FAQ's
If this is your first time hiring a VA I expect you will have a few questions. There are the common ones like, “How much does it cost?” or the ones driven by doubt such as, “How do I know my VA is working the hours we agreed?”
These are some of the questions business owners ask when they are thinking about working with a Virtual Assistant for the first time along with some clarifications to help with those uncertainties, doubts, and knowledge gaps. If, as a VA myself, I can't make life easier for you in this way by helping you navigate and understand everything, then quite frankly, I'm in the wrong job!
TIP - Use the FAQs drop-down menu to go straight to your question!
What is a Virtual Assistant?
Your Virtual Assistant is a professional who provides you with administrative, technical, or creative support. They perform tasks that can include email and diary management, managing your social media accounts, creating documents and presentations and typing up meeting notes and minutes.
Virtual assistants offer a wide range of specialist skills that you can draw from, meaning that you don’t need to employ additional headcount in your business, spend your valuable time learning a new skill, or having to teach someone else to do it. You can take advantage of being able to scale up or down the hours you need your VA for, or even just use them specifically for a one-off project.
What are the advantages of using a Virtual Assistant?
Time Saving - Your VA is an expert in tasks you need them to do. They will likely be quicker at it than if you did it yourself. You also recover the time when they are doing it to do other things such as focusing on revenue generation and adding more value to your customers.
Earning More Money - Your customers will see things returned and responded to quicker, this helps you to retain customers and gain referral work. I’ve already touched on the extra potential revenue increase in the time saving.
More Relaxed and Energised - With a VA by your side picking up some of your workload you will be able to have time for proper rest and relaxation without feeling guilty or worrying about the work that’s building up whilst you are away.
No Extra Office Space - Your VA is often remote, they won’t need you to provide a desk, IT equipment, or an office to work from.
Flexible Hours - Unlike an employee where you generally set in stone the number of hours they’ll work, a VA is flexible. This means that you can increase or decrease the hours to suit your needs as your business changes and evolves.
To find out more check out my blog
How much does it cost to hire a VA?
A Virtual Assistant in the UK will on average be charging £30 - £45 per hour. Some (including me) also offer fixed rate packages for specific tasks or hours per month.
There are Virtual Assistants who work outside of the UK that will cost less, they also don’t have the same requirements for compliance or insurance. Their tax rules may also be different. It’s worth considering hiring your VA from the country you run your business from to make sure all the rules and regulations are met.
Check out my packages to see my rates and services or have a look at my blog about costs of hiring a VA over a traditional employee
How do I train my Virtual Assistant for my specific needs?
Your VA will be skilled in the tasks they are supporting you with, meaning you will not have to provide training.
You will need to be clear about what you need them to do and by when. You can use project management tools for task tracking if it helps such as Trello or Asana. Maintaining regular communication, particularly early on in the relationship, will make sure that you both stay on the same page.
How do I choose a virtual assistant for my business?
You will need to know what you want your VA to do for you and an idea of how long it takes you to do it (this helps to figure out how many hours you will need!). Have a think about how you would want to communicate with your VA and when you would like to get started.
Good signs that your VA is experienced and trusted are LinkedIn reviews or website testimonials. After this it’s going to be a case of arranging a conversation to make sure they fit with you and your business, this will be a lot of gut feelings.
If you would like some more information on how to choose the right VA for you, click the button below to view a blog I’ve written on this very topic
What skills should I look for in a Virtual Assistant?
This will mostly be based around your own needs and what you need your Virtual Assistant to do for you. Other things to consider are their communication, time management, and organisational skills. Their values should align with your own to make sure you are off to the best start.
How does a Virtual Assistant keep my information secure and confidential?
A UK based Virtual Assistant will make sure that you and your clients are protected.
As a VA in the UK I am registered with the ICO and can provide the proof. I have cyber liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance and can provide you with copies of my certificates. Your client files are accessed through your cloud storage and are never stored locally. I use a secure password manager to securely store any passwords so they are never written down anywhere. I am more than happy to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement if you need it.
If you are a UK business owner using a Virtual Assistant based in the UK then these things should always be in place and will protect you. The rules are different if you are using a Virtual Assistant operating from overseas. The compliance and insurance requirements may differ.
How can a Virtual Assistant improve my business revenue?
A VA helps you to focus on other areas of your business that you can’t currently get enough time on because you are bogged down with aligning diaries for meetings, daily admin, and the endless emails.
If you think about how much time you are devoting to those administrative tasks that YOU don’t need to do (although someone does!) and what you might do with those hours if someone else was doing those things…
How much additional revenue could you generate?
How many additional clients or proposals could you focus on?
What could you do to really drive your business to where you would like it to be?
It’s not just business either…
How many more evenings could you spend with your family and friends?
How many school runs could you actually do?
What difference would it make to you to have someone looking after your business and supporting you?
Don’t think of a Virtual Assistant as an expense, think of us as a valuable resource that will support you to achieve your goals!
Can a Virtual Assistant do customer service tasks?
Your Virtual Assistant can more than handle customer service tasks including responding to enquiries, managing support tickets, providing information, and processing orders or invoices.
How will I know if my VA is really doing the work?
The short answer is you won’t know if your VA is sitting at their desk for the full allotted time you’ve paid for each month. You will know if you are getting the results you want though.
I can provide a time report each month if needed although my clients don’t usually want it. My clients get everything they need from me and trust that if I think they are on the wrong amount of monthly hours I will let them know. (This works both for increasing and decreasing hours)
Your VA will become one of your most trusted partners in your business, they will understand you and your business. Trust is massive here. If when you are looking for a virtual assistant you are in any way unsure about trusting them, trust your gut feelings and walk away.
Can I try before I buy?
Absolutely! Set out a task, pay the hourly rate and you will be able to get the job done for you. This is not how to get to know your VA though if you are planning on using them long term rather than for a one off project.
I only work with business owners that I have met on a video call prior to agreeing to the work. This is for both one off project work and long term arrangements. I do this so we can start the journey of getting to know each other and establishing a good working relationship. They need to like and trust me as much as I need to like and trust them. This is a partnership.
What are the most common challenges of working with a Virtual Assistant?
Common challenges include communication barriers, time zone differences, trust issues, and ensuring quality and consistency of work. These can be managed through clear communication, regular updates, defined processes, and hiring your Virtual Assistant from the country your business is located in.
Got another question? Get in touch, and let me know what you need.
If you are ready to move towards a conversation I’d love to chat to see how I could help you.
Before working with Lisa, I was struggling to see the wood for the trees. I had a backlog of emails with a lot of spam and newsletters mixed in, making it impossible to see what needed action at a glance.
Since she has taken over managing my inbox life is much simpler. There are now only a few daily emails for me to deal with, allowing me to get on with client work. It’s been the same with my cloud storage files, they are all now in one place and ordered so I can find the documents I need when I need them. There is so much value Lisa adds to my business behind the scenes, everyone needs someone in their corner and I’m really glad she’s in mine.
Mark Rathore
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