What IS a Virtual Assistant?

Have you been hearing the term “virtual assistant” or “VA” floating around lately? Not sure what it means or how one could potentially help your business grow? Let’s dive into what a virtual assistant IS and what they DO.

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Virtual Assistant?

So what exactly is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant (often called a VA) is an individual who offers various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location.

They work independently, often from home, and can help with administrative tasks, business growth strategies, and more.

In fact, there are countless things that virtual assistants can do, including:

• Social media management
• Graphic design
• Email management
• Preparing reports
• Managing calendars and appointments
• Performing research
• Simple digital marketing tasks
• Content writing / ghostwriting
• Website creation or management
• Setting up social media accounts

The list goes on and on. 

Each VA offers slightly different services, depending on their skills and experience. But most are happy to learn new tasks as well.

It really comes down to knowing what you need help with and finding a VA you can delegate those tasks to.

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant?

Many business owners hire a VA to help with their operations to shave hours from their workweek. Thus, allowing them to focus on other aspects of the business they need to attend to themselves.

Hiring a VA can also help to scale a business. Many virtual assistants offer expertise in areas a business owner may lack skills in.

VAs have become a popular option among small businesses because they are so flexible.  A virtual assistant can be part-time or full-time, depending on your needs. 

They can also help you make better use of your employees. It’s not uncommon for employees to end up doing small, additional tasks that may distract them from their main job. Simply because someone has to do them and it may not be affordable to hire another full-time employee for it.

Outsourcing smaller tasks to a VA can help your full-time workers do their jobs more efficiently.

A reliable VA can become a valuable team member of your small business. They require no office space, no employee-related expenses, vacation pay, etc. You simply create a set of agreeable terms and pay them based on the agreed-upon fees.

How Do Virtual Assistants Charge?

There are several ways a virtual assistant may charge for their services.

-Hourly Rates
This is exactly as it sounds. Your VA tracks their time and bills you for every hour they work. Hourly wages will depend on experience and skill level.

-Retainer Based
This is normally arranged on a per-period basis and includes a set number of hours that your virtual assistant reserves for you.

For example: you might require 20 hours’ worth of services a month. The retainer is then billed monthly at a fixed price of 20 hours x $30/hour (or whatever their hourly rate is).

This is great for both you and your VA as you’ll be guaranteed 20 hours of work and they’ll know they can rely on that income.

-Project or Task-Based
This is ideal for you as a client if you have one particular task you need help with. Or perhaps occasional projects that may arise sporadically but not necessarily often enough to keep someone on retainer.

For example: Maybe you realize having a Google My Business account would help your business be found in more search results. But you have no spare time to do it and don’t really know how to go about doing it effectively.

You would hire the VA to complete the task, pay for that service, and that’s it. Maybe you’ll need them again at a later date, or maybe not.

In Conclusion

Hiring a VA could be the answer to avoid business burnout and feeling overloaded with responsibilities. This can be especially true if you’re running a 1 to 5 person operation.

Can you think of any tasks you or your staff are spending far too much valuable time on?

If so, reach out using the button below, and let’s discuss how we can help!