Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant (outsourced employee) can increaseproductivity, reduce costs and save you and your company time. Virtual Assistants, also known as VA’s, have been around for more than 10 years and in this day and age, utilize the technology era. They are highly qualified, educated and experienced people who basically can perform all of the same skills that traditional in-house staff provides. Many VA’s are College or University educated in business and office administration with work experience in an office setting.

We recommend a simple 3 step formula for determining what duties to assign an outsourced employee. First and foremost should be revenue producing functions. Simply write a list of what they should be. These include: appointment setting, cross-selling your existing customers on additional products and services (very important), telesales to new prospective customers, follow up sales calls on old leads that never closed, email blasting to generate new leads, internet sales, sending out online newsletters to existing clients, search engine optimization, blogging, article writing, handling your social networking (Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, etc), updating your website with fresh content and articles, there are over 50,000 free classified advertising sites on the internet other than Craigslist.org they can post these ads for your business, and much more.

Secondly, are the revenue retaining activities. These include: customer service, technical support (online and on the phone), internet “live chat” on your website, invoicing, billing, taking phone payments, collections, sending out birthday or thank you cards and gifts to clients, fulfilling client information requests and more.

Third and last, are the non-revenue producing functions. These include: book-keeping, accounting, payroll, data entry, document and contract preparation, programming, research, answering your emails and cleaning up your inbox, scheduling and managing your calendar, acting as an answering service, fulfilling information requests from prospective clients, office management, employee scheduling, presentation preparation, making travel arrangements, desktop publishing, computer training, medical/legal transcription and more.

The benefits of outsourcing to a qualified VA are plentiful. VA’s use their own equipment so there is no wear and tear on your office equipment or a need for special equipment. By outsourcing to a VA rather than hiring an in-office assistant, you will never need to pay employment insurance, vacation pay, sick pay, or contribute to retirement plans and worker’s compensation.

There is no cost for training new or existing employees; VA’s are already qualified. There is no need for extra office space; VA’s do everything off location. There’s no need to worry about in-office employees requesting time off; VA’s are available when you need them. Like you, a quality outsourcing firm understands the needs of businesses today, ensuring the success of their clients. A good outsourcing firm values each and every client; it is because of these clients that they ensure your VA’s will aid in the success of your business.

How else can outsourcing to a VA save you money? VA’s are pre-trained and experienced individuals with the ability to catch mistakes made in-office, not only saving your business money but also protecting your business reputation.

And for those in-office employees that you cannot go without, a VA can take a little of the never-ending workload or less-important projects off their shoulders to ensure you, as a successful business, maintain your quality reputation and increase employee productivity.

So the question really should be, “why didn’t I do this years ago?”