Why Small Businesses Should Hire Virtual Support

Source: 20four7VA

Why is it important for small business to hire virtual support, and what are the benefits. The team at 20four7VA explain in this very informative article.

Waves of different issues are changing the economic landscape in New Zealand and Australia. From the pandemic to globalisation, various factors are reshaping and transforming businesses at a rapid pace. Small business owners must quickly find sustainable solutions to keep up. In Australasia, virtual support services have proven to be one such solution.

A virtual assistant (VA) or virtual manager (VM) is a professional service provider working remotely to support businesses. Let’s take a look at 8 great reasons small businesses should hire virtual support.

1. VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE HAS KEPT BUSINESSES AFLOAT DURING THE PANDEMIC

   The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped all kinds of industries in unimagined ways. Amidst these changes and adjustments, virtual assistance has kept businesses of all sizes afloat during the economic scare. When governments have imposed restrictions and stringent health regulations, virtual assistance made it possible for companies to continue operations. A business solution with this kind of resilience is hard to ignore.

2. IT CAN REDUCE YOUR OPERATIONAL COSTS

   Hiring a full-time employee in New Zealand or Australia is costly, even with work-from-home arrangements. For Australasian businesses, hiring a virtual assistant/manager from countries with a lower cost of living is more economical.

   What’s more, working with a Virtual support provider can save you  bucks. Coffee & Cloud for instance, takes care of project management, business reviews, operations management, and all else you and company may require support with. These responsibilities, when taken off your plate, will leave you more time and resources to invest in critical business functions.

3. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO WORK WITH THE MOST QUALIFIED PEOPLE

   Forget about hiring for the sheer convenience of proximity. Virtual assistance will let you tap into a more expansive pool of talented individuals. Through remote staffing, you can work with the most skillful or experienced people, regardless of where they are located.

   As your business grows, you need to delegate more tasks to workers with specific fields of expertise. When you work with virtual staff, you will be able to build your team of specialists without burning holes in your pocket.

4. IT WILL GIVE YOU ACCESS TO THE GLOBAL MARKET

   Imagine expanding a business to a country where you have limited knowledge or contacts. Even with extensive research, you will still have to invest ample time and resources to understand the market and learn the ropes. Now, imagine hiring someone from the inside. Working with a local will give you an insider’s perspective on what your target audience will respond to and how things are done. Some companies outsource virtual assistance services to a specific location to gain traction there.

5. IT BOOSTS PRODUCTIVITY

   Your brand is only as productive as the people behind it. Hiring and building a remote staff is a sure way of improving productivity. Many studies and reports, such as this one from the Harvard Business Review, have highlighted a significant performance boost among remote workers. Virtual staff work in the comfort of their homes and generally around flexible schedules. This gives them a better chance of finding work-life balance and, therefore, being better conditioned to do their job.

   Even if you work with a mostly on-site team, hiring virtual resource services for your New Zealand and/or Australia-based business will increase your productivity. By delegating administrative tasks or specialised projects to virtual staff, your local team will have a more manageable workload.

6. IT ADDS BUSINESS FLEXIBILITY

   Many entrepreneurs hire a personal assistant to gain flexibility. By having someone else take care of your schedule, manage your inbox and calendar, and handle communications, you can focus on your executive responsibilities.

   In addition, you can extend your business hours by hiring virtual staff in different time zones. If you plan on offering a 24/7 service, for instance, you can hire a VA or VM to man the desk and handle enquiries during your offline hours.

7. IT PROMOTES EFFICIENCY

   Virtual staff are generally paid on a productive hour or project basis. This means that they are compensated only after having achieved predefined milestones. Meanwhile, in-house employees are legally paid a fixed rate per hour. A typical workday, regardless of being productive or not, needs to be paid in full. In contrast, when you work with a virtual staff, you get more bang for your buck.

   Another way that virtual assistance promotes efficiency is that it lets you access specialists. If a task requires specific knowledge and skills, such as SEO or web development, it is better left in the hands of people who have the training and experience to do it.

8. IT IS SCALABLE

   The pandemic forced thousands of businesses across New Zealand and Australia to close their doors. As the new year unfolds and companies attempt to get back up, business models are changing drastically. Virtual assistance will help you ease back or continue operations on terms that you can afford.

   Need your staff to work on specific hours and days only? Hire virtual assistants and managers so that you only pay for productive hours. Preparing for seasonal sales and need an extra pair of hands? Get more people to share the increased workload by hiring short-term staff. Scalability is one sterling benefit of virtual assistance.

Coffee & Cloud offer affordable virtual support to small businesses in New Zealand and Australia. Whether it’s 1 hour per week or 40 hours per week, we are on hand and ready to help. Contact the team at info@coffeeandcloud.co for a chat about your support requirements.