Ever wondered how a virtual personal assistant can help you? Ever wondered what a virtual assistant is? As many successful small businesses already know, virtual personal assistant companies can help you with a wide range of business admin and strategy tasks, leaving business owners and managers to concentrate on growth and development. So choosing to work with a virtual assistant could be the best decision you ever make.

Understanding the virtual personal assistant service

There’s a lot to be gained from using a virtual personal assistant:

• Better time-management – leave all the admin and business management tasks to a  reliable time management virtual assistant so that you can use your time and experience where it matters most.
• Better cash-flow management – avoid the costs of recruiting, employing and managing permanent staff, and just pay for the hours you use. A virtual assistant can also help improve your business cash flow by providing credit control services.
• Wide-ranging skills – a good virtual assistant service will give you access to a wide range of support skills, from bookkeeping to social media.
• Flexible approach – work with a virtual assistant for a specific job, or use the whole virtual assistant team to help across a range of tasks.
• Efficient business management – virtual assistants have a great deal of experience. So there’s no need to train or mentor – just plan the tasks you need done, and let the assistant get on and do them.
• Always available – a good virtual assistance company arranges holiday and sick cover, so your tasks always get done when you need them.

Managed service – if you need a range of tasks taken off your hands, a virtual assistant company will work with you to plan how things will be done, and manage the day-to-day workload for you, leaving you free to concentrate on your business development.

You can hire a personal assistant in the UK– or a small team of assistants – to help you with:

• Sales lead generation and support
• Telemarketing and appointment setting
• Website content management
• Social media management
• Bookkeeping, invoicing and credit control
• Events and travel planning
• Marketing and Virtual sales support
• Market research
• Email management and diary management
• Website data entry, and CRM maintenance
• Virtual business administration

The easy way to work

By its nature, this type of support is done away from your business premises, with a remote personal assistant. Businesses find that this works really well – there are no additional costs for desk space or a workstation in the business, and all communication can be done by phone, email and Skype. If your virtual assistant is close enough, they can come to your office to set up the services in the first place, but everything else can be easily handled remotely.

You can give your assistant access to whichever systems and software he or she needs in order to do your work efficiently, and they will present themselves as part of your business, so that your customers see a consistent, professional approach.

And professionalism counts – which is why reputable virtual assistants should offer:

• Instant access to experienced support
• UK-based, working UK office hours
• Only pay for the time you use
• All costs covered in a competitive hourly charge with no hidden extras
• Non-Disclosure Agreements to protect your business information
• Secure and protected IT systems used by all of the team
• Registration with the Information Commissioner and compliance with the Data Protection Act

Virtual assistant versus secretary

Not many business employ people in a straightforward secretarial role today, and small businesses need flexible, adaptable skills that can help them to make their mark and start to grow. A virtual assistant has the skills, knowledge and expertise to help you whenever you need it, removing the headache of not having the right skills in your business, and stepping in to give you a cost-effective, professional service. Virtual personal assistant companies can be the difference between just keeping your head above water and setting sail for bigger and better business opportunities.

If you’re short on time and think you could benefit from some to do list project management or would like to know more about our other PA services feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above.

Related articles:

• Choosing a virtual assistant – how to select the right service
• How to delegate work effectively to a virtual assistant team
• How to manage virtual assistants and outsourcing services