Virtual Office Assistant
In order to keep up with the changing economic times, the modern business must look everywhere for places to cut costs yet maintain productivity.
Every business, from large corporations to small work at home start ups looks for these cost cutting measures.
One of the simplest ways that any business (especially yours) can save money is by hiring a virtual office assistant.
A virtual office assistant does all the same things as a regular office assistant, but telecommutes instead of coming in to an office every day.
Most every job that an office assistant does can be done from home over a high speed Internet connection.
Electronic documents can be filed away from anywhere, documents can be edited, dictated, and distributed from anywhere as well.
With VOIP technology as affordable as it is, a virtual office assistant can even answer the phone from a thousand miles away, yet remain connected and in contact with the home office as if they were actually there.
The reasons for needing and wanting a virtual office assistant are many, but the main reason would be controlling cost.
If your business' main location is in a place where pay rates for that kind of work are relatively high, you can find someone in another part of the country or even the world to do the work for less.
Also, if you have need for an assistant, but don't have the office space, you don't have to move to a new office space (with more overhead expenses).
The benefits of a virtual office assistant are obvious- overhead control and a larger pool of candidates to choose from, but there are some drawbacks you should be aware of.
Some people like to take a hands on approach to managing their office.
If your assistant is miles away, you cannot directly supervise their work and must trust that they are doing it and keeping accurate track of their hours.
A telecommuter also will not be able to file hard copies of documents and paperwork- unless they are scanned first and uploaded to a server; work which requires another assistant on-site.
Despite the downsides, you do have the option to not hire one full time assistant, but many part timers- who specialize in different aspects of office work.
Many people looking for that type of work are looking for part time work, and that arrangement suits their needs well.
Finding a virtual office assistant is not as difficult as you might think.
There is a plethora of sites on the Internet that will connect your business to the multitudes of work-at-homers looking to pick up some part time side work.
You can troll virtual office assistant forums, put up ads on online bulletin boards or on Craigslist.
There's always somebody looking for work, and they're not that hard to find.
Costs vary widely, depending on where the person is that you hire, their education level, and the kind of work you are hiring for.
If you go through an agency, expect to pay a bit more than if you did the hiring yourself.
The extra cost allows you to just send the work to the company and let them find the person to do it.
Some businesses even outsource to third world countries for work that doesn't necessarily need a lot of English skills like spreadsheets and filing- in most cases paying pennies on the dollar for work that would cost much more for a US based assistant.
Every business, from large corporations to small work at home start ups looks for these cost cutting measures.
One of the simplest ways that any business (especially yours) can save money is by hiring a virtual office assistant.
A virtual office assistant does all the same things as a regular office assistant, but telecommutes instead of coming in to an office every day.
Most every job that an office assistant does can be done from home over a high speed Internet connection.
Electronic documents can be filed away from anywhere, documents can be edited, dictated, and distributed from anywhere as well.
With VOIP technology as affordable as it is, a virtual office assistant can even answer the phone from a thousand miles away, yet remain connected and in contact with the home office as if they were actually there.
The reasons for needing and wanting a virtual office assistant are many, but the main reason would be controlling cost.
If your business' main location is in a place where pay rates for that kind of work are relatively high, you can find someone in another part of the country or even the world to do the work for less.
Also, if you have need for an assistant, but don't have the office space, you don't have to move to a new office space (with more overhead expenses).
The benefits of a virtual office assistant are obvious- overhead control and a larger pool of candidates to choose from, but there are some drawbacks you should be aware of.
Some people like to take a hands on approach to managing their office.
If your assistant is miles away, you cannot directly supervise their work and must trust that they are doing it and keeping accurate track of their hours.
A telecommuter also will not be able to file hard copies of documents and paperwork- unless they are scanned first and uploaded to a server; work which requires another assistant on-site.
Despite the downsides, you do have the option to not hire one full time assistant, but many part timers- who specialize in different aspects of office work.
Many people looking for that type of work are looking for part time work, and that arrangement suits their needs well.
Finding a virtual office assistant is not as difficult as you might think.
There is a plethora of sites on the Internet that will connect your business to the multitudes of work-at-homers looking to pick up some part time side work.
You can troll virtual office assistant forums, put up ads on online bulletin boards or on Craigslist.
There's always somebody looking for work, and they're not that hard to find.
Costs vary widely, depending on where the person is that you hire, their education level, and the kind of work you are hiring for.
If you go through an agency, expect to pay a bit more than if you did the hiring yourself.
The extra cost allows you to just send the work to the company and let them find the person to do it.
Some businesses even outsource to third world countries for work that doesn't necessarily need a lot of English skills like spreadsheets and filing- in most cases paying pennies on the dollar for work that would cost much more for a US based assistant.
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