What are Virtual Assistant Services? How to successfully outsource those tasks you don’t want to do

You’re a successful business professional and you’re fantastic at what you do - you’re fundamental to the operation, but your time is money and you don’t ever seem to have enough hours in the day.

Does this sound familiar…?

Your inbox is full of unread emails; you keep getting reminders that your inbox is near its storage limit; no time to read everything you receive let alone reply or get round to filing it or deleting all the spam...

You have meetings scheduled but you need to fit in all your ‘other work’ - creating powerpoint presentations, letters and other time consuming administration. That AGM (Annual General Meeting) is coming up - did you add it to your calendar? You also need to think about asking someone to take ‘minutes’ during that meeting...

Your car’s glove box is full of valuable expenses receipts from driving up and down the motorway - fuel, food and toll charges you need to claim back. Never time to organise them as winning new business is your priority over tedious spreadsheets. Data entry is just not a priority for you with so much to do.

Clients want you, you want them, but there’s just no time to put together the in-depth, professional tenders they require. You’re great presenting in person, or on a call, but creating something from scratch - you need to get help with that!

All these tasks that you can’t find time to do yourself, or need help with because it’s not your area of expertise, are exactly what a Virtual Assistant is for.

What is your time worth to you?

Here is a simple way to value your time; grade all of your tasks by what you think they are worth in monetary value per hour. Should you be prioritising a task that you feel is ‘beneath your pay grade’? Is your time worth more? If the answer is yes, outsource to a VA.

General admin virtual assistants are fantastic to carry these ‘lower value’ task burdens for you; experienced in data entry, document creation (usually with professional qualifications in business administration and Microsoft/software packages), meeting preparation, coordination and creating minutes. These are the best virtual assistant services for keeping the fundamental elements of your business running smoothly.

Online personal assistants, also referred to as virtual executive assistants, still come under the VA banner, but have a specialisation in inbox and diary management. These ‘Virtual PAs’ can cover all your lifestyle requirements; researching and procuring your train tickets to get you to your meeting, arranging corporate gifting, managing your expenses and even booking the best restaurants for hosting your clients. Fabulous at fielding calls and managing your client’s expectations, these VEAs know what you need before you even know it yourself!

Being a virtual assistant myself, it’s important to know when I too need to outsource. When you start out with your own business it can be tempting to try and manage all of the tasks yourself, even when some of these tasks aren’t aligned with your skill set. Up-skilling is one option, but my personal experience shows me that hiring external business support is a more cost effective way of utilising my own time and resources. An example of this is my social media; I create my own content, but have a specialist for creative design and scheduling.

How do you hire a VA?

First off you need to need to find one, VAs market themselves via social media, networking events and of course work off referrals from colleagues and peers. A good place to start is LinkedIn. Also check for testimonials and take advantage of a usually free of charge 'discovery call'. The industry standard rate for a Virtual Assistant in the UK is £27 (as at Sept 21) but those with more corporate experience and appropriate qualifications will generally be priced around £35 per hour (dependent on experience).

When deciding what tasks a virtual assistant can do for you, a useful exercise is to write down all the tasks you don’t get a chance to complete each week. All those niggling jobs that eat into your evenings and weekends and impact on your family/social life. This is a great starting point to understand what you can begin to outsource.

How does it work?

Hiring a Virtual Assistant online is easy; once you have discussed the tasks required and agreed the fee, you will usually be asked to sign a contract. This protects both you and the VA. A helpful hint: if hiring help for creative tasks or building new templates, look for clauses on retention of work created and intellectual property ownership.

The ‘onboarding’ process is where you and your VA will tailor a service around your individual requirements. The VA will draft a plan of action and discuss the scope and timescales for the work.

A Virtual Assistant will be experienced in the technological aspects of working remotely. There are a plethora of software packages to undertake tasks such as purchasing, diary management and email monitoring - ‘access permissions’ mean you don’t even have to hand over any passwords or credit card details. Many VAs use cloud-based storage to allow you to access the documents created. There are even ‘scanner’ apps for your mobile devices - these allow you to take a photo of a document, save it as a PDF and upload it for your VA to edit. A good VA will be the master of ‘problem resolution’ and utilise tech to get the job done!

A weekly check-in session can be expected (your VA will diarise this after the first week and then going forward, at the beginning of each new week). During this time it is important to update your VA with any new tasks or deadlines. Communication is key - Whatsapp, text messages, video meetings/telephone calls and emails are the preferred methods, because they’re instant. Just remember that it’s important to give as much notice as possible if you are aware that a timescale has changed or additional tasks are required. Your VA may need to reschedule work, so respect and understanding works both ways. Having a VA who can anticipate your needs will work more efficiently when you convey your ideas effectively.

There is a VA for every type of business administration requirement, and now you know the sort of tasks a VA can do, can you think of anything that you would like to outsource yourself?

I offer a free consultation service to discuss your requirements - let me know if I can help you manage your time - schedule an appointment today!

Thanks for reading!

Amanda

Virtual PA & Founder of Pavilion Virtual Assistance