Have you ever experienced growing your business and working day and night just to realise you’re not even halfway through your to-do list? Have you ever wished to have more than 24 hours in a day? Or the ability to operate with 8 arms and 9 brains to handle all the pressure and stress that comes into your day, just so you could finish everything and spend some time for yourself or for your family? If you find yourself nodding your head in agreement, then you classify as a business owner who believed that they have a cape or are only vulnerable to Kryptonite, but in the one run-realised they aren’t.
Admittedly, building and growing your business is a tough job, you won’t be able to succeed all on your own. It would eat up all your energy, time and sanity… That’s the reason why Filipino virtual assistants are here to help. They’re cost-effective lifesavers that give you your life back.
There are still businesses out there who aren’t aware of the numerous benefits they can gain from hiring a virtual assistant. They’re still trying to prove to themselves that they can do it entirely on their own, at least for a while longer (good luck with that), but I think that one of the reasons why they’re reluctant to hire a virtual assistant is because it’s hard to trust someone else with your business.
It’s undeniable that it may be difficult trusting strangers in helping out with the business because you might end up on boarding a person not fit for the job. But here’s the thing, if you want your business to succeed, you need to stop working on every task yourself. No, you’re not a superhero. You have to outsource to the Philippines, and you have to trust other people. You just have to, and it’s as simple as that.
The first thing you should admit before we get to the juicy parts of the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant is the fact that trust is a two-way street (and it comes with time). Certainly, though, it is hard to trust somebody whom you’ve never met. After all, it is one of the fundamental lesson’s our family taught us, which is not to trust strangers.
And as we grow older and earn more wisdom, we know this isn’t always the case all the time. At Kaya Services, we summed up three critical steps before we hire Virtual Assistants from the Philippines you can trust.
Know–Interviews are essential. Yes, companies not only employ people because of their abilities and skills but because the candidate is someone who tones in with the company’s values and goals.
Qualities–I have Filipino friends, and they have certain Virtual Assistant qualities that endear them to you. At some point, you begin to like their work ethic and some minor details you would have noticed had you not known the person.
Trust – When you finally like the Virtual Assistant working for you, you’ll begin to trust them more. You start relying on them to complete bigger jobs and just be full-on confident in the fact that they’ll finish the tasks you gave to them.
Having someone who helps you manage, oversee, and cross out tasks on your list enables you to ease the burden of work-related stress. Without further ado, let’s talk about how a virtual assistant will grow your business and change your life for the better.
- Focus on More Specialized Tasks
According to Sumit Bansal, “For me, the main benefit of using a virtual assistant is that it takes the routine work off my plate. I use my VA to manage tasks such as posting and engaging on social media, handling emails and creating simple graphics for blog/social media. While this work is quite straightforward, it still needs to be done. Giving this work to a VA allows me to focus on more specialized tasks, such as creating content, recording videos, and building relationships with influencers. Since hiring a VA, I have witnessed a higher RoI on the time invested in my online business.”
Hiring a virtual assistant can increase your business efficiency. Rather than spending your resources on hiring a full-time employee, coupled with some doubt in your mind about the work he/she will be doing, you can easily hire a virtual assistant for these non-critical business tasks, and achieve the same positive outcome.
- Work Efficiently at Lesser Cost
“There are many benefits to using a virtual assistant. For example; If you run a travel business, having virtual assistants in different countries allows you to have a global footprint. Having virtual assistants allows you to work efficiently and effectively without having to spend money on physical office space. The virtual assistants on your team play a crucial role. They are incredibly smart and have a great eye for content. Virtual assistants from the Philippines never complain about tasks being too hard or too monotonous. Having virtual assistants has allowed to start a company and stay lean to keep costs down. Our virtual assistants are extremely educated and reliable. They infrequently ever miss a shift.” —Chase Dimond
You read that right. Having a virtual assistant on your team reduces your business costs. The cost difference of hiring a virtual assistant versus a regular employee may come as a surprise, and only make you wish you that you had 3 hearts right now. In the Philippines, you can hire a general virtual assistant for around $3-$6 or a highly skilled VAs such as system administrators for around $14.
It’s budget-friendly, right?
But do you know what the best part is?
A VA saves from renting additional office space. You’re not required to buy new equipment like computers or telephones. Consider the arrangement with your VA, like that of a contractor/freelancer. You just pay your VA for the hours worked. No work means no money! It’s that simple.
- Help You Grow Your Business
Let’s be real, once you hire a full-time employee you can’t just fire him/her when there is less, or no work. Quite a hassle, right? One of the reasons why hiring a virtual assistant is a great alternative, is because of cost, and the flexibility this brings to arrangements. However, once you find the right VA, you’re more than likely to continue to build on this journey, and irrespective of peak and off-peak periods in business, you will find ways to keep them on board.
“Hiring a virtual assistant helped me grow my business before I was able to commit to hiring any staff in house. It allowed me to get the help I needed with the tasks that were taking away from me being able to generate new business. I had my virtual assistant putting together reports for clients, bookkeeping, posting listings on different websites, research, and spending the time looking for the best deal from vendors for things I needed to purchase for the business. I even had them responding to certain emails while I was out of the office. Some weeks I would keep my assistant busy for 20 hours while other weeks, when money was tight, I would only have three or four hours worth of work for them. Being able to delegate the tasks that took up a large chunk of my time without the stress of figuring out how to pay them during long stretches between commission checks was exactly what my business needed.” —Kevin Vandenboss
In some cases, you can get access to VA’s that can support you 24 x 7. As VAs come from all over the world, their ability to support you in your local time zone is important. Depending upon your arrangements, many VA’s can work on public holidays, which would further drive enhancements in operational activity and pave way for other activities tied to growth.
- Strengthen Weak Area
Nowadays, virtual assistants can help you bridge skill gaps in your business. They’re highly skilled, and they can do a wide range of tasks such as simple administrative tasks to marketing, social media, etc. But that’s not all. Generally, they always strive to provide exceptional service beyond your expectations. Yes, they are wholeheartedly dedicated to the tasks you assigned to them.
“I have used a virtual assistant and she helps me with all sorts of tasks doubling my effectiveness and stretching my time two fold. Over the course of three years I have managed to offload the following tasks to her:
Bookkeeping, Research for email and contact information for sales prospects, Social media monitoring and interaction, Excel spreadsheet data entry: Each of these skill sets I had to take the time to instruct her how we wanted them done, however once we have them in place it has been a tremendous time saver for me. Utilizing Skype and screen share services I can instruct her to do any remedial tasks to offload from my day to day workload.
This enables me to focus on high leverage activities such as product development, strategy, and planning. It’s quite possible we wouldn’t be where we are today without her.” —Bryan Clayton
- More Time for Your Family and Friends
You started a business because you want to provide a brighter future for yourself or for your family, but what happens when your work is consuming all of your time?
Answer: hire a virtual assistant, find some work and life balance, and spend it with your family and friends.
Always remember this: you should run the business and never let the business run you.
“I can go home 30 minutes earlier every day to be with my family before the kids go to sleep.” —Cristian Rennella
- Peace of Mind
So let’s go back to one of the reasons why entrepreneurs are hesitant to hire a virtual assistant; trust.
But let me tell you this, once you’ve found that perfect VA for your business you think and look back to wonder how you ever survived without one? VA’s make life easier, leaving you with a peace of mind because your business is in good hands even though you’re not always available, because your VA is capable and trained.
Anyhow, it’s almost similar to finding your next great employee (if you decide to offer him/her something more permanent). You both get to test the waters before settling to work with each other permanently.
Now, that you know the benefits you can achieve from hiring a virtual assistant, let me ask you another question. Will you stick to your one-man show and be able to pull off your work, or will you choose to hire a virtual assistant? Think about the scale and impact to your business in either scenario.
