How much time can a virtual assistant really save me?
Sep 2 – Written By Stephanie Sheargold
Hands up who has overindulged, watched Elf more than once and danced embarrassingly to Santa Shark? That must mean Christmas is done and itâs time to ring in the New Year. With resolutions in abundance itâs also time to get planning for the year ahead with both work and personal affairs. Sometimes this can be a bit daunting so it might be a good time to consider using a VA to provide some much needed help but you may ask yourself will it actually be worth it? We take a look at how much time a VA can really save and what kinds of things they can help with.
It is estimated that one in five parents have missed an important milestone in their childâs life due to work. Wouldnât it have been great if you could have offloaded some of those pre-Christmas tasks and made it to the school nativity on time? Or if you just got someone to clear your inbox before you switched off for the Christmas break, you could have made it home before the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve. The impact that outsourcing certain jobs can have on family life can be a game changer.
A Virtual Assistant is growing in popularity at a fast rate. With the dominance of social media, excellent Wi-Fi and phone networks, people can literally work anywhere and everywhere. So, why does your assistant need to sit directly outside your office? Many business owners do not even know what a Virtual Assistant is, let alone know how to hire one or what they can do for you.
It can seem at first glance that by paying a higher hourly rate you wonât save anything but you only pay a Virtual Assistant for the time they actually work, making them more economical. You will find that because VAâs only work for specific hours in a given week, you will see a more productive and efficient worker which gives you much more bang for your buck. You also save on desk space, dead work time, pensions and annual leave to name a few. For example, according to a 2016 survey of nearly 2,000 UK based office workers, the average worker only accomplishes just under 3 hours of work each day regardless of how many hours they physically spend at the office. So, in an average 8 hour day over 50% of employees time is spent on social media, online shopping, chatting while making tea and also probably looking for another job!
Michael Hyatt, former CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers believes his VA can essentially do anything that doesnât require her physical presence in his virtual office to accomplish. Hyatt says âI started using her for five hours a week and quickly went to fifteen. I found that I was so much more productive that it was well worth the additional investmentâ.
So, what can a Virtual Assistant help me with you might ask? They can do anything from research, diary management, social media, manage company finances or even book your next holiday or pay your home electricity bill. The best tasks to outsource are those which will save you most time to focus on what you need to do and what you enjoy doing. VAâs also love the jobs you hate but which are integral to your business running smoothly. A report by Intuit predicts that by 2020 over half of the UK workforce will want to work remotely. Virtual Assistants are already onto this and have been for years and doing it very successfully.
Marlyne Pierce, a Business and Leadership Consultant at modernmogulhq.com, said âMy VAs have been one of the best investments in my business. They help me get key things accomplished without me having to learn new skills to do it all.â This says it all. You can get things done that you donât even know how to do yourself as well as those core tasks to enable to business to run effectively.
If you think this sounds too good to be true, it isnât. Have a chat with us here at Timpi to see what we can do to help ease your workload and give you back precious time.
