What is a virtual assistant?
A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a business owner who works from their own office providing professional support, services and skills to their clients via phone, fax and internet-based technology.
Partnering with a VA reduces stress, protects cash flow, eliminates administrative hassles, and enables business people to find the success they originally set out to achieve.
A VA is your right-hand person helping you to succeed in your business. The irony is you may never meet your VA as odds are they live nowhere near you!
Who would work with a VA?
VAs work with smart, successful people of all kinds: authors, sales people, consultants, coaches, executives, professionals, entrepreneurs – anyone who wants to live a more balanced life with more free time to do the things he/she wants to do! The benefits are enormous to almost anyone who’s busy and needs support.
What’s the point? I manage everything on my own!
As you grow a business, sooner or later, you’ll find that you can do anything, but you simply can’t do everything! And when you give away the stuff that doesn’t need your personal attention, you gain space and time in your life for an abundance of other things. Those things might include:
- Growing your business
- More time with family, friends
- Responding to other opportunities and things you do best
- Balancing home and work responsibilities
If I wanted an assistant, why would I hire one who’s potentially hundreds of miles away?
Part of the benefit of having a VA is that you haven’t ‘hired’ anyone. When you work with a VA, you get a partner, not an employee. You get someone who chooses to work with you as much as you choose to work with them. The VA’s decision to work with you is based on being attracted to your work and on being interested in being your partner for success, rather than because they are looking for “some job.” People work with VAs because they:
- Don’t have the space or want someone in their office
- Don’t have the equipment needed for someone to use and don’t want to purchase it
- Don’t want the associated work and cost of having an employee (Payroll, Benefits, Conforming to OSHA laws, etc.)
If what you want and need is the most basic office support, then you might want to work with a secretarial service. If, on the other hand, you want the benefit of working with someone who really wants to know you, your business, your customers, and who really wants to be deeply involved in your success, you’ll want to work with a VA.
Why wouldn’t I want to give my secretarial work to a local company, and have a VA just working on bigger things?
You might. However, what people have found is that it doesn’t really pay to do that.
True, secretarial services are a bit less expensive per hour. The problem is the people who work there don’t know you, your business, or your customers. You have to do a lot of work, up front, before giving them the work, so they know what you want – and even then, sometimes you need to speak with them several times before your documents, faxes, messages, etc., represent you in your voice.
A VA can speak for you, and write in your voice. A VA, because they have learned you, can listen to you speak just a few words about what you want done, and make it happen – sometimes, even better than you could have done it yourself.
In addition, the more the VA knows about your needs, the less time it will take him or her to do your work.
So, even for the basic secretarial work, where do you really get your best value? The key is to remember – a VA becomes your partner for success. A secretarial service helps you for the short term.
It’s not so important that your VA knows how to do it all. What is important is they know how to get it all done.
What are some tips for working with a Virtual Assistant?
Avoid misunderstandings by being clear about your expectations at the beginning of the relationship and for each project.
Realize that a virtual assistant, unlike the office secretary you see every day, is a business owner whose perspective is that of a partner rather than an employee.
Don’t micromanage your VA. You’re paying for someone who doesn’t need a lot of supervision.
Don’t expect your VA to directly generate cash. VAs are not salespeople.
Isn’t it more expensive than hiring an employee?
No. The cost savings is twofold: financial and emotional.
When you hire an employee, on top of a salary or hourly wage, you have a ton of things you need to administer (payroll, benefits, etc.), many things to buy or lease (equipment, furniture, etc.), breaks and downtime, and you have to share space as well. It’s expensive and can be grueling.
VAs are in private practice, and they price their services according to their skills, their desire to do certain work, their experience, and their reputation. You really need to speak with a VA, share your ideas and the vision for your success, and ask what it might cost to have them be a part of that. Generally speaking, however, you can expect to pay $30 – $70 plus, per hour either on a pay-as-you-go structure or a preset, and usually lower, retainer method.
Ask yourself, what does cumulative fatigue and stress “cost”?
Price Comparison (per month)
Employee:
Works 160/hrs per month @ $15/hr = $2400
Benefits (insurance, etc.) = $360
Payment for time not worked (vacation, sick, holidays, etc.) = $312
Office space = $188
Equipment and maintenance (computer, phone, furniture, etc.) = $325
Payroll taxes = $288
Administrative costs (recruiting, hiring, training, etc.) = $168
Knowing your business = priceless
TOTAL = $4041+
Virtual Assistant:
Works 12-30/hrs per month @ $35/hr (avg) = $420-1050
Benefits (insurance, etc.) = NONE!
Payment for time not worked (vacation, sick, holidays, etc.) = NONE!
Office space = NONE!
Equipment and maintenance (computer, phone, furniture, etc.) = NONE!
Payroll taxes = NONE!
Administrative costs (recruiting, hiring, training, etc.) = NONE!
Knowing your business = priceless
TOTAL = $420-1050
*Source U.S. Chamber of Commerce
You said that working with a VA isn’t more expensive than hiring an employee, but I wouldn’t pay an employee $30 per hour!
Not in straight time, perhaps. You’re more likely to pay someone with this level of skills between $17 and $20 per hour if they were sitting in your office. However, when you add in the cost of administering payroll, your share of payroll taxes, having to pay insurance like worker’s compensation and extra liability for having someone in your home or place of business, etc., and the cost of making sure that your location conforms to federal guidelines such as OSHA, you absolutely *do* pay that much per hour. And the more skilled and talented a worker, the more their time is worth, and the higher their fee.
If you are billing at hourly, then every hour you spend doing work that takes you off course, is work for which you are paying yourself, in essence, at YOUR HOURLY FEE. It doesn’t take a lot to see the smarts behind paying someone to handle administrative work so that you can be out earning more and more!
The beauty is this. While you still have the expense, you have absolutely *none* of the hassle. One check per month. Simple. Easy. You can get on with the business of living your life on your terms. Working in partnership with a great VA makes that all possible!
