Your first mobile phone was great. At the time, you couldn’t imagine needing anything else but that cutting edge technology.
But what if you were still using that first or second generation mobile phone?
Everyone else is walking around with the latest smartphone, and you’re still lugging around a brick, dragging it to meetings and into restaurants. That bulky phone worked great in its time, but today, it wouldn’t even qualify as a paperweight.
Just like the technology we use, the way we live and work is constantly changing.
You don’t use that old mobile phone. You aren’t relying on typewriters. Fax machines are (nearly) a thing of the past. More and more offices are paperless, getting rid of rooms full of files. Open office floor plan concepts, working from home, flexible schedules—these are the new norm.
Yet if you understand and embrace those kinds of changes, are you still dragging your feet on hiring a virtual assistant? It’s time to revisit what virtual assistants are all about, and embrace what’s changing the way we do work.
When Virtual Assistants Became A Must-Have
In the early 2010s, virtual assistants were a bit of a novelty.
They’d do basic admin tasks, but you didn’t put too much responsibility on them. You certainly didn’t come to rely on them to handle key business tasks. In-house, in-person staff handled things like those.
But we saw how it could be different.
In 2015, Boldly raised the bar in the virtual assistant industry. We introduced the idea of premium highly skilled virtual assistants that handled complicated tasks, turning a novelty into a must-have. Our virtual assistants provided a variety of key services:
- Executive administration support: Research, appointments, travel, time management, event planning, phone/email screening, and CRM support.
- Personal support for top executives: Research, time management, appointments, expense reports, purchase personal gifts, and anything to make life more manageable.
- Marketing and social media: Blog writing, affiliate management, social media scheduling and interaction, and content management.
- Project management: Develop plans, manage timelines and staff, budget concerns, event planning, and reports.
- Customer service: Data entry, order processing, communication, vendor/supplier liaison, and account management.
- Bookkeeping: Expenses, invoices, reconciliation, payroll, reporting, and account management.
- Writing and editing: Research, editing, copywriting, content creation for web and social media, and newsletters.
- Multilingual services: Admin and support of various nature in multiple languages.
That’s quite a list. You can see that those are the positions you regularly hire for, the kind of work you need for daily operation.
Virtual assistants, in this new light, could stand toe-to-toe with any in-person staff or team. From then on, the idea of a virtual assistant transformed into someone you could rely on to do the vital work. They were less of an assistant, and instead, became a trusted member of the team.
The Role Of Today’s Virtual Assistant
Time doesn’t stop, and neither does the need for change.
In recent years we’ve seen the trend towards working remotely increase and become normalized, particularly in 2020. Employees who had been working in-person suddenly discovered that they’d rather work remotely. Employers realized that remote teams not only functioned, but had their own unique strengths. And better yet they might be able to find and hire the best talent, without letting pesky geography get in the way.
With an increase of remote workers, though, came clarity about the legal landscape surrounding virtual work.
In particular, California’s AB5 law meant that business owners began paying closer attention to the question of employee classification, and compliance.
Many virtual assistants are still brought on as independent contractors. There are lots of reasons for this, including saving money and faster hiring. Bringing on a W2 employee by comparison takes a lot more time and effort, and there are expenses like payroll taxes and benefits involved.
Independent contractors don’t require that. But they do come with legal restrictions.
If you treat an independent contractor as an employee, you can get into real legal and financial trouble. If you use a typical virtual assistant company, you’re not off the hook. Many of them simply provide independent contractors to you, leaving you with the responsibility of making sure how you use them is legally compliant.
That puts you in a bit of a quandary: you want a virtual assistant, but you don’t want to worry about misclassification, and compliance.
Luckily, there’s a great solution for you.
Where to Find The Perfect Virtual Assistant
At Boldly, we’ve kept up with all of these changes.
We keep an eye on legal requirements. We know what clients are expecting from virtual assistants. We know what headaches they want to avoid and what problems they want to solve.
When you come to Boldly, you can rest easy knowing:
- Our hiring process is stringent. We take finding great talent and experience very seriously. When you come to Boldly, you’ll only be offered the best virtual assistants out there, many who have worked for Fortune 500 companies. You don’t have to search on your own, nor worry about a company assigning you the next available worker in their pool. Our hiring process ensures that you’ll find a virtual assistant that will exceed your expectations.
- We hire as W2 employees. Because our virtual assistants are our own W2 employees, you don’t have to worry about problems with employee misclassification and compliance laws. We take care of compliance with all laws in the states where our workers live. That burden is on us, not you.
- Our system allows for fast hiring. You know that a typical hiring process is time-consuming. Choosing the right remote staffing agency often takes a lot of time. We’ve done the work of hiring, and carefully match you with the right virtual assistant based on work style, personality, and skill. We’ve made it so that it happens quickly. You can be up and running with a perfectly-matched virtual assistant in just a few days.
- We offer a subscription service. Our subscription staffing plans mean you can increase or decrease the hours you need from your virtual assistant, letting them grow with you as your company expands. This makes access to top talent not only within your reach, but allows you to keep to your budget better.
So how do you hire the perfect virtual assistant?
You come to Boldly, and let our process work for you.
We’ve been on the leading edge of the virtual assistant industry for nearly a decade, helping to bring positive change at the time it was needed. If you’re ready to tap into that success, contact us now and we’ll get you up and running with a virtual assistant in no time.
