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Running a business is hard. It is a time-consuming process that often requires spinning several plates at the same time – this can be quite a challenge. As a result of trying to tackle everything yourself, some areas of your business can easily start to get overlooked. That’s why hiring a Virtual Assistant to help take more general tasks off your hands is the perfect solution enabling you to spend more time focussing on the more critical tasks involved with running your business.

Since starting my Virtual Assistant business, I’ve had several conversations that have clearly shown me that there are some common misconceptions about hiring a Virtual Assistant, some of which may be putting business owners off from hiring one.

So, what are these myths? Let me set the record straight by debunking the misconceptions surrounding hiring a Virtual Assistant.

MYTH 1: Virtual Assistants Are Expensive 

Hiring a Virtual Assistant is not as expensive as you might think! In fact, compared to hiring a full-time employee, hiring a Virtual Assistant could actually save you money. A Virtual Assistant will only charge you for the hours worked, ensuring you get 100% productive work time for the money you pay. An employee, alternatively, will always require their salary, whether you are busy or not.  In addition, when you take on an employee, you must pay them their salary, a contribution towards their pension, tax and insurance, holiday pay, rent out office space for them and more.  A Virtual Assistant also has all the equipment needed to do their job already.  They are a ready-made business, so you don’t need to incur additional costs to set them up.

It’s simply intelligent working to use a Virtual Assistant who doesn’t need any of these overheads.

You should not see a Virtual Assistant as a luxury but as an investment.  A Virtual Assistant can relieve you of your everyday tasks so that you can focus on the more important aspects of running and scaling your business.

MYTH 2: VAs Only Handle Administrative Tasks 

You might think that a Virtual Assistant can only deal with administrative tasks but that isn’t the case.  There are now a wide variety of specialists within the Virtual Assistant industry.  Whilst many focus on administration (being the one thing that most businesses need assistance with), some Virtual Assistants focus on other things, such as book-keeping, social media management, research and even blog writing.  Whatever task you need help with, there will be a Virtual Assistant who is the right fit for you.

MYTH 3: I can do the job quicker myself by the time I’ve trained a Virtual Assistant 

When you work with a Virtual Assistant, there will of course be an initial period where you will need to get to know how each other works.  Virtual Assistants need to be onboarded properly and it’s essential to communicate with each other effectively.  A good Virtual Assistant will want to learn all of your systems and will quickly adapt to your processes.  However, all businesses are run very differently and, whilst it may be an inconvenience to help and train someone at the start of working together, it won’t take long for your Virtual Assistant to get up to speed with how you like things done.  Virtual Assistants can work to deadlines and timescales in agreement and they will deliver the results you expect.

MYTH 4: You have to use a Virtual Assistant for 8 hours a day

It’s a very common misconception that you need to use your Virtual Assistant for 8 hours a day.  You simply don’t.  A Virtual Assistant will work with multiple clients, each one of them using the Virtual Assistant for different tasks and different hours.  You can use your Virtual Assistant for as many hours a week as you need them.  A Virtual Assistant can be used for a one-off project all the way up to regular weekly assistance.  The beauty of having a Virtual Assistant is that you just pay for what you need.

MYTH 5: A Virtual Assistant will bring in clients

Unless you have discussed and agreed with your Virtual Assistant that their role will be sales based, a Virtual Assistant will not bring in new clients for you.  You can offload and delegate tasks to your Virtual Assistant that are stopping you from growing your business.  Once you’ve given some of your tasks away, you’ll love having more time to focus on the parts of the business you enjoy, including getting a bigger client base!

MYTH 6: Anyone can be a Virtual Assistant

A Virtual Assistant is a professional.  Someone who has invested time and a serious amount of money into creating a business.  Virtual Assistants come at all levels and qualities.  Some Virtual Assistants have years of PA experience and can assist you seamlessly as if they were working for you in an office environment.  Remember that your aim is to ultimately have a long-lasting happy working relationship with your Virtual Assistant.  Look for a quality candidate that will be able to help your business succeed and who is equally excited at seeing your business wins.

All Virtual Assistants should have the correct insurance in place, be registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, protect your work with a good backup system and use a secure site for any passwords they keep for you.  You should also look for a Virtual Assistant that gives you a Terms and Conditions document upon commencement of any work undertaken for you so that you are aware of how you will work together.

MYTH 7: Virtual Assistants are always available

Virtual Assistants often have many clients.  Whilst this doesn’t mean that they won’t give your project or tasks their full attention, you also can’t expect them to be on call 24/7.  If this is something that you feel you need for your tasks, it needs to be discussed at the initial Discovery Call with the Virtual Assistant.  Often, if the Virtual Assistant’s diary doesn’t allow this due to an already full calendar, they can often find another Virtual Assistant that will be able to assist and provide the level of cover that you need.

MYTH 8: VAs Aren’t Professional 

A Virtual Assistant wants their business to be a success.  They know that their reputation is on the line with any work they do and they often get clients through word-of-mouth recommendations, so will strive to ensure their work is above and beyond their client’s expectations. 

As you will have read from the above, outsourcing tasks to a Virtual Assistant is an ideal option for many businesses.  You will be surprised at how quickly your Virtual Assistant settles into working with you and you’ll soon realise that those jobs that you hate doing so much or that you are simply missing because you’re now too busy, are better off being delegated to someone else!

If the misconceptions above were something that you were concerned about, I hope that reading this blog has changed your mind and you can now see the endless possibilities of what you can do with your business with some Virtual Assistant help!

Contact qVirtual to find out how a Virtual Assistant can make your life easier and you work smarter.

 


 

Do you need flexible business support and want to make savings by hiring a VA? Get in touch!

 

qVirtual – Virtual Assistant Solutions