Virtual Assistant Value

Our society today is fast-paced and interconnected, which can put pressure on us and become overwhelming when managing responsibilities, both personally and professionally. Balancing these tasks, projects, and deadlines can take a toll on us as business owners, leading to increased stress and decreased productivity.

Fortunately, with the rise of virtual assistance, businesses can leverage the power of outsourcing, non-revenue, repetitive tasks to skilled professionals known as virtual assistants, or VA’s.  We will discuss your bandwidth and time, and the value of hiring a VA, looking at the potential benefits they could bring both personally and professionally.  

• Review Your Business Model – before you embark on hiring a VA, take the needed time to look at your specific activities. Where are you spending  time on activities which do not drive revenue. Ask yourself, ‘could someone else do this task, freeing up my time for more productive aspects of my business?' According to Scott Nussinow, EVP of industry leading supplier AWS, “ Organizations need to consider how much of what they do is repetitive, routine, and just not the best utilization of their time. An additional consideration is, are they missing sales opportunities by spending so much time on these routine tasks.” 

• Optimization of Time and Productivity – Time is your most valuable asset. Hiring a VA will help optimize your bandwidth effectively. By delegating these non-revenue generating activities, individuals can focus on top level priorities that require special focus and attention. VA’s can assist with scheduling, back-end order entry and follow up, responding to emails, organizing documents, conducting research and perhaps some marketing activities. By outsourcing these activities, principals can now allocate their time to strategic planning, creative thinking, business development, marketing, all resulting in better efficiencies and increased productivity.

• Cost Effectiveness – A principal of a company that is multitasking and doing non-revenue generating activities is ultimately paying themselves to do these tasks that a VA could do more cost effectively. VA’s can be hired in various ways, by the hour, project based, or on a long-term contractual basis, whereby you only pay for the contracted services rendered. Additionally, VAs are remote workers, eliminating the need for additional office space, and other overhead costs typically associated with an on-site employee. This gives business and individuals significant cost savings while still benefiting from professional support.

• Flexibility – Flexibility and scalability are two key advantages of hiring a VA. Unlike traditional employees, VA’s provide flexibility in terms of hours worked and tasks performed. This flexibility allows businesses to adjust the VA’s workload as needed, based on demands of the business, up or down.

• Scalability – Whether a short-termed project or ongoing support, as the needs of the company change and fluctuate, the workload can be scaled and serve as an ideal solution for businesses during increased workloads or during seasonal demands.

• Expertise and Specialized Skills – VAs bring a diverse range of expertise and skills to all aspects of your business: managing social media accounts, creating marketing content, designing graphics, digitizing, and many back of the house customer support activities.

• Global Talent Pool – hiring a virtual assistant allows you to tap into a global pool of diverse talent. You can choose from a range of candidates anywhere in the world – people with different perspectives, skillsets, and backgrounds.

• Improved Work-Life Balance – having a healthy work-life balance is essential to avoid stress and burnout. Delegating these non-revenue activities and time-consuming tasks to a virtual assistance, doing so, individuals can get back precious time and focus on themselves and spend more quality time with loved ones.  VA’s provide freedom. Freedom to create a more balanced lifestyle, reducing stress associated with demanding workloads.

It Is important to note, training, communication and collaboration are critical. You must have a strategy and specific agenda for training to ensure a positive outcome. Nussinow further stated, “VAs, like any new hire; require a training cycle, a period where the organization and the VA 'connect'. It may seem to take more time than it saves in the short-term, though long-term benefits offer profound productivity improvements. A VA who has been trained in and who has a deep knowledge of the promo industry can help to reduce this training cycle time. This is why it is critical to partner with the right team.”

The value of hiring a virtual assistant cannot be overstated. With a VA’s time optimization skills, cost-savings, flexibility, expertise, and ability to assist in furthering a work-life balance. VAs are an invaluable asset, when a fit, in our fast-paced work environment.

Until Next Month, continued good selling! CQ