Hiring a virtual assistant for your business

What is a virtual assistant?

Sometimes known as a VA, a virtual assistant helps with certain admin tasks outside of the standard work environment. A VA is an independent contractor who you can take on for a few hours to assist with certain tasks.

What the virtual assistant does will look different for every business. This could mean some phone support, general admin, booking in appointments or following up with invoices.

You know the needs of your trade business, so will know the reasons why you may need to think about hiring a VA.

Some of the tasks a virtual assistant could do for your business:

• Answer phone calls
• Answer emails
• Manage bookings
• Generate quotes
• Issue invoices
• Update your social media or website
• Process payments

Rather than having someone at your location, a virtual assistant is useful for easing your time with admin tasks.

When it comes to running your small business, you may benefit from someone part-time. As a tradesperson, your passion will be with carrying out jobs for customers, so you can gain admin time back with a VA.

Why would you need to hire a virtual assistant?

Hiring a virtual assistant is one of the ways to manage a growing trade business.

It is often used as a short term method for dealing with certain tasks. If you have more work than you are able to handle as a sole trader, one of the options is using subcontractor.

Using a virtual assistant for your small business is an alternative to hiring more staff.

If your trade means that there are seasonal dips, there will be times throughout the year when you may need an extra pair of hands. Hiring a VA can allow you to focus on the practical jobs in hand.

Here are some of the reasons why you may need the help of a VA:

• Your time is being taken up with admin tasks
• Your priority and skill are not in admin
• You don’t have enough work to take on extra staff
• Your trade is affected by changing seasons
• You need someone to help with phone support

What is the process for hiring a virtual assistant?

Hiring a VA is a task almost solely carried out online.

You’ll need to create a specific job description, detailing the required tasks, length of contract and any relevant information. As they will be working for you as a subcontractor, you will need a formal contract in place.

There are special platforms for bringing on freelance assistance such as Upwork or LinkedIn.

Using online recruitment tools specialising in virtual assistants means that from the outset you won’t need to make it clear that the role will be fully remote.

The benefit of using a virtual assistant rather than someone local is that they can be based anywhere in the world. However, you may need to factor language, timezone and regional accent into what you are looking for.

By and large, the process to hire a virtual assistant will follow these steps:

• Outline what tasks they need to cover
• Create a job description
• Post the job online
• Review applications
• Test the skills of top applicants
• Book interviews
• Select a candidate and outline a trial period

Once you have thought about the tasks and the role, choosing someone will vary from business to business. For example, if your peak period is in the summer and you are looking for 3 months’ help, you will need to factor in your time scales.

What is the cost of a virtual assistant for small business?

Hiring a virtual assistant can be factored into your short-term business plans. In order to take someone on board, you need to make sure you can afford them with your cash flow projections.

Depending on where you get your VA, the cost will vary. They will charge by the hour, so it is important that you have a detailed list of how many hours’ work you need covering on a daily or weekly basis.

A virtual assistant in the UK will charge on average between £25 and £35 per hour. This tends to be on the lower side of freelancer rates, but for only a few hours work will prove more cost effective than employing a new member of staff.

There are also implications on cost due to both experience and expertise. Naturally you expect to pay more for a VA with more skills they can lend to your trade business.

For different skill/experience levels, you could expect to pay:

• Between £10 and £20 per hour – data entry / basic VA tasks
• Between £20 and £30 per hour – marketing / customer service VA tasks
• Between £30 and £45 per hour – advanced VA / consulting / accounting tasks

Offshore virtual assistance may be priced more competitively, such as through Fiverr. Some will prove to be very cheap, but you will need to bear in mind that the quality of work may be more varied.

If they are offshore, not all tasks may be possible. There may also be language or time barriers that may need to be overcome.

Key takeaways

• A virtual assistant helps your business with remote tasks
• You may need someone to help with admin such as phone or email support
• They are a subcontractor operating on an hourly rate
• Their role is fully remote and largely online
• Expect to pay on average between £25 and £35 per hour