When your ankles are shackled to the heavy everyday workload, it’s hard to scale the mountain of success.
Break free from the weight of doing everything on your own, because you’re certainly not alone. A remote assistant can help streamline your most tedious tasks and hit your bottom line.
If you’ve read all the perks that come with remote workers, it’s pretty obvious that they’re what you need to thrive. They’re affordable and can take care of every little thing, so you can focus on business growth.
Then again, is it really the right time to hire additional help? When’s the best moment to recruit a VA to get the most out of the virtual experience? Well, you don’t have to decide this instant.
Read this blog post first, and then weigh in if you’re ready to hire a virtual assistant in 2025—or not.
If you’re new to virtual assistant services, let’s familiarize you with who they are and what they do.
Like a normal administrative assistant, a virtual assistant handles behind-the-scenes work that keeps your business running smoothly. This includes a wide range of admin tasks like email management, data entry, appointment setting and research.
Sure, these remote professionals can’t personally bring you coffee or arrange your filing cabinets. However, they have immense versatility, making them an invaluable asset in modern-day business.
By hiring them, you can save more than just time and energy, but also money.
You see, VAs only get paid for their productive time. If they don’t deliver results, they don’t get compensated. Plus, you can scale their efforts depending on your current workload.
With the remote nature of your collaboration, you don’t need to set up a workspace or buy office equipment. Your online help takes care of everything to ensure the timely delivery of output.
If you calculate all the cost savings, you can save up to 90% of operational expenses.
How can you be certain you need a virtual assistant? Well, let’s evaluate your current circumstance.
As a business owner, you probably think that doing everything on your own is part of your job. But that’s just wrong—after all, you’re just one person with finite hours in a day. By wearing too many hats, work life can easily get overwhelming for you.
We get that you have fears of offshore collaboration and losing control. But when you see these flashing red signs, you'd better be in the market looking for a remote worker. Or you’ll risk stalling your business growth.
You want to handle the trenches of your business alone, but now, you’re behind the shipment schedule and sending invoices.
You need to get some of these daily tasks off your back to meet deadlines and provide quality work.
You don’t want to hire additional help because you want to save money. But looking at you turning down clients and neglecting core projects, you’ll end up losing more cash.
Do your math. The menial tasks are eating away at your most important resource—your time. They are keeping you from going after ventures with greater returns.
Listen, you will never get paid for completing routine tasks according to how much your time is really valued. So, set your eyes on growing your company and pass on the little stuff to your VA.
You’ve been working solo and getting your hands dirty like a great soldier. From marketing to sales, you’re doing it all.
You’re bootstrapping, as you should be, as a fledgling company about to take flight.
However, taking things to the next level also means stepping up your game. You need specialized skills to get things done with efficiency. And this is the kind of support you can expect from a professional virtual assistant—affordable and top-notch.
There are only so many hours you can use in a day to juggle tasks and accommodate clients. No matter how much you stretch it to your absolute limits, you can only push it too far.
It’s obvious—you need to let some of your day-to-day activities go to expand your capacity. Hire a virtual assistant and have them take charge of your company’s supporting tasks so you can do more.
Nothing is simple or easy about running a business on your own. To be honest, this is the quickest track to burnout.
If you keep on overexerting yourself and forgoing sleep and meals, you’ll be putting yourself at risk and eventually your company too.
When you hire a virtual assistant, you can significantly reduce the workload and lower your stress levels. They can carry your daily office burdens and allow you to venture out beyond your business.
With you recharged, you have more energy to deal with challenges and creative juice to pour into your business.
It’s okay to do the bookkeeping and data management at the beginning of your business. But once it gains momentum, it’s not smart to keep using the same approach.
When the demands are climbing, you need your head in the game—strategically marketing and planning your next move and delegating to a remote assistant.
Your time is best spent growing your business and leaving backstage processes to reliable online support.
Do you feel like you’re always in the office, burning the midnight candle? But despite your best efforts, you’re not seeing results? Is that you?
When your progress is stalled and every competitor is moving past you, you know you need help. Not just any help, but from a virtual assistant who practically does everything without putting holes in your pocket.
This is perhaps the 3rd time you've missed a family event. And they’re complaining about it because they don’t get to see you anymore.
When your profession and business are taking over your life, it’s about time to enlist the assistance of VAs. They can create a sense of harmony with your work and life so you can prosper in both.
Since you’re handling everything, you’re constantly in a rush to finish off a task to get on to the next one. But since you’re being hasty about everything, the results are subpar.
Quality is important in business because it affects productivity, customer satisfaction and brand reputation. Don’t wait for issues to surface; address them right here and now with a virtual assistant hire.
Have you ticked all the boxes above? If you have, you need virtual support ASAP.
At VAV, we have years of experience assisting business owners and entrepreneurs. Our pre-vetted pool of virtual assistants can alleviate your massive workload, while giving you the best VA experience.
That being said, we want you to ask yourself the following questions before making a hiring decision.
How established is my business?
If your company is not making cash, you don’t need virtual assistant services as an added cost. The best time to hire VAs is when your business starts advancing and making money.
Am I outsourcing key tasks?
Remote assistants can handle any task, that’s for sure. However, there are certain tasks, in the early phase of your business, that are better off under your control. Tasks that require deep understanding and might fall through the cracks in the hands of VAs who don’t know the ins and outs of your organization.
Am I stressed out?
Before thinking that a remote worker can solve your problem, understand first the main cause of your stress.
Are you stressed out because of too much workload? If you are, a virtual professional is exactly what you need to reduce stress and reclaim your lost time.
Am I spending too much time on administrative work?
Yes, you need to do all the routine tasks to keep the business running, but they don’t have to be done by you.
Expert delegators see more revenue and profit than those who choose to work independently—remember that.
Do I have repetitive tasks ready to delegate?
To hire a virtual assistant is just the first step; you need to get everything moving.
If you don’t have tasks to hand over to your remote worker, it can impact the success of your virtual collaboration. You can’t possibly assume your assistant knows what to do without your guidance on the first day.
You need at least one or two tasks to delegate to kick off from the starting block. Most likely, you’ll have more chores to pass on later.
You know every sign of when to hire a virtual assistant. Now, let’s talk about the things to consider before hiring a VA from across the world.
First of all, landing the right assistant who fits right in with your unique needs is a very important decision. You’ll be entrusting your critical tasks, along with your investments of time and money. Of course, you can never be too careful of selecting them.
So, in picking the best out of the mundane bunch, here are the key considerations that you should make:
Take the time and reflect on yourself. Why are you hiring a virtual assistant? What for?
Before outsourcing, determine the tasks that you are willing to outsource to someone outside of your company and create a list.
Focus on the chores that are mundane and repetitive and don’t require any sort of specialization. Be specific with your task list so your VA search will be more targeted.
Virtual assistants are your investments. Thus, it only makes sense that you’re hands-on when selecting your candidates.
Examine their qualifications and ensure they meet your expectations. You can review their work with former clients—what do they say about collaborating with your candidate?
Do not commit blindly to a certain VA unless you’ve done your homework.
After your research, you’ll be able to come up with an amazing list of candidates to choose from. From this point, we advise you to conduct an interview or administer a paid assessment test.
Get a feel for your would-be remote assistant, from their professionalism to their personality. Be crafty when asking them questions and inquire about their skills and previous employment.
Then you step further, and give your VA a test related to their actual job to assess their capabilities in action.
Upon thorough deliberation, you get to pick the one who fits the bill.
At this stage, you should have a clear understanding of your needs and expectations. From the skills and budget to availability, your virtual assistant should meet all job requirements.
Read on: How to Hire with Extra Flexibility
There are many types of virtual assistants who offer their services at different rates. Most of them are independent contractors, while others work under a virtual assistant company.
If you’re looking for freelancers, you can visit online marketplaces like Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph.
However, if you want to partner with a remote professional who can ensure consistent, quality output, reach out to a VA agency like VAV. We embody virtual assistant outsourcing at its finest level. Our pricing starts at $515 USD in a month, 4 hours a day.
Now, there’s no standard price for virtual assistant services. They can charge you between a dollar and $100 per hour or project.
However, the VA costs are largely reliant on a few factors, namely:
Type of Work
The money you pay your assistant depends on the service they perform for you. The more specialized the work, the more it costs.
Location
VAs coming from the Philippines or India have competitive rates compared to online assistants in the U.S. or Europe. The reason is that the basic expenses in those countries cost less.
Skills and Experience
Skilled and experienced remote workers come with a steep price. Why? Because they have advanced knowledge and practical experience to complete tasks or projects more efficiently.
Urgency of the Tasks
Short-notice projects are more expensive compared to ones with relaxed time constraints. These tasks often need a certain level of experience and skills to complete within urgent timeframes, adding to the costs.
If you’re getting tired of investing your time in things that can’t push your business forward, try a different approach.
Hiring a virtual assistant could be the missing piece that could help your company grow, especially if you’re gathering pace. If you’re not the best person to handle a task, bring in a VA and give yourself some breathing room. This way, you can concentrate on more pressing issues and take a huge step in boosting your organization.
When you’ve seen all the cues above, take control of the situation with a virtual sidekick. VAV is here to help!
You can speak to our team of experts about your needs, and we’ll take charge from there. We’ll pair you with the right assistant who can adapt to your changing needs and save you time and money.
