How to hire a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is a remotely located service provider or employee to businesses or entrepreneurs. With the tilt in work culture since the pandemic, remote work, in general, have amassed quite a following. And rightly so! In short, remote work and hiring virtual assistants create win-win situations for all stakeholders.

Statistics on virtual assistants shows that companies have greater benefits from hiring virtual assistants rather than full-time staff.

How do virtual assistants help businesses?

They are highly-skilled remote workers who care for many aspects of a business, and can oversee executive, non-core work, marketing, and more.

They specialize as:

By hiring a full-time virtual assistant, businesses and solo entrepreneurs can improve sales and increase visibility, all without actually paying for the upkeep costs associated with having a full-time employee.

Moreover, you can save on expenses like office space, employee salaries, benefits and bonuses, health insurance, internet services, etc.

You can work on your terms, hire them full-time, part-time, hourly basis, or contractual basis, depending on your requirements and their availability.

Who should hire a virtual assistant and why?

Small businesses and solo entrepreneurs can get the most bang for their buck by hiring a virtual assistant. Despite having a small budget, companies and entrepreneurs can get a virtual backbone that helps ease many business operations.

Because virtual assistants work remotely and cost less than a full-time employee, and you can tweak the contract based on your needs and have them work for you at your preferred times.

  • A virtual administrative assistantis a sound investment if you find yourself tied by too many important and unimportant tasks and struggle with managing and doing your important work.
  • A single person cannot handle every aspect of their business and needs someone to take on what they are not an expert on. So, having a virtual assistant is getting that helping hand.
  • As a business owner or entrepreneur, doing the exact boring bookkeeping, answering 50 emails, or reaching out to new people isn’t possible. In brief, you can save yourself that fatigue. It is time-consuming, and this work is better off delegated to someone who is good at this.
  • If you are unsure about having a full-time in-house employee, a VA on an hourly or full-time basis can help you decide and tweak things. Think of it as a pilot run, but with employees.
  • If you want an expert for less cost, a VA may be a good fit for your business. With specialists like virtual assistant graphic designers, virtual research assistants, and more, you get experts for less cost.

What kinds of virtual assistants can you find, and what do they do?

Some help with all bookkeeping tasks. Others specialize in email marketing, content writing, customer support, research, database building, and more.

An individual assistant with expertise in more than skill can do it for you. In contrast, if you sign up with a virtual assistance agency, you can find specialists in all fields working with them.

Some types of virtual assistants are:

 Virtual administrative assistants:

They can take care of all front desk tasks from a remote setting. Billing, managing accounts, emailing, arranging meetings, calendar management, and other basic duties.

Virtual research assistants:

They have the most refined research skills to conduct primary and secondary research. More importantly, they can conduct extensive research for all your business needs. A virtual research assistant can provide key insights using data mining online.

A virtual research assistant can help you with the following:

  • Travel research
  • Influencer research
  • Data mining and database building

Virtual graphic design assistant:

Hiring a graphic design VA can take your brand’s visibility a notch up. A virtual graphic design assistant as a remote in-house employee can be a great addition to take your brand’s visuals a step ahead.

They can create logos, illustrations, business cards, brochures, flyers, social media posts, video thumbnails, animations, and more. Having an in-house virtual assistant for graphic designing helps you create consistent and memorable visuals across all channels of your brand.

Virtual digital marketing assistant:

A single person or team of virtual digital marketing assistants are remotely based workers who can boost your visibility, marketing, and leads, giving you enough time to focus on your areas of expertise.

A digital marketing VA can help you with the following:

  • Social media management: help find the best platforms for your brand’s visibility. Social media management assistantscan analyze content performance and growth on social media.
  • Email marketing: running an email marketing campaign is a long and tedious process and involves a lot of expertise. Outsourcing this to a virtual digital marketing assistant makes the process as easy as driving a hot knife through a block of butter.
  • Affiliate marketing: a digital marketing research assistant can find the most suitable partners to boost your brand’s sales and growth.
  • Content creation: a virtual assistant can stay updated with the latest trends and create content along those lines.

Virtual assistant pricing packages:

Virtual assistants are available on hourly rates or can club services into a package. The pricing model is set based on your requirements and availability.

If you’re new and want to learn how to communicate and delegate with your independent contractor, it might be a good idea to go for hourly rates.

Eventually, you can opt for a full-time or a service and contract-based virtual assistant when you are comfortable with someone working as your remote employee.

Nada is our content handler. From blogs and article writing to research and proofreading, she oversees it all! She wishes to leave an impact wherever she goes, and aspires to publish her own book one day. She is an obsessive reader and her favorite genre is fantasy.

Managing, supervising, marketing – Khushi oversees it all! As a leader, she aims to inspire and lead her team through example and persistence. Outside of work, she enjoys trying out different cuisines and shopping for new outfits!

Suresh, our lead gen pro, deals with data analysis and LinkedIn leads. He is a firm believer in “if you believe it, you can achieve it.” When he isn’t working, he enjoys cooking and reading autobiographies of great leaders. He is determined to progress his career and use his skills to better the world.

Sirisha is our data analyst and supervises our research and branding. She is driven, determined, and always focused. She aspires to grow with Namo Padmavati.

I have one goal in life – to obliterate what society normalizes and impact others to do the same. I come from a traditional background where you are an outsider if you don’t live by the book. Working women are considered taboo, and having a personal purpose is a crime.
But I’ve always wondered – who are they to validate the way I live?
I started working a full-time job when I was 18. I started small in a fast-growing SEO company and worked my way up to become an Operational Manager two years later. I was training teams and engaging with clients. I was doing quality checks and handling distraught customers. I never said no to a task. I had gained a lot of learning experience, but I always knew that a typical 9-5 job would never be enough to satisfy me.
Working under someone wasn’t really my thing. Or following a certain dress code. Or working certain hours for a certain amount of money. These norms may work for many people. It did work for me for a while too.
But I wanted more.
When I decided to start my own company, I lost much support. I was confused, overwhelmed, and had people constantly tell me to “give it up and get married.” At the tender age of 20, I was barely out of high school, and I made many mistakes and trusted the wrong people too quickly.
Others won’t tell you this, but there is safety in working under someone. When I messed up, they had my back. They showed me the way out. But when I became my own boss – as awesome as that sounds – I had to clean up my own mess and learn from my mistakes as soon as I could.
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Today, I’m glad I never gave up. All those mistakes were lessons I had to learn to grow, progress and win. It made me realize my true potential and taught me how to think beyond my struggles.
I also get to go to work in my pajamas. Yes – it’s as liberating as it sounds.
And every time I complete a project and have satisfied clients – I consider that a win.
In the short span of three years, I’ve worked on over 200 projects and trained several international teams. I have given business coaching to entrepreneurs. I was given the honor to be the City Chair of Hyderabad, India for Global Dignity in 2018-2019. I was also hired as a project manager for many international companies.
Starting Namo Padmavati had a colossal impact on my life that I couldn’t have ever imagined. To me, it’s not about the money. It’s about loyalty, building trust, and providing quality service. It’s about the lessons, the influence, and the respect. It’s about helping others on an international level. Despite the stress and struggles, I now sleep better at night, knowing I have a purpose to look forward to tomorrow and that I made a difference today.