A virtual assistant, or VA, might be a solution if you find yourself too busy and bombarded with non-essential tasks. Virtual assistants are freelance independent contractors that support you in any virtual context. VAs can help with, among other things,

  • Email and calendar management
  • Content development and blogging
  • Data entry
  • Administrative tasks

Virtual assistants cover a wide array of services, and some specialize in a particular field. Their goal is to aid you in daily tasks and small projects so you can focus on your priorities.

This article explains some of the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant.

Get someone else for your redundant tasks 

Whether you’re a freelancer or run your own company, you need to perform repetitive, non-essential tasks. This includes managing your emails and calendar, bookkeeping, or replying to social media comments. These tasks can remove time from more important needs or linger on your to-do list and hinder your productivity.

Virtual assistants can help with these day-to-day tasks. Whether it’s organizing files and data or doing repetitive tasks on spreadsheets, a virtual assistant means you can better spend your time elsewhere.

Virtual assistants aren’t employees

Virtual assistants have several benefits over a part-time or full-time employee. As independent contractors, they manage their own taxes, health and dental benefits, and workspace and work equipment. While hiring a part-time employee might require buying a new desk and computer, virtual assistants come prepared.

Additionally, because a virtual assistant isn’t your employee, you generally won’t have to worry about employment laws. If you’re unhappy about the quality of their work, you can move onto a new virtual assistant with relative ease and without worrying about severance pay or the reason you let them go.

Lastly, you usually pay employees the same amount regardless of the company’s workload. However, you only pay for a virtual assistant when you need their services. This flexibility means you can purchase more of their services when it’s busy and less when it’s not. You can also only outsource when there’s a budget instead of an employee who you need to pay regularly and regardless of how your business is doing.

Access to global talent

Commerce is connected globally, and virtual assistants are also global. Some VAs provide services in different time zones, meaning you can access their services in the evenings or early mornings, as they can effectively work from home. Some may even work on the weekends. If you use multiple virtual assistants, you could cover all 24-hours of the day with someone ready to support your projects. Or, if your VA is in an opposite time zone, you can prepare tasks by the end of your day and receive the finished product the next morning.

Business and personal support

A virtual assistant can help with anything—even if it’s for personal matters. Although they can’t get your dry cleaning, they can help with researching different dog food brands or finding gift ideas for friends or family members.

Some people may even get a virtual assistant solely for business matters and another for personal issues. But if you like a particular person as your VA, they can always charge your business for business matters and charge you personally for personal tasks. You, therefore, don’t need to worry about getting your business and personal life mixed up.

A virtual assistant is a great tool to eliminate your non-essential or repetitive work. This provides you more time to focus on tasks that drive value. Whether you’re a business owner, freelancer, or need an extra hand, this may be one of your best investments yet!