The Value of Virtual Assistants

By Adam  |  10 Oct 2016 12:00:00

A lot of businesses, particularly smaller businesses, make use of virtual assistants (or VAs) in order to complete lots of everyday tasks which need to be done. For those who don't know, a VA is somebody who does not work in the office with the other employees (and is often not even based in the same country) but who works the same hours and who is usually available to contact over Skype or other forms of communication. There are pros and cons to using virtual assistants and I am going to cover them in today's blog posts:

Pros

A VA won't take up space in your office and so you don't need to worry about renting a larger office space (or, indeed, any office space at all, if you don't have any other employees.) A VA can be a great solution to those small and menial computer-based tasks which are very time consuming and boring, but still very important to the business on the whole. VAs can also be great for businesses on a budget because, as they are often based in other countries, you don't need to worry about sticking to minimum wage laws, which can get you some highly affordable workers.
 

Cons

While people who work for less than minimum wage may be highly practical, it has been questioned as to whether or not this is ethical – low paid virtual assistants may not sit well with whatever kind of image you are trying to reflect with your business. Furthermore, when people work for such low amounts, the quality of work is doubtlessly going to be lower too; potentially too low. As a VA will not be based in your office, it will be harder to monitor their work and to provide them with your thoughts and feedback.
 

So I hope that provides you with a good insight into the value of virtual assistants. Whether or not they are right for your business is for you to decide, but whatever your choice I hope that your eCommerce website will be a huge success. If you don't even have an eCommerce website yet then sign up to Sellr now and get started for no cost at all.