How to Outsource Food and Beverage Manufacturing

Posted on June 30, 2023July 6, 2023 by officebeacon

The food and beverage industry has long been recognized as one of the most critical sectors worldwide. Recent research reveals an impressive growth trajectory, with a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3% in 2023. With the expansion of the food and beverage manufacturing industry, business owners are in need of skilled staff to take their companies to the next level.

Enter virtual assistants- the game-changing resource that can revolutionize your food and beverage manufacturing. Virtual assistants offer an innovative and cost-effective approach to tackling the industry’s demands and enabling businesses to collaborate directly with domain experts. By leveraging the expertise of these skilled professionals, entrepreneurs can streamline operational processes, enhance productivity, increase profitability, and much more!

The Role of Virtual Assistants in the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry

Virtual remote assistants play a significant role in the food and beverage manufacturing industry, optimizing productivity and supporting remote operations. The global food packaging equipment market size was valued at $16,901.0 million in 2020 and is projected to reach $33,148.2 million by 2031. This registers a CAGR of 6.3% from 2022 to 2031, indicating the industry's substantial size and growth potential. Virtual assistants enable manufacturers to monitor and control production processes remotely, reducing the need for an on-site presence. Virtual assistants contribute to streamlined communication, real-time data analysis, and remote troubleshooting, enhancing operational efficiency, cost savings, and adaptability in the food and beverage manufacturing sector.

How Can a Virtual Assistant Increase Your Food & Beverage Company's Productivity

VAs are the future of the food and beverage manufacturing industry. It's the most efficient way to increase your bottom line in a budget-friendly way. Your virtual assistant takes care of all the back-end operations so you can focus on other vital tasks. Here's a list of food and beverage manufacturing tasks your virtual assistant can help you with.

1. Inventory Control Tasks

Inventory management is one of the nightmares of business owners. Since it's such an integral business model component, they can't afford to make inventory mishaps. That's why hiring a professional who can handle all the heavy lifting for you is best. Virtual assistants are well-versed with the latest technologies and tools required to manage inventory. They ensure the stocks are always available, place orders on time, maintain safety stocks, and coordinate with other parties such as suppliers, retailers, vendors, etc.

2. Promotions

Brand awareness doesn't come easy. A lot of companies spend significant amounts of money on creating brand awareness. However, outsourcing this task to your virtual assistant will give you the same, if not better, results at half the price. Virtual assistants know the ins and outs of the food and beverage industry. They leverage that in planning, conceptualizing, planning, and executing events for your company. VAs also use both offline and online channels to promote their brand. For example, they might create an attractive ad, send it to the local newspaper, and post it on social media to spread brand awareness.

3. Accounting

Having an expert who can manage accounting tasks and other responsibilities daily is very handy. Business owners need to realize the full potential of their virtual assistants and put it to good use. Most VAs have the necessary certifications required to handle accounting tasks. They also use software tools in the marketplace to optimize and organize your firm's accounts. At the end of the day, this cuts down your burden of hiring an expensive accountant to do basic tasks that your VA can do easily.

4. Vendor Management

Don't waste your time coordinating with endless vendors when you could spend that time taking your business to the next level. Your food and beverage virtual assistant can handle end-to-end vendor communications. From intercepting important information, scheduling or taking meetings to managing orders with them- your VA can do it all. They can also handle contract management, negotiation, and conflict resolution with your vendors and suppliers. They ensure compliance with the set terms and conditions during the whole process.

5. Market Research

Virtual assistants conduct meticulous market research and analyze the data to identify vital indicators, trends, etc. It can help you plan your next steps, understand customer behavior & preferences, and assess competitors. Your virtual assistant collects, organizes, and presents these valuable insights as a research report, making it easy to store and access the database at any given time. Leverage the market research conducted by your virtual assistant to make informed decisions, develop company strategies, and make new products.

6. Social Media Marketing

Virtual assistants can assist you in managing your social media accounts by creating compelling and relevant content, scheduling posts at optimal times, and engaging with your audience by responding to comments, messages, and reviews. They can also monitor industry trends and identify relevant hashtags and topics to ensure your social media presence remains up-to-date and engaging. By efficiently managing your social media accounts, they increase brand visibility, foster customer engagement, and build a robust online presence for your food and beverage business.

7. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM is a critical aspect of running a successful food and beverage business, and virtual assistants can help you implement and manage a CRM system explicitly tailored to your food and beverage business. They organize and centralize customer data, including contact information, purchase history, and preferences. By effectively tracking customer interactions, such as inquiries, feedback, and orders, they give you a holistic view of your customer relationships. With this information, they can develop personalized marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, and customer retention strategies to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

8. Marketing Support

A virtual assistant specialized in the food and beverage industry can provide comprehensive marketing support to help elevate your brand. They assist in developing brand guidelines that ensure consistency across all marketing materials, from logos and color schemes to fonts and imagery. They also create engaging and visually appealing marketing collateral such as brochures, menus, banners, and social media graphics. With expertise in copywriting, they can also craft compelling and persuasive copy for advertisements, website content, blog posts, and social media captions. Your VA can help you effectively communicate your brand's unique identity and key messages to attract and engage your target audience.

How to Work Effectively with Virtual Assistants

In today's fast-paced business environment, virtual assistants enhance efficiency and productivity. By effectively collaborating with virtual assistants, food and beverage manufacturing businesses can leverage their skills, expertise, and flexibility to achieve optimal results. However, the catch is that business owners are not aware of how to harness their full potential and abilities. Well, here's how to establish a successful partnership with virtual assistants, unlocking the full potential of collaboration.

Also Read: Should You Really Hire a Virtual Personal Assistant? Here’s Your Answer

Establish Clear Performance Metrics

To establish clear performance metrics for your virtual assistant, defining specific parameters that align with their role and responsibilities is essential. These metrics serve as measurable performance indicators, and help gauge their effectiveness in supporting your business operations. Some examples of these metrics include task completion rate, accuracy, responsiveness, quality of work, and adherence to deadlines. By clearly defining and communicating these performance metrics to your virtual assistant, you can drive their performance toward desired outcomes.

Foster a Feedback Culture

A feedback culture is essential for cultivating a collaborative and productive relationship with your virtual assistant. Encourage open communication and create a safe space for them to share their ideas, suggestions, and concerns. Regularly solicit their input on processes, workflows, and areas they feel could be improved. Likewise, providing constructive feedback is equally important. Offer specific, actionable feedback on their performance, highlighting areas for improvement and recognizing their strengths. Regular feedback exchanges allow for continuous improvement, alignment of expectations, and adjustments that enhance collaboration and overall performance.

Tailor Recognition to Preferences

By understanding the virtual assistant's preferences, you can ensure that your recognition efforts resonate with them. Every person has different preferences when it comes to receiving recognition and incentives. Some may feel motivated by public recognition, such as praise during team meetings or acknowledgment in a company-wide email. Others may prefer private acknowledgments, such as a personalized message of appreciation or a one-on-one conversation. By tailoring your approach, you create a positive and supportive environment that motivates your virtual assistant to excel and feel valued as an integral part of the team.

Task Delegation and Prioritization

They are vital to optimizing efficiency and productivity when working with a virtual assistant. Consider the virtual assistant's skills, expertise, and capacity to delegate tasks effectively. Assign tasks that align with their strengths, allowing them to leverage their abilities and contribute effectively. Communicate the priorities associated with each task, ensuring that the virtual assistant understands the importance and urgency of each assignment. Regularly review task assignments and adjust priorities as needed, considering shifting deadlines, changing project requirements, or emerging priorities.

To Conclude

Outsourcing your tasks to virtual assistants gives you access to valuable support and expertise to streamline operations. With the trajectory of the food and beverage manufacturing industry shifting rapidly, taking advantage of it is essential to increase your profits. Of course, finding the right virtual assistant for outsourcing can be tricky. That's why it's best to go with a reputable and reliable company like Office Beacon. With decades of experience in the industry, our virtual assistants have helped countless clients reach their goals.

How Can a Virtual Assistant Help You With Store Inventory Management?

Posted on June 20, 2023June 23, 2023 by officebeacon

74% of businesses have experienced shipment delays and much longer lead times. This gap represents the urgent need for improvement in the industry. Store inventory management is a complicated process, and it serves as the backbone for the optimal functioning of retail businesses. Present market conditions require firms to step up their game. However, hiring support doesn’t come cheap; that’s why most companies hire virtual assistants to complete their tasks. Read more to discover how outsourcing store inventory management to a virtual store assistant can cut your expenses and worries in half.

The Growing Significance of Virtual Assistants in the Retail Landscape

The expansion of the retail industry has created a growing need for virtual assistants to support back-end processes like store inventory management. From stocking to order management, the end-to-end process is handled by them. Apart from affordability, the aspect that makes hiring retail staff different from full-time employees is their scalability and flexibility. The working model gives them the added advantage of working remotely-anytime & anywhere.

Essential Skills Your Virtual Assistant Needs For Store Inventory Management

What skills do you need while hiring virtual assistants for store inventory management? Well, we have done a quick rundown of the top ten mandatory skills that your VA must have. This list makes it easier for you to sieve through the resumes and find one that suits your needs.

1. Communication

Communication is one of the most effective and powerful skill sets. Especially in the retail industry, solid communication skills are required to complete daily store inventory management tasks. Your VA should have written and verbal proficiency to easily handle all client and vendor communication. Whether sending emails, daily update reports,

coordinating with vendors, etc., your VA should be on it. It helps bring uniformity in terms of communication in the workplace and accelerates retail operations.

2. Technical Expertise

Joining the digital transformation wave is the only way to keep up with the growing competition. This process requires every candidate you hire to have basic IT knowledge. Fortunately, most virtual assistants are well-versed in technological advancements and have experience using a powerful software tool suite. Excel, Powerpoint, CRM, and inventory management applications are some of the areas your VA should have proven experience in. Being capable of using these apps can automate basic tasks in your store and reduce human error in store inventory management.

3. Email Management

Running a business comes with a messy inbox. This is where most VAs come in. Regardless of your virtual assistant's role, email management skills are a must. Your virtual store assistant sieves through your emails and organizes them based on your priorities. It saves you the hassle of searching through important emails and responding to them. They are also responsible for timely replying to client emails, customer inquiries, orders, vendor reports, etc. You could also ask your VA to execute email marketing campaigns, which includes monitoring them and using analytical parameters such as click-through rates, open rates, subscribe/unsubscribe rates, and bounce rates.

4. Time Management

Smart business owners hire virtual assistants that successfully manage their time on their own and with their clients. You're hiring a VA to work as an independent individual who can improve your business's overall efficiency and productivity. It means the virtual assistant needs to be caught up with daily tasks, keep up with deadlines, streamline workflow, and realistically plan daily task completion. Virtual assistants generally create calendars to monitor and coordinate store inventory management and other retail operations.

5. Typing

Typing skills come very much in handy, especially while working remotely. Your virtual assistants must have professional typing skills to take notes during meetings, transcribe client meetings or reports, or accurately perform data entry. Store inventory management requires handling a lot of data; mishandling could cause problems for your business. However, a VA with sharp skills can fasten the data entry process so your company doesn't have to face retail hassles.

6. Mathematical Skills

Your virtual assistant will be dealing with numbers all day, so they need to be quick with their arithmetic skills. Store inventory management can be hectic and time-consuming, so a virtual assistant who is comfortable working with numbers. This makes it easy for them to look at Inventory data all day and process them with minimal human error. Therefore, it's a significant advantage if your virtual assistant has this skill.

7. Detail- Oriented

Virtual assistants responsible for store inventory management should ideally have a keen eye for detail. The retail environment is fast-paced, and you need someone who doesn't miss out on the details among it all. Being detail-oriented comes in handy when dealing with stocking, customer complaints, inbound and outbound inventory, shipping, etc. Your virtual assistant should meticulously handle and store the data in an organized manner so it's easy to retrieve them when needed.

5 Tips That Will Streamline Your Store Inventory Management

An efficient and well-maintained inventory system is the core of any business. Not only does this significantly reduce operations costs and increase margins. Implement these five expert tips to make your store inventory management effective & efficient.

1. Maintain Safety Stock

Lack of stock can affect the profitability of your business. That's why business owners use statistical methods for accurate sales forecasts. It helps them determine stock for each item in the inventory. In addition, it's crucial to maintain safe stock options, which means keeping a minimum in-stock count for each item in the inventory. Software applications like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems help business owners track this information for each item so they can maintain safety stock.

2. Leverage Technology

Technological advancements are a vital differentiator in giving you an edge over your competitors. As a business owner, you must stay on top of inventory tracking and management techniques. It helps in making informed decisions regarding which technologies to invest in. Integrating the latest technological tools and platforms will facilitate the company's rapid development.

3. Cut the Excess Inventory

Excess inventory lying around in your warehouse is just dead weight. It occupies unnecessary space, making storing or moving new stock challenging. Products no longer being sold or used or in demand must be unloaded. Research shows that reducing stock-outs and overstocks can lower inventory costs by 10%. An inventory audit is the fastest and easiest way to single out products underperforming in the market. Offering special discounts like buy one get one free or 50% off will help you free up storage.

4. Order Processing

Order processing and efficient store inventory management go hand in hand. Implementing advanced strategies for order processing management is pivotal for providing efficient services such as shipping, receiving, and storage. Introducing a new layout to the warehouse and reliable personnel will ensure orders are processed quickly without delays or errors. There are software tools available that help business owners simplify order processing and management.

Also read: Are Virtual Assistants Necessary for Efficient Order Management Process?

5. Contingency Strategies

Running a business is complicated, to say the least. Retail operations, specifically store inventory management is not an easy task. Several things can go wrong, such as running out of stock, no working capital to purchase items, fluctuating demand due to seasonal hikes, etc. Thus, it's necessary to have contingency plans to be prepared for such unforeseen circumstances. This way, you have a plan of action to help you get out in an emergency.

Conclusion

Why struggle with store inventory management when you can outsource it to a virtual retail assistant? The retail industry is vast, and you need backup support. So, business owners choose outsourcing as the most convenient and cost-effective solution. Office Beacon has domain experts with considerable knowledge and skillsets to meet your requirements. Outsourcing from Office Beacon gives you the benefit of an exceptional online store assistant at competitive rates.

Why Every Small Business Needs A Virtual Assistant

Posted on February 9, 2023June 5, 2023 by officebeacon

Small businesses start with big dreams. An entrepreneur must keep track of many daily tasks. These include managing customer service, marketing, advertising, and website maintenance. Additionally, these routine tasks take time, making it difficult to focus on business progress. To this end, budding businesses need an extra pair of hands to do tiresome work so they may concentrate on more important goals.

Hiring a full-time employee accounts for expenses. These include a desk, computer, the cost of employee benefits, and payrolls. In comparison, hiring a virtual assistant would help businesses avoid these expenses and save the firm 78% annually.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant (VA) is a qualified and knowledgeable individual. They support businesses with administrative, accounting, marketing, technical, creative, and personal support.

In this competitive world, it becomes difficult for entrepreneurs to handle administrative tasks. To this end, virtual assistants allow businesses to stay on top of their daily tasks.

Hiring is one of the most challenging processes for firms to master. While hiring freelancers is risky, recruiting long-term workers is expensive. Businesses can use virtual assistants who knows what would be most good for your firm.

Employees vs Virtual Assistants vs Temporary Employees vs Freelancers

Employees vs Freelancers vs Virtual Assistants

Employees

Businesses hire workers as permanent employees to grow their company, uphold their workplace culture, and concentrate on their corporate goals. Hiring a full-time employee comes with:

The cost to recruit – advertising, interviewing
Monthly salary
Employee benefits - insurance
Office equipment – desk, IT, phone, stationery
Holidays, and other statutory payments
Training & skill management costs

Temporary Employees

These workers' employment conditions are predetermined. Companies hire temporary workers for a range of projects and any period.

Pros: It is a great technique to locate staff when companies require them immediately. Additionally, it is an excellent option to augment personnel when permanent employees are on leave during periods of high business activity.

Cons: The lack of passion and demand for shorter working hours among temporary workers causes productivity challenges for businesses.

Freelancers

Freelancers are independent contractors that work for businesses on specialized projects locally or remotely.

Pros: Most freelancers are skilled professionals who exhibit high levels of skills and deliver projects on time.

Cons: Since freelancers come with different skill sets and salaries, finding the ideal one to meet the company's objectives can be challenging.

Virtual Assistants

A virtual assistant is an independent contractor who provides support to businesses remotely. They handle a wide range of business tasks, including:

Calendar management
Virtual admin services
Sales support
Travel and event management
Accounts and Bookkeeping
Marketing

Pros: Hiring a virtual assistant is beneficial for companies as they only pay for the number of hours a virtual assistant works. Also, hiring a virtual assistant doesn't incur any overhead or travel expenses.

Cons: The best part of virtual assistants is that they come with the best skills and work remotely. So, hiring virtual assistants is not a good idea if businesses want someone to work internally.

3 Reasons Why Hiring Virtual Assistant Can Add Value to your Small Business

Hiring a virtual assistant is very beneficial for businesses. Virtual assistants are proven to add value to any business by reducing the workload, driving business growth, increasing efficiency, and enhancing productivity.

Here are the top 3 reasons why hiring a virtual assistant can add value to a small business:

1. Virtual Assistants Fuel Business Growth

Some virtual assistants have a wide range of specialties. While some VAs are specialists in marketing, scheduling appointments, bookkeeping, sales, social media management, and other fields. As a result, virtual assistants with a wide range of skills and the capacity to adapt to highly competitive business environments can foster the growth of budding firms.

2. Virtual Assistants Work 24/7

Virtual assistants can work around the client's schedule and are flexible with their time. Additionally, a competent virtual assistant completes and delivers assignments on schedule. They free up enterprises from administrative duties and provide them more time to unwind, network, and establish business strategies. As a result, virtual assistants help small businesses become more productive and efficient by handling different administrative and other business tasks.

3. Virtual Assistants Save Small Business Money & Time

Each year, process inefficiencies cost businesses. These are frequently the routine activities that virtual assistants (VAs) may carry out, from scheduling the workday to handling accounts and more tasks. Hiring a virtual assistant saves businesses time and money. With a VA, businesses don’t have to deal with a time-consuming recruitment process and can hire a VA as an as-needed contract worker instead of a full-time salaried employee.

Top 10 Businesses Leveraging Virtual Assistants for Growth

Virtual assistants help businesses be more productive by taking care of recurring and crucial business tasks. Here are the top 10 industries that are utilizing virtual assistants for growth.

1. Real Estate

Real estate companies must deal with a tonne of paperwork, create listings, and more. A real estate virtual assistant handles the repetitive tasks that a real estate agent performs. They make significant, valuable contributions to a real estate business at a fraction of the cost of regular staff. Virtual assistants in real estate organize meetings with prospects and edit digital marketing materials for properties. Additionally, they handle buyers under contract agreements, update MLS listings, close deals, and more.

2. Accounting & Bookkeeping

Businesses need an expert to maintain and interpret financial records. Since full-time accountants are so expensive, they are not an option for small businesses looking to reduce expenses.

Virtual assistants manage different tasks, including calendar management, bank reconciliation, data entry, record organization, and accounts payable and receivable. They oversee ledger entries, reconciliation of transactions, and bills. Consequently, virtual assistants look after the financial stability of small firms and assist with regular administrative responsibilities.

Office Beacon offers skilled accountants and bookkeepers adept at handling all accounting and bookkeeping business needs.

3. E-Commerce

Entrepreneurs, especially those who are just starting, find it challenging to run an online store. Managing orders, stocks, and live situations present challenges for businesses. E-commerce businesses can benefit from a virtual assistant's fast handling of duties, including order processing, product description, returns and exchanges, and product listing.

Small businesses who wish to promote and sell their products on online marketplaces can do so swiftly and affordably with the aid of virtual assistants.

An e-commerce virtual assistant can help small businesses with the following tasks:

Creative Designing
Photo and Video Editing
Website & App Development
Data Entry
Accountant & Bookkeeping

4. Information Technology

The IT industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. Small enterprises must effectively manage their business operations to establish their brand presence in the competitive marketplace. To this end, a virtual assistant can aid IT companies in website development, administrative support, technical assistance, customer support, and more. They ensure the business has zero downtime and runs on a secure and reliable network.

5. Database Management

Database management is a tiring and never-ending task for any business. Also, it is the most critical aspect to run any business smoothly. Companies need to keep information on prospective clients, business contacts, order details, inventory lists and more. For this, businesses need experts to update their database with new data and manage the data. A virtual assistant can help businesses in preparing data, checking the accuracy of data, updating records, data management, data presentation, data backup and all the data needs with ease.

6. Human Resources

Every industry needs an HR specialist to handle human resources. Virtual assistants are an extension of an in-house HR and help businesses to manage their everyday HR activities. They keep HR records up to date, ensure the employee needs are fulfilled and act as a point of contact between the company and its employees.

A Human Resource Assistant can help small businesses with the following tasks:

Screening Job Applicants
Preparing Job Offers
Recruiting New Hires
Candidate Onboarding
Recording Employee Data
Performing Payroll Duties

Office Beacon's skilled Human Resources virtual assistant can help businesses to focus on their growth by handling all the HR tasks effectively.

7. Law Firms

Law firms use virtual assistants to enhance productivity, achieve profitability, and save costs. An executive virtual assistant can help law firms with all the activities that optimize business efficiency. They perform the following tasks:

Compiling Critical Data
Preparing Evidence Charts
Collecting Documents for Subpoenas
Monitoring Cases & Documentation
Performing Research & Analysis
Drafting Documents of Legal Disciplines
Managing Schedules
Reviewing Legal Documents
Understanding Legislation Trends
Writing Legal Briefs
Maintaining Research Database

8. Entertainment

The entertainment industry comprises many tasks that involve finding venues, working with vendors, scheduling events, and managing registrations. A virtual assistant can aid businesses in the entertainment industry with administrative support, social media management, tracking supply inventories, and more.

9. Marketing

The marketing sector is significant. However, managing marketing activities may be challenging for small businesses. It takes a lot of effort to plan brand marketing strategies, from conceptualizing the products to publicizing them. A virtual assistant can aid marketing firms with different jobs, including managing social media, running and managing ads, graphic design, customer service, and other duties.

A virtual assistant can aid a marketing company with the following duties:

Content Management
Social Media Management
Website Maintenance
Lead Generation
Email Marketing
Public Relations

10. SEO

Businesses seek SEO services from the very beginning to establish their brand presence, engage with their target audience, and uphold their reputation. Hiring a full-time employee with expertise in keyword research, running Google ads, managing social media ads, graphic design, and other similar duties is expensive. A virtual assistant could be a lifeline for small businesses trying to achieve their SEO objectives.

A Search Engine Marketing assistant can help businesses with:

Collecting & Analyzing Data
Identifying Trends & Insights
Maximizing ROI in Paid Campaigns
Managing Campaign Expenses
Launching & Optimizing Various PPC Campaigns
Overseeing Accounts On Search Platforms
Monitoring Budget And Adjusting Bids
Tracking Kpis To Assess Performance

Conclusion

Every industry, especially those that are just getting started, requires a virtual assistant. Businesses can concentrate on the critical tasks that fuel growth by outsourcing business operations to a capable virtual assistant.

5 Tips To Write Your Virtual Assistant Job Description In No Time

Posted on February 2, 2023June 9, 2023 by officebeacon

Businesses found that using a virtual assistant instead of a full-time employee is more beneficial. Startups, in particular, have discovered the importance of VAs for sporadic projects and time-consuming, tedious administrative tasks.

Image Source: Statista

In the US, there were approximately 67 million independent contractors in 2021. By 2028, this figure will surpass 90 million. Thus the market for independent virtual assistants will increase by $4 billion between 2021 and 2025, growing at a CAGR of 12%.

How a Perfect Job Description Can Aid in Attracting Qualified VAs

Companies struggle to bring the best virtual assistants onboard mainly due to poorly-written job descriptions. About 76% say that recruiting qualified virtual assistants is their biggest issue.

A well-written job description:

1. Attracts the Right VA

By creating a compelling job description, businesses may locate the best virtual assistant to fit their needs. Thus, businesses can save substantial time during the hiring process and improve the quality of virtual assistant applications.

2. Aids Adequate Training

A qualified virtual assistant is usually well-trained. However, businesses need their virtual assistants well-versed in their work culture. With the perfect job description, companies can pinpoint where virtual assistants’ skill sets are lacking and create specialized training to fill those gaps.

3. Helps Gauge Performance

A thorough job description serves as a tool to gauge the performance of the virtual assistant by taking job competencies and responsibilities outlined in the description as guidelines.

What Skills & Experience Do Virtual Assistants Require?

A virtual assistant can perform different tasks, including managing several clients and ensuring that business owners get the best assistance possible. Therefore, before hiring a virtual assistant, it’s critical to understand their roles and their wide range of skills.

Here are the top virtual assistant skills:

1. Communication Skills

Excellent communication skills are essential in any industry where there is interaction with customers, employees, and other parties. In this sense, whether or not virtual assistants have years of expertise, they should possess excellent communication skills.

2. Project Management

A VA may need to have abilities in project management to develop and implement specific strategies, support firm projects, write emails and other marketing material for projects, or provide online support like website maintenance.

3. Time Management

A virtual assistant needs to handle several tasks at once as a virtual assistant, and good time management skills are a prerequisite. The ability to prioritize their workload to meet business needs is a quality trait in a virtual assistant (VA).

4. Attention to Detail

A virtual assistant’s main task is not only to complete tasks but to meet the high-quality standards of businesses. For this, a virtual assistant needs to be attentive to detail.

5. Tech Savviness

Virtual tools enable virtual assistants to function quickly and effectively. For this, virtual assistants must keep up with technological advancements and get practical expertise with tools such as Asana, Hubstaff, Trello, and others.

6. Customer Service

Virtual assistants must be able to deal with clients directly. Thus they must possess strong customer service abilities. VAs must maintain composure in all circumstances and perform well under pressure. Additionally, providing excellent customer service will strengthen client relationships and enhance brand reputation.

7. Data Entry

Data entry is the essential skill of a virtual assistant. A VA does document formatting, file organization, research, transcription work, and data presentation. A fantastic talent is also being able to type swiftly, especially if you require a virtual assistant for data entry tasks.

8. Subject Matter Expertise

A virtual assistant needs not to be a jack of all trades. They need to be good at two or three areas of expertise that give them an edge and a focused job search plus experience level.

9. A Learning Mindset

The desire to learn new things is the top attribute of a virtual assistant. Also, virtual assistants should be open to criticism and look for innovative ways to structure or streamline their work to fulfill business needs or KPIs.

10. Reliability

Finding trustworthy virtual assistants who can quickly put their expertise to use is difficult for businesses. A reliable virtual assistant assists businesses with crucial activities that raise production and efficiency.

Why You Need a Job Description for Your Virtual Assistant

Contrary to popular belief, companies should still create a job description for virtual assistants just like they would for full-time employees. Organizations typically designate an HR team to hire a candidate when employing a full-time internal employee.

Businesses usually don’t prefer and sometimes cannot afford to hire a dedicated workforce for the hiring process when it comes to a virtual assistant. A well-written job description may be sufficient for firms instead of a devoted team. To successfully hire a virtual assistant, a company must have a convincing job description.

Also read: Top 10 ways to Boost Business Growth by 10x

1. A Job Description Outlines Business Expectations

The objective of the job description is to attract the right virtual assistant by emphasizing the business needs, goals, and expectations.

For this reason, businesses need to write about candidates’ qualifications, experiences, and desired traits in an easy-to-understand manner.

Further, businesses can better control their expectations when they write job descriptions. It can become challenging if a company is hiring unaware of what they want the virtual assistant to handle. A thorough job description ensures that organizations are aware of their hiring goals.

2. A Job Description Aids In Narrowing The Job Search

A compelling job description can aid companies in sorting through competent candidates so they can schedule interviews that result in recruiting the right candidate who adds value to the team.

For instance, a PR firm would want someone knowledgeable about the subtleties of the PR sector and who can match their skill set to fulfill organizational objectives.

3. A Job Description Aids In Finding Individuals With The Same Interest

A well-written job description acts as a tool for applicants to analyze whether or not their skills match up with business needs. However, it won’t dissuade every unqualified person from applying.

A qualified virtual assistant will be committed to achieving the company’s objectives, sharing your interests, and caring about building long-term relationships with clients.

How to Write the Perfect Virtual Assistant Job Description

Any company wants to avoid wasting time writing ineffective job descriptions that don’t add value. There are a lot of virtual assistants available; you want to choose one that complements your business and has the talents you require.

The following are the steps in writing the perfect job description:

Step 1: Understand the Target Audience

Zig Ziglar, a legendary sales trainer, once said, “People buy on emotion and justify on logic.”

It is accurate since people make emotionally charged decisions while looking for jobs. Therefore, when creating job descriptions, organizations must appeal to the target audience’s emotions (i.e., the qualified virtual assistant you want to hire). Recognize the candidates’ expectations and professional aspirations.

Example:

Create a persona for your virtual assistant that describes the traits, outlook, aspirations, and requirements. These profiles can help businesses better customize and target their hiring process to find the right virtual assistant.

Image Source: UXPressia

The image shows a sample employee persona demonstrating the employee’s skills, accomplishments, and objectives.

For instance , if a business wants to hire a social media virtual assistant, look for:

What are the virtual assistants career goals?
What are the strengths of the virtual assistants?
What are the challenges of virtual assistants?

These are sample questions. Businesses can create a corresponding job description to guarantee that possible applicants would fit in with their firm both professionally and culturally.

2. Optimize the Job Title with Keywords

Millions of job seekers use the Internet every day to conduct keyword searches. Now, companies must optimize the job title with keywords to reach out to potential candidates.

Include the keyword ‘virtual assistant’ including the specialization you are looking for. Here are some examples:

Virtual Assistant Needed for Busy Entrepreneur
Tech-Savvy Virtual Assistant with Excellent Communication Skills
Real Estate Virtual Assistant
Sales & Marketing Virtual Assistant

Instead of merely entering the headline, specify what assistance you require. It will make it easier for those who are qualified to find you. Furthermore, it will save you time by preventing ineligible individuals from clicking the job description.

3. Include Company Summary

The next step is to have a short blip about the company, including the company name, what the company specializes in, how fast the company is growing, what the candidate can expect from the company, and more.

Here is a perfect example from a KodeKloud job posting.

Through this job description, a virtual assistant can discover more about the company, what it does, the company’s growth, goals, and more. It is an excellent way to find a skilled virtual assistant with similar ideals.

3. Get into the Details

An outline of the job description is crucial to attracting top personnel. Businesses must accomplish this by briefly stating what the position entails.

In the job description, the employer can briefly outline the duties, team members, and other specifics of the role.

4. List Responsibilities

A fantastic job description should include a list of the virtual assistant’s responsibilities.

After reading this part, the candidate will understand their responsibilities. As a result, the virtual assistant would find it simple to start working after hiring because they are already aware of their duties.

The following are just a few examples of duties that a general virtual assistant might have:

Schedule meetings
Answer calls
Organize calendar
Book tickets
Manage contacts
Provide customer service

5. Explain the Application Process

The CTA, which includes instructions on the application for the position, must be in the job description following the job description overview, responsibilities, duties, and competencies.

If a business uses a job board, instruct the applicants to apply by clicking the link in the job description. Employers should clearly state how potential applicants can access their website.

Conclusion

Hiring a virtual assistant is one of the best ways for businesses to get back their productive hours. For this, businesses shouldn’t spend too much time hunting for the best virtual assistant. With a perfect job description, companies can hire top talent.

The Ultimate List of Virtual Assistant Software To Make Virtual Assistant Life Easy

Posted on January 26, 2023February 23, 2023 by officebeacon

Businesses go above and beyond to maintain productivity since low productivity leads to a cascade of issues.

Image Source: Clockify

The above graphical image showcases perceived time spent on repetitive tasks across countries.

Thus businesses confined to repetitive and monotonous chores make it difficult for organizations to concentrate on their top priorities.

Studies reveal that lost productivity costs employers $1.8 trillion each year.

To enhance productivity and leverage their resources, companies turn to virtual assistants.

A virtual assistant (VA) is a skilled individual who can manage your schedule, organize your files, answer customer queries, and more.

In essence, using a VA is all about time and money savings.

A Virtual Assistant with the right software tools can effectively manage your daily tasks. They can free up your time so you can focus on your top priorities.

What Makes Virtual Assistants Productive?

Virtual assistants are a pathway to a higher rate of productivity for organizations. They increase the efficiency of tasks thus improving productivity.

A study shows that 72% of small business owners feel overburdened by their responsibilities and the volume of work at hand. 64% of business owners believe they need to delegate more duties to experience less stress.

Thus delegating tasks to a virtual assistant can increase the efficiency and productivity of any business. And a great way to understand productivity is to define KPIs and goals. Clocking in and out is the wrong way to measure productivity because it doesn’t tell you if work happened.

While working with a virtual assistant, the biggest roadblocks to productivity are poor communication and a lack of the right productivity tools.

Also read: 7 wonders a virtual assistant can bring to your world

What is Virtual Assistant Software?

There are modern technology and software tools developed for virtual assistants to complete tasks faster. The following are the best virtual assistant software tools accessible online. These tools can help virtual assistants finish their work in managing appointments, social media management, time tracking, communicating with clients, and more.

1. Time Tracking Virtual Assistant Software

Virtual assistants live in different parts of the world and work at different time zones. And, it becomes difficult to time track and run payroll smoothly.

To this extent, businesses need a reliable time tracking tool to calculate the number of hours a virtual assistant works.

A good time tracking tool not only calculates the number of hours a virtual assistant works but also gives the time utilized protecting businesses from time theft.

For every dollar a company makes, time theft can cost them up to 20%.

a. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a time-tracking and employee productivity management tool. From big to small organizations, use Time Doctor to enhance employee productivity.

The tool allows businesses to:

Find out how much time your VAs spent working
Record the time spent on each project and with clients.
Check out the programs and websites the VA used while at work.
Utilize precise reports to analyze VAs productivity

b. Hubstaff

Hubstaff aids businesses in monitoring the efficiency and output of virtual assistants. It enables organizations to automate timesheets for virtual assistants without the hassle of manually tracking hours.

The tool provides in-depth information that makes it evident how VA operates. Businesses can monitor data like activity levels and the amount of time spent on particular websites and apps.

Organizations may acquire thorough reports on the virtual assistant work and track their performance using a dashboard.

2. File Sharing/Storage Virtual Assistant Software

Working with a virtual assistant involves plenty of file sharing and document management. Emailing files is outdated and time-consuming.

Businesses can use file-sharing tools to streamline document storage, sharing, and work collaboration. Some software even lets organizations edit and organize files in real-time.

Here are some of the best tools for file sharing and storing with virtual assistants:

Dropbox

Over 500,000 companies utilize Dropbox, a reputable file-sharing service. It allows businesses to streamline the work of virtual assistants.

Businesses may draft documents, make modifications, and maintain files from one site. The tool is designed for enterprises and has many admin features suitable for businesses of any size.

Pricing

Professional: $19.99 per month (for individuals)
Standard: $15 per user/month (for small teams)
Advanced: $25 per user/month (for larger teams)

Box

The Box allows limitless storage and document management when employing virtual assistants. Along with excellent security safeguards, the tool has 256-bit encryption.

Using Box, businesses can lock data and limit access only to an individual virtual assistant. Therefore, organizations can utilize Box to limit their virtual assistant’s access to only particular files and data.

3. Social Media Management Tools

Businesses utilize virtual assistants for social media management. Virtual assistants need social media management solutions to handle social networks effectively.

An effective social media management tool allows businesses to:

Schedule social media posts
Connect with the target audience
Conduct social media campaigns
Analyze the performance of social media campaigns

The following tools can make managing social media for virtual assistants simpler:

a. Buffer

Buffer consolidates all social media accounts under one roof. As a result, virtual assistants don’t need to log on to their social media accounts like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Virtual assistants can handle all the company’s social media accounts by connecting their social media profiles to Buffer.

Additionally, Buffer offers a feature that permits multiple users to access the account. Thus, it makes it easy for companies to monitor virtual assistants’ performance while they work on it.

b. Hootsuite

Image Source: Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a popular social media tool that allows businesses to schedule and manage content on all their social media pages.

Using Hootsuite’s inbox feature enables virtual assistants to track, view, and respond to followers’ messages across all social media platforms from a single place.

Businesses can assign work to virtual assistants and keep an eye on them with the help of advanced team collaboration tools from Hootsuite.

Additionally, utilize the courses available on Hootsuite to train their virtual assistants to improve their social media skills and gain certifications to demonstrate to potential clients.

4. Operations & Process Documentation Tools

Virtual assistants can do their work with the help of precise documentation.

These document-based tools help virtual assistants become proficient in their work. As business practices change, the virtual assistant also assists businesses in keeping their paperwork current.

Here are the tools listed to help businesses to organize their business operations.

a. Process Street

Businesses can design checklists and procedures to direct virtual assistants through their work using Process Street, a workflow management platform.

Businesses can maintain accuracy and consistency in their work using this effective tool. Additionally, Process Street makes task execution simpler by streamlining onboarding and removing uncertainty.

b. Trainual

Trainual allows businesses for procedural documentation. It eases the onboarding of virtual assistants. For virtual assistants to understand corporate procedures, it saves company regulations and produces playbooks to direct each stage of a work process.

The tool empowers businesses to turn their business procedures into training programs. Companies can even use built-in templates to create their personalized company policies.

5. Online Meeting Tool

Meeting with virtual assistants or allowing them to plan concurrent sessions with clients can be difficult. Video conferencing is a great way to collaborate with virtual assistants to have business conversations.

Use these tools to make working with virtual assistants easy:

a. ezTalks Cloud Meeting

ezTalks Cloud Meeting is a versatile business video and web conferencing tool that lets businesses host virtual meetings with virtual assistants.

An interactive whiteboard, screen sharing, cross-platform discussion, and online meeting scheduling all contribute to the efficiency of business meetings.

b. Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing tool widely used to collaborate, hold meetings, and host virtual events.

The tool features group chat, video webinars, virtual conference rooms, and a business phone system, making them ideal virtual assistant software.

Zoom has advanced privacy and security features ensuring business data protection while working with virtual assistants.

Other Virtual Assistant Software

Virtual assistants relieve enterprises of the administrative strain that clogs entrepreneurs’ workdays. Companies may utilize virtual assistants’ full potential, save time, and maximize their investment with the help of the appropriate software solutions.

An effective virtual assistant tool can:

Aid organizations in completing tasks more effectively
Automate boring and repetitive jobs
Track the virtual assistants’ work time, activity, and progress
Maintain open lines of communication with a virtual assistant.

Here are some more tools to help businesses make the most of virtual assistants.

Project Management

A good project management tool can help businesses to:

Allocate work to virtual assistants
Analyze data to oversee projects
Identify how virtual assistants can become more productive

Consider your current and future needs while choosing the best tool for your team. To avoid wasting time transferring data during growth, pick a technology that can scale with you.

a. Asana

Image Source: Asana

Asana helps companies manage their projects effectively. It offers a team management feature that enables enterprises to set up teams in the tool with their virtual assistants.

Businesses using Asana can safeguard their sensitive data by only providing virtual assistants access to the data they need.

Organizations can easily delegate tasks to their virtual assistants, follow them, share projects with them, or make notes of them in task comments.

Additionally, its extensive workspace features let businesses organize teams, projects, and tasks and get informed of progress, eliminating the need for time-consuming back-and-forth email threads.

b. Basecamp

Basecamp is a simple project management tool designed to help organizations work remotely. It enables businesses to organize projects in a single place eliminating the need to go back and forth over small details or look for important files.

With Basecamp, it’s simple to stay connected with virtual assistants. Businesses can access this virtual assistant software on the web and even on their iOS or Android smartphones and tablets.

Essential CRM Virtual Assistant Software

CRM plays a critical role in any business as it consists of crucial information about customer data. It provides a complete understanding of any business.

These CRM tools are vital for a virtual assistant to maintain client data and increase sales.

Salesforce has this feature to set up to do and record anything a sales team wants, which is its greatest attribute.

It helps virtual assistants in sales with:

Contact record management
Deal tracking for sales planning
Sales pipeline management
Integrate email marketing
Tasks allocation
Campaigns and outreach analytics

b. Hubspot

With the help of Hubspot, businesses can combine meetings, automated templates, and sales processes.

Even better, companies may combine Hubspot’s CRM with their marketing automation software.

Using Hubspot, businesses can build email campaigns and qualify and score leads.

Hubspot CRM features:

Contact Management
Call and email logs
Pipeline management
Integration with Gmail and Slack
Customer chat

Conclusion

Organizations need to hire virtual assistants to handle their administrative needs. Although hiring a virtual assistant is easy, managing them can be difficult. The specialized virtual assistant software discussed here can help you get the most out of your virtual resource.

Virtual Administrative Assistant: A Definitive Guide for Entrepreneurs

Posted on January 19, 2023January 20, 2023 by officebeacon

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, 2023July 25, 2023 by officebeacon

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.

What You Need to Know About Social Media Virtual Assistants

Posted on January 10, 2023February 23, 2023 by officebeacon

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 Office Beacon Advantage: Join a 20 Year Legacy

Posted on September 12, 2022July 25, 2023 by Cloudester Admin

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!