Top Benefits of a Virtual Assistant

If you’re a small-business owner, you know how many different tasks you are responsible for every day. You also know how difficult it can be to keep up with all of those tasks. Finally, you know the financial responsibilities of your business and how finances can become a deciding factor in many of the decisions you make. Read on to find out how the top benefits of a virtual assistant (VA) can deal with all of these!

What is a Virtual Assistant?

Before we dive in to the benefits of a virtual assistant, we need to discuss what a VA is. A virtual assistant is a remote worker. They can be in a different city, state, or even a different country, and yet they work for you. In fact, you might never meet your VA in person! Although it still feels foreign to most employees, you can develop and maintain a successful professional relationship without actually knowing the person in real life.

Another distinction of a virtual assistant is that they are not considered an employee. They are an independent contractor. Small-business owners are not required to pay taxes on them, provide benefits to them, or pay into a retirement program for them. Since these are HUGE expenses for traditional employers, a VA is a great way to get the help you need without breaking the bank. Plus, a contract with a VA can be as short or as long as you need it to be. It just depends on the needs of your business!

A final distinction of a VA is they do not work the traditional 40-hour workweek for a small-business owner. Most business owners do not need that from a VA and they don’t want to pay for that amount of workload, either. Virtual assistants frequently develop packages of varying numbers of hours a month so business owners can select what services their business needs. You can see the packages I offer for my VA services here.

Benefits of a Virtual Assistant

While there are many benefits to hiring a virtual assistant when you’re a small business owner, I am sharing what I think are the top four reasons.

• You can hire a VA for the specific hours you need. Do you need help for a few hours because you have special project or event coming up? There’s a VA for that! Has your business grown so quickly that you need substantial help on a daily basis for your business to continue to thrive? Yup, there’s a VA for that, too! No matter what your business needs, you can find a VA that can provide the exact level of support that your business requires.
• You can hire a VA for the specific tasks you need. Not only can you find a VA for the number of hours that your business needs, but you can also find a VA that specializes in the exact tasks you need completed. There are virtual assistants that focus on social media, marketing, bookkeeping, data entry, graphic design, sales funnels, and anything else you can imagine! Since a VA tends to focus on specific areas, he or she (usually she) can truly become experts in their areas. You can find the best of the best for your business.
• You can hire one VA or multiple assistants, depending on your needs. Your business might need one person for a few hours a month or you might need multiple people on a regular basis. That’s totally fine with any VA! Each VA knows their own workload and only accepts the jobs that fit their schedule and skill set. As a business owner, you might have one VA that you work with on a daily basis and two others that you work with for a few hours a month. Whatever your business needs, you can find the right virtual assistant(s) for you.
• Hiring a VA is not hiring a traditional employee. Although I’ve kind of already touched on it, this benefit definitely needs its own bullet point! The small-business owner/VA relationship is so different from the traditional employer/employee relationship that I wanted to fully flush that point out. As mentioned above, business owners are not responsible for taxes or insurance for a VA. That saves so much money! The cost to the business owner is exactly what you agree to pay for their services. Whether it’s a set amount each month or an hourly rate, you will not have other expenses for that person outside of that cost. An additional thought on that benefit is, as a business owner, you are not solely responsible for the VA’s livelihood. A virtual assistant, like all contractors, has multiple clients that they work for, so you don’t have to feel the pressure that you might feel as a traditional employer. I consider that a huge benefit to hiring a VA that is frequently overlooked.

I could go on and on about the many benefits of a virtual assistant, but those are definitely my top four. Hiring a virtual assistant lets you get the amount of support you need in the areas you need from people who are specifically focused on those areas, and these individuals don’t come with the extra requirements of an employee. It’s a win for any small business owner!

Now it’s your turn. Do you have a virtual assistant? What do they do for your small business? If you don’t have a VA, what would you want to hire one for? Leave your answers in a comment below.

Until next time,