Before, businesses only hired personal assistants to manage admin tasks and personal management. Business owners thought that a PA’s capacity is only limited to in-house administrative roles. However, in recent years, significant developments in digital technology urged more and more businesses to begin outsourcing major projects and full-time positions to virtual assistants.
The global outsourcing industry is annually growing at an average of 8.5%. In 2020, the outsourcing market was valued at $232.32 billion US dollars and expected to grow more in the coming years. This steady growth signifies all the good reasons that outsourcing can bring to the table.
Businesses find virtual assistants to be both effective and cost-efficient. If you want to know why, let this article help you understand why your business also needs a virtual assistant.
Top 5 Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant
Many entrepreneurs choose to scale up with virtual teams because of their immense benefits and convenience to business operations. To help you decide, here are the most prominent advantages you can get from having virtual assistants.
Saves you time
As an entrepreneur, time is always essential. However, with responsibilities piling up on your plate, staying productive and efficient can be difficult throughout the day. Virtual assistants will help you manage your schedule and save you more time while staying productive without doing all the admin and repetitive work.
Saves you money
Compared to a traditional office employee, getting virtual assistants on your team is much more cost-efficient. The salary rate is inexpensive, and the flexible working hours enable you to hire according to your business needs.
You can outsource tasks and choose between a freelancer or a full-time employee. This flexibility gives you the freedom to hire VAs in line with your capability to manage and pay them. Additionally, you are not obliged to pay extra taxes and charges when you acquire services from a VA.
Lets you do more
With more minds and hands working together to run your operations, you can freely allocate your time and energy to other significant things. You can focus on formulating strategic ways to improve the business or develop new products for your target market. Overall, it increases your productivity and positively affects the business.
Gives you access to the best talent
The internet is filled with talented individuals and freelancers, and your options can range from degree holders to veterans in the industry. Deciding to hire a virtual assistant also means access to the best talents in the industry.
Look in the right places, platforms, and networks, and you will indeed find the best people to scale your business with.
Improves your business flexibility
You can onboard a VA from any part of the world, and this can also mean that the different time zones can work in favor of your business. It provides flexibility to which you can use to maximize resources, improve business performance, increase productivity, and manage more tasks.
Take advantage of the adjustable working schedule. Don't let a fixed 9-5 workday weigh down your operations. You can keep the business running 24/7 without ruining anyone's schedule and your finances.
How to Find the Best Virtual Assistants
To guide you in finding the fitting assistant to complete your team and scale your business, here is a basic step-by-step process that you can utilize to hire your first VA.
#1 List down which tasks you need to delegate
You must know who you are looking for and what skills you need from a potential virtual assistant. Start with listing all the tasks that take up so much of your time and often slow down your operations. It can be any task that you don't feel like doing or the typical tedious administrative job.
Once you're done with this step, you'll have a clear vision of the person that can help you fulfill all these tasks. It is vital to delegate to the right person and not waste your time screening everyone who applies.
#2 Create SOPs for these tasks
After generating a list of tasks that you need to delegate, you should now make brief and concise SOPs for each of those tasks. SOP or a standard operating procedure gives your team members a manual to help them carry out their roles accurately and effectively.
Having an organized and understandable SOP is essential in training your VAs. It can save you time in overseeing their work and explaining the complexities of the job.
#3 Make a job post
Many employers tend to overlook the creation of a job post. They are oblivious that every detail they put in a job post is key in attracting the right and competent virtual assistants for their business.
In writing a job post, you must include keywords to attract your target audience. Be as comprehensive as possible in stating details, specify the rates, and put a location if you prefer one. These things will lead you to the right people that will help you scale your business.
#4 Post on different platforms
Posting on different platforms increases your chance of stumbling upon the best VA for your business. Do not limit your search to one work marketplace. Publish your job post and utilize platforms such as Upwork, Fiverr, FreeUp, and LinkedIn to gain engagement.
As an additional tip, you can exhaust your networks for referrals to secure the reliability of a VA. Finally, ensure to connect with people you can trust to avoid scams and disappearing applicants.
#5 Interview, hire, onboard, train
Now that you've done all the essential preparations and steps, you can now advance to interviewing potentials. Get to know the applicant through the interview and ask questions relevant to the job. Keep a close eye on red flags, and if ever you encounter a deal-breaking one, it is best to end the interview and move on to the other applicants.
After making up your mind on who to hire, start onboarding and training your new hires. Do not skip the onboarding stage, for this is where you'll exchange expectations and introduce your company culture to your VAs.
Many entrepreneurs fall short on the onboarding stage because they don't know how to execute a proper onboarding process to secure dependable team members. You can use proven and tested outsourcing programs to help you with this stage.
Conclusion
Now that all the details to hire a virtual assistant and the countless benefits they could bring to the table are laid out for you, all that is left for you to do is to take action.
VAs can do more for your business, and they will scale it faster than you have planned. Start using virtual assistants today and take your business to the next level.
Author:
Connor Gillivan, Owner of OutsourceSchool.com.