Hiring Virtual Assistants For Larger Companies
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HIRING VAS FOR LARGER COMPANIES AND THE ULTIMATE PROFIT MAXIMIZER
HIRING VAS FOR LARGER COMPANIES AND THE ULTIMATE PROFIT MAXIMIZER
VAs for Larger Companies
What we’ve shared here about virtual assistants has been primarily focused on solopreneurs and small businesses who are looking to hire their first team member. But VAs aren’t just for small companies, and they’re definitely not just for virtual businesses!
Businesses of all sizes use Virtual Assistants
In fact, larger companies, including those in America’s Fortune 500, have been outsourcing entire, non-core business processes for decades and various professional roles for decades. For example, a tech company could outsource its customer service function in order to focus all of their efforts on creating innovative electronic solutions. That same tech company might also add an overseas developer to its team in order to tap into a larger talent pool.
More recently, these same large companies are beginning to embrace the idea of virtual employees for performing a variety of administrative tasks, as there are tons of benefits to outsourcing admin activities. Of course, there is the money saved on office space, equipment, and other costs associated with placing someone onsite – and on the payroll. In addition, studies have shown that virtual workers tend to actually be more productive and more engaged than their colocation counterparts. Plus, recruiting for and selecting a virtual employee can often be done in a matter of days rather than the weeks typically needed to fill an in-house position, allowing companies to hand off admin tasks much sooner.
Growing a Virtual Team
If you’re just beginning to create your team and are hoping to grow into a larger company, we have good news. The hardest step is getting and learning to manage your first virtual assistant. Once you’ve tackled that, growing your team to include three or four VAs is relatively simple, provided that you continue to use the same effective strategies and structures we’ve presented here.
The next hurdle you’re likely to face if when your business grows to the point where you require five or more VAs. Single-handedly managing a team of five or more basically becomes untenable. You hire a virtual team to allow yourself more time in your genius zone, but with a team of that size, you’ll instead end up spending too much of the time you save on the tasks on managing the team.
To scale your business to hire multiple VA’s, even though they are skilled, requires training to enter your company and get acclimated.
Jason Dolle, Founder of Testimonial Tree
When you grow your business to that size, you’ll be entering a new realm of team dynamics and management, specialization, and delegating not just tasks but the management of others. For example, many entrepreneurs with a team of VAs will hire an online business manager (OBM) to manage the work of the VAs, and the OBM manages the VAs, and the business owner oversees and collaborates with the OBM. Alternatively, a business owner might have a virtual assistant who has other virtual assistants working under him or her. For instance, a company might have a VA who specializes in social media management oversee a VA who creates graphics and another that automates scheduling the content.
What's Possible with Virtual Assistants
When you’re adding your first team member, the idea of growing and managing a larger team might sound completely overwhelming. However, once you get up and running with your first virtual assistant, and you see how much more productive and effective you and your business can be, it won’t be long before you’re looking to add a second and third VA.
For one, the first VA is going to help you make time to grow your business, which means there will be more work to be done – which means you need more help to do the work! On top of that, you’re going to get “addicted” to the feeling you get when you stop doing tasks you hate or aren’t great at, and you’re going to discover more and more things you want someone else to do. You’ll realize how adding virtual team members can both accelerate your business growth and allow you to free up your time to do what you do best in your business, as well as allow you more time outside of your business.
If you’d like to learn about real-world examples of businesses successfully growing and scaling their businesses, head visit our blog or tune into the podcast!
Virtual Assistants: The Ultimate Profit Maximizer
Wow! Are you surprised there’s so much to learn about virtual assistants, what they do, where to find them, how to work effectively with them, and which types of businesses (hint: all of them!) can benefit from them?
Because virtual assistants are so affordable and effective, and they free up so much of your time (or your other team members’ time), offloading tasks to a VA allows everyone to make more money – even without launching any new products or services! But only if it’s done right.
If a company recognizes the value of virtual assistant services, but fails to prepare, onboard, train, and oversee them, they won’t reap the huge benefits. No matter how cheaply they hire, it will be a waste of money rather than a profit driver if it’s done ineffectively.
Companies who follow the guidelines and recommendations we’ve presented here – and we think we’ve covered just about everything – will maximize their potential for success in adding virtual assistants to their teams.
At first, it may feel like adding a VA is setting you back, rather than pushing your business forward. Know that it’s temporary! Yes, there is a time investment at the beginning, but the time you invest in getting this right will result in reaping the highest rewards later, in terms of profit and overall business success – not to mention personal wellbeing when you finally get to step out of overwhelm and build a more sustainable business!
Build a system so that it can run without me. The pay-off is having that freedom. Being able to go on vacation, travel, or spend my time doing more valuable things. Building new products or marketing.
Brian Casel, Audience Ops Founder