So what’s stopping you?
Here are the six top excuses business owners give us, and the reasons why they may not be entirely justifiable:
1. “I don’t need a virtual assistant – I can do it myself” – why spend money on things you can do yourself? It’s a question that most new business owners ask themselves. But you also have to ask yourself how many hours a day you want to be working, and where your own, valuable time is best spent. Why not pay an hourly rate, that’s a lot less than your rate, to someone who has the expertise and experience to do them faster and more efficiently than you can?
2. “I don’t want to let strangers loose on my business” – reputation is important, and you certainly want to work with people who have the same approach as you do. But remember that most of the tasks you outsource when you hire a virtual assistant are back-office jobs like database management, travel booking, diary management and event organisation. All things that can be done and quality controlled by someone else whilst you’re focusing on the business.
3. “I can get it done cheaper overseas” – it’s true that there are a lot of agencies and auction sites that offer virtual assistant hire at very low rates. But are you getting value for money? Overseas providers often don’t always have the knowledge or understanding that’s needed – and they’re not paid to advise or suggest or offer any other help. What’s more, you often have to pay again if the task is incomplete, or you can’t get hold of your supplier, or it’s done poorly.
4. “I don’t want to work with more than one person” – you don’t have to. When you hire virtual staff, it’s entirely up to you what work you outsource. You may just want a bookkeeper, in which case you’ll work with a single, experienced assistant who will keep everything in order and on-track for you. One person, one job, one rate.
5. “I don’t know who I can trust” – no-one would expect you to hire someone to work with you without checking their credentials and experience. Talk to your networking contacts, ask for recommendations and talk to more than one VA agency, asking for references and proof of results. This will help you to make the same informed decision about hiring a virtual assistant as you would about working with any other supplier.
6. “I haven’t got a budget” – one of the best things about outsourcing work on this basis is that you only pay for the time you use. It’s easy to budget for and easy to change your requirements – either to use more hours or to use fewer. There are no employment requirements, as there would be with permanent staff, and you know you’re getting what you pay for.
Still worried about hiring virtual assistants?
If you recognise any of these as barriers to outsourcing some of your business tasks, perhaps now’s the time to take a step back and ask whether you would really rather spend an hour on your database, or growing your business. You can make far more money for your business doing the latter, whilst your admin tasks are in safe hands.
If you’re short on time and would like some help from an administrative virtual assistant or virtual marketing support, feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 to find out more about our online personal assistant services or use our contact form in the menu above.