What is a Virtual Assistant?

What is a Virtual Assistant Aka VA?

A virtual assistant is a relatively new industry which has evolved over the last couple of years and is becoming more and more popular. However, it is still surprising that so many business owners, entrepreneurs, and individuals have not heard about virtual assistants or they do not understand the positive benefits and value a virtual assistant can bring to a business.

A virtual assistant is also known as a VA or even a virtual PA. For this blog, we will use ‘virtual assistant’ or ‘VA’. A virtual assistant is an administrative professional or personal assistant who is usually a self-employed independent contractor either as a sole trader or a Limited Company.

A virtual assistant is a highly-skilled professional who provides remote administrative, technical or creative business support to clients in any location. A few virtual assistants provide on-site administrative assistance to local businesses on an ad-hoc basis in the event of your in-house PA or administrator taking holiday or sick leave.

As VA’s are not employees, clients receive all the benefits of in-house staff, without the downsides of hiring full-time employees. By hiring a virtual assistant, you would immediately save on the cost of office equipment, NI contributions, workplace pension, holiday and sick pay and more.

A virtual assistant can work independently or may work alongside other virtual assistants as a team to be able to provide more specialised services. Virtual assistants are not in competition with each other as you may have thought. VA’s usually provide help, advice and mentoring support to other VA’s by passing on their knowledge, experiences and specialised skills to other VA’s.

What are the benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant and how can they help me?

As a virtual assistant is self-employed and not an employee, you would save on the cost of office equipment (desk, computer, telephone), NI contributions, workplace pension, holiday and sick pay, recruitment costs and more

Besides saving you money a VA can also save you time, by outsourcing your admin to a VA, allows you time to concentrate on your business, time with your clients, time with your family or even on leisure activities. Do you fancy a round of golf?

Consider your hourly rate, a VA is cheaper than you completing the task yourself.

4 hours VA support = £140, you have 4 hours to work on your business (your hourly rate £85 x 4 hours = £340) you earn £340, you pay £140 and make £200 profit

A VA has the professional skills to be able to complete the task to a higher standard

You have the flexibility to hire a VA by Pay as you go/per hour, purchase a package of hours per month, or a bespoke package can be created for you for those one-off projects

VA’s use time recording software, so you only pay for the time used whilst your VA is working on your business

A VA can work with you to build and grow your business. Someone to talk to discuss business ideas

What tasks can I give a Virtual Assistant to do?

A VA can help with all general administrative needs and specific project work, they can also help with:

Managing your email inbox

Managing your diaries and appointments

Taking orders, dealing with bookings and enquiries

Arranging meetings

Making meetings and travel arrangements

Document creation; letters/reports/presentations/databases

Document formatting

Writing and sending letters and contracts

Data processing

Expense management

Business card management

Social media management

Website management

Blog and media research

Online research

Invoicing

Credit control

Project management

Proofreading

Copywriting

Transcription from audio or note taking

Call Handling and Answering Service

Gift shopping

Writing cards

CV/Résumé writing

Ordering flowers

Personal shopping

Lifestyle management

Sourcing third party suppliers and services

This is not an exhaustive list of the services provided by a Virtual Assistant like YourEVA. If there is a task not listed above please contact YourEVA to discuss how we can help you with your overwhelm, save you time and money to allow you to concentrate on the things that matter most.

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Ethos

YourEVA is a small business located on the South Coast of the UK.

YourEVA provides remote business and administration services to independent Health Care Professionals, Health Practitioners, and Coaches. We are here to help you with all of your business and administration needs.

YourEVA allows you to gain back valuable time so that you can concentrate on your patient caseload, business’ growth or the things that matter most.

Our aim is to provide a friendly, reliable and professional service with 100% Customer Satisfaction.

About YourEVA

YourEVA (Your Executive Virtual Assistant) was founded by Julie Blackman in 2015.

Julie brings over 30 years of experience in business and administration, having worked in both Public and Private sectors as an administrator and as a Personal Assistant at Director level with corporate experience. She is a conscientious, hardworking and reliable person who excels in a varied role.

Julie is passionate in continuing her professional development, in 2015 achieved a Foundation Degree in Science, Health, Social Care and Administration, and graduated in 2016 with The VA Mastery Course which is CPD Standards accredited and an in-depth training programme.