Written by: Emilie Given, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Does your normal work day consist of endless meetings, emails, voicemails, and hundreds of Slack notifications? If so, your business may benefit from having a virtual executive assistant.
Whether in the office or at home, your presence and unique contribution are important. As a business owner, there’s a limit to how much administrative work you can get done. When you push yourself beyond that limit, you’ll experience burnout before realizing it.
To help all business owners get work done and find time to do things they love, we’ve put together the top five benefits of working with a virtual executive assistant (VA). We also cover the best practices for delegating effectively.
What is a virtual executive assistant?
It’s common for people to confuse a virtual assistant with a virtual executive assistant. A VA assists people with their day-to-day tasks. Virtual executive assistants, on the other hand, help you manage more specific tasks, like communication.
Allowing you to focus on building your business and brand, executive VAs free up your time by undertaking important administrative tasks, including:
Social media management
Managing schedules
Preparing for meetings
Invoicing
Competitor research
Coordinating for projects
5 Benefits of working with a virtual executive assistant
Now that you’ve got an idea of what a virtual executive assistant does, let’s look at the five benefits of having one on your team.
Get work done on time
One of the main reasons why many companies hire a VA is because they get work done quickly. It means you don’t have to spend hours doing administrative work. Your VA frees up your schedule from monotonous tasks.
This, in turn, allows you to focus on more important things. You can grow your business, attend important client meetings, create business risk strategies, and also spend more time at home. Overall, virtual executive assistants take on delegated tasks that would otherwise hinder you from scaling your business.
Make scaling flexible
Unlike salaried on-site assistants, VAs usually charge a flat rate per hour. This means entrepreneurs can afford their services even when there are budget constraints and fluctuations. Similarly, for peak seasons, VAs can be brought on board for more hours.
The flexibility of managing a VA’s hours allows you to cut operating costs while still getting the assistance you need to manage your business effectively.
Delegate freely
Knowing that someone can handle the work that needs to get done gives you peace of mind. With a VA, you don’t have the constant mental pressure of wondering when you’re going to complete important tasks. Rather, you can delegate almost any work and have it done by the time you need it.
Hire all over the U.S
When you hire a remote VA, you’re not limited by state. You can mine for talent from across the country. In fact, you might even find better executive VAs in states other than your own at times. Overall, you broaden the scope of finding the optimal candidate for getting all work done.
Be present, even when you’re not
One of the biggest advantages of an executive VA is that they can represent you and your business. This means you can have them reply to emails, Slack messages, social media comments, and more. When you let your VA represent your company, you can deal with customer queries/complaints instantly and keep prospects engaged, even when you’re unavailable.
The bottom line
The benefits of having a virtual executive assistant are hard to overstate. Save time, get your personal life back, and scale your business. As you learn to delegate and trust your VA, you’ll be able to delegate even more.
If you’re searching for high-level administration support, visit She’s A Given. Our VA agency consists of college-educated virtual assistants who have prior experience working for C-level executives in both corporate and remote settings.
Emilie Given, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Emilie Given is a virtual assistant agency owner and online entrepreneur. She is passionate about matching C-level executive assistants with dynamic business leaders who have taken on too much. By facilitating the right match, Emilie’s company, She’s A Given, helps those business leaders delegate more effectively so they make it home in time for dinner—and be present at the table. While she loves matching assistants with executives and their teams. After she and her son nearly died during childbirth, Emilie decided her work and her family needed to be in harmony. Since she knew she could create that often-elusive equilibrium for other executive assistants and business leaders, she founded She’s A Given.
