Holiday rush? Well, everyone’s getting a whiff of it, but you most especially, balancing work, family time and personal ventures.
The busiest season of the year is truly killing your time and dismantling your parity. You want to enjoy the festivity but you’re feeling overwhelmed. But what if we tell you there’s an efficient way to make it work, despite the holiday busy-ness.
Most business owners find relief in hiring a remote admin assistant. This cost-effective solution bought them precious hours to focus on core missions. VAs are skilled and have solid experience in different domains, allowing them to handle just about any task thrown at them.
Is it worth hiring a remote administrative assistant for help during the holidays? What are the perks of hiring a virtual assistant? Read on and find out the answers to these questions.
Are Virtual Assistants Worth the Investment?
Definitely!
For starters, outsourcing remote administrative services allows you to enjoy Christmas without being burdened by too much workload.
Whether you hire them as part-time or full-time workers, their impact can be felt, especially when it comes to having more time—aka your most valuable commodity.
Create More Family Time
Christmas is that one time of the year when you can sit on the couch by the fireplace with a hot cocoa in one hand, spending time with family.
This is the recharge you need to prepare for the new year’s hurrah. But we’re not telling you to stop business operations, though.
You can still cover all your most essential chores while away with a remote administrative worker. They can keep things running and prevent a mountain of work from hitting your desk by the time you come back to work.
Allow Holiday Time Off for Your Employees
Your loyal employees have seasonal plans too and may want to take a break during the holidays. Give them that much-needed breather and hire a remote assistant, willing to work on Christmas.
Continue operations and pass on the tasks that your employees are leaving behind. When they get back refreshed, they become more focused, resulting in increased productivity.
How Can a Remote Administrative Assistant Make the Most of the Holiday Season
If you’re new to outsourcing virtual assistants, you probably have little idea of how helpful they can be during the festive season.
Let’s just put it this way: these remote professionals can bring joy back to your stress-filled holiday foray.
There’s no need to whine and grumble because your remote admin staff can handle a handful of tasks on your behalf.
Scroll down and see for yourself.
Manage Everyday Transactions
For a business owner, Christmas is the busiest season of the year. You will have plenty of customers coming in, asking questions and making purchases. When they come, you have to be ready because this is the only time when they don’t really care about spending all their income.
To cover the demands, you can ask your VA to manage the transactions and track orders, ensuring they’re organised and properly dispatched.
Organise Office Holiday Events
You can trust your virtual assistant’s organisational skills in planning Christmas parties. From the catering to the venue, they can handle all the details and throw you a fantastic holiday event your employees will look forward to.
Support Holiday Promotions
According to 1WorldSync, this year, 73% of consumers will be taking their holiday splurges online. Reports also say that 89% of customers rely on social media for their shopping decisions.
That being said, you should hire a remote administrative assistant to manage your product promotions on different social platforms. This way, you can directly engage with them and stay on top of their minds, prompting more sales.
Send Holiday Cards and Presents
Sending Christmas cards to your customers is a great way to give thanks for their continued support. However, crafting these personal appreciation notes takes time. To get your “thank you” cards sorted before the festivity catches up to you, hire an online assistant.
You can ask them to craft holiday cards or buy gifts. They can compile the client’s addresses and oversee the deliveries of the presents.
Make Travel Arrangements
While working, you can actually plan your holiday travels and get the best holiday deals before they run out. Wait, how are you going to do that?
Hire a remote administrative assistant to arrange your holiday escape with loved ones—from accommodations and transportation to everything in between.
Just fill them in with all the details, and they’ll take care of everything according to your preferences and budget.
Track Expenses
The spending habit during Christmas is going crazy, but don’t let your spending impulse dictate you.
Work with your virtual assistant and have them track your expenses. You can ask them to create a report so you can carefully assess them. As a result, you can make adjustments and still stay on budget.
Maintain Customer Communication
You must be excited about wrapping things up for the holiday—not answering customer questions and just spending time with family and friends. But you can’t just go incognito on your clients, especially not on Christmas.
To stay in touch, onboard a remote worker. Let them take charge while you’re away, supporting your customers in every possible way and making them feel valued.
Get the inside scoop on how to effectively work with a remote administrative assistant.
FAQs on Hiring a Remote Administrative Assistant
What Are the Disadvantages of a Virtual Assistant?
Sure, remote assistants bring positive effects to your everyday grind. But like everything else, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies with them. After all, going virtual is not a small feat.
If you’re not remote-ready, you’ll experience several drawbacks working with a remote professional.
- Communication Can Be Challenging
- Security Issues
- Lack of In-Person Interactions
When working with someone who won’t be sitting outside your office, being on the same page can be challenging. You often wonder if their task is done accurately. There’s also a language difference that might lead to miscommunication.
Solution:
To work with someone in a different time zone and whose main dialect is different, we advise you to do regular check-ins. Allow your virtual assistants to voice out their concerns.
You can also use collaboration tools to facilitate effective communication. And while you’re at it, be open-minded to the different communication styles of your remote team.
You’ll be sharing data with your remote admin assistant, and that comes with a risk. There’s a possibility that data will be breached, compromising important information for your business.
Solution:
Implement strong data security practises like limiting data access, deploying software tools for data protection and using strong passwords.
In addition, make sure to hire virtual assistants who are knowledgeable in data security protocols.
You may never get to collaborate with your remote assistant face-to-face. And this can somehow affect rapport, rendering it difficult to build a healthy working relationship.
Solution:
From the get-go, set expectations vividly about the mode of communication, deadlines and your business goals. Complete transparency gives your VAs some structure to focus their efforts on.
Also, be available and open to them. Encourage them to ask questions and give them feedback. You can build connections by having personal conversations, showing that you’re honest and eager to collaborate.
What Is the Average Cost for Hiring a Virtual Assistant?
Unsure if you have the funds to hire virtual assistants? You must know that the cost of hiring a remote assistant varies based on the following factors:
- Type of Work You Assigned to Them
- Task Urgency
- Skills and Experience
- Location
The more complicated the assignment, the higher your VA charges.
If you want to complete a certain project on short notice, it comes with a higher price.
A virtual assistant with solid years of experience can work more efficiently compared to a new VA. That said, they’re bound to charge more.
Remote assistants from the Philippines and India are cheaper than hiring someone in the U.S. Why? Because these countries have low costs of living, resulting in lower salaries.
Concluding Thoughts
Not everyone can work well with a virtual assistant. But the benefits and the many tasks that a remote administrative assistant can do for you are worth considering.
VAs can be your greatest ally, not just in the holiday scramble but all year round. They can help you through the busiest times and the sluggish months of the calendar, keeping you productive without financial scares.
We can guide you in seizing the opportunities this Christmas season offers without compromising your time to unwind and relax. VAV has a massive pool of virtual assistant talents who can easily adapt to your changing holiday business needs.
Give us a call, and we’ll be more than thrilled to lend a hand in creating a magical holiday season.