Why Virtual Assistants Are an Ideal Choice for Small Businesses

You’ve likely seen a Now Hiring sign outside a local business if you’ve driven anywhere lately. You might even have one outside your own building.  If you’re looking to hire an executive assistant, you certainly have options these days, from full and part time, to in-person and remote.  What makes the most sense for your business?

For many small businesses, especially those making their first hires, a virtual assistant can be an ideal choice.  They are often more cost-effective, more accessible, and they can help you maximize your time.  

Cost-effectiveness

A typical in-house hire will be for a full-time assistant.  In addition to their hourly wage, you will need to figure in the cost of benefits, taxes, and training.  You will also need to pay for office space and supplies.  For many small businesses, this can become an overwhelming expense in the budget and it’s often more than they really need.  

With a virtual assistant, you can pay for the services you need, often with a monthly retainer.  At Auxo, we offer various retainers so small businesses can choose what works for them.  By choosing a retainer of 5-20 hours a week, you can pay much less than a full time employee would cost.  In addition, when your virtual assistant takes time off, another virtual assistant can cover their hours, at no additional cost to you.

Accessibility

Virtual assistants can work with you anytime or anywhere, no matter where you are in the world.  If you’re a small business owner that travels a lot, this becomes a very attractive feature.  You can hire a virtual assistant that is flexible with their availability so you can connect outside traditional business hours, even if you need to catch up on the phone while you’re overseas.  One of our clients travels the world frequently, and he’s able to stay in touch with his virtual assistant even while he’s out of the country.  If something needs to be taken care of while he’s out of the office, he can rest assured that his assistant can handle it for him.

Even if you’re not a traveler, but you need someone to work in the evenings, a virtual assistant could fit that role nicely.  Perhaps your company has evening meetings and you need the meeting notes recorded.  The VA could call in to join the meeting and take those notes for you.  Or maybe you’re just more free to catch up in the evenings, and having a virtual assistant with flexible hours could work well for you.

Time management

How many times have you sat down to work on a project, only to be interrupted by a ding on your computer or phone?  You think that responding to that email will only take a couple minutes, and the next thing you know, fifteen minutes or more have gone by.  Along the same lines, how often have you set down to do a simple task, and you ended up having to look up more information to complete it, so it took longer than you planned? Those blocks of time can quickly add up and steal your attention from more important activities.

When you’re working on projects that you enjoy, or especially when you’re working on projects uninterrupted, you typically do them more effectively and efficiently.  If your aim is to increase productivity, it makes sense to bring someone to the team that can accomplish those administrative tasks for you, alleviating the wasted blocks of time in your day.

If you’re looking for support in your small business, book a free chat with us to discuss how an Auxo virtual assistant may be a good fit for you.