Hiring an offshore virtual assistant (VA) has many benefits to business owners, but how can they help you make more efficient use of your time and financial resources? The financial benefits to hiring a VA include eliminating the need for costly office equipment from computers to copiers to desks, eliminating payroll and benefit expenses as well as the large output of time and money used to train on-site employees. From a timesaving perspective, assigning duties to a qualified VA can save you hours otherwise spent on mundane administrative, web and data-management tasks. But what sort of tasks can a VA perform? Here are eight tasks the right VA can take off your hands at a fraction of the price of a traditional employee.

1. Online Communications. Why have an employee waiting at a computer to chat with customers when a VA can offer product support, technical support, return information or field questions from your customers? Most reputable virtual assistant staffing firms use only university-educated, English-fluent VAs, so the language barrier is rarely a problem.

2. Telephone Communications. As with online communication, why have a call center staffed on site when a VA can answer calls for customer service, order processing or technical support? With reputable staffing firms hiring English-fluent, non-accented VAs for call center support, customer communication is never a problem.

3. Data Entry. Most VAs, whether offshore or local, have computer access as well as access to the most commonly used word-processing and data management programs. Have your VA enter customer and vendor information, forming an easy-to use spreadsheet or database. A VA can also keep records of accounts payable/receivable as well as inventory and order records. Assigning tasks like these to offsite virtual assistants allows your on-site staff to focus on sales quotas and account management.

4. Human Resources. Delegate mundane Human Resources tasks to a VA. From screening resumes, cover letters and applications to communicating with hiring prospects and scheduling interview times, let at VA save you time wading through a sea of information. Other day-to-day Human Resources tasks like tracking vacation time and personal days are ideal for a VA.

5. Website Maintenance. From blogging for your business to updating online shopping carts and product prices to maintaining the programming side of your site, a qualified VA will allow you to utilize your IT budget more effectively.

6. Social Media Updates. Most business owners are too busy to maintain a presence on all of the social media platforms, but a VA can provide Facebook status updates, send text message, compose tweets and even write blog posts for any business.

7. Product Listing Services and Online Storefronts. Imagine saving the time spent updating products on eBay, etsy, craigslist and other online storefronts. A VA offers an easy way to edit and upload product images, add long and short product descriptions, research and add SEO keywords and make sure the items you are offering are within a site’s compliance policy.

8. Research and Lead Generation. Save time on the initial stages of research by utilizing a VA. They can sort through research materials of all types and provide reports, spreadsheets and databases based on their findings. Research a competitor’s product selection, pricing or marketing campaign; look into market trends or have your VA generate sales lead lists.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of tasks perfect for an offshore or local VA, and most VA staffing agency will have lists of skills and qualified projects their VA pool can handle. Before you go to a VA staffing agency, evaluate the projects you have in mind for a VA and identify the skills and qualifications they’ll need to successfully complete the job, if you’ve done this, finding the perfect VA for your situation will be a piece of cake.

Author Bio: Jason Frye invites you to explore the potential benefits of offshore virtual assistants by visiting http://virtualestaff.com.

Category: Business
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