Let’s say you were promised free Fridays forever. If you could only work Monday through Thursday, how much money would you be willing to pay? How much do you think an hour of your time is worth?
Your response is almost probably going to be more than what a virtual assistant (VA) would charge. Therein lies the potential afforded by virtual assistants: you may pay someone else to do the mundane tasks that have been eating away at your time for a fraction of the worth of your time, freeing up more of your time to spend with loved ones or pursuing other interests. Read on to find out how a virtual assistant may simplify your daily routine.
What Is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is someone who works remotely and does your bidding. Remote assistants perform the same administrative and personal errands as their in-person counterparts.
This might involve handling mundane administrative activities, such as keeping track of your schedule and emails, sorting through promotional material, arranging travel arrangements, and even doing personal errands like shopping for presents and sending greeting cards.
Imagine J.A.R.V.I.S. from the “Iron Man” movies, but as a real person.
The hourly wage of a VA varies from place to place and from skill to skill. Virtual assistants in nations with a low cost of living or currency valued less than the U.S. dollar typically charge less than their Western European or North American counterparts, who typically charge more for their specialized skills or for living in those regions. Pricing for basic VAs can range from $5 to $25 per hour, while expert VAs can cost anywhere from $10 to $70 per hour.
Virtual Assistant Why Hire One?
Suppose you have a $50/hr job but spend $15/hr on routine, low-skill chores like data entry and report writing. You may keep devoting a full workday’s worth of time (eight hours) to these mundane activities each week. You could do them yourself, or hire someone $10 per hour to do it.
That would mean cutting your weekly take-home salary in half, from $2,000 to $1,920, and cutting your workweek from 40 to 32 hours.
Alternately, you might retain your regular work week of eight hours but use that time to focus on high-skill activities that would put you well ahead of your colleagues in terms of output.
You should be in a strong negotiating position for a salary increase and better perks the next time you go in for salary negotiations. You should clearly utilize a virtual assistant with your manager beforehand.
If your virtual assistant can do 20% of your work, you could theoretically take off every other Friday if you work from home or have another job that doesn’t require your physical presence.
You may use a virtual assistant (VA) for more than just work-related errands; you can also outsource non-work related chores to them. I wonder how many Saturday mornings were lost in fruitless calls to customer service or hours spent poring through bills. It wouldn’t be difficult for a virtual assistant to do these responsibilities.
Spending less time on routine activities frees you up to concentrate on more important matters, such as your budget, investments, and retirement preparations.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant
The most logical starting point is VA agencies, where you pay the agency a flat rate rather than the VA per hour. The VAs have already been vetted for you, and the organization will often pair you with the best possible VA depending on your specific requirements. These businesses often have streamlined methods of reporting what the VA has done each day or week.
The process of selecting a virtual assistant is now completely streamlined. Naturally, they price it more because of the demand. To begin your search for a VA firm, you might look at OnlineJobs, OkayRelax, Efficise, or the American company Fancy Hands.
Freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork are alternative places to find a virtual assistant to employ. As an employer, you have access to a pool of thousands of virtual assistants and the ability to narrow your search based on their prior work experience.
Reviews from previous customers and an open system of payments are both advantages for you. Instead of going via a corporate agency, you can save money by paying the VA directly; however, you will still have to pay a charge to the platform.
On the other hand, you’ll have to do all the legwork necessary to choose a reliable VA on your own without the assurance provided by a well-known corporate name.
In order to find a virtual assistant (VA) even more quickly, you may ask for recommendations from people you know, whether they be friends, family, coworkers, or members of online communities like Facebook groups. It’s true that there won’t be any fees, but there also won’t be any of the safeguards offered by freelance platforms like payment escrow and peer evaluations.
If you don’t know a stellar virtual assistant who is actively seeking new customers, it’s best to start slowly and steadily with a freelance platform or an agency.
Bottom Line
Workplace success is seldom determined by the number of hours you put in at your desk in the modern workplace. They keep tabs on how well you perform. Furthermore, by hiring a virtual assistant (VA) to do the low-skilled labor, you may accomplish the same goals in a shorter amount of time.
Make use of geoarbitrage, or the cheaper cost of living and labor in other nations, by hiring a virtual assistant to handle the 25 percent of your work that you hate doing, as well as all the boring, time-consuming duties in your personal life that you despise. You may reclaim control of your time for a little percentage of your hourly fee.
In today’s fast-paced society, time is the most precious commodity. You can always find a way to get more money, but time wasted on something you despise is gone forever.
