What Is A Virtual Assistant?

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 12 months (and let’s be honest, with lockdowns etc, some of us probably have been), but regardless, you have probably heard the words Virtual Assistant (or VA) floating around. So what is a Virtual Assistant exactly? Well I’m here to shed a little light on the subject for you. 

You know those assistants in the office who know how to do just about anything and everything, they somehow understand all the systems your office uses, they have great ideas when it comes to marketing your business and well, they could basically put your IT support company to shame? 

Take those assistants out of the office, let them work from home, a cafe, a co-working space, their #vanlife, or wherever they want basically, save yourself some overheads and there you have your Virtual Assistant. 

The official definition for a Virtual Assistant is “an independent contractor who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client’s office.”

Virtual Assistants are your Executive Assistants, Personal Assistants, Office Administration and Office Managers just not physically in the office. They more often than not have many years experience in some or all of these roles. VA’s have transferable skills that no longer 100% require being inside the office and working alongside someone. They can work remotely on all the same tasks, but more efficiently. There’s no office interruptions i.e. the office gossip stopping them for a chat over coffee in the kitchen, or your IT illiterate staff member who just HAS to ask your assistant a million questions on how to open an email (no offence, sounds like they need a Virtual Assistant of their own 😉). 

Most Virtual Assistants will have a niche set of tasks that they can assist you with, be it Social Media Management, or your back end business administration, or sometimes you find a unicorn Virtual Assistant who can help with it all *hint hint check out my services here* 🦄😉

Either way, if you need any assistance in your business, these days, there’s a damn good chance there’s a Virtual Assistant out there who can help you and your business. 

So what are the benefits of a Virtual Assistant? Well, that’s a whole other blog post for another day, but to touch on this; VA’s are contracted to carry out a certain number of tasks, or one task and generally you pay them by the hour. Whereas someone in the office who is on a salary is paid for a set number of hours regardless of what tasks they perform. 

Also outsourcing the tasks that you don’t like doing, tasks you’re not very good at or simply tasks you don’t want to do, can free up your time to focus more on your business and the dollar productive tasks, helping your business grow. How good does that sound? 

So in this day and digital age you will definitely be hearing the term Virtual Assistant popping up more and more.