Reasons Your Local Service Business Should Hire Virtual Assistants (VAs)
By Clifford P
There’s a baseline set of tasks to run any size business. When you’re a local business, you may think all your problems need to be solved by a local employee or that your administrative assistant (who is also your cousin) should also be making sales calls or creating engaging visuals to post on social media.
Although employees often appreciate some variety in their day-to-day tasks, your office staff may not be best suited to perform certain things on your TODO list – and may not get to them in a timely manner when also talking on the phone, replying to website chats, or sending client invoices.
Have you ever tried a virtual assistant (VA)? They’re wonderful because they’re lower cost than your employees, you can scale up or down as needed, and they bring the experience and consistency required to keep your company’s wheels turning – and consistency is key.
Offshore (i.e. outside USA; e.g. Costa Rica, India, Philippines) VAs may work hours the same as yours or opposite of yours. If the same, they can serve by receiving your office calls or setting your appointments. If working opposite hours, you and your staff can end your day leaving TODOs for them and come back in the morning with all that work done!
Below are some helpful tips from a GetCallers.com email I received. They allow you to hire a VA to work both your phones and your typical VA tasks. Few VA outsourcing companies work the phones, do it well, and offer the flexibility to have them split time with non-phone work time if you choose to. Their rates are as affordable as they come, and I’ve experience nothing but positive service in my personal interactions with them.
Here are a few common indicators that tell you it is time to start delegating tasks to a virtual assistant:
You are running out of the energy needed to make your business grow, especially if a lot of your time is spent doing repetitive or tedious tasks like replying to comments on social media or answering customer service emails.
You are losing customers or clients because you have not been able to respond to emails promptly. Once you start losing money because you are not keeping up with your email, you need help. Losing clients is not an option for a growing business.
There are many benefits to hiring virtual assistants. If you hired one, you could:
Stop doing tasks you are not good at or do not enjoy.
Spend more time on what you love doing – isn’t that why you started your business in the first place? If you enjoy some of those repetitive tasks, then, by all means, keep doing them. They might invigorate you or spark ideas that you otherwise would not have. But make sure you like your work.
Grow your business much faster than you could if you did it alone or with a small staff. This is your company, and you should be spending your time adding to the value of the company in a way only you can. Administrative work is a specific skill set, but it is one that you can delegate.
Examples of tasks you might delegate to a virtual assistant:
Social media management – posting content that you have created or creating basic graphics.
Answering frequently asked email questions
Appointment scheduling
Obtain quotes from a supplier or other contractors
Reasons Your Local Service Business Should Hire Virtual Assistants (VAs)
There’s a baseline set of tasks to run any size business. When you’re a local business, you may think all your problems need to be solved by a local employee or that your administrative assistant (who is also your cousin) should also be making sales calls or creating engaging visuals to post on social media.
Although employees often appreciate some variety in their day-to-day tasks, your office staff may not be best suited to perform certain things on your TODO list – and may not get to them in a timely manner when also talking on the phone, replying to website chats, or sending client invoices.
Have you ever tried a virtual assistant (VA)? They’re wonderful because they’re lower cost than your employees, you can scale up or down as needed, and they bring the experience and consistency required to keep your company’s wheels turning – and consistency is key.
Offshore (i.e. outside USA; e.g. Costa Rica, India, Philippines) VAs may work hours the same as yours or opposite of yours. If the same, they can serve by receiving your office calls or setting your appointments. If working opposite hours, you and your staff can end your day leaving TODOs for them and come back in the morning with all that work done!
Below are some helpful tips from a GetCallers.com email I received. They allow you to hire a VA to work both your phones and your typical VA tasks. Few VA outsourcing companies work the phones, do it well, and offer the flexibility to have them split time with non-phone work time if you choose to. Their rates are as affordable as they come, and I’ve experience nothing but positive service in my personal interactions with them.
Here are a few common indicators that tell you it is time to start delegating tasks to a virtual assistant:
There are many benefits to hiring virtual assistants. If you hired one, you could:
Examples of tasks you might delegate to a virtual assistant: