Need an extra pair of hands but can’t justify the expense or don’t want to take the risk of hiring in a new employee? Ever considered outsourcing those tasks to an experienced and professional virtual assistant?
Whether you are a solo entrepreneur, a small business or a large corporation, the question often arises, should you hire a virtual assistant? In this uncertain financial climate, you don’t want the commitment of taking on an employee, but you know that there are a large number of tasks that need to be done. Often these tasks are not a good use of your time, so they keep getting put to the bottom of the pile where they sit becoming more and more urgent. However, you know that working with a virtual assistant or virtual pa is a large leap into a new way of functioning for your business. If you are determining the best business moves, you may want to evaluate your reasons for getting involved with extra helping hands.
The most common reason for hiring a virtual assistant is that there is too much work to be done on the day-to-day running of the business that is taking you away from things that you should be doing. The best way to evaluate whether or not your business could benefit from using a virtual assistant or not, is to take a look at what you are doing all day. Keep a record of everything you are doing during your working day, every day for a week, and see what it tells you. If you are spending time on administrative correspondence and not your vision, then a virtual assistant may be a good answer. This is especially important if you have noticed that your business is beginning to grow or expand or you would like it to but you simply haven’t got enough hours in the day to make it happen.
Another factor to consider with a virtual assistant is the resources that you will need. If you don’t know how much work you will have, of if your workload is erratic, a virtual assistant is also better option because everything is more flexible. If you don’t have much work, and you have nothing to delegate, you can usually cancel your contract at fairly short notice and then unlike an employee you don’t need to pay them.
By hiring a virtual assistant, you will be helping yourself with both time and money. The simple thing to do is to evaluate your situation. If you could use some help, but are not ready for the larger step of taking on an employee, or if your home is your office and you simply don’t have the space for an assistant, hiring a virtual assistant is the best option. This will ensure that you will get the best professional administration support, while saving time and money in the long run.
About the Author:
Justine Curtis is the director of My Virtual Assistant Limited which is currently expanding across the UK with a team of virtual assistant licensees and founder of the UK Association of Virtual Assistants (UKAVA) which offers free resources and information to its subscribers. Justine is the author of Setting Yourself Up As A Virtual Assistant and passes on the benefits of her vast experience of the VA role to aspiring and progressive virtual PAs as a co-founder of the VA Success Group. Justine is also a co-founder of Academy for Online Business, a company devoted to helping self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs to build their own online business empires.