Hiring a Virtual Personal Assistant: The Hows and Whys

In daydreaming what life might be like with someone else doing those tasks for you, it’s not hard to see how your work life might improve. But let’s take a look at some of the specific scenarios in which a virtual personal assistant will shine: 

• Eliminating distractions. Let’s say that you no longer want to take on personal tasks like scheduling your own travel arrangements or taking calls without screening. You can create more dedicated work time for yourself by taking on a virtual personal assistant who handles the less-productive (but still essential) tasks of your day.
• Adding productivity. If you’re constantly attached to the personal tasks that dominate your daily life, you’re not going to be as productive as you otherwise could be. That’s especially true when you consider tasks like data entry, which can eat up a lot of time but don’t allow you to focus on the more important tasks in your day that can improve the way your life runs.‍
• Becoming the boss of your own life. Let’s be honest: who wouldn’t like to have an executive assistant? They could outsource just about any aspect of their life and have a go-to whenever they need a question answered. A virtual personal assistant can help fill in these gaps to create a similar effect—for a fraction of the cost.

Already sold on all of the benefits above, but aren’t sure that a virtual assistant can replace or even exceed an in-person, full-time administrative assistant? 

Then let’s look at little more closely at how a virtual assistant works:

The Cost: A Surprising Benefit in Outsourcing Your Administrative Tasks

Hiring a full-time executive personal assistant can be expensive. Between the hours worked, the yearly salary, the benefits, the vacation time, it can add up more quickly than you might imagine. The advantage of a virtual personal assistant? You can essentially have the same experience on a virtual basis without the same full-time commitment when it comes to cost.

Consider that the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that about 31% of the average pay for average workers goes towards the cost of benefits. That means you’re paying nearly a third of the overall wage towards benefits—not the actual hourly cost of the labor for which you’re paying.

This is all well and good for people with large businesses and large budgets. But there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to have a great executive assistant experience simply because of the high cost barrier.

In contrast, a virtual assistant will work on an hourly basis. Their freelancer arrangement is straight-forward, which means you don’t have to worry about paying benefits.

Productivity and Why People Like Being Virtual Assistants

It’s not just the rise in demand that’s making people become virtual assistants. A lot of people like the flexible hours that come with being a virtual assistant. They’re allowed to work in the comfort of their own home.

On average, it’s estimated that most workers are only productive for about three hours per day. If you have full-time employees, that means you have to pay a lot of money for those three productive hours—much more than you might imagine that you’re paying.

With a virtual personal assistant, you’ll have a much more direct connection between the hours you pay for and the productivity you see. If you pay for a virtual assistant to do three hours of data entry, you can look at the results of those three hours immediately. There’s no guesswork involved. You’ll be able to see the fruits of your labor and the direct connection between hours paid and work provided.

This is a good arrangement for the assistants, too. They get to have a more flexible work schedule—which often means working from the safety and comfort of their own home. They don’t have to commute to an office in the morning, so they save time every day.