Myths and misconceptions are common in all industries, but as Virtual Assistants ourselves, we’ve certainly heard our fair share of them!
To try and bust some of those myths, we thought we’d share 5 lies you’ve been told about Virtual Assistants, and why they’re definitely not true!
5 Lies You’ve Been Told About Virtual Assistants
1. All virtual assistants work from home
This is a very common stereotype attached to Virtual Assistants and is always something our potential clients are interested in knowing before they begin working with us. The truth is, many Virtual Assistants do work from home – they’re their own boss, they’ve grown and scaled their business from scratch, and they utilise their own space to work from. And it works brilliantly! Virtual Assistants who work from home are dedicated, focused and passionate about supporting their clients.
However, there are a few of us who have swapped homeworking for the office. This is particularly common for teams of Virtual Assistants (like ours) as it allows us to keep up consistent communication with one another. There’s no point in us being scattered all over the West Midlands if we can all be under one roof!
For us, working in an office works for us. It allows us to collaborate closely on different projects and is particularly helpful when completing credit control tasks for our clients – different team members are responsible for different parts of the process, and all being in one room means we’re also all on the same page. Nothing gets missed, nothing gets miscommunicated, and, most importantly, it allows us to provide the best possible service for our clients.
So this one is half true – some Virtual Assistants definitely do work from home, but it certainly doesn’t apply to all of us!
2. It’s difficult to communicate with a Virtual Assistant
After one too many lockdowns and an endless cycle of Zoom meetings, it seems that everyone has developed a bit of an aversion to the term ‘virtual’, and we can’t blame them! We’re not sure we ever want to partake in another Zoom quiz again!
Because of this, many people assume it’s going to be difficult to communicate with a Virtual Assistant – they’re haunted by memories of pixelated screens, accidental filters and the dreaded ‘you’re on mute’ drone from colleagues at the end of their virtual tether.
As Virtual Assistants, we can confirm that communicating with us is worlds away from that stereotype. In fact, we leave it entirely up to our clients how they’d like to communicate with us. Some prefer emails while others like phone calls, some still don’t mind a Zoom meeting while a few WhatsApp messages are enough for others.
In short, it’s our job to make communication with you easy and straightforward – and that’s exactly what we do. We’re always just the tap of a button away; we’ll be on hand to support you whenever you need us to be, and the last thing communicating with us will be is difficult.
This one is simply an outright lie!
3. Virtual Assistants can only support you with admin
Another stereotype attached to Virtual Assistants is that we’re only suitable for managing your inbox and making your appointments – and while we are good at both of those things, our services most definitely do not end there!
Now, every Virtual Assistant is different (we’ll get onto that in a moment). While some may specialise in admin, there are thousands of Virtual Assistants all over the world who specialise in offering thousands of different services.
Take The Edwards Company, for example. While we do offer support services in admin, we also provide services in content creation, credit control and data entry. Another Virtual Assistant may specialise in social media management or website support. The list is literally endless – whatever you’re looking for support with, we can guarantee there’s a Virtual Assistant out there who will be able to provide what you’re looking for.
Another lie exposed and a myth busted!
4. Virtual Assistants only work for large companies
Only massive corporate companies on the top floor of huge skyscrapers have Virtual Assistants, right? Wrong!
Often, people assume investing in a Virtual Assistant is a luxury only large companies can afford or that smaller businesses shouldn’t need a Virtual Assistant because they’re not big or busy enough. This could not be further from the truth!
Any business, big or small, can benefit from a Virtual Assistant. Whether you’re just getting your business off the ground or it’s been up and running for years, you will always need an extra pair of hands to take on tasks that you simply don’t have time for. For a smaller, start-up business, for example, you may need a Virtual Assistant to provide you with monthly content for your business blog to spread the word about your new endeavour. For a larger business, you may need 40 hours of credit control support a month to keep on top of your accounts.
Whatever the reason for investing in one, and whatever the size of your business or the stage it’s at, Virtual Assistant services are designed to benefit you and your business.
Four lies down, one to go!
5. All Virtual Assistants are the same
We touched on this one earlier, but we wanted to circle back to it to encourage you to make the right choices when it comes to investing in a Virtual Assistant.
Virtual Assistant has become a bit of an umbrella term for someone who, basically, provides assistance for your business and, in the past, potential clients have had a tendency to think that every Virtual Assistant is the same and will be able to provide what they need.
Now, while we always do our best to, there are some things that simply aren’t in our field of expertise. Think of it like this – teachers are referred to as teachers, suggesting that they all do the same thing. Expecting one Virtual Assistant to be the same as the next and provide the same services is a bit like asking a Geography teacher to teach an art lesson – they’ll give it a good go, but it’s not what they were trained for.
The same goes for Virtual Assistants – each one of us is different and will be able to provide you with different types of support. The trick is choosing the right Virtual Assistant for you, which is why research, research and more research is so important when it comes to embarking on your Virtual Assistant journey.
And there you have it, 5 lies you’ve been told about Virtual Assistants exposed in a matter of minutes – hopefully, you’ll now be able to make an informed decision on whether or not investing in a Virtual Assistant is the right choice for you and your business.
The Edwards Company Virtual Assistant Services
If you do decide that a Virtual Assistant is the right choice for your business, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We provide services in credit control, content creation, admin and data entry and have a range of flexible, affordable packages on offer, designed to support businesses like yours.