The Virtual Assistant Meaning

What is a virtual assistant for? The virtual assistant is a self-employed administrative or personal assistant who works remotely (usually at home) for various clients. Virtual assistants are especially in demand by entrepreneurs and online businesses that need help but don't want to bring on staff in their location. A VA does the majority of things that a Personal Assistant or office administrator does but they're never in the office....anything you can do online, your VA can help you with.

What can a Virtual Assistant do for me? Everything that a virtual assistant can accomplish is impressive. It’s really nice to look back and see the massive workload that can be lifted off of your shoulders by hiring one. Here is a small list of tasks that a I can do for you:

Additionally, virtual assistants don’t just help your business run smoothly, they help your life run smoothly too. Whether it’s sending a thank you card to a friend, flowers to your mom, or researching potential investors, a virtual assistant can do just about anything. They take charge of not only the day-to-day business tasks, but can even take hold of day-to-day personal tasks so you can keep focused on what’s at hand. 

The major upside to all of this is that virtual assistants are long-term contracted workers. This means a lot of costs being saved as opposed to hiring an in-office assistant. While there may be a bit more in upfront costs considering virtual assistants can be a bit more expensive than hiring a physical assistant, it can mean a lot of money being saved in the long run which is an important aspect to think about. Often, virtual assistants only work for 10-40 hours over the course of an entire month. While it may seem like you’re paying a ton per hour to get tasks done, you’re actually just paying a little bit higher for highly productive hours of work. Often assistants are clocking the same hours as those they’re assisting and not always completing tasks in that time. A virtual assistant gets rid of that issue. It's also important to consider that a virtual assistant makes ends meet by working for multiple clients. They do not depend solely on you. So you can hire them to work for as little as a couple of hours a week to book your meetings or to make a few phone calls. If you need them to work more hours one week and less hours on another, they can usually accommodate that.

Here are some tips on Hiring the perfect Virtual Assistant for your business.

Being contracted work, there is also very little trouble in separating from a virtual assistant as well. If, for some reason, a virtual assistant is not working out, then you can easily move on to a new one after the contract is up. The agreement is already written up so there is never that awkward situation of having to fire an employee if something isn’t working out. 

Furthermore, it opens up options to find the assistants that fits your needs best. Since an assistant is often such a personal role to play in a company, having one virtually allows you to find the one that best suits your needs and the needs of your business, again increasing productivity and output, so you can focus on that, and not focus on problems or tensions that may come up between leaders and employees. This means you can hire a virtual assistant for very specific short term projects to test the waters with them before putting a long term contract in place. That kind of freedom is something seldom experienced in a hiring process.

For more benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant please read my previous blog post:  7 Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant

How to delegate to a Virtual Assistant? I found this video explains really well how to efficiently delegate tasks to your Virtual Assistant.