Overcome These to Gain More Profit
Outsourcing jobs to a Virtual Assistant is a popular business strategy done by entrepreneurs today.
However, in spite of its popularity in the business industry, there were some business owners who chose not to hire one for their businesses.
In this article, we are going to discuss about the fears of outsourcing jobs to a Virtual Assistant and how to overcome them.
The Fears Of Outsourcing Jobs to a VA:
- I don’t know how it works. (Unfamiliarity)
This fear is mostly felt by rising entrepreneurs who are not very familiar with outsourcing or haven’t tried hiring a virtual assistant before.
Gaining proper knowledge and a good understanding of what outsourcing does and how virtual assistants can become effective employee will help you overcome this fear.
Let me give you a brief history of outsourcing.
Outsourcing has been in the history of business enterprise since 19th Century, where it was first used with IBM’s time-sharing.
Due to a rapid development in modern technology, new outsourcing ideas like virtual assistant emerged. It led to people being trained and specialized to do specific tasks.
Outsourcing jobs to a Virtual Assistant is the same as hiring an internal employee where you give out specific tasks, work on the agreed shift schedule, get paid on payday and whatnot. The only difference is that your internal employee works at your office, Virtual Assistant work remotely. Having said that, outsourcing jobs to a VA is an effective way of cost-cutting which is very essential in every business. This is also the reason outsourcing is becoming even more popular in the business industry.
Outsourcing exists and keeps growing because it is an effective strategy for entrepreneurs, whether small or big businesses.
Here are some good comments and tips from successful entrepreneurs who are working with Virtual Assistants:
“I engaged my Virtual Assistant four months ago and in that time she has become an invaluable resource and contribution to my business – she even babysat my business for four and a half weeks when I went overseas on holidays.”
– Linda Anderson – Life coach and business coach
You can read outsourcing history from here.
“Working with a VA can exponentially increase your productivity – but that’s only if you fully leverage their time and talents. You’ll never harness the real benefit if you’re constantly having to clean up mistakes and do things over again. The only way to avoid that is by planning in advance and setting up the systems that will enable them to succeed. ”
– Dorrie Clark – Speaker, Marketing Strategist, Professor
- It’s affecting US economy (Economy)
Merrill Matthews , contributor of Forbes.com posted an article about outsourcing. He mentioned that
“from an economics standpoint, it makes no difference whether or not that outsourcing is with a person or firm in the same town, state or country as Economics is unconcerned with national borders.”
He also compared outsourcing with how Walmart and Wall Street Journal runs their businesses outside US, which is indirectly same as how outsourcing works.
Point here is that, outsourcing never really hurts anyone or the US economy. In fact, it will only do you good if not better.
Same reason as why even big companies choose to outsource is because they know what’s best for their businesses. Cost cutting is always the most effective way to make a successful business, without jeopardizing quality, of course.
And while your business is growing, you then are contributing a lot to the economy.
- Foreign countries don’t understand my business and how it works! (Business understanding)
Unlike the old times, outsourcing had really grown a lot especially in the internet industry. There are various of outsourcing companies who dedicates their time and effort to get to know different businesses all over the world and picks out their specializations. These outsourcing companies have been in the business long enough to gain experiences and start their own outsourcing business, training new virtual assistants to work for clients.
They require time and devotion into nurturing their virtual assistants into becoming someone dependable. They hire trainers who conducts training sessions to virtual assistants, correlating to which tasks they will be working on afterwards.
The VA Hub is an example of an outsourcing company in the Philippines. They make sure to pick the best candidates out of their applicants, from the initial interview, final interview, applicant profiling, assessments and training.
- I don’t trust them. (Trust)
Hiring a freelance virtual assistant is too risky as they may leave your company anytime without prior notice. Hiring someone from an outsourcing company is different though. Virtual assistants who are under outsourcing companies signed agreements and other legal documents, showed proof of identity, and committed to work with the company and its clients. These outsourcing companies are business owners as well, who have reputations that they keep clean to have their businesses running. You may work with them and ask for their VA’s documents even before proceeding with the interviews. Also, since you will be working hand in hand with an outsourcing company, If you see any anomalies with your Virtual assistant, they also have a supervisor that you can reach out to for help.
There are also various of remote tools that you can use to make sure that your virtual assistant is working for you. Hubstaff is an example of a web-based time tracking and project management tool where you can check your VA’s productivity through mouse movement activity level, url tracker and application usage, and random screenshots.
Also, same as with any other employees, it is best to secure any confidential business information unless necessary.
- We have different time zones. (Time Zone Differences)
As a client, having your virtual assistant take their shift same as yours or take their own is completely up to you to decide.
You may want to discuss their schedules before recruiting your VA.
If you are someone who wanted to keep track of your virtual assistant’s working hours, you may consider using some time tracking tools like MinuteDock, Time Doctor and the likes.
- There may be a language barrier
In this time and era, accent is a common thing. Whether you’re walking down the streets or taking a break at your favorite coffee shop, you will hear an accent.
The question is are they able to communicate well? Do they have a correct grammar? Can they understand you and follow instructions?
If not, then you better go find someone else.
I would recommend outsourcing from companies where English is a second language such as Philippines.
Also note that for some specific tasks that need voice calls like inbound/outbound calling, you may want to hire a Virtual Assistant who is fluent in English or at least someone with a neutral accent.
To sum it up, there is always a risk in any kinds of businesses. These risks you take will either give you a hole in your business or the key to your success. It is up to you how to make it work the latter.
There is so much that you can do to gain more profit to your business.
Contact us to know more about the company and how a VA can help you.
