If you haven’t thought about outsourcing at least some of your clerical and paralegal duties to a virtual assistant, you’re missing an opportunity to save thousands of dollars each year in overhead. A virtual assistant uses no office equipment (they provide their own), no benefits, no overtime and you pay them strictly by the project or for time on task.
Think about that for a minute.
Studies have shown that about 40% of the time that you pay a full time employee for is not time spent on actual work. It’s either spent on the phone with family or friends, answering personal emails, or talking to other staff members. That’s time you shouldn’t be paying for and with a virtual assistant, you don’t. You pay them strictly for the amount of time that they spend actually doing your work. No overhead, no benefits and no paying for time when they’re not actually working.
Technology available today makes hiring a virtual assistant super easy. You can send work by email, give them access to your computer system through Go To Meeting or Citrix, pick up the phone and call them and reach them anywhere with cell phone service, schedule “face time” on Skype, even send dictation through QuikScribe and have the documents emailed back to you. The only thing missing is walking out of your office and handing them a document or having them meet face to face with a client (and if you find a virtual assistant near you they can even handle client interface). Okay, I take that back. The only other thing missing is the money you’re throwing away just to have a warm body in a chair.
Stop for a minute and think about what you’re spending on salaries, benefits and overhead. Then think about what you could outsource and bank the savings. Wouldn’t you rather spend that money on actually growing your practice? Or taking the family on a cruise? Seriously think about the benefit of hiring a virtual assistant. If you hire the right one, you’ll be kicking yourself for waiting until now to do it.