Hire a Virtual Assistant for Your Small Business

Big businesses require a lot of manpower. However, even when you are running a small business, you still need an extra hand. As a small business owner, you might be short of funds to hire a full-time worker, therefore, it is best to consider hiring a Virtual Assistant, who focuses on core business support services. Virtual Assistant is an independent contractor who works remotely and helps small businesses with their overflow.

You can hire virtual assistants for various purposes, they have different sets of skills and you can hire according to your needs. However, there are certain steps to be followed before hiring a virtual assistant for your small business:

Get your priorities straight

List out your priorities. This could be anything from day-to-day to administrative business tasks, to providing customer support. Think about how you would like to work with the person you hire, either for a project or delegate only a few aspects.

Screen Candidates

By screening the candidates, you can make sure that the Virtual Assistant (VA) meets your criteria. You can then narrow down the type of assistant as per your requirement, area of specialty, and a particular locale. This completely helps you when you have no time interviewing, hiring, and training.

Estimate the cost

VA’s get your tasks done at an affordable rate. Rates are very considerable among them and you can contact a VA as per the need of the project. Certain virtual assistant service providers guarantee the performance with packaged and estimated rates. You only pay for what you need at an unimaginable rate.

Estimate your working hours

Free time seems non-existent for business owners. Calculate the time a particular task takes for execution. You can save this time by assigning the task to a VA. Now, you are free to focus on the business’s core objectives. By outsourcing, you are able to release the burden of completing endless activities.

Determine the Expertise

Approximate the skill sets you are expecting for your business. A virtual administrative assistant can help you expand the expertise and possess more scope to help your business in the long-run. They are not limited to talent in any specific area. Instead, they meet your needs in the specific area.

VA Service Providers

It takes time to find the right person among many. Virtual Assistant Service Providers present you with qualified and someone who matches your personality, so you can have them all around the time.

Finally…

Virtual Assistants are in-time resources that are ready to work. They contribute to your business productivity. They leave you more time and energy in your hands. They provide an extra set of hands to save your day. Outsourcing them not only boosts efficiency and productivity but also helps the business grow and prosper.

Things To Know Before Hiring Virtual Assistants

Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) is the smart way of delegating work to an expert outside the business. But do you really need to hire them? This blog is an eye-opener on things you should know before recruiting a Virtual Assistant.

Know the pulse of your business

Before explaining the task to the VAs; you should know the nature of the work, how to do it and why do it. Just because the work volume is high, don’t jump into the conclusion that you need to hire a Virtual Assistant.

Watch your Budget

The cost of hiring a VA should be within the overall business budget. The rate shouldn’t later cause an issue. Communicate about your budget and constraints if any, with the VAs before getting into a contract.

Check the Time-Zone

Learn in-depth about the nature of work to understand which VA agency or the provider in which country and time zone can perform that particular task efficiently.  Have a thorough idea about the value of the currency in the country where your Virtual Assistant agency is functioning.

Compelling Communication

Building a strong relationship with your VAs is important when it comes to business growth and stability. VAs work remotely and you cannot assess their work on a daily basis. In such a case, building trust is a necessity.

Supposedly, you are operating in the US and decided to hire a VA in Japan; make sure you have Japanese language expertise in your business to help communicate with the agents. Language shouldn’t be a barrier in getting done your work in an efficient manner.

Finding Assistants

It is truly difficult to find the right Virtual Assistant for completing your business task more effectively. You can make use of the internet and find the most viable options. If the service providers have a website, check on their services, and portfolio.

However, There is no good or a bad Virtual Assistant. It depends on how you communicate your need with them.

Assign Small Projects

Create the blueprint of the perfect flow of work to the VAs. Make sure small assignments of less serious nature and repetitive tasks are on the top of the workflow. Once you build a good rapport with the VAs, you can assign other works.

Design Training Material

Create an explanatory training material to share with your VAs as a reference. The material should contain all the details to help the assistant.  Objectives, time-limit, budget, contact details should all be mentioned clearly.

Technical Knowledge

Make sure you find VA providers having in-depth knowledge of technology and proficiency in tools that would help finish a project competently. For example, if you are outsourcing a graphic designing work; make sure you assign it to someone who understands the trends.

Learn Patience

Understand that it is a team effort to anchor the business growth. Hold on to the greatest virtue of all. You need to have patience before hiring a Virtual Assistant or even working with him or her. It would take some time for them to understand the domain you are in.

Success Probability

The work completed by an outsourced team may not always be satisfactory. Keep this in mind to avoid unnecessary expectation from a VA. There is a high chance of making repeated mistakes on a project, as the VA is not always under your supervision.

The above listed are the 10 main things you should consider before hiring a Virtual Assistant. However, there are more other factors that actually influence your decision to hire a VA or choose a particular VA. This all depends on your company’s specific requirements.