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The world of business continues to be a competitive landscape, and one where every cent can make a difference. But with competition rising so sharply, it’s getting harder and harder to inch ahead of your rivals. However, all is not lost. Bringing a virtual assistant into your business can make a significant difference. The virtual assistant cost benefits on offer are vast and have the potential to transform the productivity and success of your business.
What is a Virtual Assistant?
If you’re yet to harness the power of a virtual assistant, you’re unlikely to be familiar with the concept of virtual assistants. Luckily, Pineapple is here to fill you in on the principles of a virtual assistant.
Virtual assistants have been revolutionizing modern business staffing and grabbing headlines for several years now. First emerging at the start of the 2010s, when high-speed internet became more widespread, virtual assistants offered an exciting alternative to the traditional solution of in-house assistants. This popularity gradually gathered pace and hit new heights during the pandemic, when remote working became crucial for many employers. Available in all manner of niches – such as multimedia virtual assistants, business virtual assistants, and legal virtual assistants, - these employees are suitable for every business.
But what is a virtual assistant? And how can they slot into your organization?
At the heart of a virtual assistant's role is a high-speed internet connection and a PC. These two elements allow them to connect seamlessly into your IT infrastructure. And as they’re remote workers, this means they can be based anywhere in the world. In particular, the Philippines is proving to be a highly popular destination to find high-quality virtual assistants. So, yes, all a virtual assistant needs is a set of login credentials, a PC, and an internet connection. This enables them to do almost everything your in-house assistants can do.
Understanding the Benefits of Virtual Assistants
Now you know what a virtual assistant is, it’s time to drill down into what makes them so beneficial to your business. After all, a good business decision should always be built upon strong foundations, and the following benefits underline the strength of a virtual assistant:
Flexibility:
Virtual assistants offer unparalleled flexibility by working remotely and adapting to their clients' schedules. They can be hired on a short-term basis, allowing businesses to bring them in or out as needed. This helps maintain a lean operation during slow periods while efficiently handling high demand when necessary.
Increased Productivity:
In the business world, the intense workload often leads to burnout. Employing virtual assistants, however, can minimize this risk. These assistants handle administrative tasks, freeing up your team to focus on complex issues requiring their expertise. This not only preserves the well-being of your team but also enhances the quality of service offered to your clients.
Access to Specialized Skills:
A VA agency's global reach provides access to a diverse pool of talent, including specialized skills. If you need a specific skillset, then a reputable VA agency will be able to match you with the right expert. Additionally, these specialists can be hired on a short-term basis, avoiding the high costs associated with full-time contracts.
The Virtual Assistant Cost Guide
When it comes to discussing the virtual assistant cost benefits on offer, it’s important to understand the options available. First off, we need to look at the pricing models available when it comes to virtual assistant cost options:
Hourly:
The hourly model is ideal for businesses which require flexibility, allowing them to pay only for the hours worked by their virtual assistant. This model suits tasks which don’t require constant attention or aren’t regular duties e.g. covering an administrative backlog such as digital filing. Ultimately, the hourly model provides an efficient way to manage changing workloads without long-term commitments.
Project-Based:
This model suits businesses who have specific tasks or projects which can be broken down into milestones. With this model, the virtual assistant is paid a fixed amount for completing a particular project, such as helping to launch a project or run a social media campaign to increase follower numbers and engagement. The best thing about this model is that it offers a fixed-cost which can easily be integrated into budgets and plans.
Retainer:
Offering a stable and ongoing relationship, the retainer approach allows businesses to pre-book a specific amount of labour each month. For organizations who require regular support, the retainer model makes this possible and allows you to foster long-term relationships with your virtual assistants.
Why Are Virtual Assistants So Cost Effective?
One of the major benefits of virtual assistants is that they’re incredibly cost effective. In fact, it’s estimated that virtual assistants can save you up to 78% in operating costs. Further research has also highlighted that a remote worker can save employers around $11,000 compared to working with an in-house assistant. The majority of these savings can be found in the following areas:
Reduced Overheads:
There’s no need to supply virtual assistants with costly equipment such as PCs, laptops, phones, or office space. The virtual assistant cost in terms of equipment is virtually zero, with the VA supplying all their own equipment.
No Employee Benefits:
As virtual assistants are only ever employed on short-term contracts, through a VA agency, you don’t need to pay for typical employee benefits. This means you don’t have to provide paid leave, pension contributions, or health insurance.
Scalability:
Virtual assistants can be brought in and out of your business at a moment’s notice, so their potential for scalability is huge. Depending on demand, you can hire a virtual assistant when required and, once the demand drops, you can end their contract and not overpay for unnecessary labor.
What Influences the Cost of a Virtual Assistant?
The virtual assistant cost breakdown depends on several difference factors, and each one of these can impact the overall cost for your business. So, when hiring a virtual assistant, you need to be aware of the influence of these factors on hiring virtual assistant expenses:
Experience and Skill Level:
It’s well known that hiring skilled and experienced workers is high, and this also applies to virtual assistants. Therefore, if you’re looking to hire experienced and specialized workers, the virtual assistant cost will be higher. For example, the specialist knowledge of a paralegal virtual assistant would typically be higher than that of a virtual receptionist.
Location:
The global location of a virtual assistant is also a major influencer on your virtual assistant cost. For a virtual assistant based in the US, where living costs are much higher, the average cost is around $26 per hour. However, for a Filipino virtual assistant supplied by Pineapple, this cost is, as you’ll discover, significantly lower.
Working Hours:
One of the most obvious factors is the number of hours that you need a virtual assistant to work. Full-time assistants will constitute much more of a salary figure, and those working outside of regular business hours will also command a higher rate. Virtual assistants who are only required for a few hours here and there, will be much more cost effective for your business.
Pricing Model:
It’s important to consider the pricing model at play when you’re considering hiring a virtual assistant. A one-off project-based assignment may, in the short term, appear more favorable than a yearly retainer. However, the consistent outlay of a monthly retainer is likely to be more cost effective in the long term.
Urgency:
When you need a last-minute hand with a project, it’s not always easy to find that help at short notice. And that’s why the virtual assistant cost for immediate availability often comes at a premium. This is because virtual assistants, and their associated agencies, will often need to prioritize their workload, which will mean hiring virtual assistant expenses are higher for emergency assignments.
Training and Onboarding:
Not all virtual assistants are equal, and this can make a major difference in terms or training and onboarding. Ideally, employers want their virtual assistants to be fully trained in, for example, the software packages they use. But this isn’t always the case. This means you may have to invest significant time in training and onboarding a less experienced virtual assistant.
The Virtual Assistant Cost Guide
It’s difficult to put a precise cost on what you need to outlay in terms of hiring virtual assistant expenses. As we’ve discussed, US-based virtual assistants come at a premium. And it only takes a quick look at a site such as Upwork, with a global roster of talent, to see that virtual assistants can cost upwards of $20 on average.
Naturally, with your business trying to remain competitive, it’s going to pay to shop around. And there are numerous VA agencies vying for your business. Again, though, the costs are often very high, and this leaves little room in your margins to make a difference. So, what do you do? Where do you turn to find those best-in-class virtual assistants at an affordable rate? Well, the good news is that you’re already in the right place. Pineapple is the VA agency who can truly make the difference.
Pineapple Offers the Perfect Package
Here at Pineapple, we want to deliver an unbeatable service. And we do this by combining effectiveness with value.
One of our biggest strengths at Pineapple is that we offer a wide range of specialized virtual assistant services:
Business Virtual Assistant:
Our business virtual assistant allows you to reduce your administrative backlog by delegating the most time-consuming admin tasks. Take, for example, appointment scheduling. This is a complex, yet necessary task, but it can seriously eat into your in-house team’s productivity. Therefore, by partnering with a business virtual assistant, you can maximize your productivity and help your business make new gains.
Multimedia Virtual Assistant:
The impact of multimedia design in the modern business world is well known, and this is especially true when it comes to digital marketing campaigns. But multimedia design is a specialist skill, and your in-house team simply can’t pick it up overnight. Luckily, our multimedia virtual assistants are fully trained and experienced in creating eye-catching and engaging content to strengthen the impact of your brand.
Legal Virtual Assistant:
The legal industry is a complex one, and one which requires specialized knowledge to succeed. But these specialist skills are expensive. However, by entrusting your workload to one of our legal virtual assistants, you suddenly get greater value for money. From arranging your legal professionals’ schedules through to researching regional statutes and preparing clients, a legal virtual assistant can do it all.
Most importantly, we want to tell you about the virtual assistant cost you can expect from Pineapple. Fortunately, our pricing structure is incredibly competitive. Rather than confusing our clients with a wide range of different pricing models, we like to keep things simple at Pineapple. That’s why we offer just one pricing model: a flat rate hourly fee.
Whereas other VA agencies can be found charging up to $40 per hour, we appreciate the importance of good value. We don’t just cut this figure in half, we quarter it and then take a little more off. Yes, that’s right, our virtual assistant cost to you is just $8 per hour. That may sound too good to be true, and it’s likely you’re expecting this figure to come with an assortment of contract and setup fees. But it doesn’t. $8 per hour is all you pay. And you can cancel at any time.
You may find our competitors offer similar figures for their virtual assistants, but even when they price their virtual assistants at $10 per hour, that’s still 20% more expensive than ours. And 20% in terms of labor costs is significant over the course of a year. This is why we’re confident enough to believe that you won’t find a better deal or work with a better set of virtual assistants.
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Be one of the many who’ve entrusted their virtual assistant needs with Pineapple.
Book a FREE Discovery Call today and let our Sales Specialists share to you the many ways a virtual assistant can help you and your precious business.
