Hiring a Virtual Assistant in Times of Economic Uncertainty
Economic uncertainty is one of a business’s greatest enemies. Volatility in the economy touches every corner of the business world, whether you’re selling to consumers or not.
As uncertainty in the economy causes uncertainty in your market and business, there’s a good chance you’ll tighten the purse strings—reducing spending and lowering risk. Many companies are looking for affordable alternative solutions to their business problems at this time. Your business’ needs aren’t going anywhere, so you need something innovative to meet them.
Hiring a virtual assistant is one such solution.
The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant during uncertain times
A virtual assistant is a remote administrative or executive assistant who works for your company virtually (like a contractor would) but is often part of a larger managed virtual assistant service. Virtual assistants can handle a wide range of tasks, including data entry, calendar and inbox management, expenses, travel planning, sales administration, and more.
A virtual assistant is an additional service—something businesses are often hesitant to take on during times of uncertainty—but it can make a huge difference to how well a business weathers the storm.
Maintaining low overhead
Maintaining low overhead is key to successfully riding out a volatile market or recession. Your headcount is, unfortunately, one of your most significant expenses, which is why so many companies have to make the difficult choice to reduce staff when things get hard.
A virtual assistant offers similar support to an in-house executive or administrative assistant, but without the additional overhead costs. Generally, you do not have to pay for benefits, equipment, software, payroll taxes, or paid time off for a virtual assistant.
By using a virtual assistant service, you only need to cover the cost of the service itself. The service takes care of hiring, management, and overhead, which saves you both time and money. Plus, hiring a virtual assistant is often less expensive per hour compared to hiring a full-time, in-house employee.
Improving efficiency
When the economy is volatile, there’s a good chance you aren’t hiring, which means you need your in-house staff working a peek capacity to handle the work at hand. Virtual assistants can provide your subject matter experts (SMEs) with the flexibility and focus they need to manage fluctuating workload. If they aren’t worrying about data entry, expenses, and calendar management, they can focus on the real, revenue-driving work you hired them to do.
Think about it this way, if you have a team member making $80,000 a year, you’re paying them about $40 an hour. If they’re spending 16 hours a week on non-goal-driving administrative work, you’re potentially losing $640 a week to work that can be handled for much cheaper.
This is especially true for your executives, who typically make hundreds of dollars an hour. You need them focused on building the big picture, not confirming meetings.
Achieving scalable support
Another benefit of a virtual assistant is flexibility. Hiring in-house staff takes weeks. You have to worry about recruiting, interviewing, and HR. Then you have to onboard and manage them, and the process starts over when they leave.
A virtual assistant service is much more scalable. If you have a month-to-month agreement, you can increase or decrease your coverage based on your activity and needs.
Tapping into the talent you need
Access to global talent is one of the most significant advantages of hiring a virtual assistant. By tapping into a global talent pool, you get a wider range of affordable talent, and you don’t have to worry about labor shortages.
You can also focus your search based on the virtual assistant tasks you’re looking for help with. Whether it’s data entry, sales support, or traditional executive admin, there’s a virtual assistant out there who is trained and ready to help.
Building through a recession
Economic uncertainty hits small businesses hard, and it might be tempting to stop and ride out the storm. The businesses who survive best move slowly, strategically, but don’t stop moving.
A virtual assistant can help you and your team. They’ll embed in your processes to help keep things moving—reducing your team’s stress, maintaining overhead, and helping your business grow, even when things get hard.
Introducing Prialto
Prialto provides managed virtual assistant and subscription staffing for executives, teams, and businesses. Its virtual assistant services are curated and managed from Prialto’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon, with creative insights from global staff in Asia, Africa, and Central America.
