Why Hire a Virtual Professional versus an Employee?
Advantages of Hiring a Virtual Assistant versus Hiring an Employee
Everyone is familiar with the term ‘Virtual Assistant’ today. If most were polled, however, it is likely that it would be defined as ‘Artificial Intelligence’, similar to those used by Amazon Echo Dot and Apple iPhone (‘Alexa’ & ‘Siri’, respectively) and other devices. The term I am referring to however, is an actual person. One who is a remote worker and is also called a ‘Virtual Assistant’ (VAs), ‘Freelancer’, or ‘Virtual Professional’ is the definition we will be using interchangeably here. Perhaps you are wondering at this point, why hire a virtual professional versus an employee?
Valuable Services
Most Virtual Professionals are self-employed and contract with other business owners to provide virtual business services. Many small to mid-size companies have come realize just how valuable the services these professionals provide are to their businesses.
Virtual History
Virtual Assistants were often called Virtual Administrative Assistants as well, in the early years –and yes, I was around for those days! <smile> Years ago the majority of VAs (the short version) did mostly administrative work or specialized in one of a limited number of niches available, such as bookkeeping or writing. The niche market was slim back then, but there were a few.
Advances in Technology
In the last 10 to 15 years, with the advances in technology, along with the increase in number of business owners and freelancers, many Virtual Assistants now specialize in offering clients so much more.
So Many Services
There are so many options today, including Virtual Professionals, to assist withal of the business services needed to run a successful business. Building a Team of Virtual Professionals or bringing on one VA on at a time, depending on your need, can really keep our companies running smoothly. This process is also referred to as “Outsourcing” as you would use a source (the Virtual Professional) Outside of the Company, not a hired employee, to assist you and your company.
Why Hire a Virtual Professional?
Back to the original question I asked… ‘why hire a virtual professional versus an on site employee?
#1 Reason — The Number of Services that a Virtual Professional can offer your business.
A Few of the Services You May Need:
- Online Business Management (OBM)
- Bookkeeping
- Social Media Management
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Email Marketing
- Blog Writing Services
- Content Creation & Curation
- General Administrative
- CRM Support
- Website Design
- Processes & Systems — Set Up & Maintain
- +So Much More
You can easily find someone or a virtual company even who can do many of these simultaneously if you need more than one service.
Do The Math
Reason #2 — Face the Facts & Do the Math — to See the Savings
Another big consideration when comparing a Virtual Professional versus an Employee is the savings in costs. You may be wondering how I can say that be a cost savings to contract a virtual assistant or professional vs. an employee? Many Virtual Assistants can range from $20 to $40 per hour (average is around $35/hour), with Virtual Tech Professionals running from $30 to $75 per hour. While an employee doing administrative can start at $12 or $15 an hour up to $25 or $30 per hour. Looking at this from an Human Resource standpoint takes much of the emotion out of a situation.
Let’s Talk MONEY
‘Freelancers’ or Virtual Professional services are much less expensive overall than hiring an on site employee. Not necessarily comparing hourly rates, but there is so more than that when you hire an employee. Needless to say, it is also far less to hire a Virtual Professional than it would be for us, the owners of the company(ies), to do the work. Perhaps you are sole owner and worker in your company, but you are getting too busy now to keep your focus on the revenue building or even your passion that drew you into the business to begin with at the moment. Not only would it mean missed income opportunities for you, but considering most business owner’s salary — divided into an hourly rate, well you can see where I am going here. The hourly rate an Owner earns far out prices any virtual professionals.
Let’s Get Down to the Nitty Gritty
What Happens when an Employee is hired? If you hire full-time help, the company will pay an hourly or even salary rate for the new employee to be there whether busy or not, including taking lunch & other breaks.
Your company will more than likely also pay benefits for this person. Depending on the where we live, for instance in the U.S., Canada or elsewhere, there may be hiring guidelines set up by the governing bodies. These can include the IRS and State Regulations, just to name a few in the United States.
Employee Benefits:
The business will need to provide:
- Health Insurance Options
- Vacation Pay
- Workman’s Compensation
- Social Security Tax (Employer’s half)
- Portion of a 401k (or an option for a Retirement account)
- Short Term Disability Insurance Options
- Long Term Disability Insurance Options
These are just a few of the benefits that a business will customarily provide when you hire an employee. Remember you will also have a ton of paperwork with this, as well as, reporting, withholding & remitting taxes for your employees.
By Comparison
By comparison, when adding a contracted virtual provider to the team it is much less complicated. It is a straight contractor fee (whether it be hourly or a monthly retainer package or possibly a one-off project price). No need to provide benefits or lunch breaks.
Knowing Your Costs Up Front
In fact, as the one contracting, you should know all costs up front or at very least can budget around them. For instance, our company offers a number of affordable packages that allow you to choose from including Silver, Gold & Platinum, for each type of service offered. Whether it be Social Media Management, Email Marketing (we are now putting packages together for these & blogs) or Blog Writing Services. Each package is described in detail on our site, but always on the contract. So be certain to read the contract thoroughly as all should be outlined within it.
Let Me Count the Ways
#3 Reason — TIME: Our most precious resource
Our final reason is ‘Time’. Hiring employees is very time consuming. The process of advertising, the need to sifting through a sea of resumes, and finally interviewing the few resumes you pick out of the bunch. Once we hire someone the work isn’t done. An employee usually has to be trained, checked in on, and supervised in general (not all employees).
In Contrast, a Virtual Professional comes to the table ready to work.
Giving You Time:
After the initial ‘getting to know you’ phase you should begin to notice a difference in your time and a new sense of freedom. As a business owner, myself, I know how easy it is to get caught up working IN the business.
Yet, All experts agree that real growth and success only comes when You (the business owner/CEO) are able to go from working IN the business to working ON the business.
“There is a bridge every entrepreneur must cross in order to grow a business beyond a certain point, a point where they must transition from “doing” to “leading.” It means stepping back from day-to-day operations and slipping into the role of overseer. “ — Ray Silverstein of Entrepreneur
A huge benefit of hiring a Virtual Assistant/Professional who specializes in a particular service that has been weighing you down (really it is holding you back), is that they free up your time!
I can honestly say, from personal experience, that VAs truly enjoy helping businesses like yours’ grow. Happiness also comes at your successful & when the Virtual Professional can free up your time, by taking more of the work load and handing it over to someone else or a company like mine even (as we are small Boutique Digital Marketing Company + Custom Virtual Business Services).
Your Success is Our Success
These Professionals know the more you give them, means the more you trust them and also means the more you, the owner, are working ON your business & not IN your business. This also should begin to produce additional revenue for the Company.
Virtual Professionals are only a Success If You are a success! It usually means that you are trusting us more as well. The obvious results are that outsourcing is freeing up your time to do what you do best. Virtual Professionals help you do this, by taking the distracting tasks off your hands and putting them into our hands to complete!
Call A Virtual Professional Today and FREE Up Your Time to Do What You Do Best!
Thank you for reading — I appreciate it more than words can say. I always love to hear comments and even questions that you would like answered. Simply comment below and we will get it. Also Feel Free to Share this article with someone who may need it.
To Your Continued Success
Story Originally Posted On Tammy’s Blog
