Everyone! Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant can increase productivity, reduce costs and save you and your company time.

The benefits of outsourcing to a qualified VA are plentiful. VA's only charge for actual time worked. VA's can 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 need to worry about in-office employees requesting time off; VA's are available when you need them. VA's are entrepreneurs and understand the needs of businesses today, ensuring the success of their clients. VA's value each and every client; it is because of these clients that VA's can ensure the success of their own businesses.

And for those in-office employees that you can't 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 not outsource to a Virtual Assistant?

Virtual Assistants vs. Employees

Virtual Assistants' services run on average about $25-$40+ an hour. Let's compare this with the cost of hiring an employee. An employee's actual cost is 2 to 2 1/2 times their salary. Here is a case example of hiring an employee to manage a certain chore vs. hiring an experienced VA charging $25 an hour.

The Employee
Hourly Pay Rate: $12.00
Fringe Benefits @ 35% +4.20
Overhead Rate @ 50% +6.00
Total Effective Pay Rate: $22.20
Hours per year x2,080
Total Annual Labor Cost $46,176.00

In the case of the employee, this new employee is paid a wage of $12 an hour. However, this wage is not the true cost to the organization. The cost of benefits for the employee (health insurance, life insurance, 401k, and so on) weighs in at 35 percent of the hourly wage, or $4.20. Overhead---electricity, facilities, computers and so forth---costs the organization another 50% of the employee's wage or $6.00 for each hour worked and paid. This brings the employee's total cost to the organization to $22.20 an hour--almost double the wage paid to the employee for each hour worked. When you multiply the hourly rate by the standard number of hours in a work year, the grand total for the new employee comes to a very costly $46,176.00.

The Virtual Assistant
Hourly Pay Rate $25.00
Total Effective Pay Rate $25.00
Hours per year x1,040
Total Annual Cost $26,000

You actually save almost $20,000 a year by contracting with a VA rather than hiring a full-time employee. Although the VA's hourly rate is more than the new employee's rate in the first case, you save the cost of benefits and overhead that would have to be applied to the new employee's wage. Not only that, but because VA's are more experienced, more efficient, and better connected than the employee, you'll need to devote far less time to the project to get the same results-only 1,040 hours a year versus 2,080 for the new employee.