Most small business owners and entrepreneurs have considered the question of whether or not to hire additional help. Whether you are just starting out, looking to expand, or simply need to become more organized and efficient, the need to delegate common administrative tasks is a typical problem.
Knowing you need help is the easy part, but making the decision of how to get that help is a little more daunting. Is it better to hire in-house or do you need a Virtual Assistant? Is a VA cost effective? What are the real benefits to the business and the user if you hire a Virtual Assistant?
We’ve honed in 5 important reasons you should hire a Virtual Assistant and the positive impact it will have on your business and your work-life balance.
1. Using a Virtual Assistant Actually Saves You Money
Your time is valuable, and we mean that literally. For example, if you make $100 per hour and you are using your own time to take care of small repetitive tasks instead of paying someone else $25 an hour to do them, you are losing money.
Your time should be spent on the important work that moves your business forward and can’t be done by anyone else. The average salary for a personal assistant is $39K per year, but using a Virtual Assistant service is only around $4 to $16K per year which is a substantial savings! And, once you have offloaded those time-consuming tasks to your VA, the potential increase in productivity and sales can have a meaningful impact on your business and budget.
2. Using A Virtual Assistant Saves You Time
You only have so many hours in a day, are you spending them on the most productive tasks, or is your time eaten up by endless emails and scheduling?
The Harvard Business Review did a 3-year study that shows delegating repetitive, less productive tasks can save up to one-fifth of your productive time per day. That makes it a saving of one full working day in a week. What would you do with an extra day each week?
You could use that time making more sales or connecting with more people. Or maybe you could bring more balance to your schedule by having time for personal priorities like going to the gym or spending time with family and friends. Delegating the small stuff allows you to choose the best use of your precious time.
3. A Virtual Assistant is Less Hassle Than Hiring In-House
There are times when you need to hire someone to work in your office. But if you don’t need physical tasks done like changing the toner in the printer, or signing for the UPS delivery, going with a Virtual Assistant may be the easier choice.
Often, finding the right person involves a tedious cycle of recruiting, hiring, training, and firing which you repeat until you get the right fit. This is extremely costly both time and money wise and can have a negative impact on your office culture and your clientele.
With a Virtual Assistant you are free from the worries of payroll costs or offering benefits, and there’s no need for office space or equipment. Using a Virtual Assistant service gives you all the benefits of the help you need without the hassles you don’t.
4. You Can Use a Virtual Assistant As Needed
Many small businesses and entrepreneurs don’t have enough tasks to keep a full-time employee busy. Others might need more help during busier times of the year, but then little or no help during the slower months. Some may only need help for the duration of a specific project.
So, why pay someone a salary to work 40 hours a week if you only need them some of the time? With a Virtual Assistant service you have the option to use time with them for a couple of hours per week, or several hours per day. And, you can adjust the amount as your business needs change.
Having the flexibility to customize the amount you use your Assistant at any point ensures you are only paying for what you need.
5. Having A Virtual Assistant Increases Your Productivity and Helps Avoid Burn Out
When you run a small business you wear a lot of different hats, and being responsible for such a wide variety of tasks can leave you feeling stretched too thin. If you often end the day feeling like you got very little accomplished even though you are exhausted, it’s likely your productivity is being bogged down by too many small tasks.
What if there was a way to skip the tedious and time consuming part, and just make the important decisions?
For example, if you need to take a trip for a business conference, having a Virtual Assistant do all the searching for the best flight and hotel options (and book them for you) leaves you free to focus on preparing for the conference and the connections you’ll want to make there.
Or if you needed research done for a blog article, having your Assistant find you the most relevant and current information means you don’t get distracted or waste time with anything you can’t use.
Having someone else to do the small initial steps of larger tasks allows you to focus on the big picture and saves you from decision fatigue, so you can be more productive and feel less stressed.
—
Feeling like you need a Virtual Assistant? Why not give one of our Zirtual Assistants a try? Check out our Virtual Assistant plans and pricing today.