How a virtual assistant can help your business

Virtual assistants help small business owners every day.

Let’s take a look at the different ways a virtual assistant can help your business 

Have you come across success stories by entrepreneurs that start highly successful businesses?

If you see entrepreneurs claiming to have achieved this without doing any work, there is something they are not telling you.

What they don’t mention is more than likely, if they didn’t do any work to make their business a success, it’s because someone else did.

Unless you start a business that is one hundred percent automated, the only way a business can grow into a success without you doing any work is if there are others doing the work instead. 

This is where virtual assistants come in.

A virtual assistant (V.A.) is an online flexible business support solution for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Virtual assistants reduce workload and provide assistance by completing tasks that have been delegated to them. 

The most common type of virtual assistant is an admin / marketing virtual assistant. Some virtual assistants have advanced skills and can offer technical support. To get an idea of what kind of services a virtual assistant can provide click here. 

Virtual assistants work remotely from home providing services they can complete online like social media management.

Why do entrepreneurs use virtual assistants?

Entrepreneurs are not just hiring virtual assistants because it’s a trend. They hire virtual assistants because they are busy people. Virtual assistants are a quick way to increase productivity. A VA is also a flexible alternative to hiring permanent staff. With a virtual assistant, you have the freedom to use their services only when you need them. 

HOW A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS

A virtual assistant can help your business expand services and products

There are 24 hours in one day, and a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners can only get so much done within this time. A virtual assistant is your 25th, 26th and 27th hour that you can be dedicated to developing and expanding your business services or products. 

EXAMPLE

You have only been offering a single service / product since your business started. You are aware of additional services your customers need. 

You hire a virtual assistant and delegate them the tasks you usually do while you focus on developing the new service. 

It doesn’t matter who does what as long as the person who does it has the knowledge to do it well. This means if you would prefer to continue doing your usual business tasks, you can delegate the development of the new service to your virtual assistant. The ball is in your court. As long as either you or your virtual assistant is actively working on the new service you will expand your business and see positive results. 

To learn the correct way to delegate tasks to a virtual assistant click here

A VA can help you by doing work that you don’t want to do. 

Pick a task you currently do for your business that you wish you no longer had to do? 

Did you choose a task you find boring?

Or a task that takes forever to complete?

Or did you choose a task that you find difficult?

It doesn’t matter why you picked the task. What matters is that you know you don’t want to do it, so have a virtual assistant do it instead. 

EXAMPLE: 

You dislike social media, it’s just not your thing, but you know your competitors are reaching most of your target audience with social media.

You hire a virtual assistant to do your social media management. 

Because your virtual assistant already has social media skills and experience you don’t even have to spend time training them, just give them your instructions. You no longer have to dread doing social media, you can purely focus on the parts of your business that you enjoy. 

A virtual assistant can help to achieve business growth

One of the benefits of a VA is that they can also have technical and marketing skills that many startup entrepreneurs are still learning. Why not hand over tasks you lack experience with to someone who is more experienced than you? This way you can get on with the tasks that you’re already great at doing. 

While you’re working on your business a virtual assistant can be completing tasks while at the same time maximising and multiplying the amount of work you get done. Using a virtual assistant that already has the right skills and experience for the job supports business growth.

EXAMPLE: 

You already have a website however you want to add an email sign-up list to your website.

You already have a huge to-do list, but you know it will benefit you to add it to your new website sooner rather than later so that you can start collecting email addresses now. 

As you still have so much to do, rather than watching countless tutorials or speaking to website technical support you continue with your to-do list and hire a virtual assistant who already knows how to create an email sign-up list.

Your virtual assistant sets it all up for you. 

You start collecting email addresses without having to take time off from your usual duties to learn how. 

Your business achieves growth with the help of your VA

A virtual assistant helps your business stay consistent 

Entrepreneurs in the startup phase are usually juggling so many different parts of their business, this can cause other parts to become neglected. A virtual assistant can help to improve the consistency of specific services and improve customer reliability. 

EXAMPLE 

Your main competitor is gaining lots of attention on their blog due to their consistent blog uploads. You have been too busy to keep up with your goal of 3 to 4 blog posts a week and sometimes only post once a week. 

To remain consistent and catch up with your competitors level of blogging success you hire a virtual assistant writer that will write you four new blog posts that are delivered to you at the start of each week. 

A virtual assistant can add fresh ideas to your business

Some people hire a virtual assistant and just want to hand work over to them for it to be completed. 

However, some clients want more. 

Depending on the level of experience a VA may be able to provide advice and new ideas that can actually help you and your business goals.  

Many people think a virtual assistant is someone that just does a job, whilst that’s right, we do provide virtual help, however, most of us are also business owners ourselves. We have experience doing admin and marketing for our own business and also gain experience from the work we do for the clients that we serve. For this reason, a virtual assistant may be able to identify and make recommendations on the right software or marketing method that will achieve your business goals. 

EXAMPLE 

You book a consultation with a VA you want to hire to create some presentations. 

During the consultation, you mention that your business involves handling a lot of emails. 

Your virtual assistant is a problem solver, they have lots of experience with email management. They suggest you use an automatic text generator to speed up your response time. Your VA recommends a specific tool.

You check out the software and agree it will help you answer emails quicker. 

You implement the software and are now able to respond to emails 40% quicker than before.  

A virtual assistant can help your business to expand its availability.  

Having a virtual assistant gives you more time to look after your customers. 

EXAMPLE 

Your business operating hours are nine to five. You would like to continue answering business calls from customers outside of these hours, but you have personal / family commitments that prevent you from doing so. You know that if you open your phone line out of hours this will improve your customer’s overall experience and ensure you’re not missing any new opportunities. 

You hire a virtual assistant that has sales and customer service experience to answer calls outside of your working hours. Your virtual assistant handles the calls and is your customer’s first point of contact when you are unavailable. 

A virtual assistant can help you build a startup business

Dedicating enough time to starting another project when you already have so much going on can be challenging or even unrealistic for many entrepreneurs. If this is the case for you consider hiring a virtual assistant to help launch your next startup idea. 

EXAMPLE 

You are already running a business. 

You’ve come up with a new business idea you want to develop so you dedicate half your day to your existing business and the other half to your new startup. 

While working on the new startup your business emails begin to pile up, and you have a backlog of emails to answer. The only way to answer the emails is by neglecting your startup.

You hire a virtual assistant to monitor your email and respond to enquiries while you work on your new ideas. 

You don’t have to neglect your ideas, your business continues to grow and you have time to nurture your startup. 

A virtual assistant can help you feel less pressure

A virtual assistant can help to relieve the stress and pressure that many entrepreneurs face.  

EXAMPLE 

You are a sole trader, you work for yourself and sometimes find your workload overwhelming. You feel a lot of pressure and are unable to switch off even when you’re not working because of all the responsibilities and deadlines that you continuously handle alone. 

You hire a virtual assistant to take some of the workload, responsibility and pressure off your shoulders so it’s no longer all on you.  

A virtual assistant can help you make money 

Although it requires money to hire a virtual assistant. Hiring a virtual assistant can actually make you money. As entrepreneurs, we know there are times we have to spend money to make money. This is exactly what a virtual assistant is – an investment. 

EXAMPLE 

You usually handle your company’s general administrative duties. 

However, you are aware your time could be better spent focusing on income-generating tasks whilst someone else takes care of your admin instead. 

You hire a virtual assistant to complete your admin tasks. 

You are now able to put more time into income-producing tasks and begin generating more income. 

A virtual assistant can save you money on recruitment 

If you are positive you need to hire someone to help support your business but you’re not quite sure a virtual assistant is the right choice you should know there’s more risk involved when hiring permanent staff than there is to use a virtual assistant as your admin solution.

If things don’t work out with your employee and you don’t have a suitable replacement ready this could result in your business facing a loss. 

A benefit of hiring a flexible virtual assistant is that they can save you money on recruitment. Because hiring a virtual assistant is more flexible than hiring an employee they are easier to replace if you are not satisfied with the quality of their work. 

It’s also important to note that most virtual assistants are self-employed. For this reason, they may be willing to work harder than a traditional employee because think about it… 

An employee can produce top-quality work however more than likely they feel secure in their position and don’t assume they will be replaced tomorrow because you specifically hired them to do the job. 

A virtual assistant on the other hand will usually over-deliver and produce a higher quality of work simply because they want to retain you as a client. 

EXAMPLE 

You need some business support. 

Permanent staff is cheaper per hour than a virtual assistant

You calculate the amount of work that needs to be completed 

The amount of time it takes to train your new staff member

Plus the recruitment fees and their salary

And the amount of money you need to cover sick days, holiday pay etc 

You realise hiring virtual assistant help as and when you need it is better value and will save you money on recruitment. 

Having a virtual assistant helps you reach your goals faster

Using a virtual assistant increases productivity. If you have one or more people working on your goals it will help you get results faster. 

You are probably familiar with the quote ‘’teamwork makes the dream work’’ this is true. Your virtual assistant is like a team member with the skills to make your dream work. The faster you get things done the faster you see results. With a virtual assistant depending on the tasks you delegate, they can double your productivity and double your results. 

EXAMPLE 

It’s July and you have a specific business goal you want to achieve. 

In your current situation, you estimate you can achieve the goal by December alone. 

By hiring a virtual assistant to work on your goals with you, you can now see results by July.

A virtual assistant can help you take a well-deserved break

Some people dream of getting away but don’t have the freedom to go because they’re entrepreneurs who run their businesses alone. 

If this is you a virtual assistant can help by covering your business while you take some time off. 

EXAMPLE 

You are a consultant. You have one week next month with no bookings. This would be a perfect time to get away. 

However, you constantly receive emails and phone calls about bookings. You don’t want to monitor calls or emails during your holiday, yet you don’t want to miss opportunities. 

You hire a virtual assistant to cover your phone and emails during the week you are away.

Your virtual assistant responds to enquiries and creates bookings for you. 

You enjoy your holiday and have peace of mind your business is being looked after while you are away. 

Your virtual assistant continues to give you a new freedom that you never had before. 

A virtual assistant can save you time 

You can literally save time by having a virtual assistant.

EXAMPLE 

You have average video editing skills 

It takes you 10 hours to complete a video editing project

A virtual assistant can complete the same task in less time while you dedicate the 10 hours to another area of your business. 

CONCLUSION

There are so many benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant. This is why there are so many successful and well-known entrepreneurs that continue to use virtual assistants to either start, run or manage their businesses. 

Outsourcing has always been one of the fastest ways to grow your business. The fact that many virtual assistants are multi-skilled means that you don’t necessarily need to hire a team or multiple virtual assistants. 

By hiring just one VA you can get so many different types of jobs completed simultaneously. Having the right virtual assistant can bring added value to your business.

Notice I stated that ‘’the right’’ virtual assistant will bring you added value. 

We specialise in virtual assistant recruitment and matching ‘’the right’’ virtual assistants to small business owners and entrepreneurs. To discuss finding the right virtual assistant for your business book a call.

Now you have a general idea of how a virtual assistant can help. 

If you want to discuss and discover the specifics of how a virtual assistant can help your business schedule a consultation.