Some days, when you look at your schedule, you probably think that an extra pair of hands would be helpful. Unless you’re a mad scientist working in your mountaintop laboratory, it’s not likely that you’ll be able to attach an extra pair of hands and arms from your shoulders any time soon. [Insert mad-scientist-style cackling laughter here]. You need another set of hands to help you get more done, and you’ll need a person to go with them.

Many solopreneurs, especially those who have been in business for a while, want the benefit of some helping hands but are understandably reluctant to give up any control of their business. So a business partner is out. Business owners also don’t want to have the trouble of retaining an employee to take on part of the work (i.e, to become the customer service department or the marketing department). They consider hiring an assistant, which is probably the right first step. But even then there are choices:

When you hire someone to work on-location, you’re faced with more expenses than just their salary. There’s overhead (they probably need a computer and a place to work), there are benefits (they will probably want some kind of medical insurance, pension plan, and vacation days). On top of that, you’ll need to sort through resumes, interview them, and do the paperwork when you decide to hire one of them. (Oh, and if they get sick, you’ll need to either cover their work yourself or find someone to temporarily replace them).

That’s why a virtual assistant is better. Even if a VA bills for the same as (or even a little more than) the person who shows up at your office, you’re saving a tremendous amount of money:

• No additional phone line
• No computer or printer
• No desk or office supplies
• No additional light/power/heat charges
• No interviews and resumes
• No sick-day replacements
• Further, say ‘your’ hourly rate is $50/hr but you’re spending your time doing things that a Virtual Assistant can do at a fraction of that cost = waste of money because you could spend that time doing something much more profitable to your business while a VA handles those tasks.

And consider the work they do: When you think of an onsite assistant and the work they do, you might think that they can answer the phones, take dictation (if anyone does that anymore), write reports, and fill orders. But virtual assistants tend to have these basic skills and oftentimes many more. Some VAs are trained in social media marketing, article writing and distribution, website maintenance, bookkeeping, a combination thereof and more. VA teams usually have specialists to cover each field of need so they can ensure all parts of a project are completed with the necessary experience or even help each other out.

Here are a couple of examples to show you how virtual assistants are helping businesses grow:

–> A freelancer needed a bookkeeper for her business. She was going to hire one to come in a few days a week but realized that a virtual assistant cost less. So she contracted with a VA and passed off all of her bookkeeping to her virtual assistant. Soon, the freelancer discovered that the VA was also fully trained in IM-based customer service so the freelancer had the VA provide 9-5 online chat support to any customer who contacted the freelancer through her website. In a sense, her VA is the customer service department for her business.

–> One consultant started with a virtual assistant simply because she needed help overcoming her growing backlog of work. Within months, she discovered that her highly skilled virtual assistant could take on her entire marketing effort. Her VA already knew most of the programs she was using (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and the consultant showed her what steps she took to interact with prospects in those places. She passed her entire marketing effort to her VA and that allowed her to focus more on billable hours. In a sense, her VA is the marketing department of her business.

–> Another business owner, who runs a series of ecommerce websites, needed to get on top of all of the emails he had to answer. He contracted with a VA for help and the virtual assistant took on some of that work. In time, however, the business owner discovered that the VA was far more skilled than in just customer service so he expanded the VA’s assignment. Now, his VA actually runs 3 of his ecommerce websites, handling nearly all customer communication, marketing, and order-filling. In a sense, his VA is the business manager of 3 of his ecommerce sites.

Virtual Assistants make sense! Using one means that you free yourself up to actually Run Your Business instead of Running in Circles – and you’re saving money while doing so.

photo credit: LeftClickër