Need to Know What is Virtual Assistant and their prices?
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is an employee who works remotely and performs administrative tasks for your company, typically on a contractual basis. They can perform tasks that a directorial employee usually manages, like appointment scheduling, travel arrangements, arranging phone calls, or email organization. They generally work as independent contractors, although they can also be employed as full-time workers working remotely. Virtual assistants are hired by businesses of all scales and in various fields.
Virtual Assistant Services
What does a VA do?
A virtual assistant can perform several tasks, depending upon the requirements of the business and their specializations; here are some basic tasks a VA can do
Administrative tasks
Best Virtual office assistants are hired for admin work by companies. This includes organizing calendars, scheduling meetings, booking travel, and answering phones via a connecting line. These tasks consume a lot of your time and are boring. Businesses usually do not like to deal with them because of their time-consuming and repetitive nature. But they are extremely important for the smooth operations of the company. Virtual assistants can easily perform these tasks and free up your time.
Email Management
Emails are nothing but time consumers for most small business owners. Suppose you are working for hours on a task, finally understanding what it is all about, and out of no context or reason, an email notification shows up.
You check the email and see what it is related to, and before you realize it, you have lost the flow of your work. It will take you about 25 minutes to regain your focus. Allow your virtual assistant to deal with the emails
Content management
Companies utilize editorial content to attract traffic to their site, engage prospects, and increase brand awareness, but it requires an insane amount of resources and work. A virtual office assistant can assist in organizing writing resources and a production calendar, and facilitate several aspects of the publishing procedure, making it simpler for you to concentrate on expanding the content program.
Research
Every company relies on research to advise its operations and analyze the market, performance, or customers. But research is time-consuming. Even with a dedicated workforce and resources, many businesses utilize virtual office assistants to help compile this data. Because these tasks can not be done with the help of AI, virtual assistants skilled in data analysis are best suited for these tasks.
Benefits of a Virtual Assistant
Hiring a VA is a beneficial deal; you only pay for the services, and you reduce overhead costs significantly; here are some benefits of hiring a virtual assistant
Get Professional Services at a low cost
Assistants work remotely, which means they can work from anywhere in the world, and you get access to professional talent for a fraction of the cost. You will pay about one-third of the cost of hiring an in-house employee, get the same benefits, and increase productivity. You also do not have to provide them with office space, benefits, insurance, etc., which reduces expenses significantly and increases your profit.
No fixed working hours
When you hire someone in-office, they generally work from 9 to 5, whereas a Virtual Assistant can assist you before and after service hours. You have access to a team overseas that can work for you at any time of the day you decide. These assistants are available 24 X 7 and give your business the ability to run 24 hours a day, giving you an advantage over your competitors.
Customer satisfaction
The companies which offer a service/product can use assistants as the initial point of communication for the clients seeking help with a place to submit feedback or troubleshooting. A virtual assistant can manage essential, recurrent concerns and provide short tutorials. And if they cannot assist the client, they can forward the message to the concerned employee in the office.
How to hire a virtual assistant?
Create a list of tasks
You can create a list of the tasks that you want to outsource so that it is easier for the virtual assistant to understand your requirements. Think of some of the most common tasks you do not like to do yourself, but they must be done for the company’s smooth operations.
Set the budget
As a small business owner, every single expense made is important for you, so you have to figure out how much you want to spend on a VA. Unfortunately, it is not easy to decide. The payment of a VA’s depends on various factors like experience, the country of the VA, the type of tasks they will perform, etc. This means a VA can charge from $5 to $80 per hour, depending on the abovementioned factors.
Find a VA
There are usually three options when you hire a VA: Virtual Assistant Agency, Job Sites, and Freelancing platforms.
You will have various options when you choose assistants from freelancing platforms or job sites. You can test any of them and hire the one you like.
On the other hand, there are virtual assistant agencies. These agencies have trained and skilled assistants for you. Although you do not have full control over the VAs, you do not have to deal with the recruitment and training process.
Interview
After you have shortlisted some of the Virtual Assistants, you can conduct an interview and learn more about them. An interview allows you to test the candidate’s communication skills and problem-solving reflexes. And it becomes easier for you to pick the best one.
Tests
When you finally have the best VA , it is wise to conduct a test before hiring them immediately. Assign them some of the tasks they will have to do once appointed. Check how they perform and how they fulfill those tasks.
What are the virtual assistant prices in the USA?
The price of the best assistant can vary depending on various factors like experience, type of service, deadlines, etc. A virtual assistant company can cost anywhere from $5 to $80 per hour, depending on the factors stated above. The major factor here is the type of task. High-level marketing and the financial task can cost you higher. However, other virtual assistants like administrative or data entry assistants can charge you about $5 to $25 per hour.
