Top Ten Reasons to Have a Virtual Assistant

I have had a virtual assistant who helps me with Selah.Press.com, KaylaFioravanti.com, RedCedarBison.com and GreenworksLD.com. She is the first person I reach out to when I need help. And 99% of the time I can hire her to help me with project. The handful of times she couldn’t help me she replied to me with a well-trusted contact who could do the work I needed. I keep my VA Jennifer hopping and amazingly she juggles everything I send to her plus a long list of other clients.

I wrote about Living in a Virtual World with my blog post last week, but I seriously do depend on this virtual world. With the expansion of Selah Press I have had clients in need of a virtual assistant as well. I’ve known Mary Humphrey for many years. We have been virtually connected as we have both reinvented ourselves over the course of our friendship. She started offering virtual bookkeeping and virtual office assistance at the exact moment that I had a client who needed a VA with shared values and beliefs. They needed someone who could speak for them online. Mary was the perfect fit. And the timing of the launch of her business Reliance Outsourcing could not have been better for my clients.

I couldn’t survive without my virtual assistant and I am loving seeing others experiencing the freedom and support that come from having a VA who has your back.

1. A VA is also self-employed. They get the needs of needs of a solo-entrepreneur, mom-preneur, small business owner and author. They don’t work 9 to 5 and tell you that they are off the clock when a need arises. They obviously can’t always drop everything, but they don’t shun you for asking. A good VA will tell you exactly when they can get it done for you.
2. They work out of their own home or business so you don’t need to buy computers, rent space and manage their payroll.
3. When you are overwhelmed with work you can share your workload with your VA, but when you are low on work you are not paying them to sit around.
4. You can skip the hassle of finding employees, hiring, firing and training. The right VA for you will have the right training they need to help you.
5. Small businesses often have to wait to hire employees or skip paying themselves to hire employees. With a VA you pay for what you need, when you need it and as you can afford the help.
6. Having a VA helps you be more productive. You don’t have to learn to do every single thing in your business. It is nearly impossible for one person to have all the skill, knowledge, time and creativity it take to run a small businesses.
7. A VA frees up your time to work ON your business while they work IN your business for you.
8. You can delegate the small stuff, the things you absolutely loathe doing, the technology that is over your head and what you simply can’t get done yourself. The awesome thing is that most people who enjoy being a VA also love doing those kinds of things. And they love supporting you.
9. Your business can only grow as large as you allow it to grow. If you try to manage every single task necessary than the business can only grow to as large as you can manage. A VA allows you to grow past your own personal potential before you could ever afford an employee.
10. Some people are better at some tasks than you are. I know. It is hard to swallow sometimes that you are not the best person ever for every task, but you are not. Know your limits. Stop setting yourself up for failure by forcing yourself to excel at tasks that you are never going to be good at. My VA makes me look so good, totally efficient, really smart, and technically savvy. In other words, your VA can make you look like the most well rounded solo-preneur on earth when in fact you can barely use a website.

Currently Mary Humphrey and I are in the same Blog Your Brand Challenge so thought we could coordinate virtually on blogging. Read her blog post Virtual Assistant, A Team Member Who Works Remotely.