People still don’t understand what a Virtual Assistant actually does, and truthfully, it’s difficult to state in one sentence as each Virtual Assistant offers his or her skill set of services.Let’s delve into some more detail to help decide why hiring one may be beneficial to your time and earning power.
Depending on who I talk to, I might say a Virtual Assistant is like a secretary who does all her work online, or someone who performs repetitive business tasks so you can focus on growing your business, or like a personal assistant. Really, they can offer hundreds of tasks, but most will niche down to specific services or specific groups clients to offer services to, such as real estate professionals, or entrepeneurs.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant can be beneficial both to save money and to save time.How, you ask? Imagine for a moment that you are an entrepeneur trying to upscale her business. You know what you need to do to get there, but don’t have time to do it all each day. If only someone could step in a couple of days a week to update the website, clean out email folders, handle the mailing, set up an online meeting, and research for, and send out the newsletter…in steps the Virtual Assistant. AND…instead of needing to hire an administrative assistant for 40 hrs a week with all the financial impact on a small business, you can decide on how many hours(or days) he or she’s needed, and save a few bucks.
Now that you know it makes good sense, where do you find a Virtual Assistant? You can google online, check the local ads, ask around (many small businesses use Virtual Assistants), search on Facebook, or look to specific organizations and groups. It is really important that you know what tasks you would like to hand over before you do so, since many Virtual Assistants are specialists in particular services. Keep in mind though, if you have a Virtual Assistant you work well with, often they can, and will perform these other services. Alternatively, you could hire several virtual assistants for different tasks. Keep in mind that they are virtual and being in a different time zone may or may not affect you.
I was an admin assistant for a while at different types of businesses before I struck out on my own to offer these services to small businesses. The variety of services in my days are what keep me interested, and the fact that I can perform most services from anywhere…even when I’m on the road. In my next post, I’ll describe what my work day may look like.
Be safe out there,
Sachiko
Ask me how I can save you time and money here.