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Virtual Administrative Assistant: A Definitive Guide for Entrepreneurs

Posted on January 19, 2023January 20, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Administrative tasks are often tiresome, consume valuable organizational resources, limit productivity, and harm businesses. In-house workforce administration typically costs businesses more than per person annually.

Consequently, businesses fail to devote enough time to focus on their clientele since 72% say they spend most of their time in tiresome administrative activities.

A virtual administrative assistant can be what you need if you want to make the most of the time to expand your company rather than keep it afloat.

What Is a Virtual Administrative Assistant?

A virtual administrative assistant offers administrative support services such as database upkeep and organization, calendar management, appointment scheduling, email management, and more.

They work remotely by offering businesses a robust menu of assistance and handling the day-to-day tasks they don’t have the time to do.

10 Tasks A Virtual Administrative Assistant Can Handle

A virtual administrative assistant helps businesses to keep their administrative efficiency in an optimal state 24/7. They handle administrative areas of your business, saving you time and money. Their tasks include:

1. Appointment Setting

As an entrepreneur, umpteen priorities vying for your attention, often make it hard to schedule appointments. A virtual administrative assistant sets meetings with prospective customers so that your best closers can seal the deal through personalized communications.

2. Document Formatting

A virtual administrative assistant ensures that your documents are formatted correctly and according to your specifications. Along with fonts, indentation, and margins, they check to see if the formatting components are correct. A virtual assistant can manage your document format requirements for both legal and corporate documents.

3. Transcription

If you want to get away from manual transcription or planning to swap traditional transcription methods, it’s time to embrace virtual administrative assistant service. Virtual administrative assistant services have certified transcriptionists who can work as an extension of your team, transforming the content from voice format to written records within the stipulated time.

4. List Management

It might be difficult for an entrepreneur to keep relationships with every client when they have a vast consumer base. A dedicated virtual assistant manages your contact list and can furnish an up-to-date contact list without duplicates or outdated contact information.

5. Custom Reports

A virtual administrative assistant can provide tailored reports for each recipient at every level of the hierarchy if your in-house team is overburdened with report creation. To make reports to your specifications, a virtual administrative assistant also handles the presentation elements.

6. Data Entry

Businesses must frequently manage their data, which takes time. For e-commerce, bookkeeping, CRM, or simply a simple spreadsheet, a virtual administrative assistant provides virtual data entry, maintenance, cleaning, deduplication, or manipulation.

7. Secretary Services

Administrative tasks may quickly take up most of your working day, neglecting more key duties. A virtual administrative assistant can perform different activities, including editing and formatting reports, setting up mail merges, and creating tables, images, and charts.

8. Market Research

While it takes time, market research is essential to any organization. A virtual administrative assistant conducts interviews, creates and analyzes surveys, and researches target audiences online.

9. Email Management

Every firm deals with a barrage of emails every day. Managing these emails can take a lot of time, which causes you to get behind on projects and end up working longer hours to catch up. A virtual administrative assistant can relieve your workload by ensuring you don’t have to sift through spam and send out quotes and bills on your behalf.

10. Answering Calls

Businesses rely on a virtual administrative assistant to handle calls, qualify prospects, and address client issues. A virtual assistant ensures that your company’s operations operate smoothly, providing more time to concentrate on business growth.

Why Hire a Virtual Administrative Assistant?

Often businesses remain in a dilemma of whether to hire a virtual assistant. So why exactly do you need a virtual assistant? Take a look at some powerful benefits of hiring a virtual administrative assistant.

Save Time

Every business owner wants more hours in their day. However, clerical tasks eat up their time. To this end, a virtual administrative assistant handles a gamut of recurring duties, leaving you with more hours in a day.

Reduced Operational Costs

Entrepreneurs spend oodles of money on administrative operations that include office space, office supplies, and more. By hiring a virtual assistant, you can substantially reduce your capital needs.

Studies reveal that virtual administrative assistants can save a business up to 78% of operating costs.

Preserves Entrepreneurial Sanity

Mindset is everything for an entrepreneur. When administrative work gets piled up, entrepreneurs become overwhelmed, which affects their work. A skilled and reliable virtual assistant can take the burden off your shoulders by handling all the administrative work.

Press For Attention’s founder, Greg Simpson, is aware that his strengths “are in invention and text.” He claimed that when he concentrates on his core competencies, he is “much more productive as a business owner and far more innovative as a consultant.” Considering it a win-win, he outsources all administrative work in his company.

Access to Skilled Staff

A virtual assistant understands your business. They are adept at fulfilling administrative tasks, enhancing productivity, and helping you meet your business goals. Office Beacon offers vetted virtual assistants with experience in catering to the unique needs of businesses.

Also read: 7 Unbeatable Reasons Why You Need a Virtual Assistant

5 Signs You Need a Virtual Administrative Assistant

Entrepreneurs often encounter this thought “When do I need a virtual assistant?” How can you tell whether you’ll get enough productivity from a virtual administrative assistant? Here are some signs that you may already need one and didn’t know.

1. The Exorbitant Costs of Hiring Employees

If you’ve been stressed out and burned out doing work. And, you often realize that you need assistance, but cannot afford to have a full-time employee. In such situations hiring virtual assistants can be more cost-effective than hiring a full-time employee.

When it comes to the in-house employee, you have to manage long-term payroll with employee benefits irrespective of workload. In contrast, when you engage a virtual assistant, you only pay for the tasks or hours needed without paying for any additional advantages.

2. You Lack Time to Commit to the Important Tasks

After addressing all the administrative responsibilities, business owners have no time left for work related to making money or pursuing their passions. Administrative tasks are necessary, but if you want to boost sales and revenue, you should focus on your areas of expertise.

If you don’t have enough time to handle your essential and high-impact activities, hiring a virtual assistant is the best decision.

84.4% of business owners claimed that hiring a VA has improved their operations.

3. You Lack the Skills to Handle Certain Tasks

Another reason for hiring a virtual assistant, you might not have any specific understanding of your field or business tool. You might take a while to perform research, leaving you with less time for important tasks. A good decision in these circumstances is to hire a virtual assistant.

4. You Often Miss Out on Business Opportunities

Making business decisions won’t be possible with your skills alone. Additionally, administrative work takes up much of your day. You can use the extra time a virtual assistant gives you to pursue your professional goals and do the research to create a better business plan.

5. You’re Failing at Customer Retention

It is difficult for businesses to achieve goals when they are short on time. You might have more time to devote to improving customer retention with help from a virtual assistant. Using a virtual assistant could make creating new plans and executing them easier.

12 Essential Skills to Look for in a Top Virtual Administrative Assistant

How can VAs become skilled administrators? What qualifications should entrepreneurs look for in a VA? The following are the twelve administrative support skills that make the best virtual assistants stand out:

Technical Skills

Software competency
Well-versed with online tools
Filing & records management
Research skills

Conceptualization

Time management
Problem solving
Organization
Resourcefulness

Interpersonal Skills

Communication
Negotiations
Emotional Intelligence
Adaptability

How to Get Started with A Virtual Administrative Assistant?

These are some reasons why you might need to work with a virtual administrative assistant. It’s more productive, saves money, and guarantees that you can have a skilled staff without taking on the risks of hiring a full-time employee.

Then what are the steps to hire a virtual assistant today? Here are the key steps:

Choose a trusted outsourcing partner, like Office Beacon.
- Over 22 years of experience & expertise
- Trusted by 4000+ clients
- 5,500+ staff offering 150+ operational support services

SPEAK WITH US: Schedule a day and time that works best for you to learn more about the Office Beacon services.
Relax.
Office Beacon’s team will analyze your business goals and identify your staffing and software needs.
Office Beacon will source the perfect virtual assistant/s who can meet your specific requirements.
The team lead sets KPI expectations, trains and monitors your staff, and oversees your project.
They share weekly quality reports and bi-weekly feedback emails on your staff’s progress.

Conclusion

A skilled virtual administrative assistant can be an asset to your business. They save you a lot of time and money. Many entrepreneurs presume that they can manage alone. However, instead of wasting time on trivial tasks, you can hire a virtual administrative assistant to help you scale your business without exhausting your budget.

7 Unbeatable Reasons Why You Need a Virtual Assistant

Posted on January 16, 2023February 6, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

The pandemic transformed the way businesses operate, causing them to adjust and adapt to the ‘new reality.’ They realized the need to outsource back-office tasks to meet business needs and goals. As they laid off full-time staff and went remote, they explored budget-friendly options, which led to a 41% hike in hiring virtual assistants through offshore agencies.

Find that unbelievable? The below graph highlights the increase in inbound poll queries for virtual assistant services between 2019 and 2020. Check it out! Virtual assistants possess valuable skills and perform many in-demand services that add incredible value to the lives of busy business owners.

A piechart, with the breakdown of data trends on inbound queries to virtual assistants between 2019 and 2020

Image Source: NanoGlobals

In this post, we highlight the top seven reasons why you should hire a virtual assistant for your business. If you are on the fence about onboarding virtual assistant(s), read on. But remember, successful collaboration depends on well-defined tasks and goals. A mismatch in expectations could lead to a mutually unsatisfying relationship later.

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Before discussing the benefits of hiring virtual assistants, let’s start with the question - what is a virtual assistant? Virtual assistants are remote workers who handle your non-core operations.

They may offer generalized services or hold expertise in tasks like accounting, marketing, or social media management. A virtual assistant may source clients on a freelance basis, on managed marketplaces, or work in-house for a BPO, helping you with:

1. Lower Overhead Costs

In-house employee hiring requires you to create hefty packages and benefits. Besides a base salary, organizations are responsible for health insurance, 401K plans, accidental coverages, workspace allowances, team offsites, and paid time off. Emerging businesses don’t have the resources to meet these demands.

Virtual assistants help you cut these overhead costs and focus on scaling.

2. Domain Expertise

Virtual assistants are subject matter experts who are constantly perfecting their craft. You can find the expertise you need and leverage it to build your business. The more seasoned the virtual assistant, the higher the value they bring to the table.

You can work with top talent without adding a permanent position to the payroll.

3. Quality Work

Unlike most in-house employees, independent contractors compete for projects and constantly upskill themselves to remain in demand and attract premium clients. High-quality work helps them build a reputation and collect testimonials.

When hiring a virtual assistant, you can check their portfolio and determine if their skills and expertise match your quality standards and needs.

4. Quick Delivery

This one is no brainer! Virtual assistants balance quality with timelines. Full-time employees often juggle multiple priorities and struggle to prioritize effectively, which leads to delays and missed deadlines. But since most virtual assistants focus on one project at a time or operate within shorter timeframes, they share deliverables comparatively faster.

5. Diverse Talentpool

DE&I initiatives are as important as ever. Most SMB businesses can’t afford to hire global talent due to logistics concerns. But hiring virtual assistants is a great option to engage with a larger talent pool without confining yourself to local areas.

Besides cost savings, a diverse team - comprising individuals from different cultural and educational backgrounds - leads to better business ideas and outcomes.

6. Lower Company Risk

Hiring someone in-house means investing in their career growth at your company. You invest time and resources in onboarding and training them to be successful in their role. But it can go to waste if the employee decides to leave. With independent contractors, you don’t run that risk.

You can build contracts with clear deliverables and payment terms, without affecting your internal processes. The absence of a long-term commitment lets you optimize resources.

7. High Flexibility

Often, virtual assistants work flexible hours to serve clients in different time zones. While in-house employees are available only during specified working hours, independent contractors may also be available for last-minute emergencies.

Their flexible work schedules enable them to step up and offer support as and when necessary.

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Virtual Assistant Skills to Check

Besides core competencies, virtual assistants need soft skills to win at their jobs. Soft skills are a mix of people skills, emotional intelligence, personality traits, and social qualities that help them collaborate effectively and hit KPIs, especially when working in groups.

Whether you are hiring virtual assistant services to directly engage with you or in a team, check for these five crucial virtual assistant skills:

Communication: Your virtual assistant must be familiar with the latest online collaboration tools like Slack, Trello, Airtable, and Notion for async updates and should know how to communicate efficiently over video meetings in real-time.
Time Management: Seasoned virtual assistants stay on top of the schedule and know how to prioritize efficiently. Your contractor must have solid time management skills and a realistic understanding of how much they can complete in a day without getting burned out or missing deadlines.
Organization: Without a well-organized virtual assistant, it’d be hard to follow project timelines. Project management is a valuable and in-demand soft skill. If you are a busy executive and hiring a personal virtual assistant, check if they can work independently with minimal supervision.

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Self-motivation: The freedom to work from anywhere and on their own terms leads many to leave their full-time jobs and become independent contractors. But a virtual environment can get dispiriting quickly. When hiring, check your virtual assistant’s experience with remote work.
Reliability: Trust is a big consideration factor when working with virtual assistants. Regardless of whether they charge hourly, by project, or a monthly retainer, they must be available during the agreed hours for any updates and catch-ups and take new assignments as per business needs.

Tips to Find the Right Virtual Assistant

Organizations have always been privy to the drawbacks of traditional staffing solutions. But the pandemic brought them to the forefront once again as remote work and flexible workforces - distributed teams and independent talent - became the norm. Onboarding virtual assistants is a great way to cut exorbitant recruitment costs and employee churn. Virtual personal assistants can also play a role to equip large team managers with a helping hand in many scenarios.

But to enjoy a fruitful long-term collaboration with contractors, consider these tips:

1. Spot Skill Gaps

Unless you have identified business needs, it’d be difficult to find the right fit for the job. Do you need help with marketing, programming, design, or something else? Hard skills require job-specific and measurable competencies.

Let’s take an example.

A programmer turned writer can create highly technical product documentation but a content marketer may not have the coding expertise to write authoritatively on the subject. Once you identify the role and skills, determine if it’s an addition to the existing team or to support a new business unit or department launch.

2. Assess Goals

A well thought-out hiring strategy takes long-term and short-term staffing needs into account. Before you hire a virtual assistant, consider which roles require full-time help and which are better suited for a one-off project or hourly contract.

That way, you can fill skill gaps quickly and scale or downsize your team as needed.

3. Created Detailed JDs

Develop a job description featuring the role’s core duties and responsibilities. It’s easy to work off templates but ensure you tailor them before sharing them in your networks.

A detailed JD is key to attracting the right talent and saving hours on combing through a high volume of irrelevant CVs. Don’t forget to add the soft skills and an “About Us” section - highlighting your company values and mission - to help potential candidates check the mutual fit.

4. Perform Extensive Research

Freelance websites, gig-based job boards, and outsourcing companies are all great options to hire virtual assistants. But in-depth research is necessary to steer clear of potential hiccups like misalignment on job requirements or hidden fees.

A trusted virtual staffing provider like Office Beacon sources top candidates and takes full charge of employee training and management, without levying any additional charges.

tips on finding the right virtual assistant

Take the Leap

The Pandemic pushed the frontiers of what the business world thought possible. No longer restricted to traditional hiring channels or strategies, companies can now access top talent and build scalable and flexible teams quickly. Hire a virtual assistant today and stay ahead of the competition curve!

Did this article answer your questions about why hire a virtual assistant? Tell us your challenges and goals below.

Real Estate Virtual Assistants: Why Do You Need Them?

Posted on January 12, 2023May 8, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Real estate is surging with growing demand for industrial and commercial infrastructure. Studies reveal that by 2030, the real estate industry will reach 14.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Image Source: Statista

In such a cutthroat competition, realtors struggle to mark their presence. The major concern for real estate owners is to fit all the crucial tasks into their day.

If you own a real estate company, you would probably recognize these time sinks.

Responding to emails, texts, and phone calls
Processing real estate documents, agreements, and lease records
Coordinating appointments, showings, open houses, and meetings
Creating and distributing flyers, newsletters, listings, and more
Creating budgets for monthly, quarterly, and annual operations
Developing marketing plans for listings
Updating client databases
Researching listings to develop comparative market analysis (CMA) reports
Updating websites and social media profiles

What Is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

A real estate virtual assistant (VA) employs their knowledge to manage daily jobs that are crucial to your organization but don’t require direct supervision. They are specialized personnel who take care of business tasks, including cold calling, lead generation, financial tracking, website building, marketing, and database maintenance.

They serve as virtual allies by handling all the administrative work. Thus by hiring a real estate virtual assistant, you can free up your time to concentrate on business-strategy tasks that drive growth and boost income.

What Does a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Do?

Are you, like most real estate agents, thinking about how to leverage the skills of a virtual assistant?

Let us delve deeper into the tasks you can outsource to a virtual real estate assistant.

Administrative Task Assistance

As a busy real estate entrepreneur, you might be inundated with an unending list of administrative tasks. While you don’t have the time to separate the wheat from the chaff, a real estate virtual assistant can help you. Virtual assistants handle back-office tasks, phone calls, data entry, scheduling, and office management.

Email Management: Sort or filter emails, respond to questions from prospects, send follow-up emails, and keep the inbox clean.

Research: Real estate assistant keeps up with real estate trends. They can conduct initial research to prepare dossiers and marketing collateral for your properties.

Data Entry: Enters and updates real estate information – email address, phone number, mailing address, and more.

Calendar Management: Calendar management is vital to ensure things are on track. A real estate assistant tracks tasks, meetings, and other commitments for you.

CRM: Every realtor needs to track leads and manage sales pipelines. A virtual assistant ensures prospects stay engaged and sales opportunities don’t fall through the cracks.

Transaction Management: Real estate agents must coordinate their transactions and deals. A qualified virtual assistant can handle all the minute details of real estate transactions.

Marketing Assistance

A virtual assistant can aid real estate businesses in getting the most relevant leads. They bear the burden of implementing marketing insights and taking care of email and social media marketing campaigns, greatly expanding your reach.

Website Maintenance: A virtual assistant ensures uniformity and coordination throughout your website to present a unified front that your customers can trust.

Social Media Marketing: Real estate assistants update your social media pages to keep your target customers informed and interested.
Digital Marketing: Virtual assistant plans successful digital marketing strategies. They update your social media pages and create flyers, videos, etc.

Listings Management

A qualified virtual real estate assistant can handle all your real estate listing needs, allowing you to focus on core competencies.

Update Listings: People can only learn about a property’s availability through listings. A virtual assistant creates and maintains your listing for prospective clients.

Organize Listings: A real estate virtual assistant organizes listings while you persuade the clients to buy the property.

Customer Support

Virtual assistants are skilled communicators who can converse with clients, respond to their questions, and keep them informed of new postings.

Handling Customer Queries: Handling customer queries can be a daunting task. A real estate assistant addresses customer concerns and replies to emails while you tackle big deals.

Marketing Collaterals: It can be challenging to design a new presentation for each pitch you make to a potential client. A real estate virtual assistant creates presentations and designs brochures for your open house.

Why Is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Necessary to Promote Business Growth?

According to Technavio’s industry analysis, the size of the worldwide virtual assistant market will increase by USD 4.12 billion, at a CAGR of 11.79%, during the forecasted period.

Image Source: PR Newswire

Your daily grunt work might wear you out both psychologically and physically. Hiring a VA could change everything. Here are a few reasons why:

Cost Efficient

As an entrepreneur, you always look for ways to save money. However, cutting costs could potentially result in hiring individuals who are not competent. Hiring a skilled virtual assistant is cost-efficient. You will only have to cover the cost of your VA’s work hours; you are not responsible for paying for insurance, paid time off, or holiday bonuses. It means you can save money to further invest in expanding your business.

Access to Global Talent

When you hire an in-house employee, you are limited to hiring candidates from your geographical region. In such situations, you sometimes end up hiring underqualified candidates.

Utilizing virtual assistants opens up a world of possibilities. You can hire people from around the world depending on your requirements.

You are not bound to work in the same office premises when outsourcing virtual real estate. As a result, business owners can collaborate and hire people globally without spending excessive money.

Flexibility

The real estate industry demands the knack for swift closures. You will often face unforeseen circumstances. Moreover, in-house employees have a set schedule. They might not always be able to meet your needs. A virtual assistant, on the other hand, works around your schedule to cater to your business requirements.

No Training Headaches

Hiring an in-house employee involves training and onboarding. After the training, it would take weeks for them to get started. With virtual assistants, you don’t have to worry about training and onboarding. A qualified outsourcing company like Office Beacon screens, vets, and trains virtual assistants who can start working immediately.

How Do Real Estate Virtual Assistants Drive Business Growth?

Real estate assistants are very resourceful, dependable, and well-organized. They can assist you in effectively managing your workload and reclaiming your time for activities that promote business growth.

1. Enhanced Efficiency: Real estate business owners have a lot on their plate. And it becomes hard to handle all the tasks alone. To this end, a virtual assistant comes to the rescue by taking a load off your shoulders. As a VA handles other aspects of your business, you’ll be able to meet more clients, close more sales, and make more money. In this way, the company will prosper.

2. Better Productivity: Productivity is an essential driver for business growth. As a realtor, you deal with too many tasks that hamper productivity and leave you exhausted. A VA can assist you by taking on some of the chores you don’t have time to complete. You’ll have more energy to concentrate on your company’s operations and other responsibilities. A VA can also assist you with time management so that you work more efficiently rather than harder.

3. New Ideas: The real estate industry is ever-changing. To outshine, a realtor should bring a fresh perspective to the business. A virtual assistant is well-versed in real estate trends and offers a fresh understanding of your business. They bring new ideas to the table so you can make the necessary changes to move your business forward.

There are some common misconceptions you will come across when planning to hire a real estate virtual assistant.

❌ Not Trustworthy: Not correct. VAs from Office Beacon are reliable and exhibit the utmost professionalism with clients.

❌ Difficult to Work Virtually: Not anymore. Office Beacon offers software for seamless communication between the VA and the client.

❌ VAs are Expensive: Not necessarily. Virtual assistants do not demand employee benefits and only charge for the amount of work they do.

❌ VAs are Not Productive: Virtual assistants are highly skilled and guarantee to do the assignment within the allotted time.

Challenges Real Estate Companies Face

Overwhelmed with administrative and clerical responsibilities, real estate businesses face many challenges. Here are the top challenges a real estate agent faces every day.

1. Customer Service: Reaching out to potential customers and addressing their concerns is time-consuming and tiring. Moreover, today’s digital-savvy customers demand a high sense of attention and detail. With many tasks, real estate owners struggle with customer service and initial sales.

2. Scheduling: Getting to every appointment right is an eternal struggle for a realtor. For many real estate owners, this leads to bad scheduling. Due to poor calendar management, real estate owners run the risk of missing out on crucial business opportunities.

3. Never-Ending Administrative Tasks: The administrative work in the real estate sector frequently piles up. Further, real estate companies fail to carry out administrative responsibilities impeding productivity and hampering workflow.

The numerous time-consuming tasks involved in real estate could harm your revenue and growth opportunities. Hiring a virtual assistant for real estate can allow you to focus on the most significant areas of your business while handling all of these additional obligations.

What are the Best Practices for Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

Before hiring a real estate virtual assistant, set clear goals – your expectations from the virtual assistant.

Once you set your expectations right, it will become easy for you to review deliverables and make sure every task you hand your VA is executed with precision on point.

The following are the best practices that businesses need to follow while hiring a real estate virtual assistant:

Identify: First and foremost, identify the areas of your business that need assistance. Then set how much time you need these tasks finished.

Set: Set the goals and the tasks for the real estate VA clear right from the beginning. From this, build a thorough job description highlighting the scope of the work.

Communicate: Now, communicate your requirements, work ethic, and schedule that works for you. Specify the deadline for the VA to complete the task.

Wait: Once you give inputs and set goals, let the VAs do the rest. Clear the doubts the VAs have and provide feedback. And wait and watch the VAs perform.

You can utilize a virtual staffing provider like Office Beacon to get quality real estate virtual assistants at a fraction of the costs.

At Office Beacon:

You get handpicked, vetted, and trained staff in all tools and software used by businesses across the globe.
Virtual assistants with multilingual capabilities give you an edge over your global competitors.
Virtual assistants operate across various time zones (EST to PST) to suit your business needs.
Complete redundancy with fully operational delivery centers across 4 locations.
Backup resources at no additional cost.
Complementary software to eliminate costs incurred on third-party software.

Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

It is essential to thoroughly weigh your options before deciding whether or not to engage a virtual assistant for your real estate business. Before assigning duties to a remote worker, look at the benefits and costs.

Cost-Benefit

The first step is to decide if the virtual assistant is worth the financial investment. For this, weigh the potential cost of a virtual assistant against the potential benefits.

There is a wide price range for real estate virtual assistant services.

Image Source: Payscale

A virtual real estate assistant’s costs depend on who, what, and where you are looking. As you can see from the above image, the average hourly pay for a real estate assistant is $15.58.

Before deciding on the virtual assistant, weigh the expense against your company’s needs and the return on investment.

Location

The costs of a virtual assistant may vary from location to location. However, there is a common misconception that overseas virtual assistants are expensive.

Image Source: Best of Budgets

According to a study, the Philippines has the lowest average virtual assistant salary of $400 per month, and Australia has the highest average virtual staff salary of $5,600 per month.

Overseas outsourcing is affordable. There are talented VAs all over the globe who are skilled in various aspects of the real estate business. Some virtual assistants are comfortable delivering results across time zones.

There is also a place for local talent, especially in the real estate industry.

For instance, if you need to outsource a lot of client-facing work, it might be beneficial to choose a US-based or even locally-based provider who is more familiar with the specifics of your market. When you require full-time, client-facing assistance or plan to meet with this person in person, doing so usually makes the most sense.

Experience & Expertise

While choosing a virtual assistant, look for the right experience and expertise. Choose a real-estate-specific expert who has a demonstrated history of performance.

Check whether the VA is capable of dealing with your list of outcomes and expectations.

With over two decades of experience, Office Beacon houses vetted virtual assistants with expertise in the real estate industry.

Office Beacon’s real estate virtual assistants are adept at performing the following tasks:

Market research
Data collection (listing information)
Open house management
Conducting market analysis
Preparation of property cards
Scheduling and confirmation of appointments
Follow-up calls to buyers
Transaction coordination
Bookkeeping
Data entry for real estate
Correspondence management
Call screening and answering services

The virtual assistants at Office Beacon can manage different administrative tasks, marketing responsibilities, and even real estate transaction coordinator responsibilities.

Closing Points

Being a real estate agent is quite hard. You have to deal with properties, clientele, and prospecting. Remember that you don’t have to do anything alone if it starts to feel overwhelming. Real estate virtual assistants handle time-consuming, repetitive duties crucial to your business. Hire a capable virtual assistant for real estate to put the emphasis back on building your company.

What You Need to Know About Social Media Virtual Assistants

Posted on January 10, 2023February 6, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

Social media is a lucrative avenue for companies to hit their revenue targets. Over 4.59 billion people worldwide used social media in 2022 and that number is predicted to reach almost six billion in 2027. Leading players allocate big budgets to social media marketing and hire top talent. But what kind of expertise does a social media virtual assistant possess?

A virtual assistant for social media is a remote worker who takes charge of your social accounts and undertakes activities to meet business goals. These could include brand awareness, generating leads, collecting customer feedback, or organic engagement to build relationships.

In this article, we discuss the tasks a social media virtual assistant performs to hit these goals and the skills they must possess to succeed in their role.

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Check out this graph on the leading benefits of using social media for marketing purposes. Published by Statista, it identifies ‘increased exposure’ as the top reason why marketers use it, followed by ‘increased traffic’ and ‘generated leads.’

The study looks at businesses that have been using social media for more than five years and those for less than twelve months, and differentiates between ‘passive social media marketing’ and ‘active social media marketing.’

The former depends on user-generated content (UGC) and involves natural communication between customers, while the latter “requires deliberate employment of tactics/and or teams focused on creating and executing actual marketing campaigns.” A virtual social media manager can help with both and suggest new ways to reach your target audience online.

Source: Statista

Besides that, a talented social media virtual assistant can provide incredible business value by:

1. Improving Customer Service

Unlike emails or phone calls, using social media for customer service is fast and direct. It allows you to have forward-facing conversations and tap into UGC to uncover customer feedback. A virtual assistant responds to questions and concerns and enables you to have positive customer interaction and serve people better.

2. Developing Positioning Power

Social media virtual assistants publish and manage content on your social media profiles which develop positioning power. This active engagement on social signals that you are active and open to new customers.

A social media virtual assistant also uses your social accounts to build online leverage on SERPs, which may well be the first touchpoint for buyers when they look up your brand on Google.

3. Building a Better Search Engine Presence

The industry is ripe with debate on the relationship between social media and SEO. Without a direct correlation between the two, it’s easy to dismiss the impact of traffic from social on SEO. But with linkless backlinks, the shares and click-throughs from social can send positive search signals to Google, helping your site rank.

A social media assistant posts content that drives engagement and significant referral traffic. See how our LinkedIn shows up on Google for the search query ‘Office Beacon’?

4. Humanizing Your Brand

Social media experts know that the hyper-professional “suit and tie” approach doesn’t work anymore. People want genuine and authentic content and engage with brands whose values align with theirs. A social media virtual assistant brainstorms methods to help you connect with people and build meaningful relationships on leading social channels.

Social media assistants are responsible for understanding your audience and crafting a social media strategy that caters to their behavior in line with your business goals.

To be successful in their role, you must hire a virtual assistant for social media who possesses the following five core competencies:

Communication: Engagement lies at the heart of social media, which requires genuine and transparent communication. Ensure your assistant can communicate with your audience, and not at your audience, since – as Amy Jo Martin put it, social media is a “dialogue, not a monologue.”
Creativity: Social media engagement is all about providing value. Your content should feel native to the platform and feel relatable to your audience. The potential hire should possess a creative steak and be willing to experiment until they discover what sticks and why with followers.
Copywriting: This skill forms the backbone of others. Without a captivating copy for your creatives, ads, or posts, it will be difficult to drive engagement. Check your assistant’s portfolio to understand their writing style or test their copywriting skills by sharing a short assignment.
Design: Social media algorithms have veered away from simple text-based updates to visual content like photos and videos. Your accounts should offer variety and cater to all demographics of your target audience. Ensure your assistant has design chops and can create appealing assets that spark interest and drive business goals.

Analytical Bent: Social media efforts are as good as the results. Unless you measure performance, it’d be hard to decide which channels to prioritize and where to direct resources. For eg, if your virtual assistant uses both organic and paid approaches on multiple social networks, they must know which tactic is working where and tailor their strategy for maximum results.

Next, let’s look at the tasks you can expect a virtual social media assistant to perform.

social media virtual assistant service guide

Social media offers a ton of opportunities to reach more customers and drive business growth. But depending on whether you are an established company or a rising SMB, the goals and results from social media marketing differ as per the scale and maturity of social media operations.

Recently, Joe Zappa shared the following post on the value of social media marketing on LinkedIn and how it generated over $200K in revenue for his business.

Impressive, isn’t it?

Image Source: LinkedIn

A social media expert sizes up your current efforts and performs the following tasks to hit business goals:

Create and manage your social media profiles
Build a social media strategy and monthly calendars, with KPIs
Undertake customer research to understand user behavior
Perform market research to identify content trends
Curate, share, and moderate UGC
Reply to DMs and user comments on posts
Repurpose collaterals for social media profiles
Run paid campaigns and track performance
Run surveys and collect user feedback
Discover opportunities for paid partnerships

The above tasks are only a brief glimpse into what a social media manager does. Depending on the role, experience, and expertise, you can hire a niche social media virtual assistant to establish your brand as an industry thought leader, promote website content, and strengthen your employer branding.

Ultimately, a clear idea of business goals is the key to finding the right fit for your social media marketing efforts.

An incorrect understanding of social media marketing often causes businesses to hire social media marketers without any concrete objectives. Unlike other channels, social media doesn’t generate (or guarantee) measurable results instantly.

Instead, it’s more about social listening, branding, community building, and forming long-term customer relationships to keep them engaged and interested in your offerings.

Even if you plan to use social media for paid campaigns, it requires a lot of upfront work on building and nurturing relationships to get meaningful results.

A solid understanding of how social media works and tracks performance is necessary for creating a JD that speaks to potential candidates and encourages them to apply for the opening.

Likewise, factors like company size, goals, and marketing maturity help them assess the right fit.

If you have the budget, you can advertise the role on your website and LinkedIn profile. But if you are an SMB that is just getting started and can’t hire in-house employees, try freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.

Though economical, these platforms need you to spend considerable time on screening and training virtual assistants.

A better option is to outsource your social media marketing needs to a virtual assistant provider like Office Beacon, which takes care of the sourcing, onboarding, screening, and training.

Job boards, slack communities like Superpath, and Reddit are also a few other options.

Over to You

Big brands hold a monopoly over Google SERPs which makes it difficult for emerging names to compete with them. Social media is a cost-effective alternative and offers a comparatively level playing field.

If you take a story-telling approach and create a value-rich experience through quality content, your business stands an equal chance of winning buyers. What goals do you have for your social media? Let us know in the comments below.

The Ultimate A-Z Guide To Outsourcing Logistics Services

Posted on October 6, 2022January 18, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Are you looking for logistics services that increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs while giving you a competitive edge? Choosing remote outsourcing can help you reach these goals.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about logistics outsourcing services. It’ll dive into how outsourcing can help optimize your supply chain, lower costs, and improve efficiency.

So whether you’re starting out or are ready to take your company to new heights, read on for essentials on outsourcing your logistics!

Let’s kick things off with a definition to clear things up, shall we?

What is outsourced logistics, and does your business need it?

Logistics outsourcing involves contracting your business’s supply chain activities and functions to a third-party logistics provider (3PL). It means the 3PL partner runs and manages its own warehouse and can offer essential logistics services to your company.

Here are several relevant logistics services you can outsource to a 3PL.

Do you need to outsource any of the above services? According to Gartner’s 2021 survey of logistics professionals: “74% of logistics leaders expect their logistics outsourcing budget to increase in the next 2 years.”

The report also mentioned that logistics leaders have three top priorities.

Improve or update technology (37%)
Cost reduction/cost optimization (31%)
Increase customer satisfaction (29%)

Partnering with the right logistics service providers will help you reach the following-

Outsourcing your logistics back-office support allows you to focus on your core competencies.
By outsourcing order fulfillment, you can save money and enhance your efficiency.
Also, logistics outsourcing services can help you expand into new markets and grow your operations at lightning speed.

But you may wonder if there’s a difference between logistics and supply chain management. Let’s explore the two functions.

Logistics vs. Supply chain management (SCM): What’s the difference?

“Logistics is a process of moving and handling goods and materials, from the beginning to the end of the production, sale process and waste disposal, to satisfy customers and add business competitiveness.” -Researchgate.net

SCM involves planning, executing, and controlling supply chain operations. It aims to provide maximum customer value and minimize waste.

The supply chain includes all activities from procurement to delivery. And logistics management is a vital part of your SCM.

Identifying the two is easy with the following points.

Logistics and SCM: What are the similarities?

They deal with goods, services, and information.
They ensure your company gains a competitive edge.
They support your efforts to satisfy customer needs.
They handle the same flow of goods from the supplier or producer to the final user.

How does logistics outsourcing work?

Logistics business process outsourcing (BPO) services ensure efficient management and movement of your goods and services in the supply chain. Here’s how.

Information

Logistics outsourcing provides you with critical details to help you know the status of each product and supply chain activities. It improves your inventory management.

Storage

It ensures you do not overstock or understock merchandise by ensuring you have the right quantity at the right location. You can maintain the correct balance between demand and supply.

Warehousing

3PLs have their own warehouses to offer services like receiving, packing, and shipping goods.

Handling materials

It covers the storage, safety, and movement of goods from suppliers to distributors and end-users.

Packaging

It’s a vital logistics function that ensures your products reach customers undamaged and at a minimal cost.

Unitization

Material handling equipment ensures the logistics partner transfers your goods efficiently without causing damage.

Inventory control

By using storage and warehousing methods, you can store goods in a specific location to maximize their quality and quantity. Inventory management formulas can help you determine and manage demand.

Transportation

As part of logistics, you can move your goods along the supply chain using several modes of transportation.

What are the three types of logistics?

Logistics services are largely divided into three main types.

Inbound logistics
Outbound logistics
Reverse logistics

Inbound logistics

Source

Inbound logistics involves taking in and handling materials arriving at your company. It can include tasks like receiving, inspecting, and storing incoming resources on time for production.

Procurement plays a significant part in inbound logistics. That’s because it’s concerned with sourcing and transferring raw materials from your supplier to your factory.

You must partner with a logistics outsourcing provider to minimize risks and enhance inbound logistics.

Office Beacon specializes in logistics management by offering you back-office support. It can provide services such as processing and auditing your inbound logistics bills. As a result, you’ll have more freedom to focus on other critical tasks in your business.

Outbound logistics

Source

Outbound logistics includes all activities that aid the movement of finished goods from the factory to your final consumer. It involves warehousing, transportation, and distribution.

Distribution is significant in outbound logistics, sales logistics, or order fulfillment. It ensures you deliver the right product at the right time to your end-user at a low cost. And its objective is customer satisfaction.

For example, e-commerce stores like Amazon invest heavily in outbound logistics to accelerate the last-mile or same-day delivery to their buyers.

Outsourcing Office Beacon back-office support involves taking care of your outbound logistics expenses. Examples include warehouse costs, docking charges, and insurance fees. You won’t burden yourself with handling these petty costs.

Reverse logistics

Reverse logistics is the process of returning goods to their point of origin. It can occur due to product recalls and damaged or defective stock.

Sometimes, the product may need repairs or refurbishment before you can resell it. Regardless, reverse logistics is an essential part of the supply chain.

Outsourcing to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider is the best way to handle your reverse logistics. A 3PL has the necessary resources and infrastructure to manage the return of goods efficiently. As a result, it can help enhance customer satisfaction and reduce costs.

You can also avoid the hassle and expense of managing returns by outsourcing Office Beacon back-office support.

Source

What are some reasons your firm might outsource logistics?

Logistics BPO services result in massive cost savings for your company.

Lessens overall logistics expenses

Businesses that use 3PLs say that they have enjoyed slashed logistics costs, according to the 2021 State of Outsourcing Logistics Report.

As your logistics partner, Office Beacon will monitor your costs and timeliness. It’ll ensure your cargo gets to your customer at the right time at a lower cost.

Eliminates the need for additional infrastructure

You don’t have to invest in storage facilities when you outsource logistics. 3PLs have the resources to cater to your needs. And if you’ve got a win-win relationship with a logistics outsourcing firm, they can build the infrastructure for you.

Removes hassles of establishing your own logistic systems

Effective logistics needs up-to-date warehousing and transportation management processes. They include buying and maintaining software like warehouse or inventory management applications.

Office Beacon is well-equipped with state-of-the-art logistics software to manage your supply chain operations.

Helps you avoid investing in a fleet

A 3PL with dedicated contract carriage can offer you a private fleet. As a result, there’s no need to own and manage trucks. Owning a fleet involves hiring drivers, meeting legal requirements, and compliance. You can avoid all these challenges.

Enables you to cash in on freight purchasing power

Outsourcing logistics services can significantly reduce your operating costs per load. These companies usually leverage their total freight to bargain for lower carriage costs from transporters

Helps you enjoy shared freight expenses

3PLs can combine your load with other shippers going to the same location. For example, a truckload can contain goods for multiple shippers. As a result, it can trim freight costs by a large margin, leading to cost savings for you.

Passes freight liability on to other parties

Your logistics carrier is responsible for the driver’s pay, physical damage of goods, and liability for incidents. So you’re free from this burden when you outsource logistics.

You can also elevate your customer service when you partner with Office Beacon Logistics Outsourcing Services. Here’s why.

Boosts your last mile delivery

The 2022 State of Logistics Report says that last-mile delivery is on the rise, with e-commerce stores accounting for 10% of the growth. A logistics outsourcing company can use its vast resources to deliver your products faster and at the right time to meet consumer demand.

Keeps your customers updated

Office Beacon uses tech-savvy software like shipper IT systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Warehouse Management Systems. As a result, it becomes easier to handle notice of exceptions and to keep your final user updated.

Finally, outsourcing to third-party logistics providers can upgrade your business’s performance. Here’s how your company benefits.

Broadens your understanding

Companies like Office Beacon work with multiple logistics leaders, shippers, and industries. Because of this, they know the ins and outs of the logistics sector and its trends. They can use this vital information to improve your processes and decisions.

Helps you zero in on your core competencies

Look, the SCM and logistics industries are complicated and involve a ton of systems that can overwhelm your business. You don’t have to carry this burden when outsourcing Office Beacon logistics services.

You can work with Office Beacon to get full back-office support to handle all your routine and repetitive logistics activities. One example is real-time tracking of your cargo or loads. You’ll stay up to date with your cargo movement along the supply chain.

However, a 3PL isn’t the ultimate solution to your logistics needs. It comes with its own challenges.

Challenges of outsourcing logistics services

You must transfer your customer relations and communication to a 3PL. It means you may lose a bit of control over these functions. And if an order arrives late for your client, they’ll blame you instead of your logistics partner.
So it’s crucial to carry out due diligence before you settle for a 3PL.
A shoddy service from a logistics provider can lead to higher costs, poor customer service, and supply chain bottlenecks.
It can be expensive to contract a 3PL if you ship orders or parcels of less than 1000 units per month. You won’t break even.

Choosing the right logistics outsourcing partner can eliminate these drawbacks. Office Beacon’s highly trained logistics professionals can help you become a market leader in your sector.

How to outsource logistics: What should you consider before you sign the contract?

Here are 3 critical considerations for your logistics company.

1. The logistics outsourcing company must match your business model

First, explain your company’s needs to the logistics partner. What services do you want? For example, Office Beacon offers complete back-office support for inbound, outbound, and reverse logistics.

2. You must receive a water-tight service guarantee

Your preferred logistics provider must provide you with a robust service agreement. It must guarantee a high error-free rate in meeting customer needs.

The contract needs the following crucial details:

Terms and conditions
Coverage for delays and breakages
Service charge details
Timelines
Backup plans

Office Beacon is trusted by global logistics companies due to its transparent service agreements. The company will ensure you understand all the terms and conditions of your logistics agreement.

3. The logistics partner must have the right technology

One of the top trends in logistics is the internet of things (IoT). It’s “a connection of physical devices that monitor and transfer data via the internet and without human intervention.”

The outsourced logistics company needs an IoT platform to enhance visibility throughout the supply chain. It can boost transparency, real-time visibility of products, and inventory management.

When you work with Office Beacon, you’ll be able to track your cargo until it reaches your customer.

Get started with Office Beacon logistics services

You’re not alone in the logistics industry—Office Beacon’s Logistics Outsourcing team can collaborate with you to achieve the following.

Cost reduction/cost optimization
Increasing customer satisfaction
Providing relevant data and analytics throughout the entire supply chain
Gaining a competitive edge
Designing, building, running, and measuring your logistics functions

If you choose to outsource Office Beacon’s logistics services, here are the services you can expect.

Overseeing supply chain operations
Managing inventory, storage, and transportation
Analyzing and optimizing logistical procedures
Reviewing, preparing, and routing purchase orders
Ensuring safe and timely delivery of shipments
Monitoring costs, timeliness, and productivity of shipments
Addressing shipment and inventory issues
Liaising with suppliers and retailers
Identifying process bottlenecks
Suggesting solutions for improvement
Coordinating with the logistics department
Tracking KPI
Generating and providing quotes to customers
Preparing customs and shipping documents
Updating retailer and customer systems

Stop burdening yourself with the complexities of managing your logistics services. Choose Office Beacon as your go-to remote logistics service provider today!

9 Practical Ways Virtual Accounting and Bookkeeping Can Improve Your Bottom Line

Posted on September 26, 2022February 5, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

Did you know businesses that use cloud-based accounting software enjoy 15% revenue growth? (Xero, 2017). That’s something you can take advantage of through virtual accounting and bookkeeping services. A virtual accountant and bookkeeper utilizes the latest cloud-based tools to manage your financial tasks.

Virtual accounting and bookkeeping allows you to outsource your accounting needs so that you can focus on the more strategic aspects of your business. If you’re unsure about outsourcing your accounting and bookkeeping needs, read on.

Bookkeeping vs. Accounting

Bookkeeping is the process of recording financial transactions and summarizing the results in a ledger. It’s one of the four essential accounting functions, including recording, reporting, and analysis.

Bookkeeping helps track your business or personal income and expenses. It covers the following.

Daily recording of financial transactions
Receipts from customers
Payments to suppliers
Invoice payments
Loan repayments

Accounting summarizes, interprets, and communicates the financial transactions of your business. The accounting cycle starts with recording all incoming transactions, such as purchases and sales, followed by summarizing them in one place, called a balance sheet.

So, bookkeeping is part of accounting.

The final step in the accounting cycle is to project future cash flows based on these summarized results, called an income statement.

You can divide accounting into two broad categories: managerial accounting and financial accounting.

Managerial accounting deals with management decisions like what inventory to order or how much stock to keep on hand.
Financial accounting deals with company decisions like when to buy or sell an asset or how much debt your business should take on (or pay off).

Your business needs bookkeeping and accounting. Bookkeeping ensures you have an accurate and systematic record of financial transactions. A virtual accountant interprets and communicates financial information to help you make data-driven decisions.

Common Accounting and Bookkeeping Challenges

Managing your payroll
Unstable cash flow
Managing paperwork
Handling taxes
Preparing and analyzing income statements
Understanding your financial statements
Closing your monthly books
Accounts receivable/collections
Using spreadsheets to prepare financial reports
Fear of using accounting software
Keeping up to date with regulatory changes
Attracting and retaining your best accounting employees

Worry no more. A virtual accountant or a virtual bookkeeper can help you solve the above challenges.

What is Virtual Accounting and Bookkeeping, and How Does it Work?

Virtual bookkeeping services takes care of a business’s day-to-day financial activities using the latest cloud-based software remotely instead of hiring on-site accountants and bookkeepers. It’s also called online or virtual bookkeeping and accounting.

Once you hire a virtual bookkeeper and accountant, it implies the following things.

You must grant the virtual bookkeeping and accounting company or its virtual accountant and bookkeeper remote access to your server. This also includes your financial records and software.
This access enables your new bookkeeper and accountant to log into your network like an on-site staff member.
It also allows them to retrieve any necessary documents to handle your accounting needs.

Virtual bookkeeper needed but still, wondering whether outsourcing is the way to go?

Here is what you can expect from an virtual accountant and bookkeeper if you partner with a virtual accounting and bookkeeping provider like Office Beacon.

What Does a Virtual Bookkeeper and Accountant Do?

Understand that a traditional bookkeeper and accountant’s services aren’t different from a virtual one. But there’s only one distinguishing element. You engage with the online accountant and bookkeeper via platforms such as the Flowz Meeting app, other video conferencing apps, and social media tools.

Examples of virtual accounting and bookkeeping services:

So, why outsource virtual accounting and bookkeeping services?

9 Incredible Benefits of Virtual Accounting and Bookkeeping Services

1. Access a Pool of Financial Experts Who can Steer your Ship

Let’s face it. Companies like yours face loads of accounting challenges, specifically during recovery time. The type of accounting and bookkeeping professionals you have can make or break your business.

Thanks to virtual accounting and bookkeeping, you can gain unlimited access to a team of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). They’ve got a ton of industry experience to meet every accounting need you have.

When you outsource virtual accounting and bookkeeping, you’ll get remote staff who continuously upgrade their skills. As a result, they’re up to date with the latest trends.

Top-quality feedback or advice from am expert virtual accountant can help stabilize your business in stormy waters. Outsourcing these services gives you access to reliable and well-informed staff.

Offering CAS services can reinforce CPAs’ roles as trusted business advisers who can provide practical and effective solutions for business challenges and valuable advice on the best ways to seize opportunities.

2. Saves your Business a Substantial Amount of Money

Look, you must find ways of reducing business operating costs in these challenging times! It’s a no-brainer. You can cash in on virtual accounting and bookkeeping services to make significant savings. Here’s why?

Let’s say you opt for Office Beacon as your virtual accounting and bookkeeping service provider. You can say goodbye to hiring and onboarding costs, payroll tax, training, annual leave, sick pay, full-time salary, and other technological expenses.

To say you can avoid paying a full-time accountant a salary of nearly US$ 70,000 per annum plus benefits isn’t boasting. It’s doable. Your business can do away with incentives, huge perks, training expenses, and legal fees.

You can also pay for the virtual accounting and bookkeeping services you use or want. You must pay a complete salary and other benefits if you have a full-time accountant and bookkeeper. As a result, your labor expenses could skyrocket.

In addition, you can make significant savings on office space and other infrastructure costs. Overall, you can enjoy mega savings when you opt for outsourced virtual accountant and bookkeeping.

3. Helps you Collaborate with Flexible Staff

Imagine working with readily available virtual accountant professionals worldwide. You can maintain open lines of communication 24/7. And you can get the relevant advice you need at any time.

All of the above is possible through outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping services. The remote accounting and bookkeeping staff are so flexible that you can collaborate with them as easily as ABC.

You can use the following communication tools.

Video conferencing platforms
Emails
Document collaboration tools
Productivity Software

And here’s the juiciest part of this experience. One tool that meets all of the above needs is the Flowz Meeting app. It’s Asana, Trello, and Monday in one app.

4. Reduces Accounting and Bookkeeping Errors

You know that recordkeeping mistakes can be a double-whammy of wrong decisions and cash flow problems. And this can also affect your investment drive in the long term.

But you can eliminate such errors by outsourcing your virtual accounting and bookkeeping needs to companies like Office Beacon. That’s because you’ll work with an experienced virtual accountant with zero tolerance for shoddy bookkeeping and accounting. They ensure your business records are accurate and meet high standards through automated accounting programs.

You don’t have to buy or subscribe to accounting tools or train your staff to use them. Your virtual accountants and bookkeepers will be well-versed with such platforms.

Also, popular accounting software such as Quickbooks or Sage can minimize fraudulent activities. And this stabilizes and conserves your cash flow.

5. Scales with Your Business as You Expand Operations

As your company spreads its tentacles, your in-house employees may fall behind in meeting your expansion goals. Whether growing locally, regionally, or globally, you’ll need a scalable workforce.

Virtual accounting and bookkeeping services can help you hit the ground running by giving you access to dedicated staff and reliable backup resources at zero cost. And you won’t have to worry about employment contracts or establishing new infrastructure for new employees.

A virtual accountant and bookkeeper is your ultimate solution as you expand. The service is available at your fingertips.

6. One Virtual Accountant and Bookkeeper can Handle Multiple Locations

Does your business have several locations? You must have a virtual accountant and bookkeeper who can handle the financial aspects of all your branches. They don’t have to travel to every site; they can process everything remotely using secure cloud-based software.

You can avoid having a physical bookkeeper and accountant at every business location. Thus, you end up slashing labor costs.

Your accounting data can remain safe since the virtual accountant and bookkeeper can store it away on remote servers. You won’t lose crucial information due to robust backup systems and strict data security measures.

7. Sharpens your Decisions by Leveraging Key Financial Metrics

Businesses thrive partly because of preparing and analyzing data or key performance indicators (KPIs). Data-driven decisions can enhance your performance and lead to skyrocketing revenue.

A Virtual accountant and bookkeeping professional can examine essential financial metrics like revenue. They also explain what each KPI means and what you can do to stay on course.

You’ll get accurate and easily understandable financial and accounting metrics that can improve your day-to-day decisions, like bank loans or investments.

8. Timely Financial Reports Keep You in the Know

Financial reports are also critical to your decision-making. Underqualified accountants and bookkeepers can take ages to give you monthly, quarterly, or yearly reports. It impacts your decisions.

While you can try to organize the reports, you’ll eat into your strategic planning time. To be effective in your business, you must focus on weightier tasks like strategic management.

Leave repetitive accounting activities like financial reports to virtual accounting and bookkeeping. It ensures you get top-class feedback every month or quarter to keep you in the loop.

A virtual accountant and bookkeeper will provide you with real-time financial reports and updates to enhance your strategic decisions. You can use the information to develop business plans or persuade lenders or investors.

9. Boosts Your ROI

As a business, you want to ensure your risk aversion ROI, simple ROI, and efficiency ROI are on an upward trajectory. A virtual accountant and bookkeeper can help you improve all three.

Remote teams can reduce operating costs while jumpstarting efficiency by maintaining accurate documents. Also, your productivity and profitability can increase when you hire a highly experienced virtual accountant and bookkeeper.

A CPA can perform your business’s auditing, budgeting, forecasting, and management tasks. You won’t need separate tax professionals and auditors when you hire virtual accounting and bookkeeping services like Office Beacon.

Wrapping Up: Why Outsource Accounting and Bookkeeping Services?

Virtual accounting and bookkeeping allows you to have a dedicated virtual accountant and bookkeeper who works for you and handles all your financial needs. It’s a great option if you’re looking for alternatives to traditional accounting and bookkeeping services. Or if you’re just starting your business and don’t want to worry about hiring an accountant and bookkeeper immediately.

Need help with virtual accounting and bookkeeping? Ping Office Beacon’s virtual accounting service right away.

9 Compelling Reasons Why Insurance Outsourcing Can Help Scale Your Business

Posted on September 19, 2022February 6, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

In today’s competitive insurance industry, you need to look for effective ways to reduce costs and improve your bottom line. One of the best ways to do this is through insurance business process outsourcing (BPO).

You can adopt this strategy to lower expenses, increase efficiency, and improve customer service. Insurance BPO allows you to focus on what you do best while outsourcing the rest.

In this blog, you’ll discover 9 ways insurance BPO can help you with a robust back-office service support system.

What’s the state of the insurance industry today?

The insurance industry has faced many challenges as a result of the pandemic. According to McKinsey’s recent report, firms are experiencing declining revenue growth, low productivity, and fierce competition for tech-savvy customers.

Deloitte also examined the insurance outlook for 2022 and beyond. Its findings highlighted the following as additional headaches for your business.

Inflationary pressures
Sustainability matters (climate risks)
Diversity and financial inclusion
Changes in customer products and buying preferences
Attracting and hiring top talent
New technologies to enhance the customer experience

However, there is a silver lining for you as the same report shows the sector could grow by 3.9% globally. So it’s not all gloom and doom—you must change your approaches to overcome challenges, win new customers, and remain relevant.

Insurance business process outsourcing is the perfect strategy you can use to accelerate your growth and boost market share.

What is business process outsourcing?

“Business process outsourcing is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that, in turn, owns, administers, and manages the selected processes based on defined and measurable performance metrics.”

You can engage an insurance outsourcing company or third-party vendor as a strategic partner to manage your IT-based insurance services. For example, Office Beacon (OB) can provide back-office service support to help you focus more on strategic planning and implementation.

According to the PwC insurance outlook report, the following can help you expand and meet customers’ ever-changing needs.

Leverage data and the latest technology to provide users with a seamless experience from quote to sale and claims.
Innovate products to satisfy unserved or underserved market segments.
Adopt a lean structure to slash operational costs and improve the bottom line.
Set up an integrated ecosystem through a partnership to provide an efficient distribution service.
Outsource a third-party vendor, such as other carriers or distributors.

Thus an insurance BPO is a valuable asset to help you achieve your business objectives. Now let’s explore how you can maximize a strategic collaboration with an insurance outsourcing company.

9 Ways insurance BPO can help you thrive against all odds

1. Handling the quote process

Your company needs an efficient and user-friendly system to process quotes for your potential customers. It ensures that you respond faster to their queries, leading to happy customers.

But it would be more productive to partner with a business processing outsourcing company.

An insurance BPO can deploy a virtual insurance agent to manage your routine and time-consuming tasks like quote summary and proposal. Because Office Beacon also uses the latest software to process these documents, your new clients can receive help at lightning speed. As a result, you can boost your insurance back office support, which in turn, increases productivity and allows you to zero in on core responsibilities.

2. Document indexing and filing

Data management is another challenging activity for your company because it involves organizing and analyzing huge volumes of data. Human errors can occur, and this can compromise your decision-making and data security.

However, you can outsource document indexing and filing to a back-office service support company.

An insurance outsourcing partner has professionals who understand the ins and outs of the entire insurance index filing process. They also use cutting-edge tools to manage all data processes efficiently. Because of this, you can have credible information while making huge savings on costs.

3. Billing and accounts receivables

As McKinsey reports, insurance businesses like yours are experiencing revenue growth challenges. In addition, cash flow mismanagement, missed payments, and late delivery of invoices are potential drawbacks in the sector.

To deal with these problems, you must have an effective billing and accounts receivables mechanism.

You can work with an insurance business process outsourcing company to handle all your accounting tasks, such as bank reconciliation. It gives you access to experienced accountants and proper accounting and bookkeeping software. A well-oiled back-office support system improves your cash flow and revenue margins.

4. Loss run processing

To ensure quick loss run processing, there are several things that you must fulfill. First, you need experts who can prepare accurate reports to allow you to make informed decisions. Secondly, you should have high-performing software to capture error-free data.

Thirdly, specialists need to examine your reports to assess the potential insurable risks.

All these detailed activities can be overwhelming for your company. A BPO with skilled personnel (virtual insurance agents) and the right tools can come in handy to shoulder these responsibilities. An Office Beacon insurance service delivers a cost-effective loss run processing system to ensure it’s on time and elevates your customers’ experience.

5. Renewals processing and managing the renewal list

Policy renewals play an essential role in retaining your customers and ensuring that your business continues to receive income. It means that you need a timeous renewal process and to keep an updated list.

It’s pretty clear that the more sluggish your system is, the more costly it will be. You can lose thousands of dollars.

But you can have peace of mind when collaborating with an insurance outsourcing service. Business process outsourcing can take charge of your renewal processing and manage your renewal list. It can also help you retain customers and improve your bottom line with the right software and customer-focused service.

6. Claims management and follow-up

The more your business expands its portfolio of insurable risks, the more claims you are likely to receive from your clients. And when they file claims, customers expect a quick response to show you are more interested in their welfare.

In addition, you have been flooded with an avalanche of claims since the start of the global COVID-19. You are also at the mercy of internet fraudsters making false claims.

How can you navigate this rough terrain and ensure you have a water-tight claims management process? A third-party insurance vendor can come to your rescue and handle the claims lifecycle, provide clients with a 24/7/365-days service, and assess claims to minimize fraud.

7. Certificate of insurance process services

For your business to survive the cut-throat competition in the insurance sector, you need to concentrate on your core competencies. You can do this by outsourcing repetitive administrative tasks like the certificate of insurance services (COI) to Office Beacon insurance specialists.

BPO enables you to put more effort into developing groundbreaking strategies to stay ahead of your peers.

A back office support system can process, validate, and disburse COI in line with your insurance industry guidelines. Well-trained insurance BPO staff can ensure your customers receive accurate certificates of insurance well on time.

8. Policy checking and policy servicing

As a carrier, you are inundated with countless policy applications and renewals. Plus, your in-house team must verify every document to see if customers have provided all the relevant information. It’s a tedious process.

You are better off with an insurance business process outsourcing partner. They can manage policy checking and servicing to offer your clients an optimal insurance service.

And they can create quotes and proposals, process business renewals, and keep your company’s electronic records up to date. As a result, you can use your time to zoom in on finding more customers.

9. New business setup

You could have a brilliant idea to launch an insurance business but be unsure of the whole process. And entering this sector may look straightforward on paper. However, you must satisfy several regulations, apply for a permit, and understand your target market.

Due to a highly competitive market, you need solid strategies to stand out from the crowd.

Luckily, an insurance BPO can deploy experienced virtual insurance specialists like insurance marketers, robust business planners, and excellent market researchers to make things easier for you. They can handle your new business set up to help you scale faster than you would if you did it alone.

Why Office Beacon’s insurance outsourcing services can benefit your business

One of the crucial highlights from the PwC report is that you must work with strategic partners to maximize your expansion. OB is well-positioned to play this role in offering you back-office service support for your insurance company.

You can benefit from the company’s outstanding achievements, which are:

Over 20 years of experience in claims administration as back-office service support for insurance companies
Experienced professionals who grasp the insurance sector inside and out
Latest insurance software and a customer-centric approach
A trusted partner of leading insurance companies

OB provides insurance agencies and carriers like yours with best-in-class services and customized software.

What’s more, you can work with qualified and pre-screened staff to complement your internal team. They act as your company’s extension.

Alternatively, you can work with full-time or part-time employees one-on-one. It helps you find the best and most valuable solutions for your business.

Wrapping up

Insurance business process outsourcing (BPO) is the preferred choice for you to expand your business. You can outsource repetitive and routine insurance tasks when you work with a strategic partner.

Back-office service support for insurance companies can help you focus more on your core skills while enjoying substantial operational savings. Schedule a call to discover how Office Beacon can set you up for success.

The Office Beacon Advantage: Join a 20 Year Legacy

Posted on September 12, 2022July 25, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Running your business can be rewarding, but it’s no walk in the park. You constantly struggle between driving growth and ticking off administrative chores. You burn the candle at both ends only to realize that your to-do list gets longer while the bottom line suffers.

Office Beacon was founded to solve this classic conundrum. In the past 20 years, we have helped more than 4000 clients scale their businesses by managing remote staffing needs and streamlining operations. Our virtual assistant services have proved to be a fundamental element of success!

The Office Beacon legacy

Office Beacon Legacy

‘Remote work’ became the new corporate buzzword only after the onset of Covid-19. However, Office Beacon has been delivering remote staffing expertise to a multitude of industries long before teleconferencing became popular.

We specialize in offering competent virtual assistants (VAs) who take care of your back-office tasks. We have helped thousands of clients manage administrative/operational chores and increase business agility at a fraction of the cost of hiring full-time employees. Whether you are looking for a software developer, a graphic designer, or an accountant, no job description is off limits for Office Beacon.

The Office Beacon Advantage: What makes us different

Office Beacon Advantage

You will find numerous businesses offering staffing solutions. But what makes us stand out is the Office Beacon Advantage- the epitome of simplicity and excellence that our virtual assistant services offer. Our rich history of delivering outstanding managed services has helped us stand apart from the clutter and become a trusted remote outsourcing partner to our clients.

1. 20 Years of experience and expertise

For the past 20 years, we have spearheaded the outsourcing of full-time staff and helped companies scale their business. With thousands of employees providing 150 plus operational support services and millions of client hours under our belt, Office Beacon has secured the position of the best remote staffing solutions provider in the US.

2. Global infrastructure

We are a US-based company with offices in Canada, India, the Philippines, Uruguay, and Australia. With delivery centers across multiple locations, we can ensure complete redundancy 24*7. Additionally, our global presence allows us to deliver service across various time zones (EST to PST) to suit your business hours.

3. State-of-the-art offices

Although remote, assistants at Office Beacon are not working out of their homes but from office premises. All office locations are secured with guards and mandate biometric identity verification for all entries. We provide our VAs with superior equipment and technology to deliver seamless service.

4. On-site support for quality performance

Outsourcing to Office Beacon removes additional hurdles to monitoring employee performance. All remote employees undergo mandatory initial training for 2-4 weeks, and only then do they go live. This helps them meet the required productivity, reconciliation, and quality trackers. Our team leads will monitor your remote assistants’ performance by setting KPI expectations and send you bi-weekly performance reports.

5. Bilingual customer care services

Due to the increasing demand for bilingual (English and Spanish) customer support, Office Beacon launched its brand new location in Uruguay this year. So when you choose Office Beacon, you get access to bilingual virtual assistants skilled in Customer service and support, Order management, Administrative (back-office) tasks, Inside sales, Marketing, and Translation services. This assumes significance especially if you are a global brand and you require virtual assistants in sales.

6. Complementary software support

Your monthly contract covers complementary software in addition to your remote assistant’s training and working charges. This eliminates any additional costs incurred in texting, video conferencing, data archiving, using project management tools, etc.

7. Data Protection and Confidentiality

Office Beacon ensures complete data protection and confidentiality by-

Partnering with Ernst and Young for auditing security protocols and following data protection practices.
Ensuring any client works produced by employees fully comply with global licensing standards.
Connecting with client systems via secure VPN and OTP. Office Beacon’s remote assistant management tool that holds client chats and files is end-to-end encrypted for your foolproof security.
Mandating virtual assistants to sign non-disclosure agreements (N.D.A) covering every data file they work on. This offers protection against intellectual property rights (IPR) and client data misappropriation.
Employing labor attorneys across all operational countries to adhere to every regional employment regulation.
Including a $1 million Errors & Omissions insurance policy. Office Beacon is a US-based company with international subsidiaries and does not involve third parties.

Outsource your staffing needs to Office Beacon

Looking to slash your overhead costs and eliminate HR headaches? Planning to hire this season but worried about space constraints? Well, look no further!

Over the years, Office Beacon has built expertise around liberating you from the time-sinkers, so you can focus on what matters most, i.e., business growth. We take your BPO job description and match you with virtual assistants who are subject matter experts and will be dedicated full-time to your company. We only offer customized packages because we understand that no two operations are alike.

So, whatever your staffing needs, “We Can Do That”! Hire a virtual assistant today and reap benefits!

Top 10 ways to Boost Business Growth by 10x

Posted on August 18, 2022February 6, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

Are you looking for ways to boost your business growth dramatically? If so, you’re in luck. This post will share 10 powerful remote staffing tips to help you achieve 10x growth. So, let’s get started!”

The business landscape has changed quite a bit since 2020. As a result, it’s no surprise that remote staffing has become an effective way for companies of all sizes to scale. It elevates your company’s operational performance while cutting costs at the same time.

You have probably grown accustomed to your own employees working from home. Another model to seriously consider is outsourcing to a company that can staff for your back office needs.

Did you know that a remote staffing partnership can help your business grow 10x faster than usual?

But first, let’s unpack remote staffing.

What is remote staffing?

Remote staffing involves paying a monthly flat fee to a third party that will take care of your HR needs. The outsourced company will source, hire, train, and supervise the person or team you need.

In the case of Office Beacon, you have a dedicated full-time remote employee who works in an Office Beacon office. Office Beacon conforms to all employment laws of the country where your full-time employee resides in order to protect them, and most importantly, your company’s information remains secure.

Here are the top 10 ways to boost your business growth 10x (or more) using a remote staffing company.

1. Reduced operational costs

In-house employees require that you have an administrative office, which comes with extra costs. But you can save on overhead expenses like employee benefits, workplace services, utilities, and infrastructure costs through remote staffing. As a result, you don’t incur ancillary costs such as office space and equipment when you use a remote staffing company.

2. Seamless productivity

Seamless coordination means your dedicated remote employee works with you effectively and efficiently, making decisions and moving forward as a team. Everyone pulls their weight and contributes to the overall success of your organization.

Office Beacon achieves this by carefully planning and communicating with your business. As a result, it leads to the following outcomes:

Your remote staffing team clarifies the goals and priorities.
There is clear and frequent communication about changes in deadlines and requirements.
The team is ready for unexpected interruptions in your organization.

If by chance, your remote employee leaves, the staffing company will quickly find and train a replacement. It stabilizes your productivity.

3. Faster scalability

As your business grows, there will be a need for more employees to take up new roles. And the hiring process is long, which makes it challenging to get new workers for your business quickly.

But a remote staffing company helps you scale faster because staff with different skills are already available. As a result, you can keep up with demand and ensure you have enough employees to meet customer demand.

Using a remote staffing service helps you hire more remote workers in less time and at a lower cost. That’s because the company does all the recruitment and deployment for you.

4. Are you dropping the ball on customer service?

If you’re recently getting numerous customer complaints, it is a sign that you should outsource to remote staffing companies.

Customers are rarely interested in knowing why a problem occurred; they need solutions. A staffing solution company has a talent pool of experienced professionals that will serve your customers better and can provide round-the-clock support if necessary.

5. Data protection

In today’s cyber world, your data security is paramount. A reputable remote staffing provider has cyber security systems in place to avoid data leaks and cyber-thefts. It has set some parameters and follows all the international cyber security guidelines.

Office Beacon has partnered with E&Y for regular audits. We have licensed software, including antivirus and malware protection software, for servers and work stations security. We connect with business systems via a secure VPN to avoid data leaks.

6. Back-up systems

Unlike WFH employees, a remote staffing company has backup generators and systems. It ensures your remote employees continue to be productive without your company incurring extra costs.

7. Geographic expansion

Remote staffing is a potent resource that can help your business effortlessly expand into other geographical markets. That’s why we launched a new facility in Montevideo in Uruguay five months ago to cater to your business growth needs. Because of Uruguay’s high literacy rate, we can provide you with bi-lingual (Spanish and English) remote staffing services.

You can tap into Uruguay’s bilingual capabilities to explore international markets and enhance your market share without breaking your bank. That’s because there is no need to hire extra staff to get your company off the ground.

Expanding your operations worldwide is more rapid when you collaborate with a remote staffing company. And you won’t have to develop the infrastructure for employees.

8. Continuous training

Upskilling workers is vital for your efficiency. It helps your employees work more effectively, which reduces costs and boosts profits. A remote staffing company provides your remote employees with the most current training.

9. Strategic focus

If you have in-house staff, you need to conduct regular meetings, assess their performance, and consider remuneration and labor laws. These administrative activities eat into your strategic planning time

Luckily, with a remote staffing service company, you can free yourself from managing employees. You can also avoid day-to-day tasks that a virtual assistant can handle, such as checking emails and scheduling meetings. Thus, you can zero in on improving your company’s revenue and profits.

10. Software support

Let’s face it. Software support is expensive and requires ongoing maintenance and upgrades. A major advantage of working with Office Beacon is the added benefit of our exclusive Flowz software. With Flowz, your company doesn’t have to subscribe to various services for video conferencing, texting, CRM, data storage, and project management. This adds up to a huge cost savings over time.

Office Beacon's 20+ years of experience in remote staffing

Since 2001, Office Beacon has helped hundreds of companies like yours maximize their growth with our virtual staffing expertise. And here are examples of the services you can expect.

11 signs you need remote staffing now more than ever

Posted on August 11, 2022February 5, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

If the last 2+ years taught us anything about business, it is that you have two options: adapt or go bankrupt. If your ultimate goal is to implement cost-cutting measures, you should consider remote staffing as a solution.

Let’s look at 11 common signs that your organization needs remote staffing.

1. Are you struggling to recruit the best talent?

Take it as a first sign that your business needs a remote staffing service. As a business leader, more than anyone else in the organization, you often confront an acute scarcity of one essential resource: time. There is never enough time for you to recruit the best talent for your business activities.

Picking the best candidate from thousands of resumes can be challenging. Sometimes, you’ll resort to hiring the best candidate you can find at the time—not the finest candidate for the job.

More than ever, highly-skilled professionals have vast opportunities to sell their skills. Still, as a business leader, you’ll have a tough time finding them. This is the first sign that says you need to outsource the business activity to remote staffing companies.

2. Are you struggling with having to pay high salaries?

If you’re struggling to pay your on-site employees, that’s another sign you should consider enlisting the help of a remote staffing company.

Payroll is one of the enormous burdens that most businesses have to carry. But can you keep your business afloat while you struggle to pay high salaries? On the face of it, the answer is crystal clear.

Your organization can’t survive long enough if you continue to pay high salary overhead costs. The economic conditions we are currently facing exacerbate this problem.

The Federal Reserve Board continues to consider adjusting interest rates, which could affect your company’s ability to borrow funds and subsequently impact salaries. Fortunately, remote staffing helps you avoid paying high salaries during these uncertain economic times by outsourcing business activities.

3. Are you struggling to scale your business?

This is another sign that you need to use a remote staffing service. Inability to scale can stem from a workforce that is spread too thin.

When you are wrestling with unprecedented risks and disruption, the last thing you want is to have an employee that won’t help you scale. Luckily, remote staffing can help you scale your business through a skilled team.

As your business grows, you can easily add employees through a remote staffing provider and not incur the cost of adding managers to oversee your growing team. This way, your company will have a consistent flow of income throughout the year, and become more resilient.

4. Are your profit margins dropping significantly?

A noticeable decline in profit margins could be another sign that you should consider remote staffing.

The world as we know it is an entirely different place post-Covid. As a business leader, you must devise innovative ways to maximize profit. One of the cost-effective ways is by utilizing remote staffing. It will enable your organization to increase its profit margins sustainably.

Moreover, it will help you grow your market share and extend your footprint. Not only does remote staffing allow you to hire world-class remote talent, but it also saves you time and money.

5. Is your on-site team reporting low productivity?

If you notice low productivity from your on-site team, consider outsourcing to remote staffing companies. No employee is 100% productive all day, every day. Still, when 60% of your employees report low productivity, that doesn’t bode well for the success of your business.

Remote staffing consultants are experts in managing remote teams. Leave managing remote employees to them and focus on growing your business, which is what you do best. Remote staffing uses a set of pre-defined KPIs expectations, which allow them to track performance and improve productivity accordingly.

6. Are you dropping the ball on customer service?

If you’re recently getting numerous customer complaints, it is a sign that you should outsource to remote staffing companies.

7. Do you rent expensive office space?

US companies spend approximately $8 to $23 per square foot. For instance, office space per employee in New York is roughly $14,800 annually. And opening an office in San Francisco will cost a lot more.

Amid mounting debt, inflation, and skyrocketing costs, your ultimate goal should be to avoid wasting money on fancy office space. If you’re spending money here, this is yet another sign you need to outsource business activities to remote staffing companies.

8. Do you struggle to access a wider talent pool?

If your organization’s talent is confined locally, that’s another sign you should consider remote staffing services.

Every organization that hires only local talent is bound to have underperforming employees, which is normal. You should only be concerned if 30% of your team are nonachievers. Fortunately, you won’t deal with underperformance as you will access a broader talent through remote staffing.

Accessing candidates from different geographical regions will enable your company to hire at an international level without incurring costs. For instance, Office Beacon has a global pool of qualified candidates who will surpass your client’s expectations. Office Beacon’s remote talent will also help your company to pivot new product lines or services at an insanely low cost.

9. Does your company spend more on office supplies?

If your company spends considerable money on office supplies, you should consider this as a sign of outsourcing to remote staffing.

The average spending on office supplies is around $50 per $100 per month. If your staff complement is 100, that figure jumps to a whopping $10,000 per month. That amount increases if you tally up office functions, salaries, telephone, and transport allowance; this cost can be avoided.

10. Do you spend more on travel expenses?

A remote staffing solution will help your organization to save on expenses by recruiting a 100% remote team that will become an extension of your company.

Remote staffing removes the need for your organization to subsidize travel. On average, organizations that don’t use remote staffing spend roughly $949 per person. You can invest some of that money in impacting your organization’s financial statement.

11. Do you struggle to retain top talent?

If you are struggling to retain top talent, you’re not alone. 80% of companies find it challenging to find and keep qualified employees.

Your employees are the most prized asset of your organization. If you don’t hold on to them, your competitors will snatch them away.

Retaining remote talent might not be possible unless you team up with a remote staffing company. A remote staffing service can change all that and bring in a loyal team who will scale your business.

Final Thoughts

Take all the above 11 signs as red flags for your organization. The sooner you do something to address them, the better for your company. The good news is that it is not too late to partner with a reputable remote staffing company. This way, you’ll be able to assemble a diversified talent that caters to a global market.

A remote staffing company will quickly and easily provide solutions for your staffing needs. Then onboard and manage that talent while you focus on strategizing, which is what you should be doing. In addition, remote staffing will expand your company’s reach and help your organization gain a competitive edge.

Are you looking for a reputable remote staffing company? Reach out to us today!

What Is a Virtual Administrative Assistant?

10 Tasks A Virtual Administrative Assistant Can Handle

1. Appointment Setting

2. Document Formatting

3. Transcription

4. List Management

5. Custom Reports

6. Data Entry

7. Secretary Services

8. Market Research

9. Email Management

10. Answering Calls

Why Hire a Virtual Administrative Assistant?

Save Time

Reduced Operational Costs

Preserves Entrepreneurial Sanity

Access to Skilled Staff

5 Signs You Need a Virtual Administrative Assistant

1. The Exorbitant Costs of Hiring Employees

2. You Lack Time to Commit to the Important Tasks

3. You Lack the Skills to Handle Certain Tasks

4. You Often Miss Out on Business Opportunities

5. You’re Failing at Customer Retention

12 Essential Skills to Look for in a Top Virtual Administrative Assistant

How to Get Started with A Virtual Administrative Assistant?

Conclusion

1. Lower Overhead Costs

2. Domain Expertise

3. Quality Work

4. Quick Delivery

5. Diverse Talentpool

6. Lower Company Risk

7. High Flexibility

Virtual Assistant Skills to Check

Tips to Find the Right Virtual Assistant

1. Spot Skill Gaps

2. Assess Goals

3. Created Detailed JDs

4. Perform Extensive Research

Take the Leap

What Is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

What Does a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Do?

Administrative Task Assistance

Marketing Assistance

Listings Management

Customer Support

Why Is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Necessary to Promote Business Growth?

Cost Efficient

Access to Global Talent

Flexibility

How Do Real Estate Virtual Assistants Drive Business Growth?

Myths Related to Real Estate Virtual Assistants

Challenges Real Estate Companies Face

1. Customer Service: Reaching out to potential customers and addressing their concerns is time-consuming and tiring. Moreover, today’s digital-savvy customers demand a high sense of attention and detail. With many tasks, real estate owners struggle with customer service and initial sales.

2. Scheduling: Getting to every appointment right is an eternal struggle for a realtor. For many real estate owners, this leads to bad scheduling. Due to poor calendar management, real estate owners run the risk of missing out on crucial business opportunities.

3. Never-Ending Administrative Tasks: The administrative work in the real estate sector frequently piles up. Further, real estate companies fail to carry out administrative responsibilities impeding productivity and hampering workflow.

What are the Best Practices for Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Closing Points

Why Do You Need a Social Media Virtual Assistant?

1. Improving Customer Service

2. Developing Positioning Power

3. Building a Better Search Engine Presence

4. Humanizing Your Brand

What Skills Does a Social Media Assistant Need?

13 Tasks That a Social Media Virtual Assistant Can Perform

How to Hire a Social Media Virtual Assistant?

Over to You

What is outsourced logistics, and does your business need it?

Logistics vs. Supply chain management (SCM): What’s the difference?

Logistics and SCM: What are the similarities?

How does logistics outsourcing work?

Information

Storage

Warehousing

Handling materials

Packaging

Unitization

Inventory control

Transportation