21st century virtual assistants

Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants are computer programs or digital tools that can assist with various tasks and responsibilities.

They are designed to mimic human-like interactions and can be accessed through a variety of platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.

There are many benefits to using a virtual assistant for your business, including:

Increased productivity: Virtual assistants can handle a variety of routine tasks, freeing up time for you and your team to focus on more important responsibilities.

Cost savings: Virtual assistants can reduce the need for in-house staff or contractors, resulting in significant cost savings.

Improved customer service: Virtual assistants can handle customer inquiries and requests around the clock, improving the overall customer experience.

Enhanced efficiency: Virtual assistants can streamline processes and improve efficiency by automating tasks and providing instant access to information.

Improved accuracy: Virtual assistants can reduce the risk of errors by accurately following instructions and providing consistent responses to customer inquiries.

Overall, virtual assistants can help businesses save time, money, and resources while improving productivity and customer satisfaction.

A virtual assistant is a self-employed worker who specializes in offering administrative services to clients from a remote location, usually a home office.

Typical tasks a virtual assistant might perform include scheduling appointments, making phone calls, making travel arrangements, and managing email accounts.

Some virtual assistants specialize in offering graphic design, blog writing, bookkeeping, social media, and marketing services.

For an employer, one advantage of hiring a virtual assistant is the flexibility to contract for just the services they need.

How a Virtual Assistant Works

Virtual assistants have become more prominent as small businesses and startups rely on virtual offices to keep costs down and businesses of all sizes increase their use of the internet for daily operations.

Because a virtual assistant is an independent contractor, a business does not have to provide the same benefits or pay the same taxes that it would for a full-time employee.

How Do You Become a Virtual Assistant?

If you have no direct experience or are looking for virtual assistant jobs for beginners, here are some ways to get started.

Have you booked appointments, made travel arrangements, managed someone’s calendar or email, blogged, or promoted something on social media?

All of these are common virtual assistant tasks. Even if you believe you have no experience, you may have transferable skills that can set your resume apart.

You may already have the right skills to become a virtual assistant without realizing how valuable they are. To give them the proper context, these skills should be detailed in your virtual assistant cover letter.

If you need to brush up on some areas, virtual assistant training and certifications can be obtained through self-study or taking online virtual assistant courses to learn best practices.

As a virtual assistant, you can work directly for employers, for a virtual assistant agency that provides services to other companies, or offer your services on a contract basis.

If you wish to go into business on your own, determine ahead of time which virtual assistant services you’ll offer, perfect your resume, and start networking.

If you offer social media, web design, content production, or creative services, consider maintaining an online portfolio with examples of your work. After becoming a virtual assistant and working for your first clients, be sure to collect positive testimonials that can impress new clients.

Becoming a virtual assistant: What to know in 2023

The virtual assistant economy continues to evolve and serve businesses in a variety of industries, including health care, online education, interior decorating, sustainability software, publishing, banking and finance, e-commerce, mortgage and lending, IT, and more.

Statista defines this industry as “the contracting out of specific business processes” and predicts that industry revenue will reach $122 billion by the end of 2022 and exceed $162 billion by 2027

Why you need a virtual assistant

As a business owner, you’re doing all administrative tasks: filling orders, responding to customers, marketing your business, and running day-to-day operations.

While there are many reasons to pursue entrepreneurship, having less time isn’t one.

That’s why a virtual assistant should be the first “hire” online business owners make to take on the daily tasks and processes involved in running their business, so they can focus on growing it.

A virtual assistant (VA) is like having an extra pair of hands without the overhead of hiring a full-time employee.

If you’re experiencing the “good problems” that come with growth (like stress and more tedium in your to-do list), it might be time to hire a virtual assistant to reclaim a few hours of your day.

Consider these things when hiring your first virtual assistant

What is a virtual assistant (VA) and how can they help?

When should you hire a virtual assistant?

How much does a virtual assistant cost?

Where to hire a top virtual assistant?

A photo of a notebook with a to-do list for administrative tasks: gather receipts, check invoices, pay bills, submit taxes

A virtual assistant is an efficient generalist who works remotely to execute tasks or processes delegated to them, such as responding to emails, scheduling social media content, and entering data, often for a fixed hourly rate or a retainer with a set number of hours per month.

A VA can operate as a digital nomad anywhere in the world, manage multiple clients, and is often competent in areas like content writing, bookkeeping, or design.

What can you hire a virtual assistant to do?

Virtual assistants won’t take on an entire function of your business, but rather own specific processes or tasks. For example, a virtual assistant won’t build your entire website, but they can help you manage parts of your online store.

They probably won’t write and manage all your content, but they can help with research or product page updates. Here are other functions virtual assistants can help with:

Answer customer emails, social media comments, and phone calls

Perform community management tasks like moderating comments on your Facebook ads or monitoring Twitter for engagement opportunities

Build blogger/influencer outreach lists based on specific criteria

Research statistics and examples for upcoming content

Process orders and returns from customers

Perform bookkeeping duties or data entry from different sources into a single spreadsheet

Make sales calls when provided with a script and guidelines on how to respond to common questions

Schedule meetings or book appointments for you

Run remote-friendly personal errands like ordering flowers or online gifts (some virtual assistant services empower them to make purchases on your behalf)

When should you hire a virtual assistant?

While VAs aren’t permanent employees, they offer an affordable way for ongoing help running your business without any of the additional expenses of a full-time hire (plus their services as a contractor are often tax deductible).

You might consider hiring a virtual assistant if:

You’re working in your business more than on your business because you’re overburdened with administrative tasks and you feel any organized and capable person could do just as well from a computer.

You’re willing to spend $100 to $3,000+ per month to buy back your time, depending on the hours, time zone, and skills you need for a trustworthy dedicated VA.

You already know the specific recurring tasks and processes you want to outsource, such as customer service (e.g., you’re an introvert) or bookkeeping

Your biggest weaknesses are organizations and administration

.

VAs are, by trade, organized and efficient, doubling as an “accountability partner” for many solo entrepreneurs whose strengths lie elsewhere.

You feel overwhelmed by the growth of your business, are a busy parent, or work a 9-to-5 and are building your business on the side.

Since a virtual assistant is a contractor and not a full-time employee, it’s up to you how long you want to employ them. An underrated benefit of employing a VA is the ability to delegate some non-business errands too.

You can hire a VA when there’s an especially busy period coming up in your work and personal life. Here are some tasks you can delegate:

Comparison shopping for furniture to furnish your new place

Create a detailed spreadsheet for influencer outreach, including Instagram handles, contact info, audience size, and engagement rates

Conduct research for a personality quiz and lay it out in a single document

A virtual assistant can do the necessary work you don’t enjoy and free up the mental space (and time) for you to tackle the work you do enjoy (i.e., business strategy).

When should you not hire a virtual assistant?

Bringing on a virtual assistant doesn’t mean someone will come in and take over running your business so you can enjoy four-hour work weeks on a beach.

Before you hire a VA, understand the steps needed to perform the task or process you want to outsource. You’re trusting them to represent your brand, talk to customers, and maybe even make payments on your behalf, so you’ll need to be able to teach them how.

A virtual assistant’s job isn’t to set up the systems for you, but to execute within the systems you’ve set up for them.

Don’t hire a virtual assistant if:

You haven’t prepared clear guidelines, guardrails, and step-by-step instructions. Otherwise, a virtual assistant can end up costing you more time than they save you because you’ll need to micromanage their work.

You need specialized proactive support. A single VA may have exposure to different contexts, but not necessarily deep experience in yours. If that’s what you’re looking for, consider hiring a specialized freelancer instead.

You don’t have time to invest in training and feedback. Great VAs will end up requiring less oversight over time. But no matter how much experience they have, they’re starting a new job and will require onboarding.

You jumped to outsourcing without considering automation first. As a general rule, if the process you want to outsource can be expressed with “If this specific event happens, then do that specific action,” it’s probably more cost-effective to automate it with Shopify Apps, Zapier, or other built-in software automation and integrations.

In conclusion, virtual assistants are becoming increasingly popular and useful tools for a variety of tasks, including scheduling, managing emails, conducting web searches, and more. They offer a convenient and efficient way for individuals and businesses to streamline their daily tasks and improve productivity.

There are a variety of virtual assistants available, including those built into smart devices such as phones and smart speakers, as well as standalone software programs. Some popular virtual assistants include Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Google's Assistant.

Virtual assistants are constantly improving and evolving, with new features and capabilities being added regularly. As such, they are likely to become an even more integral part of our daily lives in the future

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