When you hire a virtual assistant (VA), you’re not only saving on employee-related costs, but you’re also maintaining high productivity rates for your business, and ensuring continuity of service on the tasks that you’re delegating.
Let’s look at some of the main benefits in more detail:
Cost
When you outsource to a virtual assistant you don’t have to think about the additional costs that come from hiring a full or part-time employee. You’ll receive a monthly invoice from your VA that covers the time spent working on your tasks, and that’s where the cost stops.
Even though the hourly rate of a virtual assistant might appear higher at face value than an employee, it’s important to look at the full picture, which for an employee includes PAYE, ACC, leave and office equipment. These costs quickly add up.
Productivity
A typical employee is only ever partly productive throughout their workday. Some studies have shown that employees are productive as little as 25% of their day, but in this case let’s give employees the benefit of the doubt and say that they are 60% productive on average.
This means is that you’re still paying them for the 40% of time they are unproductive. With a VA, you only get charged for the time actually spent doing your tasks, meaning that their time is 100% productive.
You get the benefits of a full-time team member but you're only paying for however long it takes to complete your tasks.
Scalable Support
Expanding on the fact that your VA will always remain 100% productive, you're able to scale the amount of support that you receive from them as needed.
Having a busy week? Scale up the support and have your VA work additional hours to get your tasks completed. Scale this support right back on weeks that you don't require the help, and remember that you're only paying for the hours that your VA actually spends getting the job done.
Leveraging a whole team
If you’re using a VA agency rather than a freelancer, you don’t just have access to one person, you have access to the entire team. This means bookkeepers, graphic designers, photographers, as well as the admin/EA team.
You still only have one point of contact, as your main VA will project manage all your tasks. You get to harness the skills of multiple people rather than being limited by the skills that one part-time or full-time employee has.
Streamline and boost your business
A key thing that you will find with all mid to high-level virtual assistants is that they will proactively be looking for ways to streamline and automate your business processes. As they’re likely to work with several clients across many industries, they come equipped with important knowledge about tools and apps relevant to your business to ensure things are running efficiently.
Continuity of service
A great virtual assistant will document every process that they complete for you, storing the important information relating to your business which forms a full digital training manual.
If you’re working with an agency, you’ll be assigned a back-up virtual assistant. If your VA is away, the backup will seamlessly step in and take over the management of your tasks. They have full written (and often video) instructions on your processes and how to complete them.
This provides you with peace of mind that your tasks will be taken care of, regardless of whether your VA is on leave. It also provides you with a complete training manual if you decide to go on to hire a permanent employee.
When is a virtual assistant not right for me?
We’ve talked about some of the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant above, but that still doesn’t mean they are the right choice for everyone. A VA might not be the right choice for you if:
- You need someone to greet clients and customers
- You can’t make time to provide them with the answers and training they’ll need
- You’re not ready to let go of some control in your business
- You’re not willing to move your business’s operations online into the cloud
Want to chat with an expert about whether a VA is right for you?
Book a call with Jaymie to chat!
