When I tell people I'm a virtual assistant their impressions are often not right... Let's dispel some common myths and tell you how a virtual assistant can be the backbone of many businesses.
What My Family Think I Do:
Myth: Virtual Assistants are like Alexa
My parents thought that a virtual assistant was someone who answered online questions for them on a website. In effect they thought I was the person behind the Paperclip... or even worse as my grandma thought I was one of the people that give you the Alexa answers (now that was an interesting conversation).
I can now confirm that a virtual assistant isn't there to just answer questions, we often have years of experience in our field and can not only help you with your basic tasks but investigate your processes, highlight inefficiencies and add greater functionality for your business. Much better than Alexa - and that's a guarantee!
What My Friends Think I Do:
Myth: Virtual Assistants don't work hard
There's a preconception with a lot of people that being virtual means we don't work hard - and that's just not true. In 2022 we did over 3500+ hours of work for our clients. Working flexibly does not mean not being productive or not working hard.
What My Clients Think I Do:
Myth: Virtual Assistants are super hero's
Some of our clients think we're super... Many have come to us at the end of their tether, stressed, tired and overworked and when there's an extra pair of hands on deck the relief can feel like being rescued by a super hero! But sadly we're not. We can help you to get your business back running the way you want, help you to take the next step in your growth but we're not super hero's. Sometimes we might not have worked with your CRM before, we might not know your accounting software or have seen your social media scheduler. However, we learn and we're always developing. Even if we've not worked with a specific programme we have years of experience we can draw on to adapt and learn. Each year we learn new systems, processes and techniques and each one adds to our portfolio of knowledge.
Whilst we might not be able to do it all... we'll certainly learn!
What I Actually Do:
So, what is a virtual assistant and how do they help small businesses?
We work with business owners to achieve their goals through administrative support and back office organisation. Anything that happens in a business that is not billable to a client (or a direct product) is something a virtual assistant can help you with.
Virtual:
We are virtual, meaning we can support business across the UK and globally. We have clients working from European countries, those who frequent trips abroad and others who are digital nomads. The working world is changing rapidly and being able to work with a variety of businesses and individuals it what makes our job so exciting. If you're wanting to be a digital nomad - check it out here. We are a UK based company at Virtual Diamond but that didn't stop us from working from South Africa, Dubai and Crete in 2022 with no impact on our clients.
Assistant:
We assist, which means we are there to support you. We become a team member of your business, not just a contractor add on. Our goal is to make sure your business is successful and running smoothly through supporting you in your day to day activities.
Assistants are not only there to delegate tasks to, we can have discussions around your procedures and concerns in order to help guide your thoughts. More often than not we have someone who has worked with specific programs who can discuss their limitations and functionality with your specific business in mind.
Overall, we're there for businesses to rely on when they are growing and not able to manage it all themselves. This could be an individual or a team of people when the workload gets too high. As we can work on a PAYG method you can hire us for a contracted period of time or have us on call for when task lists get too long.