If you are looking to hire a virtual assistant then this article is for you.  Here you get to know about virtual assistants, the best part of having them. The tasks a virtual assistant can do for you. When to hire virtual assistants? And why hire them?

With the global pandemic still in place, the companies are looking for ways to streamline their work. And most businesses can’t make it through this pandemic if their strategies are not up to the mark. 

Here are the reasons behind the failure of an organization: 

• 44% fail due to incompetence

• 30% fail due to lack of managerial experience

• 11% fail due to lack of experience

Some businesses that are operational this year or since last year are jumping onto the startup wagon. Organizations could have also outsourced in the areas they lacked in. And include it in their talent acquisition strategies. 

It is where virtual assistants come into play. 

You get help in certain areas where your company is lacking experience. 

The article contains: 

1. What is a virtual assistant?
2. The best part of having a virtual assistant 
3. What tasks can virtual assistants do for you? 
4. When to hire a virtual assistant for your organization?
5. Why hire a virtual assistant for your organization?
6. How do you manage virtual assistants?

Let us begin:

What is a virtual assistant? 

A virtual assistant is an experienced person. Capable of providing services to businesses or entrepreneurs from a remote location. There are a lot of things a virtual assistant can do that are: 

• Preparing reports
• Managing calendars
• Helping in closing hiring
• Marketing tasks
• Social media management

And the list is a never-ending list, and in fact, they can do anything. 

They are a vital part of the business process of the company. The growth of the virtual assistant industry is helping the startups staying in the game during the covid-19 pandemic. 

The best part of having a virtual assistant 

• Companies can focus on the core function without worrying about the monotonous work that takes a lot of time. 

• Hiring a virtual assistant is ok when you need help. Companies can hire them too on an hourly basis and don’t need a permanent employee to perform all the same tasks.

• Keep the budget in check. It is a perfect option for SMBs and startups looking to increase their business within a fixed budget. 

What tasks can virtual assistants do for you?

Well, a virtual assistant is capable of helping your business grow. There are ample categories for which you can hire a virtual assistant and perform any task given to them. 

We are going to cover the tasks covered by virtual assistants. 

1. Administrative tasks

Companies hire virtual assistants to be assistants. They can take the duties of a typical administrative assistant. 

The duties include: 

• Basic data entry 
• Organizing to-do list and calendar
• Diary management

And more. 

The only difference here is the virtual assistant does not have a desk at your office. Apart from that everything is the same as an administrative assistant.

2. Managing finances

The general assumption with the business owners is.. 

That virtual assistant can do work for you. And virtual assistants can perform the job with ease. 

The virtual assistant maintains the budgets, make purchases. And keep track of expenses to make finances transparent. 

3. Research 

Research is a part of a company’s growth strategy. A business owner can’t spend a lot of time when trying to run a business. 

When it is about research. 

A company requires a dedicated person who is good with numbers and the research part. 

The virtual assistant should be able to: 

• Analyze consumer trends
• Keep track of competitors products and services
• Find formats for press releases

It means a lot of research for a virtual assistant. Assigning it to someone in your company who has a lot of work is not a good idea. 

It is why startups and small businesses are taking the help of virtual assistants. The virtual assistant can focus on gathering the data for your company.

4. Customer service

Virtual assistants can work well to provide better customer service. 

Most customer service interactions get based on addressing the concerns. It gets answered via a manual. 

In a rare scenario, when a problem does not solve via a virtual assistant. 

It gets transferred to a full-time employee. 

A virtual assistant spends a decent amount of time. And they get prepared to answer questions about it. 

When to hire a virtual assistant for your organization?

Hiring virtual assistants is one of the most used talent acquisitions strategies. And when virtual assistants are helpful:

• When a business has a lot of work but don’t need full-time employees

When there is a task that only requires a few hours of work in a week, hiring someone or full-time doesn’t make sense. 

Hiring an employee to schedule client meetings is a bad idea. In such cases, when there are small tasks and one-time projects.

It is ideal to go with virtual assistants from a remote work location.

• When the tasks are repetitive 

Most startups and new businesses spend their time on non-core times. It contains managing emails and answering cold calls. 

If you waste your precious time on these activities, it is the right time to hire a virtual assistant. They can handle these activities. It frees up the time for the company to focus on essential tasks. 

Why hire a virtual assistant for your organization?

Here are some of the reasons to hire virtual assistants: 

1. Reduced costs

Most business owners and organizations hire virtual assistants that reduce overhead costs. 

• Lower salaries and operating costs

Instead of hiring a full-time employee, you can go with a virtual assistant to do it for you. As the virtual assistant charges on an hourly or a task basis. You need to only pay them for the work the virtual assistant has done. 

A company doesn’t have to pay extra costs. 

Such as internet connection or other office-related expenses. 

• Lowers training cost 

The startup can save training costs when they can hire virtual professionals. 

And when you hire a first-time employee. 

You need to invest a considerable amount of time and resources into training them. 

Virtual assistants only work on the specific tasks in which they already excel. 

2. Improves the organization of your business

The organization is necessary whether you are a startup or an established company. All the processes and systems need to be in one place. 

Without a proper organization. 

The business will turn awry, and it gets harder to manage the operations. 

You need to organize all the aspects of the business. 

It includes human resources, project management, workflow, finances and customer data. 

It’s not about maintaining the organized files. But ensuring that business operations are functional. It can be an issue when you don’t have any time to manage it. 

There are virtual assistants out in the market that can help to create the processes for the company. A virtual assistant handles all the administration needs as well.

3. 24/7 availability to the customers

A new business will get queries from the customers, and you can’t cater to the customers day and night. Customers are always on the go 24/7, and the affordable way is to hire a virtual assistant. 

It includes services from virtual assistants from all over the world. 

And there is someone present who can answer the customer’s calls and solve their queries. 

A virtual assistant will be there to work even if there is a different time zone. The virtual assistants keep the company in the loop, and you get the updates. 

4. Growing online visibility

Virtual assistants are ideal for office tasks and are not only limited to them. Some of them also delve into the world of social media marketing. 

A company’s presence on social media platforms helps to grow the business. The virtual assistant helps to create and manage social media profiles. It includes posting content that attracts and builds engagement with the audience. 

5. Get the expertise you need

There are instances.. 

When the employees don’t have the necessary expertise that you need in a particular area. An example could be looking to start a digital marketing campaign rather than having a full-time staff. You can hire virtual assistants with relevant industry experience. This way get the exact expertise you need rather than a person who can do every work. 

Have your campaign handled by the virtual assistants who get paid for the time and services given by them. It ensures you are getting the best value for every dollar you have spent.

6. Frees up time for strategic thinking

A virtual assistant gets hired to perform non-core activities. You now have more time to grow your business. 

Rather than wasting time and resources for day to day business, invest in the business from a long term perspective. It helps to set goals that guide the company for better performance.

How do you manage virtual assistants?

Hiring a virtual assistant can come up with a share of concerns. 

And when you are not interacting with them, a lot of things can go wrong. 

It is the reason a lot of people think managing a virtual assistant can be a troublesome task. 

But these challenging questions have simple solutions. Let us check them out: 

•   Communication 

As you are not interacting with virtual assistants, communication can be a tough task. 

You need to rely on tools like slack, skype to stay in touch with them. These are the communication tools that help to stay connected.. via both messaging and via video way. 

Video conferencing tools like Zoom are ideal. 

It helps to host meetings and helps to build team chemistry with the virtual assistant. 

• Track the progress of tasks

You need to use a project management tool.. Such as Jira to divide the tasks and streamline the work with virtual assistants. 

Using a good project management tool helps you to: 

• Divide the projects and tasks with detailed descriptions.

• Set deadlines, task dependencies and more. 

• Check the status of the projects. 

• Helps to enable the collaboration of virtual assistants with employees. 

By regular monitoring, you will know where you and your team stand and where they need to improve. 

• Use performance monitoring tools

If you get worried about the monitoring of your virtual assistant’s performance and productivity. 

You have tools like a Webwork tracker that helps to track the productivity of virtual assistants. 

With a webwork tracker, you can track the working hours and track screenshots. You can also track activity levels, activity description, tasks and manual time. 

Companies can pay them based on the hours worked. It makes it easy to pay them without any discrepancies.