Enjoy this week’s guest post by Meredith Raber!
A virtual assistant is an independent contractor that provides services such as general administration, social media marketing or website assistance to small business owners from their home office. There are 3 main myths I hear all too often about virtual assistants and what they do.
Myth #1
A virtual assistant is a personal assistant.
The term virtual assistant has really become a blanket term for contractors helping small business owners with various tasks. This could include personal assistant tasks as well as general administration tasks but it could also include more strategic projects and thought leadership such as product launches, website maintenance and even social media strategy.
Myth #2
I can’t afford a virtual assistant.
Virtual assistants set up and run their own businesses differently but the most common cost structure you will see when hiring one is to pay an hourly rate or a monthly service rate. One of the main reasons why a virtual assistant is key in the beginning phase of your business is because you can hire one to do a certain amount of hours per month at an hourly rate or they can provide a specific service for you at a flat fee making it much more manageable from a budget standpoint in the beginning of your business.
Myth #3
My business isn’t organized enough yet to hire a virtual assistant.
You don’t have to have all your ducks in a row to hire help. That’s the reason why you need support, isn’t it? As a small business owner, you don’t have time to get everything organized. Most virtual assistants are ready to dive into your business and create the standard operating procedures and processes so you don’t have to. Another bonus to hiring a VA is that most of them work with various clients so not only will they have a great perspective from their experience but also have recommendations of what works well and what doesn’t.
If you are thinking of hiring a VA in 2022, I always recommend that you take a week and write down all the tasks and/or projects you are doing on repeat that YOU don’t need to be doing. A good example would be creating status documents or invoicing clients. At the end of the week take a look at all the tasks you wrote down so you know what type of virtual assistant you will be looking for and what their skill set should entail. You deserve the support you need in your business and a virtual assistant is a great way to get it within any budget.
Overwhelmed by the thought of hiring assistance for your business even though you need it? Check out Merediths The VA Hiring Guide.
Meredith is the owner of Meredith Raber Virtual Assistant Services, a full-service virtual assistance agency for female entrepreneurs. With 11 years of corporate advertising experience coupled with 4 years entrenched in the online business industry, Meredith provides strategic marketing direction as well as manages day-to-day tasks so business owners can focus on their core business. Her goal is to serve as a trusted partner and build long-term relationships with her clients. She also mentors new virtual assistants by helping them build a solid foundation for their very own online business. When she’s not strategizing with clients or checking off to-do lists, she spends as much time as she can with her family enjoying her local beaches.