When you first start thinking of building a team of your own; you may immediately start worrying about all of the costs involved. There’s also the legalities to consider, contracts to be written and employee benefits to be worked out. However, before you start panicking over the extra cost and work involved, building a team doesn’t have to involve hiring employees – you could outsource to a Virtual Assistant and save yourself both time and money.
You don’t have the same costs as hiring a new employee
A Virtual Assistant can help with a wide range of tasks and projects, making them an ideal choice as your first virtual team member. Hiring a Virtual Assistant immediately comes with obvious benefits too; such as not having to worry about payroll, holiday pay, sick leave and training costs. You also won’t need to worry about taxes, work benefits and perks or pension plans.
Pay only for hours worked
There’s also the added bonus that you’re only paying a Virtual Assistant for actual hours worked; whereas if you hire a new employee, you’ll be paying them for set hours each week; regardless of how much work they actually do!
You also have access to skills and talents on a global market, this means you’re not narrowing your staffing needs down by locality and accessibility. It is worth remembering though, that you will have to take into account time zone differences, especially when scheduling reviews and meetings with your VA!
No hidden expenses
There’s also a saving to be made that’s initially less obvious and that is maintenance and equipment generally! You don’t need to worry about the upkeep and maintenance of equipment used by your Virtual Assistant, as they shoulder the costs of their own tools of the trade; including stationery, paper, software and hardware.
The basics you need in place
There are however, some similarities between hiring a new employee and outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant. Both will need a contract, written job specification or brief and breakdown of tasks to be undertaken; along with expected timescales, criteria and deadlines. It is also useful to clarify how often you will contact eachother and the method that will be used; email, phone, skype or webinar.
Consistent quality and commitment
A Virtual Assistant KNOWS their income is totally dependent on the ability to do a good job. Therefore pride themselves on working hard and fulfilling your needs, making them more dedicated and committed to providing a high level of quality work. This is a quality that hired staff members can lack; especially as they know they’re going to be paid a salary, regardless of the quality they provide and the amount of work they produce.
Overall, hiring a Virtual Assistant is well within the reach of most small businesses; if they only took the time to research the cost comparisons of hiring a virtual assistant versus in-house team member and weighed it up against the return on investment.
Have you worked out the benefits you could gain from hiring a Virtual Assistant? Do you know the type of tasks you could pass over, along with the potential saving you could make in both time and money? What do you feel about hiring a VA? Why not leave your thoughts on hiring a VA in the comments box below or contact me; Sofi at sofi@limeblueva.co.uk