What is a Virtual Assistant?

When you're starting your search help for your business you will come across 'Virtual Assistants'. But what is a Virtual Assistant? We're not just your Alexa or other smart devices we're an essential part to keeping the small businesses in the UK running! When you're ready to grow, but don't yet need a full time member of staff. Or if you're ready for a back office support whilst your team grows.

What is a Virtual Assistant - The Definition

According to Indeed:

"A virtual assistant is someone who offers various services to businesses from a remote or central location. Virtual assistants are generally self-employed and work on a contract basis. Mainly, virtual assistants help businesses with managerial tasks."

But... we know it is much more than just that. On the surface, yes a virtual assistant is there to help with business and managerial tasks. We can support with your inbox, diary management, document control, event management and a whole host of back office tasks. However, we see our role going beyond task management as for many of our clients we provide a second pair of eyes, a confidante and an advisor.

What tasks can you give a Virtual Assistant?

To name a few at Virtual Diamond we have Virtual Assistants who specialise in:

• Social Media Management

• Inbox and Diary Management

• Project Management

• Accounting and Bookkeeping Tasks

• Event Management

• Virtual Event Management (Zoom/ Google Meet)

These are but a few of the regular tasks we manage for our clients, but there's always the time to ask if we can do other things too. One of our most valuable tasks is providing a sounding board for new ideas, patterns of growth and your next service option.

How do you work with a Virtual Assistant?

Working with a virtual assistant means that you can choose how you work with someone. Do you prefer monthly meetings, daily phone calls or WhatsApp's? Finding the right method and timeline for communication means that we can best support you when you're at your busiest.

Also, you can choose to have blocked hours each week (we will work on your tasks at a specific time each week) or more sporadic requests (we will work on when specific tasks come in, but these won't always be right away). Again, it is what works best for you and the type of tasks you need help with.

How do you pay a Virtual Assistant?

Payment is something you shouldn't shy away from, when you're talking to a new virtual assistant you should understand: their hourly rate, any package discounts, is it a direct debit transaction and will you need to pay on a specific date each month? There is a great need for transparency and openness with task allocation, and your virtual assistant should let you know before you go over any agreed hours (after all we're not miracle workers).

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Hopefully, this has been able to answer the burning questions of "what is a virtual assistant" for you. Being able to outsource some of your work to a virtual assistant is great but knowing how to do so and the best way to hand over work is complicated. If you'd like to have a discussion about your tasks and how we can help, just get in touch today for a free consultation.