Hiring a Virtual Assistant (or VA, as most of us are referred to) has become a trend these days. Most business owners, creatives, coaches, entrepreneurs and even more recently, c-suite directors, are adding virtual assistants to their teams. They have all realised they need to hire a Virtual assistant to make their lives easier.
Before we get into the reasons WHY you need a virtual assistant and the benefits that they bring to your business and life, let’s take a step back to the basics:
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is an individual that provides remote administrative support for both businesses and individuals. They carry out a variety of tasks and possess an array of transferable skills that they can use for their clients. Virtual assistants become an integral part of their clients’ lives being able to think one step ahead for them and providing business support and/or lifestyle management assistance.
Which tasks can a virtual assistant help me with?
Well, that depends on what services the VA provides and what services you are looking for help with. This can be anything from the general admin like email management, calendar management, appointments, bookings, hospitality, and travel booking to marketing, HR and bookkeeping.
Why should I hire a VA?
Here’s the best bit – here are 3 reasons why you NEED to hire a virtual assistant:
1. More time to spend on building your business & brand
Have you, as found, director, owner, ever looked at your to-do list for the week and couldn’t understand why your schedule was packed full of basic admin tasks that you have no business doing at all? Maybe you looked at your schedule and couldn’t find any time or space to book a holiday with your family? or perhaps you had a trip coming up and had no time to make any of the bookings. There are many things that could be holding you back from building your business and brand and if they include those tasks that a VA could do for you (and probably in half the time you could do it) then you really do need to hire a virtual assistant.
2. No employee costs
Hiring employees comes with bags of responsibilities, legalities and issues. But hiring a VA on the other hand comes with bags of benefits. If you hire a virtual assistant for your business you are effectively hiring a business owner. They understand how to run a business so in turn, help run your business efficiently too). And most of the time you are hiring a self-employed individual who deals with their own taxes, holidays and filing. You no longer have to worry about HR or any costs associated with employees.
3. Control without having to micromanage
When you hire a virtual assistant, you are only paying for those tasks that you actually need help with. You are in fact enlisting the services of another business and not actually “hiring” them in the strictest sense. They are not your employee – but in fact a service provider. As a business owner, you let them know which tasks you want help with, and they do the rest. You are trusting them to use their expertise, skills and know-how to carry out those tasks for you efficiently. And most VAs do a great job without having to micromanage them or keep watching over them.
To sum up
Virtual assistants work on their own schedules but within the timeframes agreed between you both. They work with their own tools, systems and resources but get access to your accounts to carry out your tasks. You can outsource jobs to a VA that you don’t like doing, don’t want to do or don’t know how to do. That really is the number one reason why you need to hire a virtual assistant.
And who am I?
I’m Monica, a London-based virtual assistant that helps business owners, creatives, c-suite directors, entrepreneurs, households & high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) with business support and lifestyle management services so they can free up their time and focus more on building their business and enjoying their life. If you would like to find out more about how I can, let’s chat!
What other benefits does a VA add to your business or life?
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