Since the creation of the Internet, the world has changed. The
way in which we communicate with our friends, the banking system,
the
way in which we shop and make our shopping decisions all have dramatically
changed. Some people have become millionaires, some have made small
fortunes and some
have at least tried to sell something on e-bay. Reality
is that the Internet is here to stay and is not going away. In
one form or the other it has or will touch our personal lives and
our
businesses.
Many new jobs have appeared and some others have changed in order
to adapt to the changing Internet. This is the case of the Secretarial
work or office work. Just a decade ago when someone started a business,
if not the first, but one of the first things that the entrepreneur
had to think about was the secretary and all the expenses that
came associated with a secretary. When computers became affordable
and almost every household could afford to have one, entrepreneurs
and small business owners wrongly thought that they could “get
rid” of their secretaries or assistants forever and with
the proper training they could do everything, from developing a
business idea, to marketing, answering calls, writing reports,
letters, invoices, networking and paying bills.
This new way of working proved successful for a short while until
the entrepreneurs/small businessmen realized that they were spending
more than 50% of their productive time in administrative work or
office work. Some
just did it but others gave it up completely
to find themselves one year down the road overwhelmed by the amount
of paperwork accumulated. This is when the VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS (V.A.)
started to appear all over the Internet, to help some of their
old bosses and to help some of the emerging small businesses.
This time, however, the small business owner had a better idea
of his/her needs and the V.A. knew that it was not necessary to
spend all day locked up in an office to be able to be productive
and to
make some money. V.A.s became entrepreneurs themselves and started
their own businesses. In places like Australia and the United Kingdom,
a V.A. is the way to go. Services such as word-processing, typing
services, data entry, phone answering, power point presentations,
and much more became services that could be offered on an hourly
bases.
Entrepreneurs realized that they could actually make money by
hiring a Virtual Assistant.
You can also make money hiring a Virtual Assistant.
· No need to get extra office space. The
last thing an entrepreneur or a small business owner wants is to
spend money
singing a one or two year lease, setting up an office, having an
alarm system installed and 6 or 8 months later concluding that
there was no need for such a big place or that on the contrary
they needed a bigger space. We start a business because we hope
that we are going to do well, nobody starts a business to go bankrupt;
but there are many factors that we will only discover once the
business is running. Hiring a V.A. will solve this problem instantly.
You as an entrepreneur or small business owner can either have
a small office, an office in your home, or in your car. We will
work
from our own office; you don’t need to get office space to
accommodate us.
· No need to buy extra office equipment: Since we are constantly
working for different clients; we have our own office equipment
and supplies. You, as an entrepreneur/small
business owner don’t have to spend your time and money buying
expensive office equipment such as fax, printer, scanner and supplies
to stock for long periods of time. When you are starting or running
a small business you don’t want to drain your business.
· No employee related taxes: V.A. are
entrepreneurs themselves, we pay our own taxes, we are not in your
business’s
payroll and we don’t generate employee related taxes for
the company.
· No insurance or benefits: Just like
I mentioned above, being entrepreneurs, V.A.s pay for their
own insurance and you don’t have to pay us benefits or pension
plan.
· No overtime: Once a rate is negotiated
with a V.A., you don’t have to worry about when we are doing
the job. You will not pay overtime; on the contrary, if the amount
of work is
big enough you may be able to negotiate a better rate. This will
lower your costs and you will be making more money.
· Minimal or no training required: In
order for an employee to perform well, employees need to be well
trained and this requires
lots of time, time that has to be taken out of the business. You
know the saying: TIME is MONEY. V.As know their job; they have
lots of experience and require minimum or no training at all. With
some simple, straightforward direction, V.As can do their
job well immediately.
· Pay only for the time you use: When you hire and employee,
it has to be either part time or full time, but either way you
have to pay him/her for the amount of time that they are in the
office regardless of the amount of work that needs to be done.
V.As eliminate this problem all together: You pay only for the
amount of time that you use or that you need, it could either be
one hour a month or 30 hours a month.
· After-hours services: V.As work in teams. If you need
rush or after hours service, we will get it done on time, guaranteed.
You have a 24/7 high quality professional service at your request.
· Professional results: V.As are professionals themselves
that run their own businesses. We are very interested in making
our own business grow; as a result you will receive, high quality
customer service and professional results.
· You will have access to up-to-date equipment
and software without paying for the extra cost. Each
V.A. needs to keep their equipment and software up-to-date since
they are running a business
themselves
and they need to provide the best service. Word processing, typing,
data entry, faxing, Internet research, Power Point presentations
and scanning are done with the latest equipments. We always keep
our software and communications up to date. Don't spend time and
money updating equipment that you will barely use.
You will have access
to all of these advantages without having to pay for them.
Having a Virtual Assistant can considerably reduce your administrative
time and your operating expenses.
You will be saving money!
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