Why You Should be Outsourcing Video Editing

Why You Should be Outsourcing Video Editing

In recent times, video content has taken over the Internet by storm. It is no secret that users go to YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram for inspiration, tutorials, and other relevant videos. Also, videos help social media users and businesses to engage with followers and nurture valuable relationships with meaningful video content. 

A well-made video can take considerable effort and time. Moreover, it is a skill-specific task. There are innumerable aspects related to video editing including content, sorting, sound, trimming, stitching sequences together, and more.

Outsourcing video editing work enables businesses to focus on mainstream operations and other essential work. Virtual assistants who are experts in video editing can help to save your time, energy, and management costs. They can create accurate, valuable, and informational videos and edit videos based on requirements. 

Virtual assistants have the expertise and tools to edit videos and boost online marketing strategies for optimal impact on your business. 

Best Reasons to Outsource Video Editing 

  1. Video Enhancement –

    Videos nowadays need to be edgy to catch the attention of the audience. Viewers do not really have the patience to go through long videos. Businesses have to focus on creating videos that are short, interesting, informational, and visually pleasing. Visuals are the most important aspect of successful videos and the right enhancements help to highlight and improve video content. This ensures that the videos are accessible and acceptable to the audience. The message of the video should be in alignment with the theme, values, and mood of the business. Video editing by virtual assistants can scale production value, create and edit professional and polished content with all the updated elements to attract and engage viewers successfully.

    2. Affordable Production –

    Outsourcing video editing works helps to significantly cut down costs for the long term. Producing videos needs a considerable sum of money. Since video editing takes a lot of time, outsourcing not only helps to save time but money as it precludes the consistent shooting and editing of videos in-house. In essence, it cuts down on recruitment and operational costs and also gives you the liberty to hire a team of professionals to create trendy videos for your business throughout the year. It is easy to hire virtual assistants with video editing specialization at cost-effective plans. 

    3. Scaling Flexibility –

    Outsourcing video editing work gives businesses the benefit to scale up and down their requirements to edit videos. Businesses can choose to publish videos daily, weekly, monthly, and more. It is beneficial for video marketers who create excellent content regularly. Video editing services allow businesses to release as many videos as the brand requires without going through the trouble or time to edit videos. This creates enough room to take care of other operational and administrative work.

    4. Excellent Resources –

    It is vital to focus on the little details like timing, cuts, colors, and other important elements of the video than the end results. Video editing services help businesses with a brand new perspective and unbiased opinion about business videos. Simply outsourcing the video editing work is not enough. Business owners have to emphasize the business tone, style, color palette, content idea, or choose to give liberty of creation to the video editors. Professionals bring their own tools and spend time on creating valuable videos and edit them based on the business’s requirements. It saves your time, money, and energy while enabling you to work on other important business areas simultaneously.

    5. Multi-Level Editing –

    There are several skills required to edit videos and engage the audience at the same time. This needs expert assistance because professionals offer motion graphics services, integrated valuable software, and create polished industry-standard workflows, update add-ons, integrate top-of-the-line plugins, and apply necessary hardware if required. It helps to create relevant, professional, technological, and valuable videos to convert audiences into leads successfully.

    6. No Up-Front Investment & Commitment –

    In-house video editing is expensive as it requires equipment, software, and training. Outsourcing helps businesses to avoid long-term commitments and upfront costs on hardware and software. Also, it helps to scale up and down the frequency of videos required along with the specifications for the video content and quality. This saves the business time and money. 

Conclusion 

Video editing is a crucial part of business development and digital marketing strategy. Virtual assistants with video editing expertise offer versatile services. They can create influential video content, edit, track, and measure audience impact. Businesses can capitalize on these services to achieve an excellent outreach and make a significant impact on their target audiences. Experts have the necessary tools, software, and expertise to create valuable video content in alignment with the business goals and values. 

Need help?

Need a video editor? Virtual Assistant Assistant is happy to help aid you in selecting the perfect Virtual Assistant for whichever task you need! Take a look at our highest rated companies or schedule a FREE Consultation Call to speak about your options!

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Appointy

Appointy is an online scheduling tool that provides a 24/7 online assistant to simplify appointment scheduling for you and your clients.

This software is used by more than 200,000 customers around the world and provides a range of features to make managing your calendar more efficient and accurate.

About Appointy

The company started operations more than 10 years ago. Appointy is headquartered in Singapore, and also has an office in California.

Appointy was developed as a solution to help business owners and small to medium-sized businesses save time, money, and better manage their calendars.

If you use a calendar yourself, or even on behalf of your clients, you can benefit from using Appointy.

This software enables any number of users to schedule items, make appointments, update a calendar in real-time, synchronize your calendar with your social media accounts, and more.

It’s perfect for businesses that want to offer clients the convenience of booking time slots. Or large companies with multiple users that need to work from a centralized calendar.

Appointy told me they target small and medium-sized businesses in the US, Canada, and the UK. They do have a global customer base though, so regardless of where you’re based, you can make full use of Appointy.

In fact, their software currently supports 36 different languages, and they offer global support.

How Appointy Works

To get started with Appointy, you need to sign up for an account and download the app/software.

You’ll then have access to an intuitive interface showing you your calendar. You can start to input appointments, assign permissions to others, and generate links to allow clients to make bookings.

It’s incredibly simple to use, and you have full control over user permissions as the master user.

Appointy Services

Some of the features Appointy provides are:

  • Automated email/text reminders
  • Multi-channel bookings from various platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Reserve with Google
  • Marketing features like gift certificates, client reviews, etc.
  • Online payments
  • Staff and client management
  • Resource Scheduling
  • Reporting and Analytics

Appointy Plans and Pricing

You can get started and try out Appointy free for 14 days. No credit card is required, no commitment, and at the end of the trial you can either upgrade to a paid plan or carry on with their free plan.

Appointy currently has a free plan and three paid plans as follows:

  1. Free – The free plan is limited to 100 appointments per month and has some other restrictions.
  2. Growth – $19.99 per month – This plan includes all the Free features plus unlimited services and some other perks.
  3. Professional – $49.99 per month- This plan includes all the Growth features plus a dedicated relationship manager and some other perks.
  4. Enterprise – $79.99 per month – This plan includes all the Professional features plus some custom development options and other perks.

There are no contracts or cancellation fees. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time.

Appointy Alternatives

Some of the alternatives to Appointy are Calendly, SavvyCal, and SimplyBook.me. Each tool offers its own unique features, so it’s worth taking a closer look at each tool.

Appointy says their software stands out from their competitors because they enable multiple users to log in from multiple locations. Appointy also integrates seamlessly with all the major social media platforms.

If these features are important to you, we recommend checking out Appointy. All these tools offer a free trial, however, so you can test them out before committing to a plan.

Your Turn

Have you used Appointy to schedule your’s or your client’s appointments? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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5 Industries That Work with Virtual Assistants

5 Industries That Work with Virtual Assistants

One of the best ways to improve your bottom line, regardless of your industry, is using the services of a virtual assistant. These professionals can help any company with sales tasks, word processing, customer service, and so much more. They can assist in scheduling social media activities or help manage your schedule and important meetings. The details of a virtual assistant’s job description really depend on the tasks you delegate, which give you more time to focus on core strategic tasks that grow your business. But thanks to advanced technology (video conference software, cloud solutions, etc.), five industries benefit the most from hiring a virtual assistant for online help. 

1. Law Firms – Administrative Tasks

All the paperwork that goes into running a law firm would needlessly drain the top workers’ energy if they’d try to tackle it themselves. But hiring an in-house person to handle the paperwork would not the most affordable option. Enter a virtual assistant: a cost-effective, remote employee who can take care of communicating with clients, data entry, email management, legal transcriptions, and much more. The quality of their work is top tier, which enables legal practitioners to free up their time for higher-value pursuits like working on cases. With the paperwork handled, lawyers and barristers can also be more productive in promoting their law firms.

2. Digital Marketing – Social Media Management

A big chunk of marketing efforts need to focus on the world of social media. That’s where most target audiences are spending time online. But advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram require lots of small tasks like article editing, selecting photos, market analysis, etc. It would take too much time for business owners to complete all these chores by themselves. A virtual assistant company that specializes in social media management can hire one of their specialists to look over a business’s Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, etc., accounts. These experts would ensure campaigns follow the latest trends on a chosen platform to generate as much attention, quality leads, and conversions, as possible.

3. Information Technology (IT) Industry – Enable Vast Expansion

If there’s one industry that hasn’t stopped because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s IT. Companies providing computer services for business operations have been working around the clock to make everyone stay connected via secure and fully functional systems. The service providers have been so successful in their tasks that the IT sector only keeps growing. But they couldn’t do it with the help of virtual assistants, needed to provide customer and administrative support, create slides, graphics, etc., and even contribute to website development. These jobs are not vast, but they require skilful professionals to get completed. Tne IT businesses have discovered early on that instead of keeping additional staff for these tasks – it’s more cost-effective to delegate them to third-party contractors (virtual assistants).

4. Real Estate – Increase Focus on Customers

Most successful real estate professionals know the importance of delegating tasks. Their primary focus is on providing quality service to their clients and ensuring everything corresponds to the buyers’ and sellers’ needs. And all the other tasks that involve running a real estate agency get covered by virtual assistants. These chores include social media management, writing emails, posting ads, setting up appointments, filtering leads, and much more. Virtual assistants can even stage open houses and do the cold calls. The he best part? That with a few organized and skillful virtual assistants, there’s no need to put together a team of expensive realtors.

5. Business Startups – Administrative Tasks

Young startups can not afford a large number of employees. At the same time, they have orders coming in and (hopefully) a growing customer base to please. A virtual assistant can step in and help startup managers with content creation, writing emails, executing marketing campaigns, and even bookkeeping.

Good virtual assistant examples for innovative internet-based businesses are sometimes also powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The online gaming industry, for example, needs to be able to communicate with its clients 24/7. Virtual assistants in the form of chatbots can provide the much-needed ever-available player support.

Conclusion

Virtual assistant, by definition, handles tasks while working outside the company’s office. It’s a perfect cost-effective solution for law firms, young startups, real estate, digital marketing agencies, and IT companies. Most businesses in those sectors that have embraced virtual assistance have seen exponential growth in their sales efforts while keeping the expenses low. So now it’s your turn to outsource your everyday tasks and focus on the big-picture strategies that make your business grow. It’s all in your hands.

Your Turn

VAA is happy to help aid you in selecting the perfect Virtual Assistant for whichever task you need! Take a look at our highest rated companies or schedule a FREE Consultation Call to speak about your options!

Have you used virtual assistant opportunities in your organization? Share your experiences in the comments.

 

 

 

 

 

Author: Jeremy Ambrose is a virtual assistant who specializes in social media marketing and business startups. He believes most professionals, especially business owners, can benefit immensely from rethinking their time-management strategies. He also enjoys writing articles about Facebook ads, virtual assistant work, the best social media marketing strategies, and effective communication. Currently, he also works at AssignyourwriterUK as a content writer.

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Creative Entrepreneurs Need Help Too

Creative Entrepreneurs Need Help Too

As an entrepreneur, running a business is challenging. It requires a lot of hard work, patience, perseverance, and creativity to be successful. If you are an entrepreneur, you are the focal person in your business. You create the business, shoulder most of the risk, and receive the largest portion of the financial outcome. Naturally, people expect you to know it all. Based on this expectation, you end up doing most of the tasks in a business. You stretch yourself beyond your capacity, thereby, limiting your performance.

To succeed and have a flourishing business, you must learn to delegate and outsource tasks, especially mundane activities. No matter how creative you are, you need help just like every other person.

Importance of Help in a Business

Whether you are an entrepreneur or an online business owner, you need help with certain aspects of your business. Highlighted below are reasons why an entrepreneur needs to outsource and delegate certain activities in their business.

  • Delegating and outsourcing certain aspects of your business to others helps your business grow. You can have people responsible for different activities as opposed to you doing it all by yourself. Therefore, you may likely have an accountant who handles finances, a marketing expert who manages ads and promotions, and a developer who runs your website. On the other hand, you will have the time and capacity to grow your business by coming up with new ideas as other employees concentrate on their respective tasks. Ultimately, your business can function efficiently by giving clients better services, creating better products, and capturing new customers.
  • Getting a helping hand helps you as an entrepreneur to manage your business. It frees up your time and gives you the opportunity to concentrate on things you are an expert in and activities that matter the most. For example, you don’t have to manage your business’s social media accounts. You can get a social media expert or a virtual assistant to handle that part of your work. Additionally, delegating and outsourcing helps you to relax and prevents you from burning out.
  • Knowing when to outsource tasks to freelancers and other service providers can help bring new and exciting skillsets into your business. The best part is that you can work with experts in specific fields without actually increasing your wage permanently. Therefore, you only pay for work done or hours worked. Plus, you can easily switch out an underperforming freelancer for someone more competent.
  • As an entrepreneur, if you do not delegate tasks to your team members, you limit their growth. You prevent them from showing their potential, which can frustrate them out of the job. However, when you delegate work to the people around you, you allow them to showcase their talent and horn their skills. Consequently, this will increase their confidence, loyalty, and their overall performance within your setup.

Tasks an Entrepreneur May Need Help With

Knowing you need help is usually not enough. It is equally crucial to know which aspects of your business require delegation or outsourcing. Nonetheless, before looking for help, you should know what is best done by you and what is best done by others. Below are some of the aspects of your business you should outsource or delegate.

Website Design and Management

Outsourcing the design and management of your business is the best option. You get the best front-end and back-end management of your web pages when handled by a third party. Being the outlook of your business, a badly designed website can drive clients away. However, if your main niche is tech, then having an in-house website manager might be best for you.

Shipment Handling

If you own a business that sends or receives products regularly, you may need to delegate this to an employee. This worker will usually be responsible for tracking, labeling, packing, mailing, receiving, and logging packages. You, on the other hand, can concentrate on more important entrepreneurial activities.

Social Media Management

Just like website management and design, working with third-party social media management gets you the best outcome. A social media specialist is your best bet for getting the best out of the popular platforms and driving clients to your doorstep. However, if you are a small and personal business, you may want to run your social media platforms. Nonetheless, your particular situation should determine if you are going to outsource social media management or not.

Customer Service

Customer service handling is an essential aspect of a business. As an entrepreneur with a small-scale business, you can easily handle customer-related issues. As your business grows, you will need a customer specialist to run this work. You can get a third-party customer care service provider or freelancer to handle clients at a much lower cost than hiring a permanent employee.

Bookkeeping and Accounting

You should have a decent understanding of the financial status of your business. However, you do not have to be responsible for maintaining financial records. In most cases, you may be better off delegating this task to others, especially if you are not a financial expert. Likewise, you can get an accountant to handle your taxes because it would be smarter to hire an expert to run this aspect of your business.

Travel and Meeting Arrangements

Arranging meetings and traveling itineraries are simple yet repetitive tasks. You can manage your scheduling if you do not travel or meet people frequently. But if you travel and attend meetings regularly, you may need to find someone to handle these activities. Delegating your traveling arrangements to a local travel agent will work best for you. Likewise, a virtual assistant can easily coordinate your schedules by fixing dates and times for meetings and travel. Various companies can help you get a virtual assistant for these types of tasks. 

Technical Support

Although you might be a tech expert, you should not waste time resolving monotonous problems like computer issues, a printer reset, and internet issues. You should have a tech specialist or a tech unit responsible for IT and technology-related support within the business setup. If you run a small business, you may want part-time staff that handles such issues on demand.

Conclusion

Being a creative entrepreneur does not mean you have to handle every aspect of your business personally. However, you can best manage your business through delegation and outsourcing specific processes. Usually, some aspects of your work are best done by other workers, virtual assistants, or freelancers.

Author:

Nicole Garrison is a content creator with years of writing experience under her belt. In addition, she has published several books. Now, Nicole contributes her skills at TrustMyPaper. She is a dedicated and experienced author who pays particular attention to quality research. Nicole consistently attends different courses, seminars, and conferences that keep her knowledge up to date.

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How to Outsource your Podcast Production

How to Outsource your Podcast Production

Have a podcast? See how your Virtual Assistant can save you time and money by reading the pros and cons below

Podcasts are one of the easiest forms of media to consume today, but they’re not easy to create by any means. Many people wrongly assume that to start a podcast, all you need is a microphone and something to say. While those are the basic requirements of a podcast, it takes a tremendous amount of effort to produce a polished, high-quality podcast episode. As a result, many podcasters are considering outsourcing options. Here are some pros and cons of outsourcing your podcast. 

Pro 1: Professional Software And Equipment 

Instead of having to invest a lot of money in your own equipment, people looking to start a podcast can capitalize on the software and equipment of others by outsourcing. Those in the podcast outsourcing industry know which software and equipment would work best for you and your podcast. Therefore, not only do you save some money in equipment by outsourcing your podcast, you also benefit from their expertise and knowledge. 

Pro 2: More Time-Efficient  

Let’s face it, recording a podcast can take an extremely long time especially if it’s something you have never done before. There is a lot to figure out in order to make your podcast work. Like any skill, it takes time and knowledge to become efficient at it. By outsourcing your podcast, you can skip the lengthy learning stage of creating a podcast and jump straight into producing using their expertise. All the time outsourcing frees up can go towards the aspects of your business you naturally excel at or enjoy doing. This allows you to invest your time on more important tasks. If this is the case, your business will greatly benefit from outsourcing your podcast

Pro 3: High Quality Audio  

Outsourcing your podcast to professionals ensures your podcast remains consistently high-quality and professional. Amazing audio quality is one of the things that separates an amateur podcast from a professional one. A team of professionals can ensure you sound like a professional from the very first episode. This allows you to make an amazing first impression on your listeners. With more and more podcasts coming out each day, hiring professionals to produce a high-quality sounding podcast from the get-go can help you stand out from the rest.  

Pro 4: Consistent Episodes 

If producing one episode is consuming hours of your time, it may be impossible to post episodes consistently. If you’re unable to produce content consistently, your podcast will struggle to grow. Outsourcing your podcast will guarantee that your episodes regularly publish on time. “Since many listeners appreciate consistent uploads, outsourcing your podcast can help your podcast grow,” advises Kaye Jones, a tech blogger at Draftbeyond and Writinity. “Releasing new episodes for listeners to look forward consistently is a sure way to steadily grow your listeners.” 

Con 1: Might Fall Below Expectations 

While most professional podcast teams care about the quality of their work, some might produce work that falls well below your standards. According to Nick Garrett, a writer at Researchpapersuk, “When you outsource your podcast, you’re trusting someone else with a project that matters to you and your business. This leaves room for disappointment.” Fortunately, if your podcast team of professionals falls below your expectations, you have plenty of other options. 

Con 2: Not In Your Budget 

If you’re a small business just starting out, you may not have the budget to outsource as much as you would like a professional sounding podcast. If this is the case, you might not have a choice but to invest your time in learning how to produce your own podcast instead of your money. 

Conclusion

Outsourcing a podcast is a great option for businesses that want to save money on buying pricey podcast equipment and software themselves. It saves businesses from doing the time-consuming work of learning how to produce a podcast themselves. Moreover, outsourcing your podcast results in a higher quality audio than will leave a good first impression on listeners. It also allows you to release episodes on a consistent schedule which many listeners will appreciate. While there are certain drawbacks to outsourcing your podcast, the benefits greatly outweigh them. 

 

Author:

Jenny Williams is a business analyst and writer at Term Paper Writing Service and Law Assignments who writes about creative solutions to business problems. You can also find more of her writing at Gumessays.com

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BELAY (formerly eaHELP)

BELAY is a virtual staffing solutions company that employs exclusively US-based assistants and specialists.

The company got its start in 2010 helping churches and pastors outsource their administrative work, and has since expanded to serve businesses (small & large) nationwide.

Contact BELAY now!

Note: This BELAY Solutions review is geared toward those looking to hire an assistant. Click here to learn more about how to become a virtual assistant.

VAA Tested eaHELPAbout BELAY Solutions

Most leaders struggle to staff with the right people as they grow. They need a team, but let’s face it – hiring is complicated. 

Not anymore. 

Because whether you need a highly vetted U.S.-based Virtual Assistant, Bookkeeper, Social Media Manager, or Web Specialist, BELAY has the right person ready to help – without the added stress of having to do everything on your own. 

BELAY’s proprietary matching process pairs you with contractors who are accepted by standards more rigorous than Harvard’s, only accepting just over three percent of those who apply.

Bottom line: You shouldn’t have to do everything. And with BELAY, you don’t have to.

Let someone else handle what they’re good at, so you can focus your time on what you’re good at — and what only you can do: grow your business.

And unlike other virtual assistant companies that assign your tasks to whomever is available, BELAY provides you a dedicated assistant so you can establish the kind of trusted partnership you deserve to help you and your business succeed.

Accomplish more and juggle less with modern staffing solutions from BELAY.

BELAY was founded to serve clients with high-touch, excellent service, and steward them with passion, integrity, responsiveness and give them the best service in the market. 

The strategy has since paid off, with BELAY winning major culture and business awards from prominent national magazines and outlets despite the fact that it’s been 100-percent remote for more than 11 years. And the secret to this success is that BELAY instills its mission and values of gratitude, teamwork, vision, passion, fun, and God into every one of its 1,100-plus remote workforce team members.

In fact, the company has earned glowing endorsements from author Michael Hyatt and other Fortune 500 companies.

(You can grab Michael Hyatt’s book The Virtual Assistant Solution on Amazon.)

the virtual assistant solution

Who is the Ideal BELAY Client?

The ideal BELAY client needs help with administrative, bookkeeping, social media or website tasks.

Because without dedicated help, many leaders … 

  • Feel like they can’t take a vacation.
  • Find themselves being busy instead of productive.
  • Lose hours of their day to email.
  • Feel like their days are out of control.

BELAY’s contractors are …

  • U.S.-Based
  • BELAY searches the entire country to find the right person for your organization.
  • Highly Vetted
  • BELAY’s exhaustive recruiting process includes – but isn’t limited to – several video interviews and skills assessments to find skilled, servant-hearted candidates.
  • Professionals
  • BELAY specialize in finding and matching organizations with the right experience to best serve you.

When busy leaders partner with BELAY, they get:

  • A dedicated, U.S.-based team member without the cost of an in-house employee.
  • A dedicated account manager known as a 
Client Success Consultant

Time to focus on what only they can do: grow their organization

Maybe rethinking your approach to hiring is just a ‘maybe someday’ thought. Or maybe you’re more than ready to explore other ways to hire for your organization.

Either way, if you need just a little convincing that you can do it, allow us to cut to the chase: You can do it. And BELAY can help.

So here, BELAY presents nine secrets to making hiring easier today so you can reap the benefits tomorrow – and every day thereafter.

Contact BELAY now!

BELAY – How it Works

Step 1. Sales Call

Meet with your Solutions Consultant to identify your exact needs and pain points to determine if we are fit. If so, BELAY will send you an agreement to sign and you’ll be assigned a Client Success Consultant.

Step 2. Discovery Call

Meet with your Client Success Consultant to deep dive into your tasks, tools, culture and personality requirements to ensure that BELAY matches you with the right talent.

Step 3. Placement Process

Now, for their Secret Sauce. Your Client Success Consultant will meet with the Placement Team to discuss, vet and select 2-3 top candidates from their bench of nearly 1,500 U.S.-based talent. Then, your Client Success Consultant will interview and select the best candidate for you based on our discovery call.

Step 4. Kickoff Call

You, your Client Success Consultant and your talent will have a kickoff call – the official start to your partnership – to meet your talent, set initial goals, discuss communication plans, and set yourselves up for success.

Step 5. Onboarding

Your Client Success Consultant stays close in the first few weeks to provide high-touch relational service to guide you through their proven onboarding process.

Step 6. Nurturing

You will have ongoing check-ins to support both you and your talent throughout your partnership with BELAY.

BELAY Services

BELAY offers four services:

  1. Virtual Assistants
  2. Bookkeepers
  3. Social Media Managers
  4. Website Specialists

1. Virtual Assistants

BELAY’s Virtual Assistant services provide dedicated professionals who bring their experience and expertise to your organization. They’re your personal superheroes. No phone booth required.

BELAY Bookkeepers can … 

  • Research & Reporting
  • Inbox & Schedule Management
  • Book Travel & Expense Reporting
  • Project Coordination
  • Social Media Assistance
  • Light Bookkeeping

… and more!

2. Bookkeeping

Some people love spreadsheets. Chances are that’s not you. And that’s OK. BELAY’s Bookkeepers give you clear, simple, and updated financial information, so you make better decisions.

BELAY Bookkeepers can … 

  • Produce Reports & Balance Sheets
  • Reconcile Bank Accounts
  • Manage Weekly Bill Pay
  • Reconcile Credit Cards
  • Process Payroll
  • Process Invoicing

… and more!

3. Social Media Managers

A BELAY Social Media Manager can help manage all of your unique social media needs and build a strong online presence to get you back to what you love most.

BELAY Social Media managers can … 

  • Create Content Calendars
  • Schedule Posts
  • Develop Strategy
  • Drive Engagement
  • Create Brand Conversations
  • Provide Reporting

… and more!

4. Website Specialists

A great website is crucial for growth in today’s world, but handling it can be overwhelming. BELAY’s professional techies take care of the details so you don’t have to.

BELAY Website Specialists can … 

  • Provide Content Updates
  • Maintain Sites
  • Execute Site Builds
  • Update Plugins
  • Schedule Regular Backups
  • Optimize Sites

… and more!

Contact BELAY now!

BELAY Review

With dedicated support and All-American executive assistants, BELAY is positioned as a premium service in the competitive world of cloud staffing. But instead of racing to the bottom on pricing, they want to help your organization race to the top, with hand-picked VAs matched against your needs (both professional & personal requirements).

The company offers monthly service plans and the sign-up process begins with a free consultation and personalized price quote.

A flat monthly fee gives you access to your VA week in and week out, without having to worry about overhead, timesheets, and billing headaches.

*Specialist services are available for an additional charge.

US VA Company Comparison Chart

Prialto Time Etc MyTasker Boldly
Customer Rating
Established 2009 2007 2012 2012
Hourly Rate $27 $24-27 $7.50-14 $59
Minimum Package $1500 for 55+ hours $270 for 10 hours $140 for 10 hours $2360 for 40 hours
Dedicated Assistant
Minimum VA Experience Extensive in-house training 5 years In-house training 7 years
Team Access
Rollover Hours *does not charge overage
Free Trial
Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More
*Specialist services are available for an additional charge.

BELAY’s Plans and Pricing

As you might expect, BELAY is considerably more expensive than many of the overseas virtual assistant options. In some parts of the world, you may even be able to find a full-time virtual employee for a lower monthly fee. But BELAY believes you get what you pay for, and clearly isn’t targeting the same customer who’s looking for the $5/hour VA.

As of October 2020, their hourly rates range from $40-$50.

The good thing is that these rates are “all-inclusive,” in that you don’t have any additional employer burden costs to pay on top of it, like you would with a traditional W-2 employee.

BELAY offers a variety of contract sizes for each service line with a 30-day cancellation notice.

Contact BELAY now!

Press and Awards

BELAY is a stalwart on the prestigious Inc. 5000, which ranks America’s fastest growing private companies, earning a spot on the list annually since 2015.

Additionally, BELAY has won awards from and been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine, CultureIQ, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Pacesetter Awards, Startup Weekly, and FlexJobs, as well as Inc. Best Workplaces.

BELAY Alternatives

A few other virtual assistant companies operate on a similar model with home-based American assistants, including top-rated firms like Wishup, ClearDesk, Prialto, Time Etc and Boldly.

Boldly has similar (though more transparent/flexible) pricing options, and Time Etc is the most affordable of the three.

For the website maintenance and support service, you might consider Zen WP.

Your Turn

Have you worked with BELAY (or eaHELP, Render, Ellipsis, or MAG Bookkeeping)? If so, please consider sharing a review below to help others with their decision. Contact BELAY now!

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Virtual Assist USA

Virtual Assist USA is one of the largest VA operations in the US. Based in Pittsburgh PA, the company has been in business since 2007.

Today, founder Danielle Cuomo oversees a team of 40+ VAs who work from home in every time zone across the country.

Many are located in and around Pittsburgh because Virtual Assist USA used to have a good old fashioned central office location there, but Danielle told me she closed it when everyone preferred working from home!

About Virtual Assist USA

virtual assist usa reviewThe company began by helping coaches, speakers, and authors run the administrative and marketing sides of their business, but Virtual Assist USA has expanded to serve all sorts of small business owners and young growing companies.

Today they serve solopreneurs, health care professionals, and even government agencies. Many customers are employees in bigger companies and use the service to support their team or as an executive assistant for managers and directors.

Why Virtual Assist USA?

One thing that sets Virtual Assist USA apart is that all their VAs are full-time employees, and not part-time contractors. Danielle explained that fosters better security, loyalty, and a more career-oriented mindset.

The hiring process involves multiple interviews, a DISC personality assessment, and a background check. Plus, new hires are all college-educated and have a minimum of 10 years experience.

For clients, that all adds up to less turnover and a better VA match.

Virtual Assist USA Services

The services range from scheduling, research, and data entry, all the way up to creating presentations and technical website customization.

Their team can also handle event planning, social media marketing, copywriting, bookkeeping, transcription, WordPress tasks, Infusionsoft, and more.

As a client, you’re assigned a dedicated point of contact, your Client Experience Manager, but still have access to their whole team of resources to accomplish the job at hand.

This set-up allows the company to offer the wide array of services they do, but still maintain a close relationship with their customers.

And because of the sensitive nature of some of their clients’ businesses and operations, they’ve implemented strict security protocols and are HIPAA compliant.

Virtual Assist USA Interview


VAA exclusive: Follow this link and mention VAA for a $100 credit on any package!

Virtual Assist USA – How it Works

Virtual Assist USA uses a team-based approach that’s heavy on the collaboration. Danielle explained she’s tried to build a company culture that fosters a lot of communication and makes for a healthy breeding ground for ideas.

And since they’re after a long-term relationship with their clients, Virtual Assist USA strives to become partners in their clients’ businesses and integrate themselves into their processes. For example, instead of idly waiting for tasks to come in, they’ll hold proactive strategic planning meetings to discuss the clients’ goals and the direction of the engagement.

Virtual Assist USA – Plans and Pricing

Virtual Assist USA has three different off-the-shelf pricing options:

  • Starter Plan – $815 for 20 hours (this comes out to $40.75/hour)
  • Core Plan – $1,550 for 40 hours (this comes out to $38.75/hour)
  • Premium – $2,196 for 60 hours (this comes out to $36.60/hour)

virtual assist usa pricing 2024

Unused hours rollover month to month, and never expire. This is a huge value if you have a light month followed by more work in the future.

VA time is billed in 1-minute increments and tracked automatically with the Teamwork Project Management system.

Virtual Assist USA can also build you a custom package if you have something else in mind.

There’s a money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied for any reason.

VAA exclusive: Follow this link and mention VAA for a $100 credit on any package!

Virtual Assist USA Alternatives

The company stacks up well against their US-based competition, both in terms of pricing and services offered.  The nearest competitor would be ClearDesk in CA. Another similar model is Longer Days, RemSource and Time Etc may also be worth a look.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Virtual Assist USA? If so, please be sure to leave a quick review in the comments below to help others with their decision.

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My Tasker (MyTasker)

MyTasker is a well-established and fast growing firm in the virtual assistant industry. The India-based company was founded in 2012 by three veteran VAs, who brought years of experience to the table.

Since the MyTasker team spent the time in the trenches, they know how to take care of clients and were able to recruit high-performing professional virtual assistants to join their team.

VAA Exclusive: Get 20% off your first month w/ discount code VAA20MT

my tasker review

About MyTasker

Interestingly, MyTasker started out as a contract service on Freelancer.com. After gaining some initial traction on that platform, they decided to launch as a standalone operation.

The Kolkata-based company now has over 100 professional VAs on staff and has built a solid reputation on this review platform. Co-founder Gurjeet Dhillon explained that once a client fully integrates MyTasker into their systems and processes, they tend to stick around for a long time.

Is MyTasker Right for You?

I had the chance to sit down with Gurjeet to learn more about the company. In this brief interview, we cover:

  • How MyTasker’s unique team-based approach works in practice.
  • The type of clients who have the most success outsourcing to MyTasker.
  • How their years of experience benefit customers like you.

VAA Exclusive: Get 20% off your first month w/ discount code VAA20MT

MyTasker Services

Your dedicated MyTasker VA can handle just about any remote task, including:

  • customer support (online or over the phone)
  • transcription
  • social media management
  • online marketing
  • online research
  • website maintenance
  • virtual receptionists
  • and more

They also have expertise in:

Naturally, your virtual assistant can handle general administrative tasks as well such as appointment setting, travel or restaurant reservations, or other back-office tasks that can be completed remotely.

MyTasker SEO Services

If you need help with SEO and driving more traffic to your site from Google and other search engines, MyTasker has built up a dedicated team of SEO experts.

The service includes on-page optimization and off-page link building, and is ideal for local businesses. You pick the 10 most important pages on your site you want to rank for, and the SEO guys get to work.

Google is notoriously fickle so don’t expect results overnight, but over time you should begin to climb in the rankings.

MyTasker Intro Video

How MyTasker Works

With My Tasker, you’re assigned a dedicated point of contact. For each task you delegate, they’ll either tackle it themselves, or request help from a qualified team member.

You can communicate via phone, email, or Skype, and delegate tasks on a recurring or on-demand basis.

I see this team access as one of the primary benefits of companies like MyTasker. With a single point of contact, you can tap into an entire office worth of skillsets.

Your pre-purchased hours expire at the end of each billing cycle, but there are no long-term contracts and you can cancel at any time.

Your VA’s hours are tracked inside MyTasker’s internal dashboard so you can always log in and see how much time you have left for the month.

MyTasker Review

I was impressed during my trial of My Tasker, but I was using their now-discontinued “Lifestyle Assistance” plan, which offered 30 15-minute tasks for $39 a month.

Since then I’ve used their service for some daily database maintenance tasks and found them to be quite reliable. At one point, my VA had moved on to a new role within the company and it was several days before I even found out because she’d taken full responsibility to train her replacement.

MyTasker Plans and Pricing

The rates for Professional Assistance start at $140 for a 10-hour a month plan, and go all the way down to $7.50/hr for a massive 160-hour plan.

Pricing Table (accurate at press time):

  • 10 hrs per month – $140 ($14/hr)
  • 20 hrs per month – $250 ($12.50/hr)
  • 40 hrs per month – $450 ($11.25/hr)
  • 60 hrs per month – $600 ($10/hr)
  • 100 hrs per month – $900 ($9/hr)
  • 160 hrs per month – $1200 ($7.50/hr)

That means you can have a full-time 40-hour a week VA for just $1200, which is a strong value for ongoing business support.

If you want to take the service for a test drive, I suggest selecting one of the smaller plans to start with, and then scaling up your engagement from there. (Use the discount code below!)

If at any time you go over your plan’s hours, additional time can be purchased at $15 an hour (assuming staff availability).

VAA Exclusive: Get 20% off your first month w/ discount code VAA20MT.

Virtual Receptionist Plans

My Tasker added a call answering service where you can have a virtual receptionist answer your business line 24 hours a day. They’ll log and record each call, and give your company a professional presence on the phone.

Introducing the MyTasker Team!

MyTasker Alternatives

I asked Ronny, the COO, what sets My Tasker apart from the competition, both in India and elsewhere. He explained that the team’s extensive experience in the industry, especially on the customer service side, gives them an advantage. Another company based out of India to check out is YourDailyTask or TaskVirtual. One company that operates a similar model is OkayRelax, which provides a dedicated assistant at $4 per task when you buy 25 tasks a month. Two other great alternatives that are in the US with competitive pricing is ClearDesk and Online VA Team.

“We have the freedom to go that extra mile to make sure our customers are satisfied,” he says, implying that other larger VA companies don’t necessarily afford that freedom.

Tasks Expert Wing Assistant TaskVirtual eLuminous
Customer Rating
Established 2017 2018 2016 2002
Hourly Rate $4.50-$9.50 $6.878.75 $6.24-15 $7.00
Minimum Package $95 for 10 hours $699 for 80 hours Pay as you go for $15 $140 for 20 hours
Dedicated Assistant
Best For Business Owners
Entrepreneurs
Professionals
Small & Medium Business Owners, IT Services, Marketing Agencies, SaaS Data Entry, Digital Marketing, Website design & development, Administrative Work, Customer Service Development
Real Estate
E-Commerce
Marketing
Team Access
Free Trial *For limited range of services
Special Offer 10 hours free w/ code VAA10 N/A Free Trial $10 for 10 hours. Valid for 1 month. 20% off first month (mention VAA)
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Your Turn

Have you worked with MyTasker? If so, please share your experience below and help others with their decision.

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Uassist.ME

Uassist.ME is a virtual assistant company and business process outsourcing company (BPO) with offices in Miami and El Salvador. The company was founded in 2009 with the idea of providing remote administrative services to clients in the US and around the world.

Because of their location and timezone – El Salvador is only a 2-hour flight from the US and operates on Central Standard Time

Uassist.ME considers themselves “nearshoring” more than “offshoring.”

The company has earned a number of accolades in its relatively short history. In 2012, co-founders Alfredo Atanacio and Rodolfo Schildknecht were named to Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30 List, which honors “America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs.”

The company has earned a number of accolades in its relatively short history. In 2012, co-founders Alfredo Atanacio and Rodolfo Schildknecht were named to Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30 List, which honors “America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs.”

Mention referral code VAA10 to get 10% off your first month.

About Uassist.ME

Since I first came across the company in 2011, they’ve been growing like crazy, practically doubling in size each year. They recently built a shiny new office space to house their team and it even includes a co-working space to host other entrepreneurs in a professional environment.

Interview with Uassist.ME Co-Founder Alfredo Atanacio

VAA Exclusive: Mention referral code VAA10 to get 10% off your first month.

Uassist.ME Services

I spoke with Joselin at Uassist.ME, who helped walk me through the company’s services. I found her to be professional, friendly, and energetic, with excellent English skills (and naturally Spanish skills as well).

She explained that her Uassist.ME co-workers are all fluent English speakers with neutral American accents because of their proximity to the US and familiarity with the culture. In fact, El Salvador uses the US Dollar as their official currency.

The company specializes in remote administrative services, but is expanding into e-commerce, back-office, lead generation, and digital marketing services.

Uassist.ME has attracted clients in the US and Canada, and even India, the proud leader of virtual assistant outsourcing.

The company has developed expertise in e-commerce and digital marketing and has a number of case study articles to prove it. Beyond that, their flexible and custom solutions allow customers to ramp up teams of multiple staff members quickly if needed.

Uassist.me Plans and Pricing

They have designed monthly plans for any need. Here is the pricing for their administrative assistants at time of publishing:

  1. 10 hours/month – $300
  2. 20 hours/month – $460
  3. 40 hours/month – $760
  4. 60 hours/month – $1,020
  5. 80 hours/month – $1,200
  6. 190 hours/month – $2,441

They guarantee business continuity by providing a backup assistant and a Team Leader to supervise performance. They have different pricing for each skill set. Besides Administrative Assistants they have Sales, Customer Service, Creative Services (designers and marketers), and Bookkeeping assistants.

A Support Team is another option that consists of a “pod” of 3 or more assistants with different skill sets. A team leader is in charge of distributing the work between team members internally and making sure deadlines are met. Under this plan, Uassist.ME also provides cross-training between team members, so if someone is absent, the rest of the team can cover.

The video below explains a bit more about how it works:

Uassist.ME Specialized Services 

Uassist.ME recently launched specialized solutions tailored to specific industries. This solution consists of remote teams that specialize in e-commerce, lead generation, digital marketing, or real estate services. 

Uassist.ME schedules a call to go over your outsourcing needs, and assembles a team, and comes up with a customized solution.

Success is tracked month-to-month to make sure goals and objectives are being met.

Uassist.ME service is billed month-to-month, with no long-term contracts.

Uassist.ME BPO Services 

Uassist.ME has recently introduced BPO solutions tailored specifically for various industries. These solutions are powered by remote teams with expertise in customer service, sales, appointment setting, lead generation, tech support, creative services, and billing/collections. While they have the capability to accommodate teams of 25 or more, they also offer the flexibility to start with a smaller team. What sets Uassist.ME apart from other BPOs is their adaptability. For instance, a single contract can encompass 3 customer service agents, 1 billing specialist, and 4 appointment-setting agents.

Their pricing ranges from $11.50 to $13.50, which varies based on the specific skill set required and the number of seats you’re looking to hire.

Uassist.ME is proactive in understanding your needs, scheduling calls to discuss and tailor their offerings to best suit your requirements.

Success is tracked month-to-month to make sure goals and objectives are being met.

Uassist.ME service is billed month-to-month, with no long-term contracts.

Ready to give them a shot? Mention referral code VAA10 to get 10% off your first month.

Uassist.ME Review:

Note: As you can see, that video is several years old so I’m due for a new trial!

Uassist.ME Alternatives

If you are looking for bilingual services at an attractive price point, check out Virtual Latinos.

The company stacks up well against their US-based competition, both in terms of pricing and services offered.  The nearest competitor would be ClearDesk in CA. Another similar model is RemSource, Time Etc may also be worth a look.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Uassist.ME? If so, please share a review of your experience using the comment form and star-ratings below.

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AskSunday

AskSunday.com is one of the most well-known virtual assistant companies, earning an endorsement from Tim Ferris in the wake of the massively popular 4-Hour Workweek. The company received boatloads of positive press, was named one of Time Magazine’s top 10 websites of the year in 2007, and called themselves the “most award winning personal assistant service in the world.”

About Ask Sunday

ask sunday reviewAround the time I started Virtual Assistant Assistant, Ask Sunday went through a rocky change in ownership, and you can see this black mark in their history evidenced in the early reviews on this site.

Today the company is headed up by Jagdish Rangwani from their New Jersey office. The team of assistants are located in a modern contact center facility in Ahmedabad, India. Their goal is to make life easier by providing personal assistance via the Internet and telephone for members anywhere in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

Services

Since taking the helm, Jagdish has directed AskSunday to focus more on small business and startup clients rather than just busy individuals as they did early on. He wants to be your one-stop-shop for a range of tasks including:

  • Social media
  • Industry or market research
  • Marketing support
  • Administrative tasks
  • Data entry
  • Powerpoint prep
  • Transcription
  • and more…

When we spoke, he explained that many clients were also looking for support in areas like website development and graphic design, so they added personnel with those skills to accommodate the demand.

Ask Sunday VAs can help you with research for your content creation tasks, but are probably not well-suited to actually writing the articles or content from scratch.

The company is currently divided into 4 teams that serve clients and support one another: the Research Team, the Web Design Team, the Document Management Team, and the Quality Assurance Team.

The QA Team is responsible for checking all work before it gets returned to the customer.

Ask Sunday Intro Video

Plans and Pricing

Ask Sunday offers 2 levels of service: Dedicated Assistance and On Demand.

Dedicated Virtual Assistant

As the word suggest, this service will provide your own dedicated virtual assistant to readily assist you with your ongoing requirements such as web research, data entry, phone calls, and many others. Your dedicated assistant will be available from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm EST by email and phone support.

Dedicated plans range from 10 hours a month for $129 up to full-time 160 hours a month for $1199 (less than $7 an hour).

AskSunday Pricing

Their most popular plan is the 20 hour a month plan for $219.

VAA Exclusive: Use Promo Code VAA10PDA on sign-up to get 10% off your first month of service. (Not applicable on the $79 “AskSunday on Demand” plan.)

If you go over your hours, additional time is available at competitive hourly rates, or you can opt to renew your plan early. This service is ideal for a full or part-time virtual employee. You’ll be able to make use of their robust and secure online portal to assign tasks and manage your VA’s work.

On Demand Assistant

AskSunday on-demand assistance is just $79 a month. It includes 5 hours of agent time billed in 15 minute increments. One advantage of this set-up is your tasks are not limited to 15 minutes, as they are with some of the other VA companies.

Tasks are assigned based on expertise and availability, and agents are on-call 24/7. If you need additional time, it’s billed out at a rate of $17 an hour.

But like any service, it’s only worth it if you really use it. To ease this anxiety, Ask Sunday offers 3-hours of free dedicated assistance as a “test drive” for customers to try our their service without any commitment.

AskSunday Alternatives

The advantages of AskSunday’s virtual assistant service include their reasonable price tiers, quick response time, great customer support, easy to use interface, and a wide range of services offered.

For the dedicated service, your top alternative will be a company like My Tasker.

For the On Demand service, I’d take a look at OkayRelax.

Have you had any experience with AskSunday.com? If so, please share it here.

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