Recently updated on November 28th, 2022 at 03:19 pm
Virtual assistant services are in high demand nowadays. This is because businesses are more comfortable outsourcing, and workers prefer working remotely from their homes.
Virtual services save business owners a lot of money. As a business owner, you don’t have to rent an office. A virtual assistant offers excellent service to your business without inconveniencing you or costing you the traditional expenses of running and maintaining an office space.
Read on to find out which businesses need virtual assistant services, the services that virtual assistants provide, and the most in demand virtual assistant services. We’ll also answer whether you should start your own virtual assistant business and if you need any skills or special training to get started.
Why Do Businesses Prefer Virtual Assistant Services?
Many businesses demand virtual assistant services nowadays for many reasons. The first reason is that virtual assistants save business owners a lot of money. Let’s see the other reasons that make virtual assistants highly demand in today’s business operations.
#1) Find More Talented People
Virtual talent is not hard to come by if you can pick virtual professionals who live thousands and thousands of miles away. So, one of the perks of hiring virtual assistants is the ability to hire anybody no matter where they are, and you’re no longer restricted to hiring professionals from your area or location. So, instead of choosing from a limited number of professionals, you have many more professionals to choose from.
#2) No Need for Office Space
Virtual assistants work anywhere from the comfort of their own homes or at the nearest cafe. So, you don’t need office space to hire virtual assistants. Think of the expenses and the headache that comes with renting office space. With virtual services, you’ll get your work done without paying more money for unneeded costs.
#3) No Need to Manage Employees
You no longer need to manage employees. You simply ask virtual assistants for virtually any task, and they will handle it. It is as simple as that. As for full-time employees in an office, you’ll need someone to manage attendance, payroll, or any office-related tasks that you don’t need to worry about when you hire virtual assistants.
#4) Reduce Cost
This is the number 1 reason a business owner would look for a virtual assistant to help with business operations. Everyone wants to save money, and there’s no better way to save money than to hire a virtual assistant and pay them per project or for a fixed task. In short, you pay them only whenever you need their services.
Which Businesses Need Virtual Assistants?
Larger corporations that work in construction or manufacturing do not need virtual assistants; if they need virtual assistants, it would be for limited tasks only. Let’s see which businesses and individuals constantly demand virtual assistant services.
Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Small and medium-sized businesses always look for virtual assistants because hiring them is the most cost-effective solution. At least some of them, small businesses, don’t have office space. Medium-sized companies have minimal office space. So, it’s efficient for both to hire virtual assistants for most of their tasks.
Marketing and Sales
Marketing and sales are some industries that frequently need virtual assistants but are not the only ones. For example, they might need someone to manage social media or create ad campaigns for marketing. As for sales, they might need someone to generate leads or negotiate contracts with prospective clients.
Professional Writers, Influencers, Etc.
Believe it or not, many professional writers sometimes hire virtual assistants because they want to focus on writing, and they need to market their work to get the word out, and most writers don’t have time for that. So, they might hire someone to manage their social media pages and be responsible for regularly posting to their social media accounts.
This is true for influencers who focus on their most important tasks and leave the rest for virtual assistants. For example, influencers may hire a virtual personal assistant to help them with meeting schedules, booking travel arrangements, etc.
What Do Virtual Assistants Do?
A virtual assistant provides many services, including scheduling appointments, making phone calls, arranging travel, social media management, data entry, email management, blog writing, project management, bookkeeping, graphic design, and photo and video editing.
Most in Demand Virtual Assistant Services Nowadays
Let’s get to the most in demand virtual assistant services in the market that you should consider when setting up your VA business.
1- Marketing
Digital marketing is at the heart of the online business world. You can’t do business without online marketing. Therefore, it is one of the most in demand virtual assistant services, if not the most in demand service, nowadays.
Lots of services can be categorized as digital marketing. A virtual marketing professional can help with social media marketing and manage social media channels (coming up with a plan, writing the posts for various platforms, regularly posting, etc.). A marketing professional can also help with search engine optimization (SEO). Marketing assistants can help with other digital marketing-related tasks like paid advertising or email marketing. Some marketers will offer blog post writing.
Digital marketing encompasses many areas and tactics dedicated to promoting the business online. Talented marketing professionals can’t do all of the services above. They specialize. Virtual assistants may help you with SEO but won’t help with blog post writing. A writer may help with writing and editing services for social media, email, and blogs, but they won’t create ad campaigns. It depends on their specialization and skills. They could offer only one service or choose to provide a couple of services.
2- Sales
Virtual assistant jobs in sales are popular nowadays. Sales go hand in hand with marketing in its ability to make a business grow and prosper. A sales development assistant is indispensable for a business’s lead-generation efforts and prospecting and outreach programs. Because no one needs in-person sales nowadays, inside sales virtual assistants can help with cold calling prospect preparation, cold calling and client follow-up calls, and pre-qualifying leads.
Businesses can hire virtual sales development assistants. This is one of the areas where a business leverages virtual talent.
There are several relevant sales tools like Salesforce and Google Analytics for analytics and reporting, and lead handling and prospecting tools like Intercom Live Chat, and it doesn’t harm the sales virtual professional to know one or more of the above sales tools or any other sales tools to provide better services.
3- Admin Services
Admin services never go out of style, whether it is done remotely or from the office. Most businesses or individuals (writers, influencers, entrepreneurs, etc.) need someone to take care of administrative tasks.
Whether you need a virtual personal assistant or a virtual executive assistant, administrative virtual professionals can help you with the tasks that general administrative assistants can help you with, like calendar management, email management, or concierge-related tasks like making travel arrangements sending cards, etc.
A traditional assistant will be hired for one business, while a virtual assistant can provide services for different clients. For example, if you want someone to provide minimal admin services and you don’t want to hire student assistants, you can hire a virtual assistant to work for you.
A traditional assistant might help only with paperwork and admin services. You can hire virtual assistants with industry experts so they can support your business better. For example, they could offer virtual receptionist client care, relationship-building screen calls, and project management.
4- Website Development and Website Design
More and more businesses need a website to showcase their products and services online. The traditional way is to hire a web developer and a web designer full-time. The shift in today’s business operations is to save costs and to hire one virtual professional or more to take care of your official website. This way, you can start the website and maintain it with the least possible business costs.
When the word “virtual assistant” is mentioned, what comes to most people’s minds are administrative tasks. Still, virtual services offer solutions that improve business capacities like website development and design. So, many web developers and designers can start their virtual assistant businesses by providing virtual web development and design.
5- Bookkeeping
Oxford defines bookkeeping as “the job or activity of keeping an accurate record of the accounts of a business.” It is an indispensable activity for businesses, but not all business owners can keep track of their business transactions and expenses. It is a lousy task, but it’s super important for businesses to know where they spend their money to make better decisions.
If you provide virtual bookkeeping services, this means that there are many services you can provide:
- Prepare tax returns.
- Monitor performance indicators.
- Reconcile bank statements with financial statements.
- Provide cash flow analysis.
If you’re good with finance and accounting, this is one of the best virtual services you could provide.
How to Become a Virtual Assistant in 9 Easy Steps?
You must be wondering how you can get started in the VA business. It’s not so hard. Let’s see these nine easy steps you can follow.
- Identify market requirements
- Identify your skills
- Taking care of your legal business details
- Do some research and set your prices.
- Learn from other virtual assistants’ experiences
- Check virtual assistant training courses
- Connect and network with other businesses
- Create your website for your virtual assistant business
- Get your first client
Should You Start Your Virtual Assistant Business?
Should you start your VA business? A lot of people are asking. How can we start? Do we need special training or skills? These are all legit questions. First things first, do virtual assistants have a career?
Do You Have a Career as a Virtual Assistant?
Over a decade, we’ve seen a rise in remote services. Many businesses are asking for virtual assistant services. So, do they have a career? According to the data, it’s a yes. An article in Entrepreneur online magazine calls hiring virtual assistants “the new norm.” The pandemic has shown everyone that virtual services keep businesses going.
According to an article published on the Inc website, remote workers outperform offices with fewer remote workers. Research says remote work is better for productivity and business focus as full-time employees can’t focus at their desks. The workplace is becoming noisier every day. So, if workers can get the job done remotely, why not? Great virtual assistant services help influential clients double their businesses’ success and productivity and reduce costs.
Is Starting a VA Business for You?
The flexibility of starting a VA business is tempting. After all, you can be your own boss, but if you’re unsure if providing virtual assistant services is for you, you don’t have to try it full-time. No one says you should quit your job and start right away. You can always start providing virtual services as a side hustle to see how it goes. This way, you can make more money, see how your skills compete in the market, and whether you should start your VA business.
What Are the Services You Should Offer?
Take a look at the list of services mentioned above and see what you’re good at. You don’t have to provide several services. You can stick to just one or pick a couple. Remember, it’s your VA business, and you’re free to pick as many services as you like as long as you’re skilled.
Do Virtual Assistants Need Special Skills or Training?
Some people are under the impression that they have to be college-educated to help a client’s business thrive and survive or that being a virtual assistant demands a long career background in the field.
For typical operational responsibilities of most businesses, basic computer, organizational, and communication skills are required. So, providing admin services or becoming a virtual executive assistant, for example, requires no additional skills or special training.
Some tasks require knowledge, like marketing, and you can take a digital marketing online course. The same applies to project management, business strategy, web development, and web design.
Final Words
Virtual assistant services are the future of work. Virtual services have been around for years, but the pandemic has made it clear that remote work is the way to go. There are many perks to working as a virtual assistant. Businesses benefit from virtual services because they get to pay for the service provided without paying any unnecessary costs.
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