6 Ways Virtual Assistants Improve Your Start-up
Dancho Dimkov, MSc, ExMBA, CMgr, CMC
Consultant, Coach, Fractional CRO, Founder at BizzBee Solutions
Every start-up team should be well prepared for the challenges ahead. They’ll face challenges from the beginning of their venture with or without virtual assistants. Starting a new business itself is full of struggles and stumbling blocks. There is no other way around it. Especially for businesses that started with low capital even though they have prepared their business plan well.
Start-ups with lower capital sources and restricted funding possibilities need to control the cash flow potently so their business can strengthen during the process.
But money is not the only commodity that a start-up has to manage. More than ever today, time is the most valuable commodity. Entrepreneurs have to think strategically about growing the business first over everything else. Managing insignificant tasks when bid and revenue decisions have to be made is unforgiving in the world of business.
Virtual assistance comes to the rescue. Having a virtual assistant provides you with a huge increase in time that a smart entrepreneur can use to grow a business and focus on the core activity. Outsourcing alone is more cost-effective than hiring full-time.
These are just some of the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant for your business:
1. Virtual assistants are a cost-effective alternative
If you want a milder impact on your budget, a virtual assistant is an excellent way to smooth your expenses. Actually, virtual assistants are working as entrepreneurs, because they look at the given job as a business itself. They also manage their budget too. They make sure they’re cost-effective in their work because that’s better for them from a financial standpoint. And it’s better for the one that hires them.
By hiring a virtual assistant or renting one as we would put it, you’ll avoid all the additional expenses. Expenses like rent, the Internet, paycheck and paycheck benefits. We all know that regular full-time employees cost significantly more.
2. Virtual assistants are flexible and multitalented workers
Gone are the days when a personal assistant was, in fact, a secretary that only picks up the phone and prepares the coffee. Today, in this talent pool you can outsource every possible piece of work that you can’t do or shouldn’t do on your own.
You can rent a virtual assistant for just about every skill that you lack in your company. Some of the most in-demand skills out there are scheduling and arranging meetings, arranging business trips, social media marketing, content marketing, web design, SEO, audio transcription etc.
3. Virtual assistants increase productivity
Unnecessary tasks are the worst when you need to focus on what you’re good at, in this case actually growing a start-up business. Just imagine what at least four or more plus hours in a day would do for your decision-making process. Four hours is like half a working day! If you monitor all the stuff that your company does over the course of a week you’ll notice that nearly half of the working day is spent on that secretarial stuff.
On the flipside, you can’t get the same productivity from an employee as from a focused virtual assistant in 4 hours when paid by the milestone. Actually, a vast percentage of virtual assistants out there comes from a company or worked previously in a company. As a result, they are always keen on meeting job deadlines.
4. Work adaptability
You can actually hire a virtual assistant at the exact moment when you need it. These guys are not always in their office. They work from home too where they have their computer and the Internet. And they will dedicate the necessary time that is requested from them to do the job successfully.
This is important principally when outsourcing a virtual assistant from a different time zone. If your start-up is situated somewhere in North America, you can have your business managed even when you sleep or literally 24/7 from someone across the globe.
5. Less or no growth risks
When launching a start-up, growth is the number one task. But scaling can get problematic. As an entrepreneur, you have to be sure that you and your team can handle the work volume without undermining the budget, income, and product/service delivery whatsoever.
By hiring a virtual assistant, your assets are less vulnerable to risks.
6. Less work stress
Time away, vacations, and coffee breaks are the gateway to missed opportunities in business. That is true, but we all need a break from that overworking burnout.
This is a matter of general health and well-being. Because no one can work or run a business overworked and stressed out from unimportant tasks on their computers. Everyone needs a break from all the work pressure, and to recharge the batteries.
By hiring a virtual assistant, you can easily go on an investment seeking tour for your start-up and monitor your business at the same time. Businesses need flexible and prepared workers in situations like these.
Only virtual assistants can provide you with that flexibility and give you the leverage to handle every unpredictable business day. Virtual assistants are the new wingman and the classified ammo of successful startups.
Do you have some work-related tasks that need outsourcing? If you have more complex projects, or you need some specific skill set to do the job for you, the BizzBee team is here to help you! With our Rent-A-Bee service, we can screen our employees and offer you a dedicated in-house employee who can work on your behalf and has the expertise you need. If we don’t have that skill, and you need it for at least 3 months – we will recruit it for you. In this case, you can even be involved in the selection process.
This article was originally published on BizzBee Blog.