5 Commonly Believed Myths about Working with Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants can be one of the most important things you wrap your head around as someone in business, but they are commonly misunderstood. If you have never used one, you probably do not have a clue about how they work and what they can bring to a business. A lot of people make incorrect assumptions about virtual assistants, so we are here to correct those misnomers and bring light to what virtual assistants can actually do for you. Here are our top five commonly believed myths about working with a virtual assistant. 

The 1st Myth – Being a Virtual Assistant is Easy, Anyone can Do it:

This first myth actually is the most inaccurate of them all. Being a virtual assistant often means you have to know how to do what everyone else does and understand the processes behind everything; but do it all virtually. This is no easy task! As well as this, being a VA requires a heavy amount of drive and motivation to do things that can sometimes feel repetitive or menial. You need to be able to keep up with everyone in the field as a virtual assistant, which is no easy task. 

The 2nd Myth – Virtual Assistants are Paid to ‘Do Everything’:

A virtual assistant is not there to be piled on with everything you cannot be bothered to do. Although there are definitely some virtual assistants (who are very hard to find) who can just do it all proficiently and quickly; most will not know how to do everything in every field. A lot of virtual assistants have specializations in certain areas, so it is important to hire one who specializes in the area which you most need them for. 

The 3rd Myth – Having a Virtual Assistant Makes Communication more Difficult:

This myth is almost laughable, because these days a large majority of our communication in the workplace is done via phone or email; even if the person is only upstairs! The digital age has made virtual communication sometimes even easier than face to face communication. The only thing you cannot do with a virtual assistant is shout to them across the office, which probably wasn’t an efficient thing to do in the first place. Communication online has become extremely developed, so much so that there are dozens of online video tools to communicate, many different messaging and email platforms, and loads of ways that you can even share your computer screen with your VA. 

The 4th Myth – Virtual Assistants Cannot Do Everything a Normal Assistant Can Do:

This is almost completely not true. There is one thing a virtual assistant can’t do, and that is bring you your lunch or a coffee. Considering this was probably not the most business critical purpose of an assistant, it is probably something you can live without. The digital age that we live in has made it completely possible for a virtual assistant to do exactly what a normal assistant would have done for you, and a lot of the times do it more productively. Often a normal assistant will get distracted in the office, which is much less likely to happen virtually. I can guarantee you that as long as you are okay getting your own coffee, your virtual assistant will be just as useful and purposeful as a normal one. 

The 5th Myth – A Virtual Assistant has to be a Full Time Employee:

This is absolutely not the case. A virtual assistant absolutely can be hired full time if you feel that yourself and the business require one full time, but a lot of virtual assistants are only hired on a flexible or part time basis. This is especially true if your business is very work heavy on two days and then more calm for the rest of the week. It is a great idea to hire one part time at first and then go full time if you find it works out for you. 

All in all, there is a lot of information out there about the usage of virtual assistants which is false. Because the business world is still coming to grips with the digitization of its whole existence, it can be hard to wrap your head around at first. However, a virtual assistant can be a great addition to any office team.

Thinking of hiring or becoming a Virtual Assistant?

Check out the Top Rated Virtual Assistant Companies, schedule a consultation call to discuss your needs and take a look at the Become a Virtual Assistant or Virtual Assistant Job pages for opportunities!

 

 

Author:

Michael DeHoyos is a writer and editor at Assignment writing services. He assists companies in their marketing strategy concepts, and contributes to numerous sites and publications.

 

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The Best Outsourced Manufacturing Companies

Most companies are choosing outsourced companies that will get work done at much cheaper rates. Let’s look into the aspects of outsourcing in this article. We’ve put together everything you need to know in this comprehensive piece!

In today’s time, businesses have way more ways to be efficient; in such cases, outsourcing may or may not work for them. Have you been pondering over the idea of outsourcing a task or two in your business? Today, the most popular resource that is being outsourced is human resources.

In business, outsourcing is only growing and will only continue to do so if companies start employing outside departments. Therefore, it is important for an entrepreneur to understand the effects of outsourcing and how it can affect your company’s culture.

What Is Outsourcing?

Before diving into the details, we need to understand the outsourced meaning. Based on the definition, outsourcing is the task of assigning particular types of work to third parties at specific costs and periods. This is the process of handling specific business tasks to experts who can see through them more effectively.

There are many types of outsourcing companies that can get any type of task done. However, it is also essential that you choose this type of company very carefully.

What Is Outsourcing In Business?

Most business owners have a lot of latent and think that they can manage all tasks at all times. However, this can often prove to be a hindrance when it comes to the company’s growth. By outsourcing tasks, business owners have enough time to pay attention to generating income from the main processes of the business.

Owners of small businesses and entrepreneurs have been outsourcing for quite some time, a practice that was thought to be preserved for corporations only. With the help of technology today, small businesses and firms can outsource and grow their productivity.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Outsourcing

Some advantages of outsourced labor include:

1. You Do Not Have To Hire More Employees

When you outsource, you pay the outsourcing company or individual as a vendor or contractor. This way, you will not have to employ workers in your company, saving you a lot of money and other resources.

2. Lowering Labor Cost

According to statistics, the US outsources more than 300,000 jobs. By having specialists work for your company, you save on costs like taxes. Simply by outsourcing, the outsourcing company you hire will find the right individual for the job. Overall, you will have access to a larger talent pool, often facilitated through labor contracts, enabling efficient and flexible engagement of skilled professionals.

Overall, you will have access to a larger talent pool.

3. Give Away Mundane Tasks

Employing a person for a data-entry job does not make sense. Why do it when you can have an outsourcing company do this work for a fraction of the rate? You will also save substantially by not having to employ the person.

4. Tap On To Global a Scale

Apart from saving costs, you will be able to tap on a global scale for revenue streams and potential customers. This will help you eliminate warehousing, increase distribution and even expand your product lines.

Some disadvantages of outsourcing include:

5. Lack Of Control

While you can provide direction and a basic idea of what you want to accomplish, you will not have total control over your outsourcing products. Since the outsourcing company is not working on-site, you will not have the same level of control.

6. Communication Problems

While this problem does not always come into play, this can potentially be an issue. Communication will depend on several factors like the outsourcing company’s time zone, preferred communication, internet connection, etc.

7. Quality

While there are several benefits of outsourcing, it will only count if you receive quality work. If the work is not up to your expectations, it can be quite a disappointment.

How Does Outsourcing Work?

If you want to outsource responsibilities effectively, it is vital to direct your focus on the partnership of your business as much as the logistics. Outsourcing is more about managing relationships much more than service-level agreements. Outsourcing is more like a partnership rather than purchasing a project.

On the other hand, some experts even recommend emphasizing the exit clause of a contract of the service. It is essential to know when the contract expires so that the involved parties can get done with all the obligations.

What Are The Various Types Of Outsourcing?

There are many types of outsourced help desks. Depending on the requirements and process, some are more preferable to others. Some types of outsourcing include:

• Onshoring: Onshoring is a type of outsourcing where the company relocates services or work to a low-costing location in its own country.
• Offshoring: Offshoring is known as relocating services or works overseas where the third-party providers reside.
• Nearshoring: Nearshoring is relocating services and works to nearby people, often bordering countries and regions.

The agreement of the outsourcing will also differ in scope. For example, there are specific processes like content creation and programming where hiring freelancers is more appropriate. On the other hand, if your company outsources an entire IT department, it will require a long-term partnership with proper conditions and agreements.

What Are Some Great Outsourced Marketing Companies?

Some of the top outsourced marketing companies include the following:

Britech Industries

Britech Industries is considered one of the top outsourcing companies today. The company utilizes processes that will save the time of its customers. The staff here is quite effective and will only provide long-lasting solutions. The company is also known to provide outstanding customer service.

Maysteel Industries

Maysteel Industries was founded in 1936 and has been one of the biggest companies in engineering. This company engineers and manufactures custom OEM metal sheets for racks, cabinets, kiosks, and enclosures. The company focuses primarily on design and manufacturing.

Talan Products

Talan Products is considered one of the top outsourced sales companies specializing in aluminum extrusions, metal stamping, and similar operations. The company was founded in 1986 and is known for customer-driven innovation, workforce development, and value creation.

GHS Industries

GSH Industries is a top outsourced sales company that has been working for more than 100 years in this niche. The company is known to provide contract manufacturing services and will continue to do so in the future. The facility is top-of-the-line and provides its employees with everything they need.

Conculsion

While outsourcing has often been seen as a way to increase efficiencies while reducing costs, it is also becoming a strategic tool for businesses worldwide, especially new and small businesses. Also, note that one can outsource almost everything, including graphic design.

So, why outsource? Leading companies believe that outsourcing some types of work will help gain a competitive advantage by providing access to innovative technologies and/or expertise that they do not have; additionally, they may also provide services or products faster. Alternatively, it can also enable them to shift resources to the parts of the business that are most critical. Outsourcing offers increased workload flexibility and efficiency.

Let us know what your thoughts are in the comments section!

Author’s Bio: 

Emily Moore is an English & programming teacher with a passion for space and blogging. She believes that every entrepreneur should be focused on preserving our planet’s resources. With satellites circling the orbit, it is easier to get relevant data on any environmental changes. This, in turn, should help people quickly address any challenges.

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Why Hiring a Web Design VA is Essential for E-commerce Business Growth

Starting a business is connecting the right customers with the right offerings. There isn’t one simple life changing trick in making your business rank in the e-commerce business growth. The entrepreneurs need to identify the business model suitable for the current business type. They need to dig into the right ideas to trade on the e-commerce settings. We know that orders are very important for the e-commerce industry. So, to keep the expenses low seems to be more feasible with the arrangement of virtual assistant website design.

With the in-trend online shopping activity worldwide, the e-commerce business owners are challenged in many ways. Having an active and user-friendly website is absolutely necessary to promote the business brand online. Also, it will help you to access wide reaching customers online. 

Ways to Improve Your E-commerce Business Growth

Web design is an important part of business making. A well-designed business is better to start with to attract potential customers to your site. It is the ideal platform to  promote the business brand online. Building a website of your own can be time consuming if you lack the knowledge on web programming. Business owners need to grow the business but not with the time consuming task. Having a professional website helps the business organizations to compete with any larger companies. As the ecommerce business comes hand-in-hand, there is a booming demand for design virtual assistant. 

Online shopping is getting more preference than in-store purchases. So, think of it this way, how can the virtual assistants act as a key in scaling the  e-commerce business solutions? They offer customized ecommerce development solutions to increase the brand awareness and boost the sales of online stores. In fact, they deliver continuous efforts to improve the website of your company, payments to receive and orders to fulfill. 

Does the Hiring of Web Design VA Helps to Reduce Costs?

The evolving concept of the web VAs is helping several companies to cut down the extra costs for paying the costs of the workplace. This concept utterly helps the e-traders to meet the economic fluctuations. A virtual assistant programmer can ideally pick the order of the day and lead your business goals. To benefit the gains of e-commerce business making, you should take time to hire the rightly outsourced web design professionals.

So, what else can virtual assistant website design do for your business?

Let’s dive in and check why the virtual assistant web design becomes the backbone of the top-rated E-commerce website development agencies.

Building a responsive website is the main outlook of a web company. It is where you can hire the virtual web design assistants to do the task for you at limited budgets. No longer web users limit viewing the web screen from desktop but they want it to be responsive. They are the ones who can feature it on your mobile, tablet, desktop without affecting the website appearance. They consider the latest design trends and strive hard to convert visitors into customers. 

Build the Identity of Your Brand

When you initiate the process of e-commerce, you need to consider the aspect of leveraging your own brand. You will agree that countless people have already stepped into e-entrepreneurship. To strategize your business goals, you need to focus on the primary things. Here, the virtual assistant website design can take care of your business niche. To throw the light on your brand identity, web VAs consciously adhere to the logo making. Yes, they can create the brand logo as per their creativity but it has to fall in line with the brand scheme. After the logo design, design virtual assistants need to take care of doing with the storefront of the website. 

In short, they are the ultimate ones to build the brands and maintain a clean website. VAs need to remember that the web pages need to be aesthetically pleasing and functional. It will help the ecommerce brands to grow and it will attract more customers to make purchases quickly and in an hassle free manner. If you’re looking for a professional web designer in LA, consider hiring a reliable web designer LA who can understand your brand’s needs and create a visually appealing website that drives conversions.

The Website Maintenance

Website maintenance is another aspect for which the role of  web design VA is acknowledged the most. The VAs are accountable for listening to their client’s voice and demands. So, accordingly, they can attain the niche in developing and delivering the websites. Why do the big companies hire these potential employees? 

Even the virtual assistance can pay you the most in terms of maintaining your website with updated content and trying to make it more interactive and interesting. Their key performances are restricted to areas such as content management, validating source code, and optimizing source code. They can also manage well in handling WordPress and making changes in the website template. 

Conclusion

Those companies who are looking to build a professional website making, should immediately start to search for the right virtual assistant website design. They are responsible for fulfilling your business outcomes at your estimated costs. The creative website designers can create the interactive interfaces of the modern e-commerce trends. 

They are ready to attain and fulfill all the assigned orders within a fixed time. So, are you ready to opt for the in-trend job assistance program? Make sure you do research well in hiring the best web Va to understand your business policies and values. Make  a start to have the best lead in e-entrepreneurship.

Need Help?

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!

 

 

Author:

Billy Brown – is a published content creator and digital marketer. Being a skilled and passionate person he has applied the best efforts to stay with the marketing trends. Virtual Assistant management is one of his  biggest strengths. As an SEO expert, I believe in providing the best digital marketing solutions with my glorious experience in multiple sectors. EcomVA is one such platform where you can get ecommerce virtual assistant services.

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How To Choose the Right VA for Real Estate Business

The real estate business is subject to constant expansion and handling a vast number of clients all at once with regard to a certain property can be somewhat overwhelming. On many occasions, you will have to keep a vigilant eye on all the work, from publicity and promotion to day-to-day operations. The flexibility of the administrative processes helps to determine the success or failure of the business.

However, donning all hats yourself can at times interfere with the quality of the business. So, given the importance of your real estate business, hiring the right Virtual Assistant (VA) to support you can be a major game-changer. 

Why Hire A VA for Real Estate Business? 

Real estate business owners should focus on activities that generate high income. Regular operations like handling phone calls, writing emails, managing listings, and more can easily be delegated to VAs. The skills and experience of a VA can be highly useful to boost your business. Indeed, adept VAs can take care of all the relevant tasks with ease, saving you considerable time and stress in the long run. So it is essential to choose the best suited VA with the required skills.

What Do Real Estate VAs Do? 

VAs can help in several ways in a real estate business. This includes attracting clients, building strong customer relationships, conducting meetings and phone calls, and other related work. VAs are required to manage fundamental areas of your real estate business. Indeed, there is a lot they can do to help you out in your daily operations. It is important for the VA to be aware of your niche in order to understand the nuances. Some of the areas that VAs cover include: 

• Phone Support 
• Graphic Design 
• SEO 
• Email Marketing 
• Social Media Management 
• Data Entry 
• Transaction Management 
• Market Research 
• Conducting Virtual Inbound and Outbound Sales 
• Other Ancillary Work

VAs are highly flexible and have a lot of industry experience in their respective fields. So, real estate business owners can discuss all aspects of running operations and more with their VAs. 

How To Choose the Right Real Estate VA

Hiring the right VA takes much more than interviewing candidates and reviewing resumes. As a business owner, you want to be specific with your needs when it comes to recruiting the right real estate VA. Also, depending on the level of control you would like to give to your VA and the time period for which you would be hiring, there are certain questions worth posing.

Here are some pro tips to choose the appropriate virtual assistant to take care of your real estate business: 

• Identify Tasks To Outsource – This is the most essential step even before you choose a VA. It is essential to distinguish between the tasks that you want to manage yourself and the ones you want to outsource. Consider assessing all the tasks yourself at the outset. Make a wishlist of the tasks you want to be accomplished and then evaluate which of these can be offloaded, either because of your lack of time or expertise in that area. This allows easier management of operations and helps to keep a track of the tasks under your VA.
  

• Pick a VA with Your Niche – A VA who has a background in working in the real estate sector is a better choice than any other. They are familiar with the tasks, management, and communication that comes along with it. It helps them to deal with the technical aspects better due to prior knowledge and experience.
  

• Create a Process Documentation – Documenting the process of your standard operations is highly beneficial for your VA. There are different reasons to apply process documentation to your business tasks. It acts as a handy reference guide for your virtual assistant who is working remotely and cannot interact with you in person. Most importantly, it is a highly valuable business asset that helps to keep your stress at bay and precludes micro-management. Also, it is a great data store that holds your most valuable business track and operations record.
  

• Proactive OR Reactive VA? – This is a vital question to ask yourself before making the plunge. Consider if you are looking for a VA who actively participates in the real estate business or someone who will simply manage your business tasks in a set fashion. Once you have the answer to the aforementioned question, choosing the right VA becomes a lot easier.
  

• Make an Estimate of the Hours to Spend on the VA – This is important for small real estate business owners who are simply beginning their business or struggling to establish their existing business. There are project-based and hour-based plans for more flexibility while choosing your VA. It ensures that your VAs are completing the tasks assigned to them within your time limit.  
  
• Describe Your Requirements – There are plenty of VAs with multiple skill sets to choose from. Since picking the right VA for your real estate business can be overwhelming, it is best to describe the features you are seeking. Some valid questions to consider are whether the VA will be working during the same business hours as yourself and how many years of experience they have in the industry. It is essential that the VA you choose lives up to YOUR requirements and standards. Creating a list of qualities you seek in your VA will help you connect to the right assistant.

Conclusion

Choosing the right VA for your real estate business becomes easier when you have a plan in place. Now you know where to begin. So, get the right-fit VA to lighten your load and experience a significant difference yourself!

Top Rated VA companies

BELAY

Exclusively employing US-based assistants, BELAY began in 2010. The company has since undergone an expansion and is now serving small and large businesses across the United States.

The company boasts of a proven onboarding process by allowing you to speak with a Solutions Consultant and a Relationship Manager. They’ll help introduce you to virtual assistants who are skilled in bookkeeping, web support/maintenance, project management, and social media management to name a few.

Rates for BELAY are a little steeper; think $36 an hour and up.

VAA Exclusive: Mention Virtual Assistant Assistant when you join and get $200 off your startup costs!

Click here to see our full review of BELAY, my interview with the founder, and read real customer reviews.

My OutDesk

MyOutDesk is another virtual assistant company but unlike the others, this company focuses solely on real estate. Founded in 2008 in San Diego by a team of real estate veterans, My OutDesk operates through a group of virtual assistants located in the Philippines.

These virtual assistants are trained in a variety of real estate-specific tasks like broker price opinions, transaction coordination, bookkeeping, MLS listings management, short sale processing, property forms, as well as posting to craigslist.

ShoreAgents

ShoreAgents is a virtual assistant company specializing in providing virtual assistants to businesses in the real estate industry.

The company is headquartered in the Philippines and all of their staff work out of their offices in the same location.

A full-time VA is going to cost you somewhere in the $1,100-$1,500/mo ballpark for most roles.

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