Virtual Assistant Business Outsourcing

The economy is dragging and outsourcing is how successful businesses are picking up the slack. Using virtual assistants is becoming a popular method for increasing manpower and controlling costs.  In today’s ruthless global economy there isn’t much margin for error.  Business owners, under the stress of fuel cost and limited market spending are asking themselves…

Are you working yourself to the bone?

…But are you wary of hiring additional full-time employees?

Despite their efforts, businesses that provide talented, insightful services or superior products are failing in this economy. Inability to create or act upon new business, inability to overcome bloated overhead costs, unorganized or not up-to-date accounting, etc. tasks that fall behind while under staffed and company money wasted on non-productive employee time by those employees who do not buckle down and put in the extra effort during economic crunch-time… all lead to failing businesses.

Using virtual assistants is a very cost effective method to jump-start your stagnant business.  Here are 4 ways that virtual assistants can help give your business a boost:

1. Help You Get Organized

   Many small business owners spread themselves too thin allowing important things to slip through the cracks.  Using virtual assistants allows you to delegate assignments and stay ahead of the curve.  These talented individuals can perform necessary, but time consuming tasks like marketing emails, sending out company newsletters, data entry, setting up Excel spreadsheets, and accounts payable/receivable.  Virtual assistants can help you stay on top of these duties and keep your business organized and running smoothly.
    

2. Allow You To Grow Your Business

   Have you had to turn down projects because you don’t have the manpower?  When was the last time you updated your website?  Many small businesses fail to grow because they don’t have the budget to hire full-time employees for new business.  Outsourcing work to virtual assistants can help you grow your online business in a variety of ways.  Keeping your website highly visible in the major search engines requires fresh content and good link building.  Virtual assistants can find high quality links, write blogs and articles, submit press releases, qualify leads and perform online research.  Virtual assistants with advanced training can even spruce up your website with innovative graphic design, video presentations and flash animation.  If you don’t have a blog, they can install one for you.  This also frees up your time to concentrate on your core business activities.  “He who knows most grieves most for wasted time” – Dante
    

3. Reduces Overhead Costs

   In today’s viciously competitive global economy every nickel counts.  Profit margins are being squeezed by many factors and employee benefits are a major contributor.  Using virtual assistants eliminates all of the costly employment tax burdens.  You pay a flat monthly fee for a full-time virtual assistant and that’s it.  No health insurance, no FICA, no vacation pay, no sick days, no workers compensation insurance.  There is also no equipment cost for hiring virtual assistants.  No additional office space, desks, chairs, computers, etc.  Another great savings is there are no training costs.  Virtual assistants come to you with an excellent set of skills due to their education and extensive training.  There is no learning curve on your dime.
    

4. Provide Accountability

   How many times have you wondered what your employees where really doing at their computers?  If you think that they’re wasting time there is plenty of evidence to support your fears.  A recent survey by Salary.com and America Online revealed the average American worker wastes over 2 hours per day!  Surfing the Internet is the number one company time waster, followed by workplace socializing.  It’s sort of like having “ghost workers” on your company payroll.  All of this excessive time wasting costs U.S. employers hundreds of billions of dollars each year.  Hiring virtual assistants eliminates all of this nonsense.  Virtual assistants work a full 40 hours for you each week and have the data to prove it.  Monitoring software is used on all of the computers at VirtualAssistant.Org that can identify and record every keystroke made.  This innovative monitoring software lets management know exactly what the virtual assistant is doing on your project and how much time is spent.  Each month with your invoice you receive an accurate and detailed report of the tasks that were performed for you.  Virtual assistants also provide a measuring tool for the performance of your “in-house” employees.  If virtual assistants are regularly out performing your employees then there is probably a lot of time wasting activities going on.
    

It all boils down to one basic concept.  Do what you do best and outsource the rest.  OK, that’s cheesy, but we all know it is true.  If performing a process or set of tasks vital to the business is a time or money drain, you can always find a professional to do the same service for less money and better quality.