At risk of sounding like a John Lewis advert, a Virtual Assistant could be the perfect gift for your small business this Christmas. Whether increased productivity is on your wish list or you’re thinking of asking the big man for a bit more time to play with, a Virtual Assistant can step in to help your business run smoothly, reach its goals and secure success for 2024.
But how does investing in a Virtual Assistant work and what benefits will doing so have for your small business?
What is a Virtual Assistant?
First things first, what the heck is a Virtual Assistant and what business do they have being at the top of your Christmas list?
A Virtual Assistant is an experienced outsource professional who can step in to support your business. VAs come in all shapes and sizes. Some may be experts in credit control, while others are admin pros. Some may be trained to write incredible content while others will be data entry whizzes. It all depends on your business and your needs.
Virtual Assistants work, as the name suggests, virtually, supporting you with any tasks you choose to hand over. You pay for their time and work completed, but their flexibility and adaptability means you get to run the show. You can use your VA as little or as much as you like and can change your mind at any time depending on how things are looking for your business.
Here at The Edwards Company, we’ve created a small team of Virtual Assistants (all working from our West Midlands based offices) who all specialise in different business areas. When our clients come to us in need of support, we assign them a Virtual Assistant who can best fulfil their needs. It really is as simple as that!
But how can a Virtual Assistant benefit your small business specifically?
How can a Virtual Assistant Benefit your Business?
A Virtual Assistant is the gift that keeps on giving. Depending on the type of support you require, a VA can offer all sorts of benefits that are intended to help push your business to the next level.
If we were to list every single VA benefit, we’d probably be here until next Christmas, so these are a few of our clients’ favourites:
Peace of Mind
What we all really want for Christmas is peace of mind, isn’t it? There’s no greater feeling than knowing everything is under control, whether that’s in your personal life or professional life, but especially when you’re running a small business.
Your small business is incredibly precious to you. It’s something that you’ve nurtured and laboured over for a significant amount of time – something that can cause a bit of anxiety or stress when it comes to keeping things running smoothly. The last thing you want is for things to go pear shaped when you’ve spent so long working so hard.
That’s why we honestly feel as Virtual Assistants that peace of mind is one of the greatest gifts we can give to small business owners. Virtual Assistants are experts in their specialist skill and will have worked with many small businesses before yours. We understand how things work and therefore know how best to keep things running smoothly.
For example, if you take on a Virtual Assistant to write the content for your new website, you can rest assured that that content will be written by an experienced expert who is capable of producing content of the highest quality.
Our job as Virtual Assistants is to reassure you that any business task you hand over to us will be managed in the most capable of hands, giving you peace of mind that a VA can only benefit your business in the long run.
Increased Productivity
Productivity is the pinnacle of small business success, right? The more work you put in, the more you get done, the harder you push, the more success you’ll see. But doing all that alone while trying to keep your small business running smoothly can be a challenge.
Virtual Assistants can step in to help you increase productivity and hit your small business goals. A survey by Time Etc reported that ‘77% of small business owners said hiring a Virtual Assistant had made them more productive.’
And that doesn’t mean that a Virtual Assistant will come in and do everything for you (unless you want them to!). Our job is to make your business processes a little easier so that you can be more productive on our end.
For example, we may help manage your inbox by flagging what needs your attention and handling what doesn’t. That way, you’re able to action priority emails quickly and efficiently, without having to spend time searching your inbox for them.
Or, you may want to get a new website up and running but are struggling to find the time to fill it with content. Virtual Assistants who specialise in this area will be able to take on this task for you, allowing you to get your website up sooner and see results in a shorter amount of time.
Productivity at its best and a pretty good gift to give yourself this Christmas, as far as we’re concerned!
Time Saving
Time is the most precious gift going. Once it’s gone, there’s no way of getting it back. And that can mean your work-life balance starts to feel a bit wonky, particularly if you’re running your small business by yourself.
Part of the magic of Virtual Assistants is that they can help you restore some of your time that you can invest back into your business if you want to, or time that you can take for yourself to help restore that all-important professional-personal balance.
In fact, many small businesses have taken on Virtual Assistants for exactly that reason. A report by Invoice2go found that ‘40% of small business owners said that outsourcing tasks to Virtual Assistants allowed them to spend more time with friends and family.’
Whether it’s taking back the hours you would’ve spent on admin and paperwork or reinvesting the time it would’ve taken you to create a month’s worth of social media posts, having an external professional take on those tasks for you can work wonders.
The more time you can take for yourself, the more energy and motivation you’ll have to put back into your business. It’s a win-win situation and a perfect gift to give yourself this Christmas.
Cost Effective
According to Small Business Trends, ‘59% of small businesses reported saving money by using Virtual Assistants for tasks like administrative support and customer service.’ Now, if that doesn’t sound like a great Christmas gift to treat your business with, we don’t know what does!
Choosing to invest in a Virtual Assistant rather than hiring in-house team members means you eliminate the cost that comes with having full-time employees. For example, wit a Virtual Assistant, you only pay for the work completed, so there’s no annual salary to uphold on your end. You can spend as much or as little as like depending on your needs. You also won’t have to fork out for other costs that come with hiring in-house staff, like covering holiday or maternity pay, sick pay or equipment costs.
If you know your small business could do with an extra pair of helping hands but aren’t yet ready to commit to more full-time staff financially, then a Virtual Assistant could be the perfect choice for you. You’ll receive all the same benefits and high quality of work, just without the added cost.
Adding a VA to your Christmas List?
If we’ve convinced you to replace ‘slow cooker’ with ‘Virtual Assistant’ at the top of your Christmas list, here’s how to go about getting your hands on one.
Check out our website HERE for all the important info on what investing in a Virtual Assistant entails, as well as discovering our specialist services. Then, get in touch with us HERE to order the latest VA model (AKA one of our brilliant team members).
And with that, we say Merry Christmas! We hope Santa brings what you’ve asked for!