It’s clear that you can outsource to a virtual assistant many of the tasks that you do and which don’t require your physical presence. However, you might be wondering why you would want to pay someone to do things that you can do yourself?

1. 3 KEY BENEFITS OF USING A
VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
BY JO HARRISON
INTRODUCTION
The acronym VA, which stands for Virtual Assistant, comes up more and more often in the
business world. Entrepreneurs and business owners seem to be fascinated with Virtual Assistants,
people who can make their lives less stressful and more productive at the same time. Have you
ever wondered why people are talking more about Virtual Assistants and what the benefits of
using one are?
In this eBook you will find out the three key benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant, and how you can
hire one.

2. WHAT IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT (VA)?
A virtual assistant is a professional who provides administrative services to people who have more
to do, than time to do it. Virtual assistants work remotely, often using their own home as their
office space. Most virtual assistants are self-employed and work as independent contractors.
What exactly can a virtual assistant help you with?
Here are some of the tasks that a virtual assistant can do for you:
 Make or cancel appointments
 Order services on your behalf
 Arrange travel for you, or your family
 Answer your calls and emails
 Contact people on your behalf
 Create and format various documents
 Manage your website or blog and post updates to it
 Manage your social media profiles
 Do research for you
 ...the list goes on
It's clear that you can outsource to a virtual assistant many of the tasks that you do and which
don't require your physical presence. However, you might be wondering why you would want to
pay someone to do things that you can do yourself?

3. THE BENEFITS OF HIRING A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS CAN SAVE YOU TIME
When people start their own small business, they often do it for two main reasons:
 They want to be their own boss.
 They want to earn more money and improve their lifestyle.
However, once their business starts to take off, most business owners find themselves in an
unenviable situation of working more and more in order to meet their goals, fulfill the needs of
their valuable clients and possibly feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
A Virtual Assistant could help you deal with these difficult situations. By outsourcing the
repetitive tasks and tasks that don't require your attention and physical presence to a virtual
assistant, you can free up valuable time.
What you could do if only you had more time?
 You could spend more time with your family. Missing your children growing up because
you are too busy dealing with paperwork and admin is probably not what you had envi-
saged. Perhaps you’d intended spending more time with your friends or on hobbies when
you made this lifestyle change.
 Perhaps your health is suffering with the hours you need to put in. Freeing up time and
outsourcing to a VA may give you the space to do some healthy things for yourself to im-
prove your fitness levels and provide you with the extra oomph needed to reach your
goals.
 Of course, earning money and being successful is important to you. I am sure too that
spending quality time with family and friends is as important. If you could delegate some
of your time hungry yet low return tasks to a VA it would allow you to do both things well.
You can concentrate on what you excel at, whilst your VA can concentrate on what they
excel at.
VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS CAN SAVE YOU MONEY
Have you ever asked yourself; do you really need a physical office and employees in order to run
your business? When you have employees, you have to rent an office, buy or rent furniture, pay
utility bills, provide internet access, computers, and office supplies etc. All that is unnecessary if
you hire a virtual assistant, they work from home and provide for themselves.
When you have employees, you‘ll have many legal issues to deal with, such as insurance, taxes,
etc. You’ll need to comply with employment law, and perhaps health and safety regulations. By

4. using a virtual assistant there is no need as they are self-employed and deal with these issues
themselves.
When you have employees who work in an office, you are paying them for the time they spend in
the office, not for the actual work that they do. You might be paying them when they are at home
sick. I am sure you don’t want to pay your staff whilst they surf the internet and talk to their
friends on Facebook? When you outsource to a virtual assistant, you only pay them for the work
they’ve done not the work they haven’t done. A VA costs far less than a full-time employee.
This is particularly useful for small business owners; saving you money by not having an office
with employees and hiring virtual assistant. When you add up all costs involved, a Virtual
Assistant (even a top grade VA) will be more cost effective.
VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS CAN HELP YOU ACCOMPLISH MORE
When you run a business, you often have to make a lot of decisions and do a wide variety of tasks.
Attempting to be skilled at every job that comes up can mean you spread yourself too thinly and
potentially lose your focus which can impact negatively on your productivity.
We are all naturally good at some things and we are not so good at others. Imagine that you love
sales and are extremely good at selling, but you're not good at using social media and
administrative tasks have you tearing your hair out. Would it make sense for you to spend time
handling your social media and e-mails when you could spend that same time closing sales? I
hope the answer is clear. When a VA might cost you £20 for an hour’s work, and in that time you
close a sale worth £250 there is no contest.
When you run a business, you can only put so many things on your to-do list. Life might be less
complicated if you focus on the things you do best and delegate everything else to a virtual
assistant.
Today, more and more business owners outsource many of their daily tasks to Virtual Assistants.
Keep reading and find out how to hire a Virtual Assistant?

5. HOW TO HIRE A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
It’s quite simple. Virtual Assistants are waiting for you to find them on the websites below. Here
are three of the best websites you can use:
Here are a few simple tips:
 Understand your own needs first. There are many types of Virtual Assistants. You have to know
what exactly it is that you need if you want to find a Virtual Assistant who is a good fit for you.
 Find a payment system that works for you. Different Virtual Assistants often offer different
payment options. Try to figure out what works for you as soon as possible.
 Find the right person. When asked about hiring Virtual Assistants, some people say to “hire slow
and fire fast”. This might sound harsh, but it's better to let the wrong person go as soon as you
see that it isn't working.
FINAL WORDS
Be clear about your own needs, and communicate clearly these needs. It might be that you and
your new VA work well together from the start. You may need to try out one or two before you
find the one you can work with. I don’t think you’ll regret your decision once you’ve moved into
the outsourcing world. Enjoy your new freedom and health.
When you decide to hire a Virtual Assistant for the first time, you will probably need to
experiment a bit in order to figure out what works best for you. You will quickly learn what works
and what doesn't in your individual situation and once you get the taste of the less stressful and
more productive life, you won’t look back!

6. ABOUT JO
Jo is a virtual assistant, specialising in administration, document format-
ting, blog set-up and management, social media management and SEO
copywriting.
Prior to setting up Writer's Block Admin Services, Jo spent over 15 years in
administration and coordinator roles within various industries in the UK
including recruitment, education, non-profit and local government.
Jo provides virtual assistance to businesses and individuals through
effective, efficient and dynamic support services.
British born and bred, Jo is now based in France but able to provide virtual assistance to
businesses throughout the world.
Some of Jo’s qualifications include:
 European Computer Driving License
 Advanced Word ECDL
 Advanced Excel ECDL
 Advanced Web Publishing
 Proofreading
Jo is a full member of the International Virtual Assistants Association.
Connect with Jo on the following social networks: