Why you should hire a virtual assistant for your agency
June 4, 2021
The pros of hiring a VA to help manage the traffic and production schedule in your agency
So what’s the deal with these Virtual Assistants (VA’s)? In short, virtual assistants drink less of your coffee, get things done while you’re asleep or focusing on your daily tasks, and do a great job at a reduced rate.
Boom! Where do I sign, right?
But, for those of you out there who need even more compelling reasons to hire virtual assistants, kindly keep on reading.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I was sold after the “reduced rate” part. Yet, here are some black on white numbers to sway the hardliners amongst you.)
Beware: robots taking over the world!
They may be, but by hiring a VA you are neither helping nor hindering. Why? because we’re talking VA not AI.
Wait: Virtual Assistants are not AI?
Before I start quoting numbers, I just want to be clear on what we are talking about here. Virtual assistants used to be “sitting outside the door” assistants, and before that, were often referred to as secretaries.
The concept was that an assistant boosts the productivity of highly skilled individuals through taking care of basic administrative and other repetitive tasks, thereby buying time for those they worked for. (Think of doctors and nurses.)
Basically, a virtual assistant is someone who does the assisting from virtually anywhere else other than in your office.
The AI-VA, on the other hand, is taking the world by storm as programs that simplify our interactions with technology. Like Alexa or Siri.
But, do they work?
One of the wonders of hiring a VA is cost. You only pay for the hours you need, or you can pay a small retainer. Either way, you will be paying less for the service than if you brought someone on board just to do your traffic and scheduling. If (and when) the task becomes a fulltime job, that’s the time to make a decision between your VA and a full-time team member.
The numbers also indicate that virtual assistants are actually more productive than their inhouse equivalent. As Inc.com notes, studies have shown that the average worker is only productive for around three hours per day (2 hours, 53 minutes).
So: will a VA care enough?Well, yes actually. Virtual assistants, like most freelancers and contract workers, take their careers seriously. For instance:
Where do Virtual Assistants hang out?
The Week reports that there are, “more than 5,000 virtual assistants listed on Upwork, 74,000 on Guru, 26,000 on Freelancer, and 5,000 on PeoplePerHour.” The most in-demand virtual assistant skills are social media management, email marketing, and project management.
What does this mean for your Agency? It’s good news: there is a global pool of highly-skilled VAs to choose from. As I said, where do I sign?