Why you should hire a Virtual Assistant

7 reasons why you should hire a Virtual Assistant

If you’re a busy professional, using the services of a Virtual Assistant offers you a wealth of knowledge, experience and skills that you may not have access to otherwise. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a solopreneur running your business alone, a small company with a few employees, or a large organisation with thousands of staff; using the services of a Virtual Assistant can and will help to grow your business. Here are our 7 reasons why you should hire a Virtual Assistant.

Saves you time There are never enough hours in the day. Not having enough time to invest into your business can result in things being forgotten or missed. We can’t make your days any longer, but we can help you to regain control and start saving you time each and every day. By outsourcing even the mundane tasks from your business to one of our Business Support Managers, will free up the time that you would normally spend completing these tasks. Imagine if you could free up even an hour of your working day; across the month that’s potentially an extra 20 hours of your time!

Remove the HR headache Once your business starts to grow, the obvious choice may appear to be hiring an employee. However, with hiring an employee you need to think about the financial and process implications this will have on your business, and your time. You will have to go through the whole recruitment process of advertising, sifting through CVs, interviewing, preparing and sending out their contract. And once they are on board it doesn’t stop. You need to spend time training them, provide space for them to work, purchase equipment and licenses. Then there’s payroll, national insurance, tax, health and safety policies, dealing with holidays and sickness, organising pension, company benefits; the list goes on and on!

A Virtual Assistant is typically a self-employed individual or company. You will need to spend some time initially looking for a suitable VA and subsequently providing them with brief training, but they will have their own equipment, licenses, insurances, organise their own tax, NI and no need to worry about holidays and sickness.

Increased flexibility A significant benefit from using the services of a Virtual Assistant is the flexibility. Whether it’s finding a VA that works outside of “normal” office hours to meet your business needs, or simply that you are only paying for the hours that you actually need them. With employing a member of staff, you have to allow them time for breaks throughout the day, but also have the commitment of their fixed salary. When things are quiet you may end up paying them for sitting around doing very little.

Saves you money Although the rate of a Virtual Assistant may seem more expensive than hiring an employee, having the increased flexibility and only paying for the hours you need, added to the removal of the associated costs of hiring someone, ultimately you will save money.

However, it’s also worth thinking about your own time. If you are charging your clients say £60 an hour and paying your VA £30 an hour, you will make more money by freeing up your time so you can spend more time with your clients, bringing in more revenue.

Increase productivity By spreading the workload between you and your Virtual Assistant, you will increase the productivity of your business. Having more time on your hands allows you to focus on other activities within your business. You will have the headspace to actually think about other tasks and projects in your business that you may have been putting off. Here at VASS, we also look at ways we can help to improve your internal processes and productivity. We can suggest ways to help you work smarter and more efficiently to get more done.

Skills and experience A good Virtual Assistant wants to stay at the top of their game. This means that they will stay up to date with trends, new systems and will invest in the necessary training to get their knowledge where it needs to be. Hiring a Virtual Assistant who specialises in the support you require will allow you to take advantage of their skills and experience. VASS have a team of highly experienced Business Support Managers who are committed to continuing their professional development and deliver a high level of service.

Business growth Overall, by hiring a Virtual Assistant, freeing up your time, money, stress, pressure, increasing your productivity, increasing your revenue will give you the opportunity to put more into your business and allow it to grow. You will have the time to focus on business development and how you can take your business to the next level, as well as being able to focus on running your business and not being stuck in managing your business.

If you would like to find out more information on how VASS could help free up your time and help you take your business to the next level, call us now on 0203890 6990 or email on hello@wearevass.com.

Make Next Year Even Better!

As we approach the end of another year and look back at the year we have had, it’s time to look at how we can make the next year better. It is important not to leave thinking about our goals for 2019 until January. You need to look at your practices and routines and how you can make them more efficient and streamlined.

January can be a tough time for us all, as there are so many things to deal with, such as catching up on emails, tax returns, getting in touch with customers to get back on track with them and much more. It can all start to feel pretty overwhelming. For this reason, you should seriously think about hiring a virtual assistance.

Take a look at these 6 excellent reasons why you should hire virtual support now or at the very least, in 2019:

1. Low overheads

If you think that you cannot afford to add another member to your team (or even add the first member), Virtual assistants (or managers - VM’s - as we like to call them at VASS) are self-employed, so there are very cost effective. They cover all of their own costs of employment, such as tax, insurance and holidays, meaning you know exactly where you stand with an all-inclusive rate or package so require little investment.

2. They will do the jobs you hate

If you have tasks that you really hate to do, that you’re not very good at or simply don’t have time for, your virtual manager will be happy to help! VM’s carry out a wide variety of business tasks like email management, social media scheduling, blog publishing, data entry, book keeping and event coordination. Work with them on a monthly basis on an agreed set of tasks, on a one-off project or simply as and when you need help.

3. Virtual

Because they are supporting your business virtually, you don’t need to provide them with the usual things you would provide a normal employee, such as a desk in an office. So it makes no difference whether you work from home, from a coffee shop or your own premises.

4. Experience

Unlike in-house staff, you will not have to provide extensive training, as they are already experienced with the tools and software needed to complete tasks and projects. They are also experienced in working with a wide variety of clients in different industries and facing different challenges.

5. Independent

Once you’re up and running with your VM and you have given them instructions for their task or project, you can let your VM get on with it. Their aforementioned experience means they can work on their own initiative. If they have a question, they’ll ask! In the meantime, you can focus on growing your business, safe in the knowledge that your project is being taken care of.

6. Business knowledge

As business owners themselves, VMs are able to see the bigger picture. They are often highly trained individuals who will provide a very high level of support compared to a regular employee. Not only will they complete practical tasks for you, they can make a great sounding board for your ideas and plans.

So, if you are the owner of a small business, and feel that you will need some assistance to realise your goals and plans in 2019, don’t wait, hire that virtual support today.

To find out more on how we could help to grow your business by using a virtual team, call us now on 020 3890 6990.

Think UK based Virtual Assistants are expensive? Think again.......

The story behind why UK virtual assistants are so ‘expensive’

Have you looked into using the services of a virtual assistant and seen a difference in their hourly rates and wondered why there is such a gap? You’ve probably seen the adverts of an overseas VA offering their services from as low as $2 per hour, but when you look closer to home, UK virtual assistants on average are charging £25+ per hour. Here is the story behind why UK virtual assistants are so expensive. What is the average rate for a UK virtual assistant?**

Both the Society of Virtual Assistants (SVA) and VIP VA conducted surveys in 2017 that revealed the average rate of a UK virtual assistant is between £21-25 per hour. There are VAs in the UK who are charging less, and there are those that are charging more. If you look internationally, it’s exactly the same picture; some charging more and some less. But there are things to consider when looking at rates and the set up of the VA businesses.

Business Set Up

A virtual assistant has their own business to run, with their own costs and business expenses. If they are charging low rates, they aren’t going to be able to cover their costs, let alone provide themselves with a salary to live off. It’s unlikely that they will be in business for long. If you are looking for short-term support for a low cost then this might work out for you. But if you are looking for ongoing support from someone who is serious and committed to continue growing and developing their own business, then it makes sense to pay more to the VA that is in it for the long-haul.

Data Protection

As a UK business owner, if you are processing any data that could be deemed as personal data, you are legally required to register with the Information Commissioners Office and ensure all personal data is handled in accordance with the data protection principles.

When you decide to outsource any tasks where someone will have access to that personal data, you remain responsible for ensuring the processing of the data compiles with the Data Protection Act. If you are outsourcing to an overseas organisation outside of the European Economic Area, as the data controller you are responsible for ensuring adequate security measures are in place for handling personal data.

In the survey conducted by VIP VA, they found 69% of UK virtual assistants were registered for Data Protection. By outsourcing to a company that is registered with ICO will ensure that the personal data they are receiving will be handled appropriately and in line with the Data Protection Act.

Insurance

Another thing to consider is whether the VA you are hiring has Professional Indemnity Insurance.

We are all human and unfortunately, humans do make mistakes from time to time. If your VA made a mistake on a task that could either damaged your reputation or impact you financially, how easily would you be able to rectify and receive costs for damages of their error?

Hiring a VA that holds Professional Indemnity Insurance is important to ensure if something did happen, you would be covered. Many overseas VAs don’t hold insurance, but there are also clauses within some insurance policies that will restrict what countries they can do business with and what laws they cover. Are you willing to take the risk that your overseas VA might not be insured and if they are, that it would cover your UK business? Other things to consider

Aside from supporting and building the UK economy, other things to consider when using a virtual assistant from overseas:

Language Barriers

If you are asking your overseas VA to type something up, it’s important to ensure they have a good level of English. If their English is basic or they are using a translation tool, you will be wasting your money and your time when you need to proofread and correct the returned document.

Time Difference

Do you need your VA to make contact with your customers? If so, then you want to be using someone in the same time zone as we’re pretty sure your customers won’t want to be receiving a call during the middle of the night. But if you don’t need them to contact your customers directly, what happens if you need to brief them on a project or ask them a question that would be easier to make a quick phone call? Again, we’re sure you don’t want to be making business calls in the early hours.

If budget is your main driver for choosing a virtual assistant, then this article may not have had any impact on your decision to outsource to an overseas virtual assistant. But if you someone who takes their business seriously, wants someone to help support them and grow their business, whilst ensuring that their business and their customers are in safe hands, you should definitely be looking to use a UK virtual assistant.

If you want to find out more about how a virtual assistant could help you take your business to the next level, why not arrange a free consultation. Call us now on 020 3370 4075 to arrange a free no obligation consultation.