Virtual Assistants - The Virtual One-Stop Shop for all your admin needs!

Have you ever dreamed of the day, if you’re a small or medium sized business, that you would grow large enough to have staff to manage all of the individual aspects of the daily routine? As Director/Owner of the business, are you tired of being both the ‘face’ and ‘back office’ of customer services and credit control departments too?

Many businesses are at a crossroads - busy enough to need support services, but worried the benefits of having an accounts, HR or administration assistant will be overshadowed by the financial investment of hiring or the time required for training and development.

More than ever businesses are now looking to outsource their ‘back office’ roles to minimise the costs and risk of taking on full time staff, and to benefit from the flexibility and skills that virtual administrative assistant services can provide. A remote administration assistant avoids the costs of office space, pension contributions, sickness and holiday pay, plus skilled virtual admin assistants are experts in many fields.

A virtual office assistant is a broad sweeping description which can cover many different individual roles within a business. We’ve touched on a few examples above, but there really is a virtual assistant for every project or skill/experience required. From taking minutes at board meetings to planning business events (and everything in between!) a Virtual administrative assistant does everything.

Solutions for a shortage of skills.

Increasingly popular is the need to outsource for specialist software skills; for Customer Relationship Management (CRM - for example, Salesforce), Project Management (such as nTask or Monday) or Financial Management (FreshBooks, Xero or QuickBooks).

If your current set up doesn’t have the capacity to upskill in these specialist areas, hiring an online assistant, who already holds these qualifications means you can hit the ground running with a cost-effective option.

You may require the skills of a logistics administrative assistant with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) experience (using SAP or Dynamics 365 from Microsoft for example) or even just the ability to navigate the rules of digital tachographs!

A travel administrative assistant will have curated contacts over time and will use these to plan your journey itinerary. They will get you to where you need to be, on time and with the minimum of hassle. If your journey hits unforeseen delays, they will have the knowledge to find you an alternative route.

A procurement administrative assistant will understand the importance of lead times on purchasing cycles and how these impact on your inventory levels. Managing purchase orders, invoices and paying suppliers is second nature to them. Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) may sound alien, but understanding the algorithms used to predict future demand is a specialist skill and again, the ability to use software (such as GEP) will massively increase your productivity.

VA - everything you need is right here.

Outsourcing to a VA is time and cost effective. There is a plethora of administrative assistant companies where you can source specific staff for each role. Many, like me, will list their services on their website - mine can be found here. Each VA completes an on-boarding process with you to scope out your requirements. Virtual assistant rates per hour are around £35 (for a qualified VA), and it will be up to you to decide on whether to ‘pay as you go’, take out a retainer package or pay per project.

Risk-free solution.

Virtual executive assistant services are usually offered with the provision of a contract. Not only does this contract protect the executive assistant for payment of work completed, but also provides a risk-free solution to the client too. Clauses specifically covering intellectual data or creative content should stipulate that the client retains ownership, along with detailing how sensitive information is stored or managed to provide peace of mind (and compliant with General Data Protection Regulations - GDPR 2016/679). Having an honest conversation about your expectations will ensure that you are both working towards the same goal.

As a Virtual Assistant offering remote administration services, I also actively outsource tasks from within my company. I understand the need to offer the best possible service to my clients, and so I utilise the skills of a social media manager and content creator for my website. I provide the ideas and the background data, and they provide the time and experience to ensure that I can focus on meeting the requirements of my clients. I contract tried and tested associates to provide my back up support. The contract provides strict accountability for the research assistant and data entry administrative assistant services I use and means I can use my experience and qualifications on more complex projects.

If you are looking to fill a skills shortage, outsource a project to a qualified professional, or even acknowledging that you need business help and don’t know where to start - you can read more about the types of tasks you can outsource to a Virtual Assistant on my previous blog here.

If hiring a Virtual Assistant sounds like the support solution you’re looking for, then let’s talk. I offer a free consultation where you’ll discover how my services can support your business. Contact me here.

Thanks for reading!

Amanda Watson

Founder & Virtual PA at Pavilion Virtual Assistance