Wikipedia: “Virtual assistance is the professional service of remote administrative support by an independent contractor called a virtual assistant who works with clients in an ongoing, collaborative professional relationship.”
VAnetworking.com: “A Virtual Assistant (substitute VA or Virtual Associate) works independently at an arm’s length, via the Internet, utilizing the latest technologies, to provide immediate professional support, services and skills to busy entrepreneurs and business managers.
Partnering with a VA reduces stress, protects cash flow, eliminates administrative hassles, and enables business people to find the success they originally set out to achieve.”
You may have heard of virtual assistance using another term, “outsourcing”. Outsourcing is generally considered to be the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of business functions by an external service provider. The client organization enters a contractual agreement with the supplier (the VA) that defines the transferred services. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting.
Outsourcing is utilizing experts from outside your organization to perform specific tasks that you or your staff once performed.
The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering firm costs or to make more efficient use of labor, capital, technology and resources.
10 Ways A VA Can Enhance Your Life
The ways in which a VA can help you and your business are as unique and diverse as the individual VAs are themselves. However, there are standard benefits realized when partnering with a Virtual Assistant:
- Having a trained professional handle the work that doesn’t need your direct attention frees up your time to:* grow your business
* do just the work that you love
* spend more time with family and friends
* take advantage of professional opportunities - You don’t need to provide a physical workspace or costly equipment.
- There are no administrative details associated with an employee since a VA is a contracted member of your team. No dealing with payroll, payroll taxes, insurance or retirement benefits.
- A VA can assist you with marketing support, increasing your clientele and freeing up valuable time to service your customers.
- A VA can be instrumental in proofing, editing, and typing all of your correspondence; providing a more professional appearance to all your business communications.
- Because VAs work on an “as needed basis” and only when you have work, hiring a VA can save you money. You only pay for the work done. What a cost savings that can be.
- A Virtual Assistant can schedule your appointments, manage your calendar, organize your desk, and make running a business that much smoother.
- A VA is also more readily available during after-hours or weekends for last minute projects or tasks.
- Once you work with a VA, they know your business inside and out; all the better to help you grow your business.
- Opportunity to interact with another successful business owner!