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Building your business requires a lot of time, effort, and money. If you’re a startup company, you probably don’t have a lot of resources like the bigger, already-established ones. Initially, you have to do everything by yourself – answer calls and emails, build your brand presence, prospecting, onboarding, customer support, and after-sales. All these tasks can take up so much of your time and drain your energy. Thanks to the wonders of technology, you don’t have to go through it alone anymore. You can now hire a remote virtual assistant to help you out on all possible tasks without costing you an arm and leg. It is now possible to take back your time and do the things you love most while someone else is working on your business tasks – benefits of a remote VA.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is an independent contractor who provides business services to clients while operating outside of the client’s office. Contrary to what people think, virtual assistants are no longer limited to administrative tasks and services. In fact, it is a collective term for all professionals who provide online services to business owners like web developers, designers, content writers, advertising specialists, marketing experts, and more.

Virtual Assistants usually work from their own home office (although they have an option to work anywhere as long as they have their own computer and internet access). Basically, they just need remote access to everything they need to perform their services like files, documents, accounts, calendars, and passwords so they can get the job done. Now that businesses are using the internet for their daily operations, virtual assistants have become more prominent.

What Can A Virtual Assistant Do For You?

There’s a wide range of tasks that a remote VA can do for you. From setting up the most robust business processes to working on the daily, repetitive tasks, there’s a virtual assistant that can help you out.

You can hire general VAs for administrative and personal tasks or a project manager to handle all your remote assistants. If you need help in building your websites, you can hire many talented developers all over the world. You can also outsource your social media management, search engine optimization, and overall digital marketing.

Benefits of a Remote VA

These benefits will help you understand how a remote VA can help you out with your business.

1. Boost Productivity Levels

Since VAs are more task-focused, it’s safe to say that they are more productive. A recent study conducted by Voucher Cloud concludes that an average UK office worker is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes out of the working day. Therefore, they spend more hours doing tasks that won’t contribute anything to the business.

On the contrary, virtual assistants do not work this way. By being able to work at their own pace, they are able to dedicate their time to get the task done and focus on what’s more important.

As independent contractors, their main goal is to keep their clients satisfied. It’s unlikely for their clients to hire them again for future projects once they slack off and miss deadlines.

Virtual assistants can work on the time taking and repetitive tasks while you focus on things that will get you more business. They can handle day-to-day operations so you can have more time in strategizing and growing your company.

2. More Flexibility

Virtual Assistants are very flexible. You are not saddled to a regular set of working hours. VAs can work around your schedule and thus, can work with you whenever you need them.

Working in different time zones is not an issue. In fact, this can work to your advantage by developing a schedule that maximizes output without spending a lot.

Lastly, you can end a contract and hire a different assistant in the event that you are not satisfied with your VA – something that’s not always simple with a full-time employee.

3. Cost-Effective

Hiring Virtual Assistants is cost-effective because businesses are not required to provide the same benefits that they would for a full-time employee as VAs are independent contractors. And since they work offsite, remote assistants do not require a workspace at the company’s office. With VAs, you only pay for the work that they do.

4. Less Risk in Scaling Business Operations

There’s a point in your business when you are not entirely sure about the next thing that’s going to happen. Though your metrics might show signs of growth, you’re really not sure how soon will that happen. Hiring a remote virtual assistant can be a perfect solution.

Instead of taking on full-time employees, hiring a VA would help you in managing your work volume without breaking the bank.

Once your business picks up, you can simply get more help and hire another VA.

5. Gets Rid of the Office Drama

Have you ever experienced hiring employees that don’t work well with your other staff? These things normally happen in an office setup. Hiring a VA will help you in getting rid of the drama and just focus on things that matter most for your business.

Since they’re working remotely, you won’t catch your VAs gossiping during working hours.

6. You Can Make the Time Difference Work to Your Advantage

Working with someone from a different timezone isn’t really a problem. You can have your remote VA work during their daytime so when you wake up, you will have all the work done for you so you can go about your day and get a flying start.

These are just some of the advantages of having a VA. Hiring the perfect virtual assistant to assist you with all your business and personal tasks will surely help you in making the most out of your days, doing what you love, and making more money for your business.