Virtual Assistant - Should You Become A Virtual Assistant?

32% of the virtual assistants surveyed charge $31-40 per hour for their services with the majority of virtual assistants putting in 31-40 hours of work per week. Amazingly, 43.6% of the virtual assistants surveyed normally work on weekends.

93.7% of the Virtual Assistants surveyed stated that their clients are found through word of mouth referrals with 80.1% of virtual assistants also marketing through a website online. *Source: The Media Virtual Assistant Survey

Many employees are working in the job market where they are being cross-trained to provide countless services. This is great for employers but takes advantage of the employee. Cross training is often presented to the employee as "team playing." But this practice is what has caused many individuals to start thriving, part-time, Virtual Assistant businesses. Which is many cases blossom into full-time income!

What is a virtual assistant?

Virtual assistants often provide administrative and office support services to small businesses. Nowadays these services are being purchased by new entrepreneurs and home-based businesses owners who can't afford to hire full time employees. The number of entrepreneurs entering the marketplace is exploding. According to Entrepreneur Magazine these new business owners are entering the marketplace at a pace of 8,000 per day.

Virtual assistants work from home with their own equipment, handling tasks that their clients don't know how to do (or don't want to do).

New business owners can concentrate on the parts of the business that make the money and leave the details to competent virtual assistants who enjoy the freedom of working from home.

This is a true win-win.

The entrepreneur doesn't pay the virtual assistant to chat around the water cooler, instead virtual assistants only get paid when they produce. This means more productivity for both the virtual assistant and their client; the entrepreneur.

The obvious benefit to someone employing a virtual assistant is not having to deal with payroll taxes, vacations, sick days, or employee benefits.

Plus virtual assistants work remotely and fee up office space and computers.

Virtual Assistants provide many of the same services as onsite employees, without the added costs. Here are some of the tasks you might expect to delegate to a Virtual Assistant:

" Personal Assistance
" Website Maintenance and Updates
" Customer Service
" Answering Service
" Link Exchange
" Article Management
" Online Advertising
" Data Entry
" Accounting and Bookkeeping
" PowerPoint Presentations
" Database Management
" Word Processing
" Technical Support
" Transcription
" Travel Arrangements
" Reminder Service
" Writing, Editing, and Research Services

Below you will find just a few of the many benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant over a conventional or temporary employee:

Cost of Work Space and Equipment

Virtual Assistants work from their own home or office and use their own equipment. You don't have to pay for office space, equipment, maintenance, or addition utility bills. This is especially beneficial if you don't have a lot of space of your own.

Cost of Taxes and Benefits

Since Virtual Assistants are independent contractors you don't have to spend time or money dealing with taxes. Another benefit is you don't have to pay health/life insurance or workers compensation. In addition, you don't have to pay holidays, vacation time, or sick leave.

You're In Charge

The relationship between you and your VA is based on a contracted agreement and you state the terms. You have the added benefit of paying by the project, by the hour, or on a monthly retainer. Since they bill for work completed you don't have to pay for personal phone calls, tardiness, child issues, or sick leave. You choose which tasks to delegate to the VA and which tasks to do yourself or to keep in-house.

Professional Ideas

A Virtual Assistant is an entrepreneur that has their own strengths, background, and areas of expertise. They work from home and provide a service just like you do and have their own ways to market and solve problems that you might never have thought of. Having an experienced business person to bounce ideas off of will help you and your business grow.

Time to Focus on Your Business

Hiring a Virtual Assistant will free up your valuable time to focus on improving your business. Delegating administrative work such as bookkeeping, writing, research, customer service, and other jobs will allow more time for you to expand your business.

Virtual assistants can make as much as the job demands. There are cases where virtual assistants can make up to $100 per hour. Invisible workers offers this kind of pay scale for their workers.