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Renee Cloud
Renee Cloud
Business Management & Virtual Assistant
Birmingham, Alabama
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Multiply Your Business Manpower, Hire a Virtual Assistant

When trying to stay on top of business, there are times when outside help is needed. Beneficial assistance that will help you in running your business or operations more efficiently.

Written Jan 21, 2008, read 775 times since then.

 

In business whether you're starting or you’re already in business, it can be a roller coaster ride. The more business that you do, the more administrative tasks that you have. You have less time to generate new revenue by spending your own time on administrative tasks or other business operations that are not the core focus of your business.

Multiplying your manpower is a good business solution. One way to multiply your business manpower is to outsource. If you choose to outsource you can outsource portions of your business operations or you can outsource all of your business operations.

When outsourcing you may want to mainly outsource the business operations that take your time away from focusing on building and running your business, things that take away from your core business focus. Once you find the Virtual Assistant that you want to work with it is best to discuss these issues with them so you can get a better idea of what you should or shouldn't outsource.

Outsource  administrative tasks that won’t let you breathe for a minute, things that you don’t have time to do, things that you may be inexperienced with but you need them done, if you need additional help with current employees, emergency tasks or tasks that keep you from generating more revenue and things that must get done in order to keep your business in business. 

You can add to your business growth and efficiency by working with a Virtual Assistant. It may be obvious that you may need an assistant, in which case you have a thousand reasons not to hire one. Virtual Assistants provide practical solutions for business. This creative labor force has been around for quite some time, they are new to some people but very well known to others.

A Virtual Assistant is known to many as someone who provides beneficial business support services, bills you only for the work or tasks completed. They can be a great solution for a busy person, professional, executive, entreprenuer, individual or business.

There are many advantages to working with a Virtual Assistant. They are already trained in many aspects of business operations and  business services. When you hire a Virtual Assistant you get the benefits of outsourcing, loyalty of a company employee, no employee tax, no benefit issues or employee government regulations to follow. A Virtual Assistant is fully tax deductable.

Hiring a temp is a transient solutions which can be expensive. If you only need someone a few hours a day or a week, a temp can be more costly in terms of the training and you have to pay the temp agency. Many temps are looking for full time employment, so the minute that you find someone that you like, they will leave you for better opportunities. These may be some reasons why you may have found that traditional staffing solutions have not worked for you. By working with a Virtual Assistant this would not be a problem.

In some cases, in-house employees (including temps) will leave you for a better paying job, some of them surf the internet on your company time looking for a job that pays more money, better benefits or a better location. Sometimes they didn't want to work for your company in the first place, they just work for you to tide them over till the next best thing comes along.

Some employees or temps will leave you if you don't give them a big enough raise. A Virtual Assistant will not leave you if you don't give them a big enough raise, you are not responsible for giving them a raise. A Virtual Assistant will be with you for the long haul as long as you need their services. They can help you to improve on your business or help you in your career search. It's all just depending on your needs.

You can call on a Virtual Assistant only when you need them or form a longterm business relationship with them.

Sometimes employees can come with some issues: you must supply them with equipment, furniture, you must comply with federal / state employee regulations and / or paid training & personal issues. The estimated cost of an employee is sometimes double or triple their salary in terms of benefits, liabilities etc.. If you have a home office or small office you may have to share your private space. Some businesses or professionals don’t want to share their private space or they may have to, if they want an assistant.

In this regard, with a Vitual Assistant you don’t have to worry about those issues. A Virtual Assistant does not become your employee but beneficial help to your business or projects. You can eliminate the high cost of employees or temps by working with a Virtual Assistant. They have their own offices and they are very diverse in many areas of business. 

Their services can be used for many business reasons such as web design, business consultant, project consultant / project management, wordprocessing, secretarial services, outsourcing / overflow work, office management / assistant, typing, creative services (digital image editing, art, design etc...), business management, bill paying, appointment setting, personal life management, schedule or calendar maintenance, financial services, networking services, travel/ meeting planning,  procurement / purchasing services, and much more.

As long as you are in business or as your business grows, Virtual Assistants become more of the obvious solution to staffing problems or for business support services. For half the cost of temps or employees, you can obtain professional assistance with a variety of skills from a Virtual Assistant.

Learn more about the author, Renee Cloud.

Comment on this article

  • Tia Peterson
    Posted by Tia Peterson, Erie, Pennsylvania | May 05, 2008

    Great article, Renee! It's good to see articles about virtual assistance that are truly explanatory. Thanks.

  • Renee Cloud
    Posted by Renee Cloud, Birmingham, Alabama | May 05, 2008

    Thanks Tia,

    It can be helpful to many people to provide some info on Virtual Assistants and their services, especially for those who may be considering working with a Virtual Assistant.

    Many people are still unaware of Virtual Assistant services. So for the many people that are seeking or considering VA services can get a better understanding or an idea of how beneficial a Virtual Assistant can be for their business or projects.

  • Craig Undem
    Posted by Craig Undem, Seattle, Washington | Jun 11, 2008

    yea, i want an assistant but need it broken down more. What tasks are they good at? Lists of a couple websites to check out? Thanks for the idea!

  • Jennifer Manlowe
    Posted by Jennifer Manlowe, Bainbridge Island, Washington | Sep 28, 2008

    Though I'm not down on virtual assistants, especially if they get honored for their awesome skills (the ones I don't have) and compensated in fair ways that help offset their health/benefit/profit ratio needs.

    But, my sense is people who outsource, show no loyalty to employees, pay no employee tax, offer no benefits to employees and follow no employee government regulations are the very opposite of respectable.

    Solopreneurs affiliated with Biznik are often people who don't mimic the greed and exploitation of the good old boy network that capitalizes on the MANpower of others and takes home 99% of the profit (as if it were earned by their work alone). As you can see, that ME FIRST model is blowing up as we speak...

    I went into business for myself to transform this old model that you seem to be pitching here.

  • Renee Cloud
    Posted by Renee Cloud, Birmingham, Alabama | Sep 28, 2008

    Jennifer ,

    If you don't like Virtual Assistants then that's YOUR PROBLEM, EVERYONE DOES NOT FEEL THE SAME WAY THAT YOU DO! It is not a so-called ME FIRST model at all and has nothing to do with a so called good old boy network. Look at your business model it exemplifies the good old boy network , you take home 99% of your profit (as if it were earned by your work alone).

    The model that you have is a ME FIRST MODEL if you are going into business for yourself , you are doing it for yourself.

    And as for showing loyalty to employees a business owner doesn't have to ditch their employees just to outsource.

    MY BUSINESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GREED AND I WORK FOR WHAT I EARN !!