Perhaps the most paramount business goal you have as an entrepreneur is scaling your business. However, as you seek to expand, the operational workload becomes backbreaking as well.
Thus, you often find yourself slogging away while the other digital kid on the block seems to know the magical secret to startup success.
Yes, you can see results in your everyday labor, but the business growth you’re vying for isn’t as remarkable as you’d like. So, you’re thinking: What are they doing differently?
Well, haven’t you learned from successful American entrepreneurs ? It’s outsourcing virtual assistant, a strategic move that can support your path to growth explosion without draining your little resource—or lack thereof.
Aspiring business owners, the year 2024 is filled with opportunities, and you won’t be catching any of them if you’re locked up doing the mundane daily minutia. Whether you admit it or not, you need virtual assistants to run a startup in this era.
Outsourcing virtual assistants may be your key to startup success.
Yes, there is still a strong demand for virtual assistants and will continue to increase because outsourcing virtual assistants offers two important things: money and time.
Business owners and professionals struggle to squeeze in so many tasks in their little time and are now looking to refine and streamline their processes, boost productivity and reduce costs.
As of 2023, internet users worldwide climbed to a massive 5.3 billion, which is 65.7% of the global population. Of this number, almost 5 billion were social media users. It is believed that the market for virtual assistants will surge to $25.6 billion by 2025.
Virtual assistant outsourcing is the business practice of contracting a remote worker as a virtual assistant to support business-related tasks, either administrative, technical, or creative.
According to Deloitte’s Global Outsourcing Survey, over 50% of companies are outsourcing marketing, information technology, administrative tasks and human resources.
The main reason for this outsourcing is based more on the saving cost factor, which is often viewed by many organizations (especially small business owners and startups) as a sales growth enabler.
Outsourcing remote professionals brings efficiencies for solid business growth.
In an era propelled by digital evolution, startups wrestle with operational demands within limited resources.
However, the emergence of virtual assistants changes things, transforming how small ventures navigate daily workloads to further improve and develop.
Here are some of the amazing ways outsourcing a virtual assistant can revolutionize how startups operate.
What’s the common startup dilemma? It’s having rich ideas with poor resources to get them off the ground. If only you had the time, money and workforce to back them up, your business could really grow.
Unlike the more established organizations, startups need sensible options that make the best bang for their buck of available resources. A skilled virtual assistant can bring that sort of efficiency.
Should you choose to outsource a VA, you will eliminate the overheads for office space, utilities and equipment. This results in an impressive 78% of operational cost savings in a year. These savings can be invested in mission-critical projects like marketing campaigns, product development or expanding your team.
The flexibility to distribute resources can be a total game-changer that will help you accelerate growth initiatives.
Small businesses spend an average of 68% of their workday grappling the mundane, repetitive tasks…sigh. Not that we’re trying to tell you what to do, but honestly, those valuable times are better spent on high-value tasks.
You can increase efficiency by outsourcing to a virtual assistant, who pretty much excels at everything, to handle the routine work in the office.
Not only is hiring a traditional in-house employee time and cost-draining, but it’s also not flexible at all for scaling a startup. On that note, a virtual assistant is a more agile choice. You can work with them on an as-needed basis and scale them in a way that would meet your precise staffing needs.
Startups often struggle with financial constraints. Virtual assistants ease those budgetary curbs by offering scalability without the overhead costs. This agility in scaling ensures that small companies can support their business growth without financial pressure.
Training and building an in-house team are time-sinks for a startup. As a small business, you need to use only when necessary to effectively compete. So, spending time on training is taking you away from the important stuff of running your business.
Reliable virtual assistants come with the skills needed to successfully complete tasks. And oh, virtual assistant tasks are neither low-level or basic. In fact, there are plenty of VAs who are very talented in the arts of content creation, web development and graphic design.
Every business is unique, be it in how they operate or their needs. Virtual assistants can adapt accordingly to each distinction, embracing specifications to meet the specific requirements of their clients.
Just to be crystal clear, VAs don’t just streamline your workflow; they provide customized solutions to address pain points, increasing quality and productivity.
Depending on their skills and expertise, virtual assistants can perform just about any tasks you throw at them.
Some of the personal tasks and responsibilities of a VA include:
While outsourcing virtual assistants brings tons of benefits and impacts your business growth, as a startup, adding a VA to your operation could take some work.
No worries though, just be organized and follow through this set of steps and you’ll thrive alongside your remote professionals a few weeks from now.
First, think about all the tasks you do every day that typically consume your time and are better off to more capable hands. Contrary to what you believe, learning to do low-level tasks isn’t actually smart when you’re running a business, it’s best to hire a VA who’s already good at it.
When you’re done creating a task list to outsource, the next step is to write a job description which is an outline of all the essential requirements and responsibilities of your VA to fill an open position.
Make a job posting and start accepting applications. There are two common ways to search for virtual assistants: freelance marketplaces like Upwork and a virtual assistant agency like VAV Remote.
Just a word of advice; use a recruitment agency. It will save you time, plus, you’re sourcing from a wide and highly qualified talent pool.
Once you have a pile of virtual assistant applications, you can start reviewing and short-listing candidates down to the top 5 or 10 prospects. Then, afterward, you can schedule an interview.
A video interview is very important in the hiring process, as this will help you figure out your candidate’s suitability for the role, their communication and working style, and personality.
Apparently, a video call interview wouldn’t be enough. To make sure your virtual assistant can handle the actual work, you need to create a paid test assignment to assess their skills.
A trial period helps you figure out if your newly hired virtual assistant can meet your expectations and whether or not they are the right fit for the role. This is a crucial phase for you and your remote worker to get used to working together and make necessary adjustments.
This 2024; say goodbye to your old ways that seem to be heading nowhere and rejuvenate your startup with fresh strategies tailored to meet your unique needs.
Startup power-ups need virtual assistants to fill the resource gap that’s stopping you from advancing.
It doesn’t make sense to hire an in-house full-timer, and you know it. A virtual assistant is the best hire you can make this year.