Things You'll Need:
- More work than you are willing to do on your own
- Internet connection
- Ability to delegate
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Step 1
As a business owner, you are probably used to doing it all yourself. When you start out, you have to be self-reliant. However, there will hopefully come a time when you have too much to do, and to be able to grow your business you will need to either contract or hire some help. Step one is realizing that you can make more money by freeing your time to focus on the things that bring income.
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Step 2
Now look at the tasks that you really do not need to do yourself; the administrative side of your business. Take a look at the amount of time you spend on billing, word processing, research, and expense management. Calculate how long it takes each month to do all that? This is all time you could be spending getting more clients and income.
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Step 3
Once you understand the amount of time involved, decide whether it warrants an employee. Is it over 40 hours a week? Is it over 40 hours per month? Even part-time employees want to work a minimum of set hours whether you have something for them to do or not. If you are looking at closer to 30 hours per week you may need that employee. An employee sitting in your office at $10/hour for 30 hours each week will run you about $1200 per month plus taxes, workman' s comp, vacation and sick time, health insurance, office space, equipment, software and supplies.
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Step 4
Or maybe your business needs can be achieved by a professional in less time. What takes a not-so-great-quality, $10 per hour employee 30 hours a week to achieve may be done by a professional administrative assistant as low as 30 hours per month. You can access that kind of professionalism by contracting a virtual assistant.
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Step 5
Virtual assistants are the professionals that have given up their careers as executive administrative assistants in the corporate brick and mortar world. After years of experience, they have decided to go into business for themselves and provide the highest quality assistance from their virtual office. Because they are well trained in multi-tasking and skilled in many areas, they can provide what a regular employee provides in less time and expense. Research my companion article, "How to Contract a Virtual Assistant", to find out more information.
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Step 6
One sure fire way to know if virtual assistance may be your best bet is if the amount of tasks you would like to delegate is less than what you would hire a part-time employee for and more than you would prefer to do yourself. Virtual Assistants usually work on retainer for 10, 20, and 30 hours per month. Keeping in mind that usually these professionals will require less time to complete your work, you should find that their fees are quite reasonable. A good professional virtual assistant will most likely charge anywhere from $35 per hour and up to over $80 per hour depending on expertise and specialized assistance. You should keep in mind that you are not paying for employee expenses, taxes, office space, equipment, software, vacations, sick time, insurance, health care and other human resource issues that could arise. The "VA" is the simplest "work smarter, not harder" approach to the best quality service you can get and worth looking into before you hire anyone to do all that office work that has been piling up.
