Virtual Assistants & Startups: A Perfect Match
- Jeff Amon
- Mar 21, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Congratulations, you’re a new business owner!
It’s exciting yet stressful and terrifying.
How do you manage growth while keeping overhead low? How do you convey your company is running on all cylinders despite having minimal staff?
Virtual assistants can fill a need for extra staff on hand while keeping costs down so you can focus on your core business model.
See how your startup and virtual assistants are a great fit as you look to grow your company quickly!
Outsourcing Offers Lower Costs Compared to Hiring Talent
Hiring the right talent takes time away from your efforts to bring in customers. Outsourcing your virtual assistants can save you both time and money.
Here’s how it works for companies who hire people to work as virtual assistants. All you need to do is hire the right virtual assistant company!
Your virtual assistants are hired by another company and are on their payroll
They often work for multiple companies during an eight-hour shift
The company your virtual assistant works for provides benefits to them, not you!
Those virtual assistants are vetted by the company you hire
Flexible Tasks
Virtual assistants for startups should know how to perform many types of tasks that are both mundane and necessary for your startup.
Look for a virtual assistant company with someone who can:
Answer phones appropriate to your brand and company.
Read, forward, and respond to emails that don’t get an automated reply.
Handle customer service inquiries.
Set appointments and fill out your schedule.
Make travel plans, if necessary, by getting reservations in order.
Do basic financial tasks such as verifying payments and matching bank statements with accounting.
Manage email lists and email funnels.
A lot of these types of tasks already have automated tools to make the job of a virtual assistant easier. Great hire for this role needs to know how to leverage these tools for success.
You can even hire a virtual assistant through a company based on the tasks you need to be accomplished.
Look for a virtual assistant company that has various specialties for hires, including:
Administrative. Phones, emails, setting appointments, basic financial “paperwork”
Marketing. Website copy, blog writing, social media posting, email blasts, SEO
Sales. CRM, lead generation
Customer support. Responding to customer inquiries and issues
Project manager. Performing daily tasks on a specific project until completion
Accounting and finance. Handling daily financial tasks, bookkeeping, billing, and receiving
The best virtual assistant companies can fill out your virtual team with the right talent for the right job for just about any ordinary, daily task essential to the operations of your business.
That way, you can focus on your core business model!
Your Tech-Savvy Virtual Team
Virtual assistants on your team, by their very nature, should be tech-savvy enough to handle the daily tasks of your startup’s operations.
While this concept may go without saying, it’s important that virtual assistants know how to use the tools of the trade:
Apps. Phone, email, scheduling, time tracking, time management.
Laptop or desktop computer. Web browsers, word processing, internet security.
Software. MS Word, Google Drive, QuickBooks, team/collaboration software.
Of course, all the tools in the world mean nothing if your virtual team doesn’t have the skills to use them.
A baseball bat in the hands of someone who has never swung one in their entire lives is useless. A baseball bat in the hands of a Major League Baseball player can lead to hitting 410-foot home runs regularly.
You want your virtual assistants to hit home runs using the tools they have on hand or the tools can learn how to use very quickly.
Flexible Scheduling
Outsourcing your virtual assistant team means they offer flexible scheduling based on the hours you need someone on duty.
Having flexibility is crucial for companies who hire virtual assistants because their team often handles tasks for several customers throughout their workday.
Let’s say you need a virtual assistant for four hours a day Monday through Thursday. Hiring someone internally, even part-time, may not be the best choice because that person may try to find full-time work elsewhere or scheduling snafus could prevent that person from working when you want them to.
A great virtual assistant company can mitigate a flexible schedule by making sure their person is on duty when you need them to be, regardless of the time zone.
Trusted Vendors
It’s easier to vet trusted vendors for outsourcing your virtual teams compared to vetting individuals to hire for your internal team.
When seeking out a trusted vendor, ask to see testimonials or reviews by their customers who hired them. Any good virtual assistant company would have at least two or three companies you can contact to ask about their services to give you an honest assessment.
Make sure to peruse any online reviews, too, including those on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These third-party platforms offer a more balanced and unbiased view of your vendor versus reviews posted to the company’s website.
Better Productivity for You
The bottom line is that hiring a virtual team through outsourcing makes you more productive.
Imagine if you spend two hours a day trying to hire a virtual assistant. Then you spend two more hours answering calls, reading emails that don’t convert, and wading through a crowded inbox that’s 80% spam. Then there are the social media posts, managing your website contacts and email lists. By the time you get through these tasks, it’s 3 p.m. and your leads are busy wrapping up their days before going home. You need to manage your repetitive tasks to boost your productivity!
What would happen to your growth if you spent six hours building your business instead of working on administrative tasks?
You understand that these are necessary, and you’re perfectly capable of performing everyday tasks but you just don’t have the time. A virtual assistant company can give you the best of both worlds: more time and more productivity!
Hiring the Right Virtual Assistant Company for Your Startup
Look for a virtual assistant company that offers a full slate of services.
Vetting candidates. Your chosen vendor vets the right staff based on technical ability, communication and time-management skills, availability, solving problems, and character traits ideal for a virtual assistant role.
Uses qualitative and quantitative assessments. Your chosen company uses assessments to make sure each virtual assistant can handle the job. Real-world tasks, software knowledge, and interviews all help a virtual assistant company gauge the ideal candidate for the job. They will also conduct background checks and talk to references.
Hires candidates who can handle multiple tasks. Virtual assistants are masters at handling many kinds of tasks throughout a shift.
Offers specialists. Do you need a specialist for accounting, sales, or marketing? A great vendor will offer these choices for you as a startup needing extra help.
Our team can help!
Do you need to hire extra staff but don’t have the time? Are you a startup needing extra help so you can grow your company?
Reach out to us to see how we can help you increase productivity while keeping overhead costs low!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How does hiring a virtual assistant through a company save a startup money?
A: When you hire through a virtual assistant company, the VA is on that company's payroll — not yours — which means you're not responsible for providing benefits. The VA company also handles vetting, so you avoid the time and cost of recruiting and screening candidates yourself.
Q: What types of tasks can a virtual assistant handle for a startup?
A: Virtual assistants can manage a wide range of tasks including answering phones, handling emails, customer service, appointment scheduling, travel arrangements, basic bookkeeping, social media posting, lead generation, and project management. Many virtual assistant companies offer specialists in areas like accounting, marketing, and sales so startups can get targeted help where they need it most.
Q: How does flexible scheduling work when outsourcing a virtual assistant?
A: Virtual assistant companies can staff someone during the specific hours you need coverage, even if that's only a few hours a day on select days of the week. Because VAs often work across multiple clients, the company can ensure consistent availability regardless of time zone, reducing the scheduling risks that come with hiring a part-time internal employee.
Q: What technical skills and tools should a virtual assistant for a startup have?
A: A startup's virtual assistant should be comfortable using apps for phone, email, scheduling, and time tracking, as well as software like MS Word, Google Drive, QuickBooks, and team collaboration tools. The ability to quickly learn and effectively use these tools is just as important as familiarity with them, since the value of any tool depends on the skill of the person using it.
Q: How can a startup verify that a virtual assistant company is trustworthy?
A: Look for companies that can provide testimonials or references from current or past clients you can contact directly for an honest assessment. Checking third-party review platforms like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn is also recommended, as these offer a more unbiased perspective than reviews posted on the company's own website.
Q: What should a startup look for when choosing a virtual assistant company?
A: A strong virtual assistant company should vet candidates based on technical ability, communication skills, time management, problem-solving, and character. They should use both qualitative and quantitative assessments — including real-world tasks, software tests, interviews, background checks, and reference checks — and be able to provide both generalist and specialist VAs depending on your needs.
Q: How does hiring a virtual assistant improve productivity for startup founders?
A: Administrative tasks like answering calls, managing emails, handling social media, and maintaining contact lists can easily consume several hours of a founder's day. By delegating these responsibilities to a virtual assistant, founders can redirect that time toward revenue-generating and growth-focused activities instead.
