When you decide to hire a virtual assistant to help your growing business, there are essentially two ways you can go. You can choose to work with an independent freelance VA or you can engage a virtual assistant company.
There are some fairly fundamental differences between the two options, apart from the fact that freelancers work for themselves while a virtual assistant company employs staff to serve as VAs for their clients.
In this post, you can learn why a virtual assistant company might be the best source of VAs if your business is growing, or if you’re a hiring manager in a company looking to enlist some external help.
Your One-stop Virtual Assistant Shop
Convenience is one of the biggest advantages of working with a virtual assistant company. For instance, if you find a good provider, you’ll have access to virtual assistants with a variety of skill-sets. This means that through one provider, you can quickly find and engage the right assistants for specific projects.
As well as being a source of general virtual assistants, the best VA companies can provide people qualified to help you with activities like:
- Web design and development
- Accounting and bookkeeping
- Online and social media marketing
Finding freelance virtual assistants can be time-consuming, as can locating and selecting web design or marketing service providers. If you choose a virtual assistant company as your source of help instead, you’ll have a single point of contact through which all these needs can be met.
A Fully Scalable Service
Your business or organization may need to scale VA headcount up and down from time to time as your needs change. A virtual assistant company will be well equipped to provide extra VAs when you need them, and can easily redeploy their staff if you need to scale down.
Because all the VAs are under the management of one company, you will probably have opportunities to recall virtual assistants who have previously worked with your company. This will minimize the amount of on-boarding and training effort you need to put in.
Continuity and Reliability Assured
When you hire from the freelance market, there’s always the risk that you’ll be left stranded without help if your virtual assistant is sick or can’t work for some other reason. Imagine, for example, a scenario in which your freelance VA’s Internet connection or computer equipment fails.
This might not be a disaster if you only use a virtual assistant for non-essential admin tasks, or if you have more than one freelancer working for you. However, you will still have the hassle of reassigning tasks from one VA to another, or from your absent VA to a member of your in-house staff.
Service disruptions are far less of an issue if you hire your VA from a company. Since a company employs many VAs and manages them under one roof, unforeseen resource problems can be quickly and seamlessly addressed, to ensure your business enjoys an uninterrupted service.
The Key to Success With a Virtual Assistant Company
For small business owners and solo entrepreneurs, both freelance and employed VAs can be an invaluable and affordable source of manpower. Many larger businesses are also happy to resource their own virtual assistants from the freelance market. Ultimately you will have your own preferences, and that’s fine of course.
For larger companies though, or if your business is growing fast, a reputable VA company might be the most suitable option, as this post hopefully illustrates.
If you do decide to use a virtual assistant company, the key to success is in choosing the right partner, especially if you want the lower costs of offshore VAs. Look for evidence of ethical employment, seek testimonials from satisfied clients, and vet your shortlisted providers carefully.
Why not start by talking to us here at Virtual Done Well. You’ll find a number of short testimonials from our satisfied clients, right here on our homepage. We also provide the answers to a number of frequently asked questions on our website, but if you’d like to know more, just give us a call on +61 2 8045 2311.
Recent Comments