| Why Your Virtual Assistant Still Needs To Be A Team Player
Because of the availability of effective productivity and communication applications, today there is really not much difference between getting up from your desk to speak to your assistant next door, and getting on Skype to chat to them, collaborate and share files. This year Elance, the world's largest online platform for freelance work, topped $500 million in online work. Three trends are aligning that put this global talent within reach of even the smallest entrepreneurial startup: 1) an increase of skilled talent looking to work from home; 2) exponential growth in online communication, especially via tools that allow you to message and video chat with remote employees as though they are next door and; 3) the acceptance of viewing the world as a global marketplace. You can hire a freelance with the skills you need on a regular basis, for a few hours at a time, without committing to a full time employee. Yet, at the same time you can't afford to hire in-house. Not a faceless call center employee, but a dedicated team member, who just happens to be 50 % a world away. Small businesses like this one are busting down the walls and going global in sales and in their workforce. The difference is that she is willing to supply her services to clients in affordable chunks of a few hours at a time. And they have good company. As an entrepreneurial startup or small business, there is a tendency to want to reduce costs by trying to do everything your self. Then there are specialized tasks where you need expertise that you don't have yourself - accounting, language skills, web design, PR, etc. It's "a la carte" and scalable. You can increase or decrease the hours you use as workload fluctuates. The concept of outsourcing has become synonymous with heavy accents and jobs going overseas, but it doesn't necessarily mean hiring at pennies on the dollar in a third world country. She wants your business, and she'll work hard and smart, in order to retain it. My point is this - Janie and many thousands like her offer virtual support in a variety of fields with the same professionalism you'd expect from any highly-skilled traditional employee. This is where virtual support excels. For a virtual assistant like Janie, who works from her home in Pennsylvania, her day begins with checking email messages from her clients. |
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Why Your Virtual Assistant Still Needs To Be A Team Player
