Virtual Assistant - would you use one?

[Dawn Lane]

I think using a VA is a good idea for small business person who is constantly on the go. If I had a business where my traveling is required I would really use one. But every one is concerned about the attention the VA will pay to towards the business. What if a VA is working with more than one and the VA starts neglecting or starts selling confidential information? These are the main concerns for hiring a VA

A VA working with you in your business will be no less confidential with your information than a solicitor or accountant. It is in the VA's interest to ensure they keep all their clients' information confidential otherwise they could end up out of business.

Also, if you work with a professional VA (stress the word professional) together you will have emails set up in your company name, they will seem to be part of your own business and will actually promote your business to clients/potential clients. I work with a number of sole traders where there is only 1 person in the company but their clients are not aware that I am not an employee and have many times given glowing feedback to my client about the way in which I interact with them.

I have been a VA since 2006, work with public and private sector clients, including the NHS and private GP/psychologists. I do traditional PA work for a lot of them and also do bookkeeping work - for some clients I even have direct access to their bank accounts to make payments on their behalf. My clients are all aware that I work with other clients and none of them are unhappy with the fact that I have access to their confidential information. I sign confidentiality agreements with all of them when i start working with them.

Just because you don't travel doesn't mean to say there is no case for using a VA in your business. What happens to the missed phone calls when you are speaking to another client? That could be the one call that makes you a large profit for the year. How long do you spend on a particular piece of administration work (because it isn't your area of expertise) when you could have been doing fee-earning work? Paying a VA to do some of these admin tasks can work out more cost effective than you struggling to do it yourself and losing fee-earning time.

Dawn

 

[James Greg]

Dawn Lane, You have gained trust of your clients and they have even allowed you to access their accounts. This is professionalism and I agree once you meet a VA like this then doubts vanish. This trust comes with time and experience. This clears my concerns.

 

[victorm]

I have used VAs and PAs for years. Since my online operations are quite complex and require 24h coverage, this has been the easiest way instead of paying extra for UK or IE employees to work unsocial hours.
From my experience, I prefer to hire VAs through an outsourcing company - the main reason being, individuals are less reliable on their own (health issues, holidays, network outages etc) while an outsourcing company hedges that by having more than one employee available to each of their clients and most of the time more than one office. This is not to say that you are at a disadvantage, on the contrary - but you must adapt your offering and focus on data privacy and personalized service, rather than high availability. Native English speaking is also a BIG argument in your favor (if the case). The way to work around this is to find a reliable VA for yourself in Asia and have your own coverage insured - not easy to do in the beginning, but a desirable state if you want to replace regular employment with VA. Long thread and I am sure you got loads of good ideas - thought only to pitch in my 2c and wish you good luck!

 

[Chicinwellies]

Great thread, and good research for me, compiling my business plan as I speak before I go it alone as a VA. Excited, determined, and grafting!

 

[Mike tells it like it is]

If want a website doing pm me for advice

 

[Mike tells it like it is]

There are a lot of conmen around you know.

 

[csswright]

I have hired a VA as well when I couldn't handle the tremendous amount of work I had. So I think that deciding to be a VA would be a good decision only if you really like being a VA. There are a lot of VAs now and most of them are earning great.

 

[BridiesTyping]

Great thread, and good research for me, compiling my business plan as I speak before I go it alone as a VA. Excited, determined, and grafting!

If you haven't already, I recommend joining the Virtual Assistant Forums, heaps of resources and other VAs to connect with.

 

[Chicinwellies]

Thank you - I will join the forum and am spending as many hours as possible accumulating solid research before I finalise my business plan. I have 11yrs as an EA (well 3 as a PA for CEO, 3 as EA to a diplomat, and 4 as a product manager) and within that have a grounded involvement in procurement, product development, event management, and PR. Really hope I have a lot to give and as I am obsessively organised I can't think of a better way to apply myself! I live in deepest darkest Cornwall so the concept of being a 'Virtual' PA is really appealing as my catchment area is seriously limited down here. Am hoping to be able to work with a select few clients, and am so motivated I find it really hard to accept that the hard work is in the planning and thats even before implementing any of this. Some super advice on here and am learning a lot from this forum. Thank you

 

[alice_p]

^^^ Yes, but for $4 an hour, you get what you pay for I suspect.

 

[jyaky123]

Hi

I wonder if anyone would be able to answer a few queries I have?

I am being made redundant from my administration job in June and consequently I will be relocating to my home town of Dorset to be nearer to my family.

Instead of finding new employment I am really enthusiastic about setting myself up as a Virtual Assistant/Administrator to local business. I realise this would be a lot of hard work to generate income from nothing but I am willing to work 24/7 to achieve this. I have am a skilled administrator with strong experience in many fields and I feel I could provide local business with an excellent service. However I’m finding it difficult to work out if there is a demand for this kind of service. Would you use a virtual assistant? If so why? And how often? Or wouldn’t you use a VA?

I realise work could be sporadic and my main concern is that I will not make enough money to match my current salary (£15000pa). If there’s any VAs on here (I have done a search and noticed that Bridges is a VA who has set up recently) I would be very grateful of some advice. I need to know if I can realistically afford to live if I take the plunge and do this!
Sorry for the long post!
Many thanks

 

[Herz]

Yes, because based on my experience as a virtual assistant many clients reason is almost the same. They are so busy with other stuff and they will not be able to manage and focus on their daily administration task. So, if they will delegate it to a VA they can focus more on other stuff and somehow they can relax since there will be someone who will take care of the business.

 

[zigojacko]

Yes, because based on my experience as a virtual assistant many clients reason is almost the same. They are so busy with other stuff and they will not be able to manage and focus on their daily administration task. So, if they will delegate it to a VA they can focus more on other stuff and somehow they can relax since there will be someone who will take care of the business.

You signed up to the forum just to comment that (^) on a thread from 2010!?

Next you'll be pushing VA services.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Dig up a 4 year old thread on VAs and respond with bad grammar

 

[Kat Haylock]

@Herz, please check our rules on reviving old threads here (in short, it's not allowed)