Are you looking to take your business to new heights? Consider incorporating a virtual assistant into your strategy. These versatile professionals can handle a range of daily responsibilities, allowing you the freedom and time to focus on essential tasks like growth, innovation, and risk management.
Virtual assistants are independent, resourceful, and highly skilled individuals, contractors, or freelancers. They offer a wide array of technical, creative, and administrative services online. Working remotely from their homes or small offices, these professionals can be hired to serve as personal or business assistants, tailored to your specific needs and budget.
Why Choose a Virtual Assistant?
- Enhanced Productivity: With a virtual assistant handling routine tasks, you can maximize your productivity and concentrate on critical business areas that require your expertise.
- Cost Efficiency: Hiring a virtual assistant allows you to access top-tier talent without the added expenses associated with traditional in-house employees.
- Flexibility and Scalability: Whether you need assistance for a one-time project or ongoing support, virtual assistants offer the flexibility to scale their services based on your evolving requirements.
- Diverse Skill Sets: Virtual assistants are adept at various tasks, from administrative duties to specialized areas like digital marketing, content creation, and graphic design. You can find the perfect fit for your specific business needs.
- Time Management: By delegating time-consuming tasks to a virtual assistant, you can reclaim your valuable time and allocate it to strategic initiatives that drive your business forward.
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, virtual assistants are becoming an indispensable asset for businesses of all sizes. Their remote capabilities, adaptability, and expertise can propel your business toward success.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to optimize your business growth with the help of a virtual assistant. Take advantage of their talents, and witness the positive impact they can have on your operations.
How much does it cost to hire a virtual assistant?
The pricing and cost of hiring a virtual assistant depend on the following factors:
- Quantity of work that VA will do.
- Consumption of time in one or all the work.
- The complexity of the work and value addition in business.
- Level of expertise and experience.
- Overall abilities and skills.
So, hiring or buying virtual assistant services can cost you at least $5 per hour and the maximum depends on the above factors.
Is it a good idea to hire a virtual assistant for business?
Let us suppose you want to grow your business and income. But failed to grow it because you do not have time to focus on the growth. You are busy with daily business and customer support activities. And you know that if you do not do this work, you will not get paid or revenue or income. That is why for consistency in income, branding, and sales you are managing your daily business activities on your own.
You know you are bored doing it repeatedly for years. But you are bound to do it. But still, once a day you think to grow your business? You create plans and try to execute that but failed because of consistency and lack of focus. And you know why it is happening.
That is why virtual assistant services are the best option for business owners like you. Those wanting to grow and automate their business.
Want to get free from daily business and non-productive activities like internet research, data entry, website design, video editing, graphic design, and social media management? If you’re not a graphic designer or in the graphic design business then even learning graphic design is an unproductive activity especially if you’re looking for growth.
Doing everything on your own is good when you start the business. It’s because you want to save money, want to learn, test and apply. That is why it worked.
But if you are trying to do all on your own then 100 hours in a day are also less for you. That is the wrong strategy. For business growth more than budget you need time and focus.
But you will have the time and freedom to work on your growth ideas when your daily responsibilities are taken over by someone else.
But you will have the time and freedom to work on your growth ideas when your daily responsibilities are taken over by someone else. And if someone can provide you freedom and leisure, then it is a good, versatile, and multitalented virtual assistant.
That is why hiring a virtual assistant is a good idea and strategy to grow your business. And you must proceed with a plan and confidence.
Types of virtual assistant services available in the market:
- Business Administration Assistant
- Customer Support Specialist
- Sales and Marketing Assistant
- Technical Support Assistance
- Internet Research and data entry Assistant
- Website Design and Development
- Content Writing and SEO specialist Virtual Assistant
- Shopify or eCommerce Assistant
- Virtual assistant for Accounting and Bookkeeping
- Virtual Receptionist
- Amazon virutal assistant
- Virtual Secretary
- Executive Assistant
- Remote staff
You will get virtual assistance in any technical, marketing, and creative category. Even one assistant can do all of this and above. If someone has added a virtual assistant instead of a graphic designer or web developer then it means they specialized in assistance.
While if someone has a graphic designer, web developer, copywriter or any other specific or targeted tagline in the profile it means they are a specialist in that field. They like to do a specific thing. But it also does not mean they cannot work as VA. But it is a choice and interest of individuals how they identify and utilize their talent and skills to work as professionals in the industry.
A virtual assistant is like a manager for you. When you hire a manager, you become a leader. A manager can handle all other experts such as developers, designers, writers, and many other revenues or no-none revenue-generating activities. While the capability and performance also depend on the virtual assistant’s own experience.
How to hire a good and versatile virtual assistant?
Small business owners, home-based owners, online businesses, organizations, coaches, business leaders, influencers, bloggers, marketers, celebrities, and individuals hire a virtual assistant for a variety of work and assistance.
Even many of them have hired agencies that look at their businesses, social media, fan following, travel plans, finance, events, and management of various other things.
There are thousands of Virtual assistants in the marketplace. But hiring and getting a good virtual assistant is not that easy. They are not your employees, not they work at your physical address. But how you build a professional relationship with them makes a big difference. Identifying and hiring good people is the biggest work in the business these days. You need a plan and process to get things done through virtual assistants.
Ways to Hire a Good and versatile virtual assistant
In the following points, you will understand how you can hire a good, versatile virtual assistant that will work with you as a team member, full-time, or part-time or occasionally and remotely to grow your business.
1. Identify areas and tasks in your ongoing business and projects where you need assistance
To hire a good virtual assistant, it is important that first, you know what work must be done by him. For this, make a list of tasks that are difficult for you, take up a lot of your time, or are important but you do not have time for them.
These areas can be as follows:
- Creating a website through WordPress or website builder and then getting it updated from time to time.
- Content creation including blog posts, images, and videos for online marketing.
- Conversion of leads and inquiries that you are getting from a website and social media.
- Editing the videos you record, making 1 – 1-minute reels, and then uploading them to your social media and YouTube channel.
- Appointing VA as a project manager for a new job, project, and business.
So, these types of work, areas, opportunities, and strategies you need to identify and build. Even I have seen that many high-paid full-time jobs professionals hire virtual assistants to start and run businesses through VA without leaving their own current job.
Even if you also do not know what needs to be done or delegate to VA. You can ask me or take help your business coach, mentor, or consultant. But the best is if you figure out what needs to be done in order to grow your income, business, and reach.
2. Set a budget for the job, project, and virtual assistant:
In the market, you will find virtual assistants at different prices. Hiring the right virtual assistant depends on how much money you can afford to spend on your to-do list and projects.
You will find the virtual assistant from $5 two $100 or more. You can hire at a fixed price and you can also hire at an hourly price. And if an assistant suits you best then you can hire them on a monthly or permanent basis to manage your business as a freelancer assistant. And you can pay $500 to $5000.
That is why it’s important to create a budget that you afford to hire a virtual assistant.
And remember, this budget is not just an expense but think of it as an investment. This is the same as investing in the stock market, investing in mutual funds, and saving in the bank.
But here you are investing this money in the talent of virtual assistants and your leadership abilities. If you lead the virtual assistant effectively it will double or triple your power, income, and business growth opportunities. Read More: Why it’s Important to build your leadership skills
For example, if your work includes creating a website in WordPress, having data entry work and social media management, etc. and your monthly budget is $200 then you can hire a virtual assistant at a $5 hourly price. And set a $50 budget limit for a week. And get this work done within $200.
Else you hire directly at $200 then it might look less to a virtual assistant and more for you. That is why the weekly price is also good in this condition. Where you declared that you only pay $50 per week or for 10 hours weekly. And you want to get the work done within 10 hours. If a virtual assistant, does it one day then it’s profitable and good. And, good because you get the work done within a day.
Pricing is a strategic work that depends on various conditions. But once you allocated the budget for the job then you must get the work done with whatever options are available within the process.
3. Give the virtual assistant a chance and freedom to show off his abilities
Not all virtual assistants are equal. Especially since versatile virtual assistants required freedom to get the work done based on their abilities and talent. They are virtual assistants because they want to prove themselves. Give them time to get the work done. Trust in their skills and abilities. And when the work is done then give them feedback. If you don’t like something, logically ask them to do it again.
You might be good at anything and have experience, but that doesn’t mean you ignore the ideas of your virtual assistant. He/she also has some or good knowledge. You just have to listen to them. That’s why you can take the advantage of their talent to grow your business.
Many virtual assistants work for freedom more than money. Even if you pay them only $5 hourly but they have the freedom they will do the job like it’s done by a $100 hourly priced expert.
Working with a virtual assistant is teamwork. They are human and they have their own responsibilities and family. They can help you as much as you want no matter how difficult or complex is the project. If you trust and allow them to showcase their talent or work, they will definitely do that. They want to feel safe and stable in their career. For that, they are ready to do anything.
But finding such a Virtual assistant is not easy. For this, your leadership abilities and skills will be on the test. And when you hire virtual assistants don’t think you have hired them just to create a WordPress website, think of them as your right hand or partner.
How to do it?
You have to train them. You have to build them. Some might go away. But you still have to invest your time and skills to build them. And the best way to build them is to give them freedom, be professional with talk, understand and listen to their ideas, give them confidence, give them money when they ask, and work with them as a team.
But do not tell them that you have hired them to build your company. Just give them work, pay them regularly, and understand their responses. You will get clues in their communication or chat that they are ok with you or not.
Related: Importance of training and development of employees
4. Place and platforms to find and hire good Virtual Assistants
You can hire an online virtual assistant from your locality as well as from overseas. You can also hire a virtual assistant from your locality or overseas. All of them can work remotely no matter whether they are in your locality, country or not.
You can also hire a virtual assistant from your locality or overseas. All of them can work remotely no matter whether they are in your locality, country or not.
There are various online platforms and marketplace websites where we can hire good virtual assistants. There are various online platforms and marketplace websites where we can find, test, communicate, and hire good virtual assistants.
These online websites are also called freelance marketplaces or online marketplaces. Most of them charge commissions from freelancers and virtual assistants as per their income from clients. You have to pay through the marketplace. There are various advantages of disadvantages of using a freelance marketplace to hire a virtual assistant. But one of the advantages is that they are filtered, tested, and verified.
While there are many companies that provide virtual assistants and even virtual assistant services through their hired people. You can also hire a virtual assistant by visiting their own website and checking their portfolio.
The method of hiring and payment system is not that much important if you get a good virtual assistant.
There popular freelance marketplace to hire a virtual assistant or buy virtual assistant services, and packages. Some of them are upwork.com, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Flexjobs and Toptal etc.
Related: How to hire the best employees online for your small business
Ways to find a good Versatile Virtual Assistant
As I told you at the start of this post is that we do not need any specific expert we need a jack of all trades when we look for a virtual assistant. A person who is good in only WordPress Development but not good in data entry or who is not interested and surely, he/she is not we do not need that.
We need a multi-talented, versatile assistant who can manage our business or along with us when we are busy. We need a person who can make us free from daily business operations, customer support, client handling, calls and emails, and various other management work.
So, we need to check the level of technical, business, and administrative skills of Virtual assistants. Not just one skill. When we need a logo, we should hire a logo designer. But we cannot find the scope of business administrator in logo design.
Both VA and Logo Designer understand their responsibilities. They have different approaches and mindsets toward the job or project.
So, what to look for:
- Identify technical abilities and skills: For example, if you running an online business then must look for WordPress, Social Media, Content Writing, SEO, Amazon or Shopify-related skills and experiences.
- Check out Virtual assistant work history and Experience: You will never see a multi-talented and versatile assistant have done only one type of job in history. The best way to identify them is that see their profile and portfolio.
See if they have worked on different types of jobs such as logo design, marketing, writing, development, SEO, data entry etc. and they also have 5-star ratings in all those jobs then this is the right versatile assistant for you.
- Check and Test Communication Skills: See their profile proposal or cover letter, description, and title. Read and understand how they are approaching you to hire. What values and promises they are making other than their technical abilities? We need a VA with leadership skills. It means who can manage our business and take good decisions even without our decisions and in or absence.
- Identify the scammers: If you are seeing that someone is promising too many benefits and skill sets then be aware. He/she can be the right candidate. But check his/her history. Find out about them on social media. See their job history. If the promises made in the cover letter do not reflect based on the ratings and feedback, prices are too high etc. then be careful.
Even the best formula is giving a test job or talking about something that is not expected etc. There are various hiring strategies to find the right talent and filter. Related: Top 5 benefits of hiring freelancers for your next project
But without any doubt, the hiring right to employees or virtual assistants is important to grow your business. It looks more complicated to manage remote staff or new to you. But because of your dreams and business goals, you also have to master hiring and managing remote states. Most of the most successful or highest-related virtual assistants are self-managed you just have to tell them what you want and they will show you the route.
Related: Why Hire the right employees to grow your business
That’s it for today! If you need personal assistance in all of this, please contact to me.