“Virtual Assistance” is a rather new concept in the outsourcing industry, but it is gaining more attention due to its personalized approach. Imagine someone informing you of the weather forecast for the week, reminding you of your appointment with a new client, locating and booking your favorite restaurants in the metro and giving you directions while driving out of town. It is like having your own personal assistant, except that you are probably thousands of miles away.
Alarms, reminders and appointment setting are some digital virtual assistance features that our smart phones offer. While helpful to most people in their day-to-day lives, they are limited and a business owner requires much more in order to get through their busy days. Imagine if your phone could speak to clients, write emails, update your databases, contact suppliers and you can see why people choose to outsource virtual assistants. If you have not heard of the concept or know very little about virtual assistants, read on and find out how they can be the resource your business needs.
Virtual assistants are highly trained employees who take on the tasks you provide and accomplish them in their totality, freeing you to focus on more important items and core operations. The best thing about a virtual assistant is that you do not need to manage them like you would do so with in-office employees.
Why hire a virtual assistant at all?
Lessen Operational Costs
New companies in the corporate world benefit from hiring virtual assistants due to their cost effectivity. Capital is one of the primary factors in starting up a business so you may want to minimize your expenses in starting your venture. Hiring virtual assistants will effectively help lessen your expenses as you will not have to worry about additional working space, equipment, salary, benefits, and other costs related to employing in-house.
Increase Productivity
Specific business tasks like email management, content creation, follow-up and daily reminders are some of the recurring tasks that can be outsourced to virtual assistants so that you can have your staff focus on other tasks. Virtual assistants also do not need to follow a regular 9-5-work schedule, so turn around time for work assignments can be shorter depending on when you schedule them.
Concentrate on Core Operations
Working on repetitive tasks or an excessive workload can cause one to have less focus or time on core business operations. Employing a virtual assistant is an option for an organization to ensure that all tasks will be completed and allows their in-house staff to stay focused on more important items. Repetitive tasks can be easy to do, but they can eat a lot of time that could be spent on other matters. With virtual assistants, you can keep these tasks current and avoid falling behind.
Employ Subject Matter Experts
Handling tasks based on an employer’s specifications can require extensive knowledge in a specific industry. This is another area where virtual assistants provide an advantage. Outsourcing tasks like social media marketing, website maintenance, graphic design, accounting, bookkeeping and other administrative support work is becoming more practical as these are being handled by experts in their respective field and have the flexibility to learn even more complicated tasks.
Balance your Professional and Personal Growth
Business owners often have to handle multiple tasks at once. Although this is expected, it can hurt your productivity and efficiency, which may result in rendering more hours to some tasks than intended- often at the expense of your personal life. A virtual assistant is a helping hand or extra support to decrease workload so that you can have the time off that you deserve. Your life should not be deprived because of your business; you should enjoy working as well as enjoy your personal life.
Virtual assistants can make your professional (and personal!) life easier and help create a stress free work set-up. This creates more opportunities for development and growth for your business.
Global Strategic provides efficient virtual assistants in different specializations and industries. We offer full-time service assistants who will make your life easier.
If you have not considered hiring a virtual assistant or still have questions, visit http://www.globalstrategic.com/virtual-assistants/ for more details.