​What is a Virtual Assistant?

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​A Virtual Assistant is someone who works from their own home office on a self-employed basis. The hours worked depend upon what is agreed with the client, this can be a one-off piece of work, regular fixed hours payable at the end of the month or on a retained hour basis paid in advance so you have can budget your spend.

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​​What does a Virtual Assistant do?

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This very much depends upon the Virtual Assistant.  There are VAs that manage your day to day office administration, others specialise in web design, social media or recruitment. This is why it is a good idea to have a really good think about what you need to initially help you and to move your business forward, any VAs should be happy to have a an initial chat with you to discuss the services they offer and what they can offer your business.

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What is the benefit of having a Virtual Assistant?

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The main benefit is achieving that work:life balance.  How often have you found yourself coming home or working late at the office just to catch up on emails, phone calls, typing up quotes and invoicing, chasing payments and other administrative tasks instead of spending time with your family or a leisure pursuit. ​A VA can help with all that and usually more effectively and efficiently, giving you more time to concentrate on increasing your productivity, revenue and re-engaging with customers.

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What is the cost of having a Virtual Assistant?

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The cost of a VA varies. Yes, you can get VAs from other countries but this comes with the real possibility that they are not as experienced as you may need (and therefore cost you more money in the long run) or not set up legally thus possibly putting your business reputation at risk and your clients losing faith in your resources, especially GDPR compliance.  There are also other potential problems in time differences and language barriers/cultural understandings.

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A good experienced VA will currently charge between £25 – £35 per hour. You may think that a VA is an expensive outlay.  Well, let’s consider a few things:

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• How much do you charge per hour? By carrying out your own administration you may have become one of the highest paid VAs in the industry. 

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• You will be hiring a VA that is already trained in the areas that you require so there will be no time spent sending an employee out of the office for training or paying for the training itself.

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• There are no employee costs involved such as:

  • Maternity/Paternity leave

  • Holiday & Sickness payments

  • PAYE/NIC/Pension contributions

  • Office space for the employee or equipment

  • Hourly pay when there is little work to carry out

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There is a very well explained article by catherinegladwyn.co.uk in my Blog section which you may want to have a look at, it will definitely bring clarity around our hourly costs.

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How do I work with a Virtual Assistant?

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Before you start working with a VA you may want to ask for references or check out testimonials.

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As in everyday life, not everyone ‘gels’ and it may be that you part ways, with a VA that is much easier to do than with an employee as there is no long term employee contract. However, in my experience, this is quite rare, as long as communication is frequent between yourself and the VA and you are upfront in what your requirements and expectations, any initial problems or misunderstandings can be ironed out as you get used to working with someone remotely.  

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You may want to carry out a trial piece of work with the VA before committing to retained hours or a longer contract.  In this way you can see if the quality of work is acceptable and how you connect in your working relationship.  However, bear in mind that it often takes a month before a great working relationship is established as at first you will be getting to know how each other works and new systems may be trialled and changed which doesn’t give a true reflection of how the working relationship will be a few months down the line.  

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What are the legal implications of hiring a Virtual Assistant?

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A well-established, experienced VA will always provide you with the following information, not all of these documents will be required for each business but some are quite fundamental in ensuring the protection your business and your clients:

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• A non-disclosure agreement

• Terms and conditions which should also set out hours agreed and rate

• Their professional insurance (including cyber) certification.

• ICO certification (if applicable)

• Professional and Public Indemnity Insurance

• If the work that you are undertaking falls under the realms GDPR guidelines, you will want to ensure that both yourself and the VA have software that is compliant and also ensure that they sign a processor agreement.

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