As a business owner, you are faced with many responsibilities and how you deal with them determines your company’s success.
For example, you may struggle to decide which work processes need a hands-on solution by yourself and which ones a virtual assistant needs to do.
Deciding to hire a virtual assistant vs an executive assistant can prove problematic.
Knowing which tasks you need to delegate will go a long way to determining if you need to hire a virtual executive assistant or a virtual assistant.
This article explains the main differences between executive and virtual assistants so that you can make a fully educated decision.
What Are The Roles Of A Virtual Assistant And Executive Assistant?
Cost is the driving factor that helps company directors decide whether to employ an executive or virtual assistant.
Executive assistants cost more but are responsible for more complex tasks like scheduling appointments, email management which may contain confidential information, and offering administrative support to company leaders.
As well as running their schedules, virtual executive assistants will make travel arrangements for high-level executives within your company.
Dealing with essential clients, managing marketing activities, and tracking other staff expenses would also be the remit of a remote executive assistant.
By contrast, hiring a virtual assistant will prove a lot cheaper and is a good option if you are undecided on what virtual assistants work you need.
A virtual assistant’s role is the same as other standard administrative professionals in that their task list includes answering phone calls, data entry and other essential administration services.
While virtual assistants will still be required to communicate to a high standard, they will not be required to manage sensitive tasks. Their lower hourly rate of pay reflects the level of functions they perform.
Hire a part-time virtual assistant to start and evaluate your needs based on cost and performance.
How Do You Decide On The Right Assistant?
Here are five things to consider before making a final decision.
1. Are You Creating A Team Or Just Hiring One Person?
Larger businesses often employ an in-house executive assistant, but this is not financially viable for smaller businesses, so they hire virtual assistants from a virtual assistant company.
Hiring virtual assistants to handle daily admin tasks is cost-effective and a good way of saving time.
Many companies start by hiring a virtual assistant part-time because it costs less and gives them a chance to evaluate their administration needs fully.
As the business grows, you can quickly increase the hours of your virtual assistant, and many companies find they need the services of both virtual and executive assistants.
When you expand your business, you need to schedule appointments more regularly but can’t afford to pay full employee status for in-person support. This is when hiring virtual administrative or executive assistants works well.
Wasting money on more in-house staff, which requires more office space, doesn’t make sense when most business industries are so volatile.
It makes far more sense to hire virtual and remote executive assistants without the added worry of covering additional costs such as office space and fully employed staff benefits.
You also have the option of quickly increasing and decreasing their working hours depending on demand throughout the year.
2. Will They Work On Admin Tasks Or Complex Issues?
A clear plan about what tasks you want your virtual worker to perform will prove invaluable when deciding whether to hire a virtual or executive assistant.
Suppose you require someone to take the pressure off your in-house staff by answering calls, inputting data and dealing with customer inquiries via email. In that case, you need to hire administrative assistants instead of executive assistants.
Hire virtual assistants to take the pressure off you and your staff but don’t fall into the trap of overpaying for executive assistants to do essential admin work.
Suppose you hire a remote executive assistant to do more complex tasks such as calendar management, inbox management, sending invoices, scheduling meetings and even project management. In that case, the money you pay them will be well spent.
Having a fully employed administrative assistant will cost you far more than hiring two part-time virtual assistants. Still, you must elevate your needs fully or risk wasting money on using someone to do tasks way below their hourly pay grade.
3. How Much Are You Willing To Spend?
Keeping track of your company spending is the most crucial factor in any business. If a business has high spending costs and low revenue, it is pretty apparent that your long-term prospects aren’t rosy.
Staff costs take up a high percentage of all business costs, and knowing how much you can spend on virtual assistants is vital.
Doing a complete costing plan is essential and having money set aside for unexpected costs is so important if your company is going to navigate the highs and lows it will inevitably encounter.
If you have a limited budget, then choosing a virtual assistant is the way to go. You can always train them up to executive assistant tasks and gradually pay them more.
But if you know you have more advanced tasks that need taking care of, and you also have the budget to hire an executive assistant, then that’s absolutely a decision you should make.
4. What Time Frame Are You Setting For Tasks?
Excellent time management is a critical part of any successful business.
If you are spending lots of time on basic admin taste, then don’t forget it costs you valuable time and money.
The more time you spend on these tasks means you are not dedicating your time to the things that generate your income which in turn equals profit.
Hitting your targeted deadlines on time is vital to ensure your clients remain happy with the product or service you provide. They are the ones paying for it.
Executive assistants are hired to help you meet your set targets. It is the role of executive assistants to keep a transparent and open line of communication between staff at all times, ensuring there is less chance of making mistakes.
It would be very detrimental to your business if everyone worked on their own time schedules with a formal plan in place.
You must remember that virtual assistants often work for more than one company, so building a good working relationship built on trust and transparency is paramount.
Calculating how long each task is meant to take will help you fairly evaluate how many virtual assistants you need for each project.
5. Do You Need Someone To Work For You Long-Term?
The beauty of hiring virtual assistants is that you don’t have to commit long-term. In addition, paying your remote executive assistant by the hour for the number of tasks they complete means you can decide when you require their services.
There are always peak times for all businesses, which may be seasonal or due to high demand following a successful marketing campaign.
If you are prepared for these peak periods, setting aside a budget to hire additional virtual assistants is essential.
Assistant sharing between departments may work well during other times of the year, but during peak times, hiring the same person as you did the previous peak period will save a lot of time and hassle.
It may be as simple as increasing part-time virtual assistant hours to full-time during the busy period instead of hiring a new team member.
Having that familiarity is invaluable as they have already built a strong working relationship with the rest of your workforce. And you don’t have to worry about training new hires.
Find Out How We Can Help You Hire The Right VA
You now realise that hiring remote workers will prove highly beneficial to your business.
It is up to you to work out if you need to hire one virtual assistant or if you need to hire a team of virtual administrative assistants with an executive assistant to help the managing director.
As you have learned, hiring without thoroughly assessing your company’s needs and budget is unwise.
We can source, hire, provide training and manage your dedicated assistant, so that you get the ideal person to help your business become more productive and grow.
Call us today for a free consultation and find out how easy it is to hire virtual and executive assistants.