Reasons to Use A Virtual Assistant Agency

You’ve decided that you are ready to bring on a virtual assistant. 

You have likely spent a good deal of time over the last few months thinking about how busy you are in direct proportion to how much time you spend doing repetitive, recurring, daily, weekly and monthly tasks. You’ve likely discovered that you are spending valuable hours each day doing:

1. Tasks you don’t like doing, or tasks you do not have a natural talent for.
   
2. Tasks that are below your “pay grade” or experience level.
3. Tasks that are maintenance-focused, as opposed to growth-focused.
4. Tasks that keep you working IN your business instead of working ON your business.

You’ve done the analysis and you’ve also run the numbers.  Virtual assistants are highly skilled in a wide variety of service areas and can provide critical support to essential tasks wherever it is needed.  A virtual assistant is also an affordable answer to adding more capacity to yourself and your team.  From administrative and technical to marketing and even creative work, the right virtual assistant can boost your company’s productivity exponentially and reduce stress and pressure, all with minimal monetary investment.

Simply knowing the daily to-do list is being handled can bring about immense relief and renewed energy.

FINDING THE RIGHT VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

Even though the decision to outsource tasks and responsibilities to a virtual assistant is a logical step, it can nevertheless feel like a monumental and daunting proposition because it requires trusting another person to care for something you have created. 

So… how do you find the right virtual assistant for your business?

Some business professionals and managers have luck finding virtual assistants through their private networks. Others wind up scouring websites and online marketplaces, hoping to find a person whose resume indicates some experience completing the skills needed.  However, it can be time-intensive and tedious to read resumes, set up and conduct interviews, negotiate rates, work out a trial period, etc. 

Finding the right person to alleviate stress can wind up being stressful and time-consuming! 

Thankfully, there is a better way: the virtual assistant agency.

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AGENCY?

By far, the best way to find a virtual assistant is to first engage with a reputable and credible virtual assistant agency. 

A virtual assistant agency provides outsourcing services to clients by finding, vetting, and maintaining a pool of remote, independent professionals ready for any and all work opportunities clients may have. Virtual assistant companies – like Freedom Makers – provide reliable, highly-skilled, and trustworthy virtual assistants to businesses looking for help with ongoing administrative, technical, or creative tasks. Virtual assistant agencies attract clients by maintaining a corral of responsible, vetted virtual assistants who have a wide variety of skill sets and work experience. 

A reputable virtual administrative agency knows the skills and talents of their virtual assistants and has people who are trained and ready to work. With the agency’s assistance, a business can onboard and begin outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant much more quickly than they could if they searched for and tried to hire a virtual assistant on their own. 

BENEFITS OF AN AGENCY

There are several advantages to finding a virtual assistant through an agency.

1. Consulting: Virtual Assistant Agencies Help You Figure Out What You Need

Virtual assistant agencies like Freedom Makers can even help a business owner figure out precisely what a virtual assistant could do if they aren’t sure how best to outsource tasks. An agency can examine the business and help identify areas where a virtual assistant would be most beneficial. 

For example, Freedom Makers provides a free task audit on their website to help small businesses decide which tasks or systems could be outsourced and how a virtual assistant could best assist the company. By working through the prompts the task audit asks, a business owner can come face to face with an impartial assessment of which tasks only they can do and which could be done by a virtual assistant. 

Tasks typically outsourced to a virtual assistant include, but are not limited to:

• Daily office functions like making/receiving phone calls
• Appointment scheduling
• Calendar management
• Making travel arrangements
• Managing email accounts
• Blog writing
• Bookkeeping
• Social media engagement and scheduling
• Graphic design
• Website content management and design services
• Marketing services
• Research
• Project coordination
• Event management
• Customer Relations Management (CRM) / Database support

2. Virtual Assistant Agencies Screen And Vet Their Talent Pool

There are some small upfront costs when using a virtual assistant agency that may initially make it seem like you could hire a virtual assistant less expensively on your own. However, if you consider the costs of advertising, pre-employment screening, training, onboarding, mentoring, and performance monitoring, using an agency is usually the less expensive path to the right virtual assistant.

This is because a virtual assistant agency vets and screens the members of their talent pool before endorsing them to clients. As a result of doing skills assessments, background checks (if necessary), and analyses of experience and expertise, agencies know which virtual assistant would work best with which types of clients. Business owners can rely on the agency to match their needs to the best-qualified candidate. 

Virtual assistants who are part of an agency are typically 1099 workers, which means they file their own taxes as freelance contractors.  The virtual assistant does not “work for” the agency; instead, the agency serves as a broker between the virtual assistant and the client or business that needs support. A virtual assistant attached to an agency expects to provide and maintain their own computer equipment, software subscriptions, WiFi, home office supplies, etc. 

Additionally, agencies like Freedom Makers provide its active virtual assistants with training opportunities and a community of like-minded individuals for camaraderie, asset-sharing, and problem-solving. These offerings can help assure a business owner that the virtual assistant they engage with is up to date with the latest technologies and is self-driven to stay current on skills and skills.

3. Virtual Assistant Agencies Reduce Hiring Risk

What’s more, a virtual assistant agency reduces the risk of hiring a virtual assistant. If the virtual assistant selected is not a fit for some reason, the agency is on standby to monitor and oversee the situation. An agency serves as a helpful middleman between the business and the virtual assistant. 

At Freedom Makers, dedicated Success Managers safeguard the rapport and relationship between the virtual assistant and the client and the client and the virtual assistant agency. They streamline communication and smooth any friction points as the working relationship unfolds. 

If necessary, an agency can easily offer a different virtual assistant who would better suit the business owner to get the work done. This is a huge time and cost savings.

4. Virtual Assistant Agencies Handle Payment

Another advantage of using a virtual assistant agency is that they take care of the virtual assistant’s hourly tracking and payments. An agency ensures transparency and guarantees the virtual assistant is paid on time and the correct compensation for the hours worked. This can be a significant time and headache-saver for a small business. 

TRUST AND CONFIDENCE - THE TRUE VALUE OF A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AGENCY

Agencies know that the actual value of a virtual assistant is, in some ways, impossible to quantify. In addition to the physical, tactical to-do list tasks they complete each day, virtual assistants also provide a wealth of intangible benefits. The right virtual assistant frees business owners and entrepreneurs from the stress and exhaustion of executing daily, tedious tasks.

Virtual assistant agencies take enormous pride in their hand-picked, talented virtual assistants and the successes clients have outsourcing tasks to them. Additionally, virtual assistants that find work through an agency are often happier, more loyal workers who are grateful for the opportunities the agency finds for them.

Having seen firsthand how matching the right virtual assistant with the right job can be a game-changer for a small business or entrepreneur, virtual assistant agencies like Freedom Makers are passionate about their business model. They desire to help as many clients and virtual assistants as possible get started on the path to success!