Virtual Assistance 101
Virtual Assistance 101
Unless you’re brand new to the workforce, you’ve probably heard all about virtual assistants and the ways they can help your business operate more effectively. Virtual assistants, who handle administrative and support tasks from remote locations, have become increasingly more popular across all sectors in recent years and are a vital cog in the wheel of today’s business machine.
If you’re thinking of hiring a VA or becoming a VA yourself, you probably have a long list of questions about what precisely virtual assistants do, what skills they have, and how they can help your business with its unique needs. The problem is, for every question you have, there will be a dozen different answers because the job descriptions and skill sets of VAs are so widely varied. It might be easier to cover the few things they don’t do instead of the millions of things they do.
Boiling it down to the very basics, let’s define what a virtual assistant is, cover some everyday things they handle most frequently, talk about who they are and what kinds of skills and work experiences they bring to the table, and dig into how they can help you.
1. What is a virtual assistant?
Virtual assistants are very much like other administrative assistants, except instead of working on-site for one employer, they usually work remotely, and often as freelancers or independent contractors, meaning they might support several different clients, businesses, or bosses.
Many offer primarily administrative assistance services like scheduling appointments, managing social media content, calendars, emails, booking travel, planning events, and answering calls.
Other virtual assistants specialize in HR, recruiting, social media management, research, data entry, and eCommerce tasks. So if your business needs support, you can most likely utilize a virtual assistant to offer that support remotely rather than hiring a permanent full-time or part-time employee.
2. What services do virtual assistants offer?
The possibilities are virtually (see what I did there?) endless. Any repetitive and routine tasks you can get off your plate by delegating to someone else are perfect assignments for a VA.
Making, taking, and screening calls, managing schedules, and managing email accounts are examples of VA assignments. CRM and database management, social media management, accounts payable, accounts receivables, invoicing, bookkeeping, and reporting are all things virtual assistants do well.
Need help with inside sales? Need assistance with warm and cold calling, lead screening and qualification, follow-up, client retention, and customer service? The right virtual assistant can handle all of this.
Are you looking for marketing help? Virtual assistants can develop collateral, do basic graphic design and layout, write a blog and maintain your company’s social media accounts and website. This is just a handful of the most common assignments outsourced to virtual assistants.
3. Who are they, and what do they bring to the table?
All sorts of business professionals are drawn to the virtual assistant role. Many individuals who once worked as traditional personal assistants, secretaries, administrative assistants, or executive assistants have effortlessly transitioned from working on-site for a full-time employer to working from home.
Some are still employed full-time by a single company or boss, but many are self-employed, independent contractors, or freelancers that pick up work from many different sources. Legal assistants, writers, teachers, project and account managers, recruiters, trainers, and receptionists are also naturals in the virtual assistant role.
Most are detail-oriented and have both soft and hard skills that equip them to offer supportive services. They bring with them past business experience that is relevant and helpful with the services they deliver. While your VA might not be a full-time employee of your business, they can and should become an integral member of your team, working seamlessly to ensure operational efficiency and excellence.
As you build a relationship and rapport with a new VA, learn about their past work experience and the areas in which they are passionate and have the expertise you need, then lean in and let them shine in their role.
4. How can having a virtual assistant help?
There are innumerable benefits to hiring a virtual assistant. Perhaps the most crucial is the time you get back by delegating day-to-day operations to someone else. This frees you up for strategic thinking, driving your business, working toward your long-term goals, and handling those higher-level responsibilities that only you can take care of.
There are cost benefits to working with a virtual assistant. First, you can save a significant amount of money on training costs alone. Rather than hiring a new employee and investing in training and development for each component of their job, you can hire professionals to perform tasks they already excel at, so they can get started right away with no added costs to you.
The second way you can experience cost savings by hiring virtual assistants is through lower operating expenses and salaries. Instead of hiring a full-time, salaried employee, you can hire a VA who charges you hourly or per task. That way, you’re only paying when the VA is working, or for the specific functions they perform.
Finally, you’re saving money on overhead since virtual assistants work remotely. That means you’re not providing the desk, computer, workspace, internet connection, phone line, and other expenses connected to working on site.
Flexibility and accessibility are perks of working with virtual assistants. They can work on whatever you assign and complete the tasks whenever you want. Since they are based remotely, you can choose someone within your timezone for ease of access to you, or you can hire VAs in different time zones to more effectively serve your customers.
Virtual assistance is here to stay and is for companies of all shapes and sizes. If you’ve never utilized a virtual assistant, you might be surprised at how much a VA can bring to the table, how many ways they can serve you, how professional and competent they are, and how cost-effective they can be.