5 ways a virtual assistant can help you work more productively

If you have recently started running your own business, you could be excused for revising your previous definition of the word “busy”. Running various facets of that company can be punishing on a time-strapped schedule – and leave you wondering whether you should seek a little help.

You could do exactly that by hiring a virtual assistant – or VA for short. A VA will be physically based at a distance from your firm but can carry out many responsibilities for it to boost your productivity.

VAs are cost-effective to use

Given that your business may still be little-established, you might fret that the financial resources simply aren’t there for you to hire a new employee on a full-time basis.

However, you don’t strictly need to do so if you are interested in recruiting a VA. You can look at what your company’s financial structure does allow – and then select a VA capable of working within them. Our Planet Numbers team includes call operators who can work for you on monthly contracts.

VAs would let you delegate responsibilities

Accustomed though you might be to doing everything yourself, your determination to continue with this strategy could start slipping when, says Inc., you see 100-hour workweeks becoming the norm.

You could hand some of your corporate responsibilities down to a VA – and in a financially flexible way, as we have already explained. In learning how to delegate, you can hone a practice to which you could later more regularly turn as your business continues its growth trajectory.

VAs can help you plug skills gaps

Here’s a good reason to have strong confidence in a VA’s ability to handle responsibilities that you delegate to them: that VA could already have considerable skill in taking care of this kind of work.

Nonetheless, don’t readily assume that you won’t struggle to find someone who could handle several different people’s obligations. This would be unlikely; therefore, during your search for a VA, vet their credentials for tackling a particular, specialist area of responsibility instead.

You can better safeguard connections with customers

In our constantly online world, potential customers might try to contact you at times when you aren’t always at hand. However, at such times, a Virtual Assistant can provide useful assistance to such people.

For example, when someone posts on your firm’s social media page, a VA can reply sooner than you might personally be able to. Similarly, when you are occupied during the hours of 8:30 am to 6 pm on any weekday, one of our friendly UK operators can come to the rescue.

VAs can follow your exact instructions

As advised by professionals asked by AllBusiness.com, you should clearly tell a VA what you would like them to do. Our call operators can act on your precise instructions – and, to that end, take a message to deliver by email or text or transfer a call to another line. By phoning our customer helpline on 0800 0886 886, you can learn further about our call answering service.