What is a Virtual Assistant?
Before we get into the five reasons you need a virtual assistant, let’s first get clear on what a VA actually is.
A VA is a remote and independently working assistant you can hire to take on recurring or project-based tasks for you. These tasks can be in administration, customer management, social media, strategy, marketing, graphics, you name it. Virtual assistants can be specialists who focus intently on one area, such as only doing podcast management. Or we can be generalists who are comfortable taking on and managing a variety of tasks.
Hiring a VA is becoming quite popular as more and more people are starting their own businesses. And while you can hire a Virtual Assistant who manages certain tasks on an on-going basis, you can just hire a VA to do a project. Like maybe building your website.
Virtual assistants are often paid per hour of work, and many VAs offer packages where you can buy a certain number of hours each month. You can often also request a custom proposal for the services you are looking to outsource.
Whether it’s scheduling, email management, website maintenance, social media management, or some other need, hiring a virtual assistant has so many benefits. Let’s explore my five reasons you need a virtual assistant right now.
#1 More Time for Your True Passion
If you’ve ever started your own business you know the thought “there’s just not enough time in the day!” is all too familiar. And the sheer volume of tasks that need to be done can often overshadow the tasks that you really want to do.
Let’s say you’re a life coach. You really want to book more clients and help more people. Or maybe you want to start a podcast so you can reach more than your own personal clients. If that’s your passion, it’s only natural that that is where you want to spend your time. Unfortunately, you can’t just focus on that because you also have to: schedule discovery calls, manage your calendar, post to your social media, edit your podcast, send lots of emails, etc.
While you may be perfectly capable of doing all the things, the amount of time that you are able to allocate to your true passion is diminished. What happens when you don’t have enough time to devote to your true passion?
That leads us to the next reason.
#2 Less Stress
When you can off-load the tasks that are weighing you down, you are fresher and more energized for the tasks that light you up!
Are you an entrepreneur who loves to make online courses to teach people valuable skills? Guess what….hiring a VA means that you can put your energy and passion into CREATING that content. Your creative juices are not dammed up by the backlog of administrative tasks that you know have to be done, but that you really don’t want to have to do.
Imagine the peace of mind that comes with outsourcing your dreaded to-do list to a capable person who, let’s be honest, probably nerds out on doing those kinds of things!
Yes, I nerd out on these things.
#3 More Leisure Time
I know it’s another time reason. But hear me out.
How often do you take time for you, only to find yourself worrying the whole time about the things you ought to be doing for your business instead?
When you hire a VA, not only will you have more time for pursuing your passion, your calling. You also have more time for the other stuff that you’ve been saying “not now” to.
Go to lunch with that friend you haven’t seen in forever. Have a much needed date night. Watch an old movie sans guilt.
My point is, when you’ve freed up your time and reduced your stress your leisure time becomes that much more enjoyable. Hiring a VA can give you that freedom.
#4 Cost Effectiveness
Many entrepreneurs don’t have the capital to rent an office and hire full-time staff (even though they, themselves, are always on the clock!). We virtual assistants usually work remotely from our own home offices.
A virtual assistant is hired for the specific project or number of hours that are needed. And your contract with a VA can be for short-term tasks or long-term support. You have a lot of control over how your money is spent here.
There are no employee benefits to be paid out to a VA. We are essentially freelancers and you contract with us to do certain jobs for you.
Maybe you want to maintain complete control over your correspondence with your clients but thinking about building and maintaining your website makes you want to take a long walk off a short pier. You can hire a VA to do exactly what you don’t want to do. And you’re not paying for any services that you don’t actually need.
That’s awesome. And effective.
#5 Scalability
If you know, you know. But just in case you don’t…
Scaling your business means growing your business beyond what you currently have. And it often means additional manpower.
Let’s say you’re an online personal health coach and you are fully booked. But your waitlist is HUGE! Is it time to scale up? You can take on more clients when you off-load the administrative tasks, which means you’re growing. But you can also hire some additional coaches who might help you with group online workouts or specific client needs, but that’s going to increase the administrative tasks as well.
No problem, because you’ve got a VA to handle the increased workload. And that means #1, 2, 3, and 4 are are still in play.
So now that you’ve read the 5 reasons why you need for a virtual assistant, let’s connect and chat about your needs. I bet we can help you!
