What Industries Hire Virtual Assistants?

The market for virtual assistants is growing rapidly.  Thanks to massive changes to traditionally-held ideas of what constitutes a workplace, and the technological advancements that make virtual work practically seamless, nearly every industry can utilize the skillsets virtual assistants offer.

WHY INDUSTRIES HIRE VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

Virtual assistants help individuals, small and large companies, and entrepreneurs be more productive and grow their businesses by taking care of critical core tasks.  Professionals have hired virtual assistants for decades to help with daily, office-functions.  Virtual assistants take care of to-do list items like making/receiving phone calls, appointment scheduling, and calendar management, managing email accounts and social media engagements, bookkeeping, research, and customer relations management.  Many industries have learned that virtual assistants are less expensive than hiring an employee.  Virtual assistants have become a known value, as well as an indispensable asset.

Additionally, more and more individuals - across all industries and specialties - are now looking to become virtual assistants.  Talented, educated, and experienced professionals are taking a step away from their traditional work environments, enticed by the flexibility and freedom working from home offers.  The result?  The range of skills available in the virtual assistant talent pool is deeper and wider than ever! 

Some of the industries that have traditionally hired virtual assistants are:

Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Most solopreneurs and business owners wind up feeling overwhelmed by the number of daily tasks on their to-do list because they wear multiple hats taking care of all their business’s needs.  Burnout due to prolonged stress and mental exhaustion can take over just as a new venture is taking off.   Details and minutia zap entrepreneurs of their innovative energy.  Enter the versatile virtual assistant.  At just a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee or assistant, the hourly wage charged by a virtual assistant is much more manageable during the lean days of a start-up, when cash flows fluctuate. 

Many entrepreneurs look for virtual assistants to help them with things like customer service, website updates, travel arrangements, email follow-up, calendar management, podcast maintenance, event planning, blog writing, and growing their social media presence through post creation.  By outsourcing day-to-day administrative tasks, small business owners can concentrate on the dynamic elements that help propel a new business to success.

Freedom Maker’s task audit has helped many small business owners and entrepreneurs decide which tasks can and should be outsourced to a virtual assistant.  Freedom Makers then helps match the business with a virtual assistant.

Attorneys and Law Practitioners 

Many lawyers work long days and scramble through hectic schedules of client meetings, court appearances, deep legal records research, and all the paperwork that comes from handling deeds, contracts, wills, and appeals.  If a lawyer runs a solo practice, he or she especially needs help!  More and more lawyers are seeking the support of virtual assistants to lighten their load and take over time-consuming tasks like transcription and client communication. 

Some lawyers that come to Freedom Makers for help are looking for virtual assistants to create content for their LinkedIn account, to help keep their website up to date, to edit billing entries, and to help with invoicing.  Whether the virtual assistant is one with extensive prior legal training, is focused on research, or is an expert on calendar management, lawyers find that hiring a virtual assistant is more cost-effective than hiring an in-house employee.  Virtual assistants make the hectic day-to-day life of a lawyer more manageable.

Real Estate Agents

The real estate world is a competitive one!  Successful real estate agents and agencies have multiple property listings in different stages of lease or sale and need to optimize their time by generating new clients and sales.  Because there is so much work that goes into buying and selling properties, virtual assistants can be the critical key to keeping a realtor organized and performing. 

Real estate virtual assistants, or REVAs, can help with data entry, graphic design and social media, website updates, the creation of real estate packets for both buyers and sellers, mailings, and market analytics.

Accounting and Financial Firms

Accountants are responsible for managing and interpreting financial records for clients.  Many accountants look for ways to save money for their clients and many have discovered that virtual assistants are a great way to save money themselves!  By enlisting the services of a virtual assistant, accountants and financial managers reduce their workload and save themselves time.  Most virtual assistants hired to help accountants will have some sort of background in the finance sector and are comfortable with data entry, handling accounts receivable, submitting payroll to 3rd party software, maintaining databases, and running reports.  A virtual assistant working with an accountant also typically helps with general administrative tasks as well.

Business Coaches and Consultants

A business coach supports and motivates business owners and managers as they build their brand or grow their team.  Both coaches and consultants are hired to provide insights to business leaders, help them streamline their processes, enhance their profitability, and implement their strategies.  Because personal service is of the utmost importance in this industry, many coaches and consultants use virtual assistants so they can save their energy and focus solely on their clients. 

In this industry, virtual assistants often schedule client meetings and follow-ups, manage marketing and social media, keep track of expenses, onboard new clients and write responses to inquiries.  Some business coaches and consultants enlist the help of virtual assistants to write or manage blogs to promote their businesses or produce podcast content to grow their client base.

Veteran Owned Businesses

According to a U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 report, there are over 2.5 million veteran-owned businesses in the United States - 99.9% of which are classified as small businesses. Veteran business owners have unparalleled leadership experience, a foundational understanding of teamwork, and are seeped in a culture of discipline and sacrifice.  It is no surprise therefore that so many veteran-owned businesses are successful proprietorships with positive outcomes.

Veteran business owners intrinsically know how to delegate tasks to achieve goals.  Additionally, they are often at ease with complex technologies thanks to their experience in the military.  Their leadership aptitude and teamwork skills make them ideal clients for virtual assistants; outsourcing tasks becomes a seamless endeavor for them. Many veteran business owners come to Freedom Makers because they share the mission to support military families. Since Freedom Makers’ mission is to find flexible, meaningful work for military spouses around the globe, veteran business owners want to support and enhance that mission.

In Conclusion

Thanks to an uptick in professionals transitioning to the virtual assistant career field, there are new industries happily hiring virtual assistants.  Tightly-budgeted charities and nonprofits, educators, writers, photographers, speakers, and authors - even entertainers and influencers are now outsourcing work to virtual assistants.  In return for just a small investment in their business, professionals across all industries are reaping huge rewards.  Today, virtual assistants are helping people in all industries be more productive, have more innovative energy, and regain their most valuable asset of all -- time!