What is a Virtual Assistant and What Do They Do?

Virtual Assistants: The Best Solution For Your Business

When working in a fast-paced, growing environment, it can be difficult to remain on top of your daily tasks and keep operations moving efficiently. Even if you already have a full-time staff, you may find that your responsibilities continue to grow, preventing you from handling those mundane, but also necessary, tasks.

Whether you need help managing your growing start-up or have been too busy wearing too many hats, a virtual assistant can help.

Virtual assistants have been around for a long time, but they have become more popular and more useful than ever before in a post-pandemic work environment. When teams are spread out and working from home, one of the best ways to manage them is with a dedicated virtual assistant who can oversee operations and perform daily tasks on a flexible contract.

But before you decide to hire a virtual assistant, it’s important to understand what a virtual assistant is and exactly what it can do for you.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is someone who works remotely and assists with various daily tasks such as administrative work, social media, business development, and more. Most virtual assistants work as independent contractors but some are hired as full-time remote workers. They may work for themselves or with a contracting agency.

Virtual assistants are utilized by companies across all industries, including healthcare, real estate, marketing, debt collection, and sales.

People who work as virtual assistants typically have several years of experience working in office management or administration. They are tech-savvy and proficient in essential skills such as time management, organizational planning, content development, bookkeeping, accounting, cold-calling, email management, and more.

What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?

Virtual assistants are skilled and versatile, so they can carry out a variety of different assignments to your liking. Some of the most common tasks given to virtual assistants are:

  • Administrative work – scheduling meetings, scheduling appointments, making travel arrangements, answering phones, directing calls, and organizing calendars.
  • Customer service – provide assistance with troubleshooting, returns, complaints, or escalate issues to the right person within the organization.
  • Bookkeeping – keeping track of finances, creating a budget, making purchases, and tracking expenses.
  • Data entry – compile, enter, and analyze data for the company.
  • Social media and content management – create and respond to social media posts, write content, edit content, publish content on your website, manage a content calendar, and organize writing processes for other writers.

A virtual assistant can also help you with accounting, debt collection, and executive-level administrative work.

Virtual assistants may be responsible for a variety of tasks, but the benefits are the same. Hiring a virtual assistant can help you increase brand awareness, enhance worker productivity, spark business growth, and generate revenue.

How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Cost?

Contracting a virtual assistant is an extremely cost-effective solution. You can hire both part-time and full-time assistants depending on your needs.

Most virtual assistants charge an hourly rate that is paid for on a monthly basis. The hourly rate can be as low as $10-15 an hour, and when you factor in additional costs such as benefits, taxes, and other fees associated with having an employee, a contracted virtual assistant is a much more affordable option.

A virtual assistant can even save you money in the long run by:

  • Reducing training expenses – Any employee that you hire will need training, and training costs you money. Aside from a brief introduction to your business, the tasks you need to complete, and the programs you use, a virtual assistant will already have the skills and knowledge required to carry out basic business operations.
  • Streamlining operations – Virtual assistants know how to get things done fast. They can optimize and streamline your business processes so you and your employees can get more tasks accomplished more quickly.
  • Improving employee productivity – Because you and your employees can assign administrative tasks and more to your virtual assistant, you will have more time to focus on the more pressing tasks and work more efficiently than ever before.

Assistants Now offers several full-time and part-time pricing packages based on the work you need done and your budget.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant

At Assistants Now, we make it easy to find and hire a virtual assistant for your everyday needs. We know that not all assistants will be right for all companies, which is why we take the time to learn about your business needs and then match you with the right virtual assistant for you.

We pride ourselves in having the most educated, dedicated, and professional Virtual Assistants on the market. We believe in making sure our Virtual Assistants master anything our clients need to be done. You let us know the tasks at hand and or the services that you want us to provide and we take care of the rest.

A virtual assistant may be the key to growing your business and increasing profits. Contact us today to find the right virtual assistant for you.