A Virtual Assistant is a professional individual who provides administrative, technical and creative services to clients while working from a remote location. Their primary goal is to provide exceptional, experienced professional quality work for only a fraction of the cost of hiring an employee. A Virtual Assistant can come in the form of an independent, self-employed contractor working from home or through a virtual assistant agency such as Virtual Assist USA.
Thinking about hiring a Virtual Assistant? Here are 8 things you never knew about working with a Virtual Assistant or VA.
1. Your VA does not cost you any employee overhead
A recent study found that businesses can save up to 78% by hiring a virtual assistant. This is because VA’s are known to be more productive than traditional employees, and businesses don’t have to pay for benefits such as vacation days, sick days, retirement, worker's compensation or health insurance. This also helps companies save money on taxes because businesses can deduct the cost of their VA’s services as a business expense, just as you would another professional service like a lawyer or CPA.
2. You only pay for the hours you use - no downtime
The average employee in the traditional office setting is productive for 3 hours each day in an eight-hour shift, according to a study by the University of London. This means that businesses are paying for eight hours of work but only receiving the equivalent of three hours. Virtual Assistants increase productivity by taking on tasks that would otherwise take up time that could be spent on productive work. For example, an experienced VA can handle tasks such as basic bookkeeping, social media, content development or customer service. This frees up the business owner or employees to focus on other tasks that will help move the business forward. In addition, you only pay for hours that you use. If a task takes 20 minutes, you pay only for 20 minutes. (This aligns with reason 1 as a major cost saving measure for businesses.)
3. You don’t have to deal with regulations around hiring and compliance conundrums
You don’t have to worry about legal requirements of hiring an employee, of which there are many. Labor law, maintaining compliance and business requirements can take up a lot of time and other resources. If you hire a VA through a company like Virtual Assist USA, the company will take care of that for you. There are many state and federal mandates that employers are now responsible for such as sexual harassment training, paid family leave and even worker's compensation penalties-- as in New York, you can be penalized $2,000 per week. Moreover, you don’t have to worry about onboarding and training expenses, and you can expect that your Virtual Assistant comes trained and ready to go.
4. Virtual Assistants are experienced
Most Virtual Assistants are college-educated. This is because they understand the importance of continuing their education and keeping up with the latest best practices in areas like AI, content development and social media. Most Virtual Assistants are also certified in specific software programs or have taken courses to improve their skills. Also, being adaptable and flexible allows VAs to be more open to learning new skills along the way staying on top of rapidly evolving technologies.
5. VAS, by nature, are creative and imaginative individuals
Virtual assistants possess a high degree of creativity. Accordingly, you can be assured of high-quality output. The creative processes are integral to blog posts, content creation and graphic design VAs. Hence, these workers will constantly add value to your offerings.
6. Virtual Assistants can work anywhere in the country
This opens up the talent pool. Your main base of operations can be in Texas and your virtual assistant could be located in Maine. You have access to a much broader skill set.
7. Virtual Assistants are trained to handle information securely
We are in the day and age of advanced software in cyber security. VAs understand how to maintain confidential business and trade secrets, they're familiar with non-disclosures and understand how to keep data secure.
8. Virtual assistants improve work life balance for entrepreneurs and leaders
Another benefit of hiring VAs your business is that it can help you save precious and valuable time and clear up your schedule for more important things, like pursuing hobbies or spending more time with your loved ones.
As you can see, virtual assistants are an important part of the workforce and play a significant role in many businesses. They can help with a variety of tasks, from answering emails to managing schedules to doing research.
If you’re thinking of hiring your a virtual assistant, contact us at Virtual Assist USA.
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