Outsourcing lets business owners hire an offshore agency or virtual assistant to perform tasks or projects. Well, yes, this sounds good and a fact that almost everyone already knows. But recently there have been claims that the downside of hiring virtual assistant services is a surge in numbers of businessmen lazying or slacking off.
The popularity of outsourcing has really taken off with the advent of modern technologies, which then enables real-time communications fast, cheap and accessible. Tools like Skype have become very ubiquitious in the performance of businesses and outsourcing in a globalizing world.
A couple of decades ago, it’s unimaginable for businesses based in New York or London to manage a team of remote virtual assistants. The realities we have now are only but just a dream and visions found in paperback sci-fi books.
So before we answer the question we left earlier about the alleged downright impact of outsourcing virtual assistant services, we’ll first look into what virtual assistants do that small businesses can outsource, the benefits of having a virtual assistant, and steps to finding the right virtual assistant and taking advantage of a transaction.
Wanted: Virtual Assistants
The high demand for virtual assistants have increased over the years as entrepreneurs started to realize the powerful impact that outsourcing can deliver on their growth, productivity and efficiency.
Not only Manila virtual assistants cost only a fraction of the labor expenses they’d normally pay for a local talent, these staff can be very hardworking, dedicated and loyal. In most cases, these virtual assistants working now are former professionals who ditched their day jobs to become freelancers.
What types of tasks are best offloaded to virtual assistants? Here, we’ll name a few and they include:
- Repetitive, Lame Tasks. These are often less savory but there are virtual assistants around who are willing to do this job for you. Small businesses are leveraging this type of stuff from accounts payable, data entry and shipping inventory.
- Specialized Tasks. Your accounting system may need an IT support to manage and maintain these tasks even on a part-time basis, then these could be the types you can outsource. Other examples include SEO analysis, data science tasks, online and mobile marketers, and more.
- Executive level. Some executive type or level jobs can be outsourced to a virtual assistant and you might be in for the biggest surprise of your life if you’ll simply have someone provide you with financial analysis or ensure that your financial and bookkeeping works are being handled well.
The more that you leverage skills and expertise of your outsourced staff, surely you’ll seize much of the benefits of having a virtual assistant. So the option for you, if you are a small business, is to actually outsource everything that drain or consume your time and energy.
Risks and Perils of Outsourcing to Virtual Assistant Services
The real share of outsourcing is helping companies, especially start up entrepreneurs, to minimize the opportunity costs that come with doing mundane and lame tasks. This is likely the consequence of halting off the high-impact jobs that you’re supposed to be doing just because you also perform the non-core side of your business processes.
Beside the critical role that outsourcing plays in ensuring success to your enterprise, some real risks present themselves when your virtual assistants, who are third party outsider, perform the key aspects of your company’s future success.
Unless the virtual assistant is the best fit and fully absorbed to your business goals and missions, some virtual staff may have a very different agenda or mission. When the motives are different with yours, expect works being rendered sloppily or messed up.
So it’s not advisable to just outsource everything simply because you don’t want to do it. Especially if that piece of work you are avoiding to do are inherent to strategies and core competencies of your business. And it is in this case when businessmen can really turn out lazy.
As a consequence, you might be in for a big business failure. And here’s why finding the right virtual assistant to perform your tasks or jobs is critical to your outsourcing success and business in general.
How to Find the Best and Right Virtual Assistant Partner
Here to help you find the right remote staff for your business are our tips, which include:
- Careful due diligence. Research over the Internet for prospective virtual workers and conduct a background check on their capabilities, clients, success rate and testimonies from former clients. Do this until you come out with your short list
- Decide the Tasks to Outsource. By taking a hard look at your business and finding out which are your strengths and the values you engender at your firm, you’ll arrive at a better selection of virtual asssitant to outsource. So if you’re main concern is product development, don’t simply outsource the stuff simply because you want to save.
- Arrange a meeting. The meeting can be done using web conference or through Skype with the video call opened. This is the best way to gauge the extent of experience your shortlisted virtual assistants currently have. Ask questions related to the job or task that you will offload to your virtual staff and choose the ones who’ll satisfy your needs.
- Negotiate the Cost. Remember not to be easily tempted by a very cheap labor cost that it appears too good to be true in the surface. In any transaction you’ll surely get what you paid for. But also don’t believe the notion that expensive is par excellence. Be watchful of sales presentation that only appear to be exaggerating and over inflating the positives.
- Look for Virtual Assistant Who Care. If you’ll fall for a virtual assistant that offer a good cost deals but lacks the appreciation or care to your company’s unique culture, you should never compromise or settle for anybody not fit to your strategy or business culture.
Final Words …
The emergence of virtual assistants should help move your company to even greater heights and not serve as a lame excuse to slouch at your desk simply because you already have someone competent to do the work for you.
Outsourcing is a strategy that can surely help your small business cut the budget and at the same time lets you focus on the essential aspect of growing your business. Done right, the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant can help multiply your profit potential and satisfy your customers with even better products and services.
