As an entrepreneur, your company could be just you or you and one other person. After all, you don’t have enough money to hire people. However, routine tasks may become so overwhelming that you are unable to devote enough time to your core business activities. This is the time to begin thinking about hiring a virtual assistant.
Hiring a virtual assistant has numerous advantages. For one thing, you’ll gain valuable skills that will help you manage a team later on. Hiring a virtual assistant will also reveal which tasks you can delegate to employees in the future and which you must.
Growing the business is difficult, but not impossible. Exceeding expectations in business growth? That’s when you’ll need a little more assistance.
Billing, inventory management, placing orders with suppliers, ensuring timely deliveries, and, most importantly, responding to customer queries as soon as possible all grow with your business. Finally, you must keep your social media profiles up to date so that your customers have the most up-to-date information about your company. But, given the high costs of hiring a full-time employee, does hiring one during your early stages of growth make sense? Unfortunately, this is not the case for many small businesses across America. The overheads, medical benefits, and taxes associated with hiring a full-time employee are prohibitively expensive. The need of the hour is for a solution that is inexpensive while providing the same benefits and workload management as a full-time employee.
A virtual personal assistant Yes, businesses all over America and the world are gradually realizing the enormous benefits and cost savings of hiring a virtual assistant. Virtual assistant services are the new magic mantra on which businesses can rely to manage all of their small but important, recurring tasks and updates their social media channels, allowing them to focus on growing the business in the way they envisioned it in the beginning.
Based on 7 salaries, an entry-level Virtual Assistant with less than 1 year of experience can expect to make an average total pay of £12.10 (tips, bonus, and overtime pay included). Based on 20 salaries, an entry-level virtual assistant with 1-4 years of experience makes an average total wage of £13. Based on 8 salaries, an experienced mid-career virtual assistant makes an average total compensation of £18.90 per month. Based on five salaries, the average total compensation for an experienced virtual assistant with between 10 and 19 years of experience is £20.00. Employees’ average total pay in their late careers (20 years or more) is £20.
What Is the Difference Between a Virtual Assistant and a Remote Executive Assistant?
Consider how these two are most commonly defined: A virtual assistant is typically an administrative professional who works virtually for a business, entrepreneur, or executive, handling a variety of basic administrative tasks. Some virtual assistants work as a’side-gig’ to their other job, while others make it their full-time job.
A remote executive assistant is typically an administrative professional, whose job involves assisting management, including executives, through the use of project management, communication, and organizational skills. A remote executive assistant typically assists senior executives with scheduling, email management, travel planning, and other tasks, and is typically a W2 employee (or team member of a subscription staffing company) who works solely for one or more clients.
What tasks can you delegate to virtual assistants?
There are virtual assistants in the United States. Their rates are generally higher than those found elsewhere, but you must weigh that against the advantages of hiring a native English speaker and “hiring American.” You won’t have to be concerned about time zones or cultural differences, or about disclosing personal or business information to someone halfway around the world.
While Virtual Assistants have a wide range of skills, most specialize in 2-3 tasks or fields in order to become experts in that field. Virtual assistants can help you with the following tasks:
- Administrative Duties in the Office
- Inbox Management
- Responding to Customer Inquiries
- Making Meeting Minutes
- Meeting scheduling and follow-up
- Making Travel Reservations
- Restaurant Reservations
- Sending Gifts to Customers, Associates, and Employees
- CRM Administration
- Reports and presentations must be prepared.
- Keeping your social media profiles up to date
- Helping with client follow-up
- Keeping track of past-due payments
- Keeping track of your bill payments
- Entering Data
- Keeping track of your spending
- Recruiting new workers
- New employee on boarding and training
- Updating your online store listings
- Coordination of e-commerce deliveries, payments, and refunds, among other things.
And so much more…
Before you get started, you should understand how to hire a virtual assistant in US. Taking the proper steps will ensure that you find someone who is a good fit for your company. IREKROOT can be a best choice for your company.
Step 1: Determine Your Virtual Assistant’s Role
Virtual assistants are available for almost any task. Virtual assistants can help with data entry, calendar management, bookkeeping, social media management, correspondence, research, and so on. The point is, you must know exactly what you want your virtual assistant to do from the beginning. Otherwise, finding the right person will be impossible.
VAs typically market themselves as both general and specialized virtual assistants. A general virtual assistant will be able to best meet your needs if you simply need help staying organized.
However, if you require assistance in a specific area, you should hire a specialized VA. Unsure what you require? Make a list of everything you do for a week (or perhaps a month, if your activities are quite diverse).
Step 2: Determine Your Budget
You may have a large number of tasks that you could potentially delegate to a VA, but this would most likely be prohibitively expensive. To begin, concentrate on a few tasks — perhaps the most monotonous or those that you struggle with. To determine how many tasks you can afford to delegate, you must first determine the cost of a virtual assistant. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer — it depends on a variety of factors, including the type of services provided, the number of years of experience the VA has, and whether you hire from within the United States or abroad. As a result, you can expect to save between $3 and $75 per hour.
Step 3: Start your search online
The first step is to search online for the best virtual assistant services. While there are many options available, you should investigate the credibility and reputation of the virtual assistance services you are considering. Look for a virtual assistant company that provides virtual assistants with a variety of skill sets, such as administration, bookkeeping, project managers, business managers, and so on.
Step 4: Create a Job Posting
The ability to express what you want and how you want it is critical in your search. If you’re working with an agency, this could imply requesting specific services. If you’re looking for a new job, you’ll need to create a job posting.
The ideal job posting will clearly describe the work you require, as well as any skills or qualifications the VA should have. This will save you time from interviewing unqualified candidates. It is also a good idea to include some questions. This will allow you to easily check if respondents have read the entire job posting as well as give candidates the opportunity to explain their skills.
Finally, specify how many hours you require the VA to work per week or per month. Virtual assistants who are already working for several other small business owners or who have other obligations must ensure that they have enough time for your job.
Step 5: Conduct Candidate Interviews
If you’re hiring a virtual assistant through a job site or freelance platform, you should also conduct an interview. The interview could be as simple as asking candidates a few simple questions via text message, a phone call, or a video chat. This will be dependent on the platform you’re using, as there may be restrictions on how much you can
Step 6: Design a Short Test
You could create a test that VAs can complete in 10 minutes or less to assess candidates. Make it no longer than this, as it may appear that you are looking for free labor. You should be able to judge relevant skills, attention to detail, and ability to follow instructions using the test. It should also be relevant to the work that the VA will perform for you. For general virtual assistants, tests are usually appropriate. However, for specialized VAs, it may be preferable to see examples of previous work. For example, if the virtual assistant will manage your social media accounts, you may want to see which profiles the virtual assistant is already managing.
Step 7: Perform a Test Run
An interview and a short test can only tell you so much. It’s a good idea to hire the virtual assistant for a short trial period before committing to a long-term contract. A week may be sufficient, or you may require as much as 30 or 60 days, as in the case of limited work. A trial run will allow you both to determine whether you will work well together in the long run. It also implies that neither of you is committed to continuing after the trial is over. A trial run is especially simple if you hire a virtual assistant through an agency. You can often work with a virtual assistant for a few tasks and then switch to someone else if you’re unhappy with the results. However, if you use a freelance platform or job site, you will be back at square one unless you have a few backup candidates in mind.
The Benefits of Hiring US Virtual Assistants
There are several advantages to working with a US Virtual Assistant rather than outsourcing internationally, and some of them are as follows:
Communication Ease
Communication and language barriers will be less of an issue because you are working with someone who speaks your native language. (Communication challenges are always present when working remotely, so I won’t say they’ll be completely eliminated.) Communication and understanding should be easier than with overseas assistants.
Miscommunication and repetitive explanations can certainly slow you down, but working with a US virtual assistant removes these from the equation entirely. This allows you to complete more tasks and increases both your and your assistant’s productivity. In some ways, efficiency saves you time and money because there are fewer mistakes. This is not to say that excellent virtual assistants cannot be found abroad; rather, many employers prefer to work with someone closer to home. It can help move things
Capabilities for Strategic and Creative Thinking
US-based virtual assistants are quite imaginative and unconventional thinkers because of their school system, which emphasizes leadership and the capacity for both creative and strategic thought. That might aid your firm and speed up its growth.
Culture Match
Working with a US virtual assistant has advantages that extend beyond the language barrier. These people have a better understanding of cultural norms that we take for granted. Being a resident or citizen of the United States provides them with a better foundational understanding of some critical information. These topics could include the general business climate in the United States, the proper way to interact with customers, and other information unique to the United States. For instance, if you need someone to write a couple of blog posts about US real estate. It would be much easier for someone from the United States to pull it off because they are more familiar with the general policies and practices in place.
Regional cooperation
Your virtual assistant in the US might work for many businesses; as a result, they might have a network that is advantageous to you and your company. They could, for instance, assist you in negotiating lower pricing with vendors for local web design, IT assistance, printing requirements and supplies, event organizing, and your subsequent office or home move.
Taking Responsibility
American virtual assistants typically have a stronger sense of ownership. They work closely with business owners to ensure their success and prefer to take full responsibility for the projects they manage in order to achieve expectations for business objectives.
Time Zones That Are Identical or Nearby
When working with a virtual assistant, one of the most important factors to consider is time zone. This makes a significant difference if you require your assistant to work the same hours as you. This is especially useful if you need to communicate constantly or have urgent requests. Just make sure to set expectations from the start. It’s critical that they know what time of day you usually require them.
Last Word
Having some success with a virtual assistant necessitates paying close attention to each stage of the hiring process. You must be specific about your requirements and screen candidates by asking probing questions. Then, you must foster a positive environment in which your virtual assistant can thrive. Do this, and your virtual assistant will become a valuable member of your team, propelling your company forward.
The benefits mentioned above demonstrate how US-based virtual assistants can benefit your company and aid in its expansion. Additionally, if working with someone who is familiar with American business and culture is crucial for your clients or your firm, employing your VAs from the US is the ideal alternative. To ensure that its clients only work with the greatest virtual assistants, IREKROOT only hires the top 1% of talent in the US and other countries. Additionally, each VA has received training in skill sets, ensuring that they are capable of handling whatever task you assign them.
