Services – Figure Out If A Virtual Assistant Could Work in Your Business

Are you wondering if hiring a virtual assistant would work for your business? If so, you are in the right place.

Virtual Assistant Economics First

Understanding the economics of virtual assistants. The business case is compelling!

First, it is vital to make sure you understand the economics of hiring virtual assistants.

Usually hiring a virtual assistant (VA) will be an alternative to hiring a local U.S. employee. Sometimes it is an alternative to sourcing a temp services worker sourced through a staffing agency. In both circumstances, the economic benefits of VAs are usually compelling.

Let’s be clear when looked at from the point of view of cost savings, VA services win every time. It usually works out to be a 5:1 to 6:1 ratio. Meaning, you can usually hire between five to six full-time virtual assistant workers for the cost of one U.S. employee. This is especially true in California generally and in Orange County specifically.

So if you can make it work, you will want to. But how do you determine if it will work for your specific business?

Cut to The Chase

If the job you need doing can be done using a computer with an internet connection and or a phone, a VA can probably do it. If the job requires an on-site physical presence, then it’s not going to work, 99% of the time, it’s that simple.

Consult with Us – Virtual Assistant Services

If you are in doubt or have some unique circumstances that you think might affect the viability of virtual assistants in your business, talk to us. We have been hiring, managing, and providing virtual assistant services professionally since 2011. We know what works and what does not.

The simplest answer is to have us, the Smart VA Staffing Agency, help you to figure it out. To do so, simply complete the Smart VA Job Description form. We will get back to you with a viability assessment, cost estimate, and a probable timeline. All with no obligation to you.

Do You Want to Study More About The Potential of Virtual Assistants in You Business Further First?

Here are some questions to help you think through the implications of adding virtual assistants to your business.

Related

When It Is Better To Hire An America Instead Of A Virtual Assistant

Questions:

Does the work you need the person for require a physical presence?

A salesperson in a retail store, an engineer, or a contractor who must perform on-site work are examples of the types of jobs not suitable for virtual assistants.

The interesting anomaly here is that often business owners and or hiring managers will sometimes say that their employees must be on-site, when in fact they do not. Sometimes it’s just a bias based on their management confidence, or rather their lack of confidence in their own management skills. They fear that they cannot get quality work done or that the worker will simply not work at all when the person doing the work is remote or out of their sight.

Learn how to manage remote workers.

Does the work you need doing require specialist skills or education?

Some skills are harder to get than others with offshore remote workers. There are however, a surprising range of skills that are quite feasible to obtain.

Here are just some examples of specialist skills we have successfully sourced for our clients. Medical billing, legal support, application development, Shopify – Magento, and WooCommerce eCommerce development, graphic design, database development, creative writing, QuickBooks and accounting, and much more.

Do you like to have people come into your office because you believe that’s the only way you can make sure they actually work?

This speaks more about your management skills than it does about the viability of virtual assistants.

Whether you have employees in a physical office or remotely, you will do yourself a favor if you can learn to manage your employees through objectives. Give your staff the specific tasks or outcomes you need done and let them get on with it. Measure their success at getting the work done. They will either get the work done or they will not. Standing over them is probably the least effective management technique you can apply.

Learn about hours vs. output management styles.

Do you have enough work to keep a virtual assistant busy 8 hours a day, 5 days a week?

One of the mistakes we have seen prospective employers make is that they underestimate how much work a full-time VA can get through in a week. Several times now we have hired a VA for a client only to run out of things for them to do in two weeks. Usually, that problem can be solved with a bit more preparation.

Are you concerned that if you hire a virtual assistant language will be an issue?

We hire exclusively in the Philippines. Filipinos generally have great American English writing and speaking skills. As part of our recruitment process, we test the candidates for these skills.

Does the work require excellent written English skills?

Great, you are in the right place! We test candidates for the quality of written English you need before we send them to you for consideration.

Are you worried about security issues?

In our experience, the Filipinos are an honest bunch. They are much more concerned with maintaining a long-term job than they are with doing something underhand.

There are of course risks associated with hiring offshore workers. When you have an employee in another country, your recourse, should the worker do something inappropriate, will be limited and much more difficult than if that person resided in the U.S.

Just as when you drive a car you put on a seatbelt and or choose to drive a car with airbags, there are many things you can do to reduce your risks when maintaining off-shore staff.  Developing a track record with a new employee before sharing confidential information, limiting access to only needed systems, good hiring, and management process, are all good and sensible precautions.

Working with an agency such as the Smart VA Staffing Agency, who are experienced in hiring and managing off-shore workers, is a prudent strategy.  At Smart VA Staffing we have been working with Filipino’s since 2011.  In all that time we have had only good experiences with our off-shore workers.

Having said that, we have seen some instances where other companies have had a few bad experiences. These have tended to be things like getting poor work output and or instances where staff have simply disappeared.  We have also heard about much more extreme problems however, these were cases where staff were hired from countries other than the Philippines.

• Our experience is that with good management most of these problems can be avoided
• Our experience is that hiring workers from the Philippines reduces risk due to the country’s culture
• Our experience is that you too can have a first-rate experience with Filipino workers

How long does it take you to train a person to do the work?

Training, specifically the format of your training, is one of the keys to having a successful virtual assistant employee.

Learn more about training your virtual assistants.

Can the work be done using a computer with an internet connection?

If it can, then a virtual assistant can probably do it.

Can the work be done using a phone?

The global phone network and the cost of calls are such that having remote workers answering or making phone calls is inexpensive and easy to do. In addition, it is usually pretty easy to hire Filipino’s with good English-speaking voices.

Virtual Assistant Services with the Smart VA Staffing Agency

Get started, complete a simple job description.

Also, see – How to scale your business by hiring a virtual assistant.