blog postings is a time-consuming process.
- Digital marketing assets like as newsletters and email lists are created, scheduled, and maintained.
- Creating and maintaining a website
Since 2010, Mike Catania, the creator of Tallahassee, Florida-based coupon syndicator Promotioncode.com, has used virtual assistants. Despite hiring 11 full-time employees and four seasonal workers, Catania continues to use a virtual assistant, and the VA completes tasks that technology cannot.
“I use [my VA] for a number of various activities, but they all have one thing in common,” Catania explains. “They’re incredibly repetitive, yet they’re impossible to automate.” Gathering coupon-collection techniques for his writer to bundle into an article is one example. He continues, “Previously, she was confirming the customer support phone numbers for the 20,000 merchants with whom we work.”
Barbera Behavior Consulting LLC’s Dr. Mary Barbera is a behaviour analyst. The solopreneur has enlisted the support of multiple virtual assistants (VAs) to assist her with her firm, and not just for highly repetitive work. Her primary VA serves as her online company manager, while a second VA handles customer service, data input, and scheduling work via Asana, a group communication and project management programme.
“Not only do my VAs compose emails for my sales funnels and set them up in the contact management system,” Barbera, who uses Infusionsoft, explains, “but they also help me track email open rates and conversions.” Barbera has virtual meetings with her VAs once a week to address current priorities.
A Virtual Assistant’s Contribution to a Small Business
Virtual assistants are beneficial to organisations in a variety of ways. Using a virtual assistant (VA) provides three key advantages to business owners: greater time, improved skill sets, and the ability to expand.
Virtual assistants help people save time.
Hiring a virtual assistant saves time for small businesses because, as Catania’s example demonstrates, an assistant can execute repetitive, time-consuming chores that don’t require the attention of the business owner.
Brad Chandler, the CEO of Express Homebuyers, a home-buying and renovation company, can vouch for this. “One of our VAs handles administrative labour, primarily turning on and off utilities on residences that we buy and sell,” he continues. He also says that his remaining VAs call potential home sellers to follow up on leads.
Virtual assistants bring new skills and experience to the table.
Businesses may also benefit from VAs’ access to skill sets that they or their regular workforce lack. Barbera’s virtual assistants bring marketing expertise to her company, executing continuous internet marketing campaigns and assisting with new product releases.
“Last year, with the help of virtual assistants, my email list grew from 3,500 to 10,000,” Barbera explains. “I also established two online courses for autism specialists and enthusiastic parents, which have already attracted participants from 40 countries.”
Virtual Assistants Help Businesses Grow Without Adding Full-Time Employees According to Diane Diresta, author, founder, and CEO of DiResta Communications, Inc., a New York City-based consultancy serving business leaders who deliver high-stakes presentations, “Virtual assistants are especially useful when you’re growing but aren’t quite ready to hire an employee.”
Diresta, who hired her VA 10 years ago, notes, “A VA allows you to grow at your own pace.” “[My VA] has been a huge assistance to me.”
Another major advantage of hiring a virtual assistant is that many of them work as independent contractors, which means you won’t have to pay for insurance, payroll taxes, or retirement benefits that come with hiring a full-time or part-time employee. Make sure this arrangement is well-documented and that you only pay for hourly wages, preferably on a project-by-project basis rather than a long-term contract. Why? This could be interpreted as an employer-employee relationship, resulting in a hefty IRS penalty at tax time.
If you paid your VA more than $600 in the previous calendar year, you must submit a 1099 tax form by January 31.
Another advantage, according to Chandler, is that they do not require expensive office space.
How a Virtual Assistant Can Help Your Company
Hiring a virtual assistant should benefit your company rather than hurt it.
“One of the secrets of being a competent business owner,” Catania adds, “is to focus on the tasks that only you can perform and farm out the rest to other people, whether in-person or virtual.” “Use virtual assistants to free up your schedule so you can do exactly that.”
It’s helpful to have a rough notion of how an assistant would fit into your company, what jobs they would be capable of, and how you’d manage them. Before deciding to become a virtual assistant, consider the following:
- What are the tasks for which I am currently accountable that anyone could complete?
- What tasks/projects do I need to complete for my company that none of my present employees are capable of completing?
- What is the most pressing work or project that a virtual assistant (VA) may embark on as soon as they are hired?
- What could I do to expand the business if I outsourced some of this job to a virtual assistant?
- How would I like to communicate with my VA (for example, via Skype, email, or phone)?
Use the information you’ve gathered to help you decide whether or not to hire a virtual assistant.
Where Can I Find Reliable Virtual Assistants?
Given the “virtual” nature of virtual assistants, it’s no wonder that many business owners who hire one do so through the internet.
There are various options available to business owners when it comes to hiring a decent virtual assistant. Try a company that only hires virtual assistants, such as Zirtual, Timeetc., or VirtualAssistants.com, or look through the International Virtual Assistants Association’s member database (IVAA). If you’re looking for an offshore VA, check out OnlneJobs.ph for Filipino VAs or MyVirtualWorkforce for Australian VAs. Look for VAs on sites like Upwork, where you can find many kinds of freelancers. Alternatively, you can look for one on your own via social media or by putting a “want ad” on a website such as Monster.com.
Barbera found her first few virtual assistants through social media. “I joined Facebook groups for business owners and found my first several VAs by looking for posts from VAs who answered queries well or other business owners who recommended VAs.” She also used Upwork to find the VA who transcribes her audio and video recordings.
Finding a VA through an internet website or agency is not universally seen as a smart option. Nothing beats a good old-fashioned word-of-mouth referral, according to Catania. “A lot better option is to simply ask around,” he advises. “You’re effectively trusting someone you’ve just met once or twice to do unsupervised work, so a personal recommendation is far more valuable than a handful of potentially fake five-star online reviews.”
Chandler agrees that referrals are beneficial. “Ask other firms for recommendations of VA companies that have worked well for them,” he advises. He also advises that you conduct a comprehensive background check on each candidate to ensure that they are a suitable fit for your company.
When looking for a virtual assistant, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Because you’re unlikely to meet your VA face-to-face unless they’re close, the hiring procedure is a little different than it would be for a typical job. When considering hiring a virtual assistant, keep these questions in mind.
How good are they at completing test tasks?
Because you’ll be communicating with your VA online and much (if not all) of your VA’s work will be done online, it’s critical that he or she is familiar with the web-based systems, tools, apps, and sites you use.
Barbera says, “I got the following suggestion from an outstanding VA, Kelly Azevedo from She’s Got Systems.” “As part of the application or interview process, have the VA candidate edit a short blog by finding it in Google Drive and providing you the modified version via Dropbox.” This, according to Barbera, helps to check that the VA is capable of accomplishing routine online tasks.
Do your personal and professional styles complement one other?
It’s also crucial that you and your VA get along and that they can collaborate well with you and/or your clients. Keep an eye out for their “people skills.”
“Ask for recommendations and a trial period to determine if you’re suitable,” Diresta advises. “Establish a system for evaluating your personal styles. I used the DISC Behavioral Profile since I know which personality type will work best for me. It’s common for people to hire someone who looks exactly like them, which is a mistake.”
Are they in the same time zone as you?
There may be logistical and scheduling challenges depending on your VA’s location and time zone.
“When you’re in the same time zone [with your VA], it’s a lot easier,” Diresta explains. However, if all other factors are in place, being one or two time zones apart may not be a deal-breaker. Diresta’s own VA relocated to Oregon, resulting in a 3-hour time difference between Diresta’s home office in New York City and Diresta’s new location. Despite the time zone difference, Diresta has continued to use her assistant’s services due to their previous long-term, successful working relationship.
How effective are they?
Because you’ll most likely be paying your VA by the hour, make sure they finish their work on time. Take the time to train them and give them specific instructions on what you require. After that, give them a few chores to do and observe how they do.
How to Get Your Virtual Assistant Started and Trained
After you’ve chosen a VA, it’s time to introduce him or her to your firm, as well as provide training for the responsibilities he or she will be responsible for. Training could take several hours or possibly just one short Skype, phone, or teleconference session, depending on your VA’s past experience.
Chandler, whose VAs are based in the Philippines and have been a big help to the company, emphasises the importance of thorough training if you want your VA to add actual value. To bring his seasoned VAs up to speed, he used a variety of systems.
He continues, “We spent the most time on sales training.” Chandler accomplished this by hiring a sales trainer who performed group sales coaching over Skype. Later on in the training, the VAs were required to make outbound sales calls, which were recorded so that the trainer could provide feedback. Chandler’s team also used recorded screen captures to demonstrate how to perform a variety of additional activities to VAs.
Consider the jobs you want your VA to handle so you can figure out the best method to train them. Among the possibilities are:
- Using an online conference that allows you to share your screen
- Conferencing via video
- Using guideline documents to create and share slide decks
- Creating and transmitting a task list with the frequency of each task
Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) is one of many ways to increase productivity in your small business this year.
