Congratulations!  Your business is growing!  There are more billable hours on your schedule. But that squeezes out the time you’ve allotted for administrative tasks such as emails to draft, travel arrangements to make, or phone calls to answer.  You quickly learn you can’t do it all if you want to keep growing, so you decide to hire some help.  The question is – should it be an employee or a Virtual Assistant?  If you’re having difficulty making that decision, here are five reasons you should hire a virtual assistant.

1. A VA will cost less than an employee in the long run. Employees cost more than just their salary.  You also have taxes to pay, benefits to comp and training to provide.  Furthermore, employees don’t really work eight hours.  They take time off for breaks and lunches.  With a VA, you only pay for the time they work.
2. You won’t have to furnish office space for an assistant. No desk, no office supplies, no phone line to pay for.   You can have a smaller office and save on rent and utilities, or even opt to work from home.
3. Virtual Assistants are committed to quality. They usually specialize in one or two areas, making them experts in their field.  And since they own their own business and rely on referrals, they are compelled to do their best.  Their integrity is greater than an employee who might leak sensitive information or be secretly seeking employment elsewhere.
4. Commuting is never a problem with a Virtual Assistant because they work from home. So you don’t have to worry about bad weather, accidents or late trains.  A dedicated virtual assistant can work from home during illness also, if it’s not serious, without the threat of infecting others.
5. Virtual Assistants work around your schedule. If you have a deadline to meet, they will get the work done.  And if they can’t, they will outsource it to another VA.  You can think of them as your ‘on-call’ resource.

So now that you’re thinking about hiring a VA, you may be wondering what they can do for you.  With all the different specialties, they have a wide range of skill sets from straight admin work such as answering and returning phone calls or sending out mass mailings, to web design and maintenance.  They can book travel arrangement, screen your email or perform light bookkeeping skills.  Because of their individual skill sets, you may need to hire more than one, depending on your needs.

If you want to know more about how a Virtual Assistant can help your business, visit our Services page.