All of the industries and markets in the globe have a common factor – The Myth and the actual hidden Reality. We are discussing a few pointers and some of the most common myths associated with hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA). And comparing the services provided by Freelancers and the services provided by a professional company that hires human resources as VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS.
Some of the young Entrepreneurs (early or later stage) think that they don’t require a VIRTUAL ASSISTANT. But in reality, each business requires a VA/s at every stage. It’s understandable that as an early-stage entrepreneur you are multitasking because of scarce resources, or to save costs for your company. Multitasking may force you to lose your focus or feel stressed by ticking a long list of to-dos for administrative purposes whereas you should be focusing more on marketing and selling your brand or in even a worst-case scenario you may lose your grasp on filtering out the prioritizing tasks and ranking them according to the importance for the moment. This for sure is going to delay your growth and success. By hiring a VA, you may delegate the administrative task and be on track and focus on marketing and sales, you can at least tick off the admin work from your list. If you want to personally work on increasing your exposure and brand reach then focus on that your VA will take care of the other tasks.
While many individuals are claiming to be Professional Virtual Assistants over the internet, the fact is not everyone can do justice to the tasks. It’s always easier said than done. A lot of them lack the skill to harness the whole output. It happens mostly with freelancers as it gets tough to find their credentials and prior work. But with a virtual service providing certified companies like ours we perform funneling of such persons and hire the right candidates and your prospect who will be verified by us for the needed skills and knowledge. Again, it is an advantage to go with a virtual service assistant providing company rather than working with some freelancer in uncertainty. Imagine another scenario where the Freelancer you hired is unable to fulfill the duties for a specific reason and leaves you in between without any notice. Your hiring and training cycle starts all over again. This is not the case with us. Here, our company is accountable for every task, and every VA that works for our client. We ensure the VA is appropriately taken care of, is motivated, and is getting the required training and an environment that keeps them going. In case he/she happens to quit for any reason, it happens with proper notice and we provide the replacement at no cost. Isn’t that great?
Another popular myth that comes to mind, when we are hiring VA/s, they are temporary and will not be for a long period. It may be right for those who hire freelancers but as far as the companies who provide VA. Like ours consist of a whole team of VA and the support staff who specializes in their field and provide clients with assistance which will have the skillset for the task within the team. So overall if you are opting for a VA service providing company then you have a long-run deal to accomplish various tasks as long as there are tasks to be done under a single answerable, responsible, authority rather than with freelancers who may lack the needed skills and are not answerable.
It’s again one of the topmost myths that VAs are only for admin-related work. To be honest, a lot of VAs whether freelancers or working professionals have started their journey with being personal assistants or admin executives. But the truth is mostly VA-providing companies have to offer a lot more than that compared to freelancers. A VA company has a lot of talented persons who are from various backgrounds e.g.: the general VA can look after your every admin, back-office related task; whereas digital marketing specialized VA can look after promoting you and your brand via social media and will let their knowledge and experience work for you in any task you may provide. So, it’s an advantage to go with a company that provides a team of Virtual Assistants under one single organizational set up rather than to go with multiple freelancers.
Yes, we agree with this fact. There are some instances and experiences of VAs disappearing from their employers; some may have scammed money out of the clients. But these instances happen mostly with the freelancers who are independent VAs not associated with any organization. Don’t let these few instances affect your perception of a whole industry. Which has proven to help businesses grow time and time again. The reason this industry is still thriving is there are a lot of companies like us who work with ethics, integrity. The key here is to make a decision and not to be a victim. Mostly when it comes to a channel of payments, freelancers believe in direct bank transfers but certified companies such as ours believe in transparency and opt for safe payment methods like PayPal, Payoneer, and TransferWise and above it, companies have an in-house department that keeps security whether on the transaction or for data that sets us apart from freelancing VAs.
The traditional business worked in the concept of a supervisor, supervising the tasks of employees visiting them from time to time at their desk and reviewing their work making sure work has been done properly and appropriately under the given time frame. So, what happens with VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS who are remote workers? Don’t worry we do have supervisors (Operations Manager) who are physically around the VAs to monitor their breaks, efficiency, and effectiveness. They are also responsible to ensure that the VAs are motivated to get the work done. The best part is – you don’t pay anything additional for the supervisor!!!
Also, there is tools/software to monitor your VA. You can effectively monitor them with software like ZOHO PROJECTS, TIME DOCTOR, TOGGL, HUBSTAFF, TSHEETS, etc.
VAs have their own set of skills and expertise in their field and just because of this don’t skip the training part as every business operates in a different set of policies, has a different approach towards the tasks, and does their work in a specific pattern or form. They also have a different overall work culture so looking into these fields your VA will require training on how you would like them to work. For instance, if you are using different software than the one your VA is experienced to work on, then it’s a must that you provide the training to your VA before assigning him/her to the work.
If you ask us, this myth doesn’t even have any logic and yet it’s still alive. Hiring a remote worker is never more costly than in-house staff. You directly save a lot on utilities, you don’t need to give them space to work, their hourly cost is at least 1/3rd, you may not need to follow the labor wage code as most of the VA companies are located overseas in developing countries. So in comparison with the local workforce, they are always cost-effective and much more dedicated. And again, if you opt for a company that provides VA then you can save up more as they have a team who can look after all of the tasks from different domains. It may not be the case with freelancers: you may need to hire single or multiple freelancers for the same task. So give it a thought whether you have profits in freelancers or from a certified company that provides you with VAs. Consider these facts and decide whether hiring a VA is costly or cost sufficient.
This myth is a bit tricky because it’s half-served truth and half-baked lie. After all, the term remote working is amazing and fascinating as it allows you to stay at homework. So it attracts all the people from different sectors, different age groups like retired people who may have immense knowledge about the field of work but are not tech-savvy, qualified. Non-qualified people like students who just work for spare money and might not approach the work seriously or may lack the experience and knowledge to work on it. But the main thing over here is as it will be work from home mode so there will be a lack of discipline and focus as well. Another point to consider over here is there may be issues with the power and internet connection if they are working from home. To overcome this, you have an option of hiring a company like ours that provides reliable trained qualified Virtual Assistants who are working in a corporate setup and work from a dedicated office with multiple ISP and power supply back up to ensure you and your work don’t suffer. Companies like ours also have dedicated team leaders assigned above them to guide them with the tasks provided by clients; it helps to maintain a disciplined work environment. And apart from that, we ensure you that if in case anything happens to the allotted VA your work will be carried on. Which are next to impossible with the case of freelancers.
CONCLUSION: So, by going through various myths, it gives us the reality check that each business at a point needs VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS so that the petty, monotonous, process-oriented tasks are taken care of and you can focus on more important duties. Keeping all the points in mind, we at TASKPAPA are proud to say that we are a step ahead of freelancers, we are a certified company, we have our workspace and we hire only qualified persons and funnel out the undesired candidates. So, no compromise on the quality of services provided by us. We have multiple ISP setups in case internet service gets affected and we have a backup of power supply too. So whatever may be the case your tasks will not be compromised. Individually, we believe in long-lasting relationships. And try to keep it that way by serving you in any way so you may have a reason to stay with us. Also, we don’t deal only with admin-related work, we have an in-house team of VAs. Who can take care of various tasks from different domains like Digital Marketing, E-commerce Management, Telecalling, and many more. We believe in the term – Clients are next to God. So we work with ethics and integrity and have a professional work structure and vouch for the quality.
We have an in-house team who looks and keeps your sensitive data and information safe and look after it. Apart from various online tools and software, we have assigned team leaders and managers who review the work done by our task officers and supervise, guide & motivate them to ensure it gets done perfectly. We even train our staff on a timely basis as technology is upgrading daily. While comparing with the local workforce and freelancers we are pocket-friendly. As you can avail yourself the service of the team if needed in a single contract.
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