Not sure whether to choose a Virtual Assistant or a Personal Assistant? Here’s everything you need to know about each.
A personal assistant is someone who assists a specific person with their daily business or personal tasks. A Virtual Assistant can do all of these tasks remotely from their home and charge you less!
Both assistants have the same aim which is to support you, although they have different benefits which can determine whether or not a Virtual Assistant or a Personal Assistant is the most effective and suitable for your needs.
Here are some pros and cons:
Flexibility:
· If you hire a PA, they are most likely to work the same hours as you whether they are in the office or at home, they normally have contracted hours. Although this is what you need, there could be times where you need something doing urgently. A PA may not be able to help as it is out of hours and you’ll therefore not get the support and help that you need. A Virtual Assistant does not always work fixed hours, which means if you need them to work certain hours only, during the day, you can agree on this before.
· You can hire a VA on a retainer package. This means that your VA will work a certain amount of hours on your work only so they book this in a block e.g., weekly or monthly, they can increase this if need be.
· Alternatively, some VA’s offer a per hour fee and track the amount of hours they spend on your work. They then this use this tracked time to send you an invoice weekly, fortnightly or monthly.
Affordability:
When thinking about hiring an assistant you need to consider how much you are willing to spend.
· When hiring a PA you need to take into consideration that you are not just paying their wages, you’re paying for Employers Tax and National Insurance, life insurance, healthcare, taxes, paid holidays and sick time and many others. All of this will add up without you noticing which can become very costly. You will also need to train them which will cost money if you need to book them courses.
· As virtual assistants we track the time we work, which means we only charge you for the hours spent on your work! We also do not need you to supply us an office space or equipment as we have all of this ourselves. We’re also most likely already trained in whatever you need us to do, and therefore don’t need to waste time and money on courses.
Reliability:
· When personal assistants have a lot of errands to do, they will be running around everywhere to try and get them done. If there is only one of them then it will take them a lot longer and some tasks may get mistakenly missed. If they are on the phone dealing with a query, they are unable to answer another call which could get very stressful at times and they may get a backlog of work.
· Here at Delegate Me, we work as a team of VA’s and also offer a call answering service, meaning calls and opportunities will never be missed and we can spread your work out between us based on skills and time.
If you feel as though a Virtual Assistant is for you, then don’t hesitate to contact us today and we will be happy to help you out!
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