Virtual Assistants are becoming very popular especially due to Covid-19, the lockdowns have made people rethink the way they work so even though Virtual Assistants have been around for a long time, more and more people are interested in finding out more information about them. However, there are businesses and individuals that still do not fully understand the benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant or the value that a Virtual Assistant would bring to their business. As such, I thought I would explain firstly what a Virtual Assistant does, then explain the top five reasons why a Virtual Assistant would be an asset to your business.
Virtual Assistant - The simplest way to describe us is; that we are self-employed Personal Assistants (PA's) or Executive Assistants (EA's) who work for a client (or multiple clients) from a remote location. Some Virtual Assistants (VA's) work solely for one company, taking on various different tasks or projects, or VA's like myself who work with multiple clients and focus on a number of different projects at any one time. We are highly organised individuals who have a wide range of skills and experiences to offer clients who charge by the hour to carry out the tasks that you do not have the time to do or that you just hate to do.
So why would you hire a Virtual Assistant and what are the benefits to you?
1. Manage your time more efficiently - Handing over your admin and bookkeeping tasks to your Virtual Assistant, means you will have more hours during the day to complete client work which results in more profit for you. If you are one of the small business owners who gets home from a day’s work but then has to spend hours going through emails, and messages, booking/rescheduling client appointments, and contacting suppliers to order stock/materials for the next project then you definitely need a Virtual Assistant. We will help you get your evenings and weekends back plus by doing so, we also make your partner happy all because you are happier, less stressed and spending more time with them. So, we are in fact miracle workers.
2. Reduce your costs - choosing a Virtual Assistant over a full or part-time employee will save you so much money.
· No holiday or sick pay
· No tax/national insurance payment or pension contribution
· No IT equipment/electricity to pay for
· No office space to source
As well as saving on all the costs I have listed, you can also put me down as an expense, how good is that.
3. Flexibility - working on an 'Adhoc' basis for as little as an hour a month, we offer a much more flexible way of working than hiring an employee. For the clients that need more than a couple of hours a month, we offer Bespoke Packages from just 5 hours per month up to 40 per month so that you have dedicated support each month and then if for some reason you do not need a VA one month, just cancel and contact us again when you need us. That is how flexible we are.
4. Increased Productivity - did you know that in a standard 8-hour workday, the average UK office worker does a little under 3 hours of actual 'productive' work. You end up paying for an employee to surf the internet and chat in the kitchen whilst having their coffee break, but Virtual Assistants work very differently. No distractions from an office environment, they are able to focus and dedicate their time to completing the tasks. Due to Virtual Assistant owning their own Limited Company or being sole traders, their number one goal is client satisfaction. If they start slacking off and missing deadlines, it is unlikely the client will hire them for any future work. For this reason, Virtual Assistants are a highly motivated bunch.
5. Skills and experience - most Virtual Assistants are highly experienced and have a vast variety of skills. We are also very confident in our ability to get the job done, if this was not the case, the Virtual Assistant would not have had the courage to get out there to promote and build their own business. Take me for example, I am very confident in my administrative skills. Working in a variety of businesses previously as PA/Project Administrator within the defence industry. I have also been a Community Centre Manager in charge of the day to day running of the centre, which required a wide range of communication skills, event organisational skills and financial skills as I trained as a Bookkeeper to expand my skill set so that I can offer more services to my clients. So anything from basic admin to transcribing, bookkeeping to social media graphics I can help you with all your admin needs. Since running my business I have learnt so many new skills too, I have trained in Dubsado for example. Realised my love of Canva and have become a complete whizz at it. Plus noticed how much I love tech so I can put my hand to anything but my favourite services to offer now are Dubsado, Canva Design, Wix website design and upkeep, and MailerLite.
If you fancy a chat and cuppa on Zoom with me just book in below,
Heidi
Creative Edge VA Ltd