As an entrepreneur, there will come a time when you need to bring in people to help you take your business to the next level. Key positions will have to be filled up with top-notch people who can help you succeed. However, one position you shouldn’t overlook is the role of a personal assistant. Do you know why? You see, a personal assistant can free up so much of your time, allowing you to focus on the business areas that need your personal attention. You can even opt for a virtual personal assistant, and I’ll tell you why hiring one is a worthwhile idea.
The responsibilities of a virtual personal assistant are practically the same as an in-house assistant. They can handle mundane administrative tasks like managing emails, scheduling meetings and appointments, making travel arrangements, preparing reports, taking notes during meetings, taking calls and messages, and drafting emails. Some can even handle more complex tasks like market research and bookkeeping.
The main difference is that virtual personal assistants are not physically present in your location, so you can’t ask them to run errands like picking up your dry cleaning, going grocery shopping, walking the dog, or getting coffee for you. However, these are the only limits. A virtual personal assistant can do any task which does not require physical presence.
Now, if you really need a person who can run errands for you, go ahead and hire an in-house assistant. But if you want someone who can lighten your workload and handle the administrative tasks that usually take up so much of your time, then hiring a virtual personal assistant may be the way to go.
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A personal assistant in the US is expected to earn around $15 to $30 an hour, so her salary will occupy a significant chunk of your budget. You will also have to set aside money for employee benefits like social security, Medicare taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, medical and dental insurance, and state and federal unemployment taxes.
On the other hand, it’s not hard to find a talented virtual personal assistant from the Philippines who’s willing to do the same tasks for $500 a month. That’s for 160 hours per month, so the hourly rate is just a little over $3. You may even find an assistant for as low as $2 per hour. Of course, these applicants probably don’t have much experience, and you still have to train them.
Aside from the affordable rates, you don’t even have to worry about spending money on office equipment because they already have their own home offices. You will be saving a lot of money if you decide to go with a virtual personal assistant.
The talent pool is endless if you decide to hire a virtual personal assistant because you don’t have to worry about geographical restrictions. This means you will have access to world-class talent, and you will have more opportunities to find the right fit at comparatively lower costs.
By hiring someone to work for you remotely, you can also get access to talent that might not be available in your local vicinity. Now you can sift through resumes on job sites and hire an assistant from anywhere in the world. But remember, you still have to conduct background checks to make sure they are who they say they are.
Like their in-house counterpart, a virtual personal assistant handle a lot of tasks for you. Aside from all those administrative tasks mentioned earlier, personal assistants working remotely are likely to be skilled in other areas of expertise. So you may find an assistant that is good at marketing or content writing. Maybe your assistant can manage your social media accounts for you. Let them utilize those skills to take more tasks off your plate.
You can train your virtual personal assistant to think as you do so she can do things exactly the way you want them done. This will take some time for this to develop. It won’t happen overnight, but once you develop this trust, you can let your assistant take on more of the tasks you prefer to do yourself.
There are plenty of companies that offer virtual personal assistant services. You can reach out to them and see if you like to work with them. TaskBullet is a reputable VA company that has a team of virtual personal assistants. Zirtual is a viable option as well, although their pricing may be too high for startups and small businesses.
Of course, you can opt to hire one yourself if you want to save more money. Give OnlineJobs.ph a try. I’ve been using the site for several years now. I prefer to hire from the Philippines because Filipinos are normally good workers, and they have affordable rates. As mentioned earlier, you should have no trouble finding a virtual personal assistant who’s ready to accept an offer of $500 per month. OnlineJobs.ph also happens to be the largest job site for Filipino virtual workers, so there will be a lot of excellent candidates there.
Signing up is free, and it allows you to post a job ad and look at resumes. However, you will have to upgrade your free account to a paid subscription if you want to communicate with the applicants and hire someone. There are two pricing plans available: a $69 per month plan and a $99 per month plan. Just choose the $69 plan if you’re only planning to hire a virtual personal assistant. The $99 plan has more features, but you don’t have to use them.
Contact your top candidates, go through the interview process, and cancel the subscription once you’re done with all that.
With all the things you’ve learned here, are you ready to hire your first virtual personal assistant?
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