How to Choose the Best Virtual Assistant Services for Your Needs
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How to Choose the Best Virtual Assistant Services for Your Needs
As the digital landscape continues to grow and change, more businesses are looking to virtual assistant (VA) services as an affordable way to expand their operations while limiting overhead costs. After all, virtual assistants can perform a wide range of tasks from making phone calls on your behalf to handling basic email correspondence and even taking care of billing services for your company. With such a broad scope of potential services available, it’s no wonder that more small businesses are considering adding a VA partner to their team.
What Is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant (VA) is a person who works remotely to provide assistance to other businesses or people. VAs often focus on administrative or organizational tasks but can handle just about any kind of project or task that might be outside the scope of your in-house staff or team. VAs can help with many different tasks, such as bookkeeping, creative or content development, marketing, sales, social media management, and customer service. Some may focus on one type of task while others can help with almost anything.
How to Find the Right Virtual Assistant for Your Business
When looking for the right virtual assistant company, there are a few key things to consider. First, you’ll want to make sure that the company you’re considering has been in business for a few years, preferably with positive customer reviews. You’ll also want to look for companies that offer a wide range of services to choose the best fit for your business. You can narrow down your choices by using these questions as a guide: - What tasks does the virtual assistant provide for their clients? If a potential virtual assistant says they can do just about anything, that may be a red flag. You want an assistant who has experience with the tasks you need to be done. - What type of experience does the virtual assistant have? If a potential assistant doesn’t have experience in your field, they may not be able to do the best job for you. You also don’t want someone who is so new to the field that they don’t have the skills needed to do their job well. - How much experience does the VA have doing similar tasks for other clients? A good VA will be able to show you examples of work they’ve done in the past, giving you a sense of what they can do for you.
Important Things to Know Before Hiring a VA
- You must outline your expectations and the tasks you’ll be hiring the VA to do. You must have a good internet connection. VAs perform their work remotely. You need to have a fast and reliable internet connection to make this work. You may also want a backup connection in case your main connection goes down. - You should be comfortable using technology to communicate. You’ll likely be working with your virtual assistant through email or a virtual collaboration or messaging platform, so you need to be comfortable with these technologies. - You must be able to clearly explain your business, goals and long-term vision. VAs are employees, so they must understand your business culture and goals. You must be able to clearly communicate all of this. - You must know how to manage your time.
Steps to Hiring a Virtual Assistant Services
- Think about what your business needs most. While every business is different, most VAs can help with a variety of tasks. Narrow down the specific tasks that your business needs most, whether it’s marketing, bookkeeping, customer service or something else. This will help you find the best fit for your needs.
Tips for Working with Your New VA
- Create a tailored onboarding process for your VA. Hiring someone to work remotely is different than hiring someone to work onsite. You’ll need to walk your new VA through your business, your goals and your vision for the future. - Create a schedule with your VA. You want to make sure that you’re both on the same page with regards to when you expect certain tasks to be completed, how often you’ll communicate with each other and what is expected of both parties in terms of the relationship.
Final Words
Hiring a VA can be a great decision for your business, whether you have one person you need help with administrative tasks or you want to hire a team of VAs to handle a variety of different jobs. Before you hire someone, make sure you know what you’re getting into and that you’re prepared to manage a remote team.
BUCKET SYSTEM vs. Employee
Sure, you could hire an ordinary employee to help grow your business, but do you really have enough small tasks to fill up 40 hours per week or even 20 hours per week every single week? If not, that employee will be spending downtime on your dime.
TaskBullet has eliminated this problem with what we call the BUCKET SYSTEM. Your remote employee will clock in when you need them and clock out when you don't. (Learn how it works here) With a remote personal assistant, you pay for the hours you need and nothing more. You'll save money on not having to provide employee benefits, office space, office supplies (computer, desk, coffee, etc.); oh, and did I mention downtime?
Your remote personal assistant will come with his or her own supplies, a strong education (TaskBullet virtual assistants have university degrees), and deep professional background. When you hire a virtual sales assistant from TaskBullet, you are also assigned a project manager to ensure that everything runs smoothly. What are you waiting for? Hire a remote personal assistant today and get your time back!
