How to work with a virtual assistant

If you cannot afford to hire permanent full or part time staff for your business, or perhaps you only need a couple of hours of 'hired help' a week, then why not consider utilising a Virtual Assistant? The benefits of hiring a VA are numerous. There are none of the hidden costs of hiring permanent staff such as paying for holiday, sick and maternity/paternity leave, national insurance or pension contributions.

In these current tough economic times it seems senseless to have a paid employee sitting around twiddling their thumbs. With a Virtual Assistant you only pay for the work they actually do, no thumb twiddling pay involved or paying for time spent chatting at the water cooler.

Let's face it, if you are working on a task which is below your hourly rate, then it makes sense to outsource that task to a Virtual Assistant.

A good Virtual Assistant can help with anything from organising your emails to updating and maintaining your website. With today's technology there are so many tasks a VA can perform without being present in their client's office or even meeting face to face. Internet and the advent of cloud technologies has pushed this to the fore.

Many Virtual Assistants offer a pay as you go (PAYG) service or retainer packages. The benefit of utilising a VA's retainer package is that the VA usually provides a discount off of their usual PAYG hourly rate. This not only gives the VA a guaranteed income every month but also gives the added benefit to the client of receiving a discount on the full hourly rate.