What is a Virtual Assistant? A Virtual Assistant is an office administration professional who can do the majority of things that a personal assistant or office administrator does, but they’re not based in your office – they work with you remotely. A VA works from their home office using their own tools and resources. So much can be done virtually now via telephone, email, instant messaging, Skype, post, courier services and utilising the virtual office spaces that are now available such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Capsule CRM and Asana (to name just a few we use!). These cloud tools can assist in all aspects of business collaboration and project management. Quite often, a VA never gets the opportunity to ever meet their clients face-to-face but if the partnership is a good fit, this never becomes a problem. What a Virtual Assistant can do for your business VAs have usually held senior positions in the corporate world, such as Executive Assistants, Office Managers or Team Leaders so are experienced, multi-skilled and extremely agile with a ‘can do’ attitude. But VAs are not just home-based secretaries, many offer specialist support such as copywriting, web-design, graphic design, social media support and bookkeeping. As independent contractors, VAs are small business owners themselves, giving them a greater understanding of where and how they can assist other businesses in the most efficient way and often become an integral part of the businesses they work with. Your success is their success, so they have a vested interest in doing the very best job they can.
Key Benefits from working with a Virtual Assistant I’ve put together five key benefits of partnering with a Virtual Assistant: Flexibility: Sole operator, start-ups or micro businesses may not be ready or able to employ permanent staff – a VA is a flexible solution to this. Demand-driven: With a VA, you only pay for what you need – if the volume of work is irregular or too small, a VA is a cost-effective solution. Time-saving: Support from a VA will free you up to concentrate on business development and chargeable hours rather than getting bogged down in tedious administration. Added value: A VA is an experienced professional who can provide you with a variety of best practice solutions that add value to your business. Cost-saving: There are no agency fees, retainers or employee benefits to subsidise meaning that you can invest this money elsewhere to help grow your business. If you’d like to speak to us about what a VA can do for your business, you can email pa@angelpa.co.uk