No surprises, the first area that will be considered is the financial side of things; is this viable and what, if any, return can be expected from any investment?
When it comes to admin support, you need to run the numbers of how much the support will cost vs the money it might save. So, one calculation might be salary vs outsourcing costs. What is the average salary for the position you’re looking to fill and how much would a virtual PA cost for similar hours and functionality?
Unfortunately, due to COVID, a lot of companies are pausing any hiring, so being able to demonstrate that you can find quality support for the fraction of the cost of a full time job may help you get that all important support without the cost implications of a salary.
Hiring and training your own workforce can also prove costly. Peaks and troughs in business can make the employment of permanent staff financially difficult to sustain.
Yet, hiring temporary staff usually leads to lower quality work for higher investment.
Outsourcing gives you access to a highly trained team, who will be experts in their sector. This support is often flexible, allowing you to fit it to suit your business needs.
Particularly applicable to sales teams. If you are spending lots of time on sales admin, document production, meeting bookings and travel, then you need to demonstrate to your leaders that saving this time means it can be ploughed into making more sales; who can object to that?
The calculations to do here are simple: keep track of time spent on sales calls vs sales admin.
Then, work out how much time you would save if the admin was outsourced and from that, how many sales could be made if you won that time back.
All you need is for more revenue to be gained from the extra time than the spend on your admin support and it’s a no brainer.
Example: if it takes you 30 minutes to have a successful close, and you currently spend 2 hours a day on admin, you could make 4 extra sales a day if you didn’t have the bureaucracy to worry about. Then just multiply by your AOV and you’ve got the average revenue to be gained.
Another benefit of outsourcing your admin support is that you only pay for productive time spent. Giving you the freedom to focus on becoming a more productive business with greater output.
Read more about the impact admin has on business productivity.
Hiring a full time employee means holiday pay, coffee breaks, half days, chats in the office and so on and so forth.
Don’t get us wrong, a positive work culture is so important and we aren’t against hiring in-house, but if you, like so many companies, are struggling at the moment, every penny you spend on business survival and growth needs to give you maximum bang for your buck.
With a virtual PA, you only pay for the time they are actually working, which ensures maximum productivity.
If you choose the right supplier, they will feel like an extension of your team anyway, so those all-important office relationships will be maintained.
Most leaders are pushed for time, so when you go to ask for this necessary admin support, be prepared.
Approach two or three different suppliers, get rough quotes and ask for a pitch deck to present in.
Then you can demonstrate you’ve done your due diligence and market research and have a clear understanding of how the support will onboard, when it can start and how it will integrate with the wider business.
Get all the above right, and it should be a no brainer that your team deserves and needs the admin support you have requested.
If you’re looking to outsource your admin support, contact SmartPA today to see how we can transform your admin practices.