Virtual assistant services are so accessible these days as to take much of your rudimentary administrative tasks off your hands. You better be thinking—if you want to see your business grow, then you have to relieve yourself of the jobs that are diverting you from your true assignment.

Owners of businesses should be the head of everything and not an employer who spends half of their time on routine tasks, which can be given to someone else.

Virtual assistant is a term given to an employee who does office tasks on a remote location. It’s a broad term and could mean a remote bookkeeper or accountant. But in the line of SEO services, virtual assistants are skilled professionals that can write articles, do link building tasks, and optimize websites. They have become more important today and they are in demand in many business sectors.

The reason many clients look for offshore assistants is due to the fact that they can cut back on operations cost by doing so. Many virtual assistants in Asia do the same tasks as an in-house content writer or SEO professional does but they charge much lower rates. Thus, they do not only aid in lessening the burden of the business owner in terms of ancillary tasks farmed out but they also help in reducing cost of business operations.

Virtual assistant services are an important element of offshore business process outsourcing industries, most of which are located in India, China, and Philippines—known to be IT-BPO hubs in the world. Most businesses have just recovered from the tough recession but the slow economic growth compels businesses to employ prudence in exhausting resources. And while there are issues involved with hiring offshore assistants, more companies are still venturing in this option because it’s economical and effective.

Nevertheless, not all business owners need to procure online assistance, but most do, and yet most who do fail to realize they actually need such services. Most people can’t run business and do administrative tasks at the same time. The latter must be delegated to qualified assistants and in so doing the manager or entrepreneur can recover vital time for planning, marketing, and strategizing. Success in your business can only be achieved if you save time for prolific functions, which is only possible with a balanced schedule. And spending much time on vital elementary tasks isn’t quite a balanced way of expending your precious time.

In the case of SEO assistance, which is a vital function for the online presence of your business, you need professionals who can write posts, toss off fresh content from time to time, do link building, devise website layout, do keyword research, and handle regular updating. It is impossible for you to deal with all these tasks. Think about it this way—virtual assistants who handle such services can spend their entire day working to optimize your website every day. If you do the same set of tasks alone, you’d have little time for your true function as a business head.

Now, it’s for you to discern whether you need virtual assistant services or not. Examine your resources and your options—wisely.

Many BPO firms in different places in Asia are willing to serve you in no time but this does not mean that you can choose a company right away and put all your trust in them. Finding the right firm or team is not easy, just as looking for new hires isn’t. You have to be even more careful when choosing a firm online because there are a lot of incompetent people in this industry. In addition, you certainly do not want to stumble on a company which is inappropriate for you. When you are looking for outsourcing service providers, keep in mind that you will be seeing too many of them on the internet, with all the promises. Everyone wants to excel. Everyone wants to sell out. In business, this is a basic thing.

Realize the impossibility of finding the perfect company. Why? No company is perfect. Each is bound to limitations. However, there are certain firms that could deliver the optimum service without having to brag a lot. Consider the following aspects when finding an outsourcing firm:

• its website and its accessibility
• the range of its services
• the number of people or workers it has
• reviews from clients

Be wise in understanding that the websites of outsourcing service providers is their window to the vast internet field. That is how you reach them. That is how you see them. They make a good impression out of their online pages – how they are organized and how they are structured.

It is also a basic consideration to know the range of a company’s services. Keep in mind that there are pros and cons with broad and narrow range of services. A firm that offers a wide range of service may have grown over the years that they have furthered their operations by catering new line of services each time. Some teams may have, over their span in the scene, have sought to stay in a few number of services but have upgraded the work/output quality.

Sometimes the size of a company does not equate with edge. Some small teams could actually compete with large firms in terms of work quality and efficiency. Of course, the firm with more people can serve more customers or clients at a given time or have a broader scope of function. Nonetheless, with more people being supervised at any moment, overseeing the performance of each worker may not be as rigid as when there are fewer workers.

Nevertheless, if you can get to see client reviews, you are seeing a glimpse of a company’s performance. Aside from viewing the profiles of outsourcing service providers, feel free to ask for sample work or trial work periods. This is when you can freely evaluate their work before finally making arrangements.

Several years ago the Philippines was known as an agricultural country and information technology was not a major thing. A decade ago much of the workforce work overseas. But times brought some changes and one of these changes include a boon in the IT sector. The explosion in the information technology sector has reached Philippines and not long after that call centers and technical support companies have flourished in many of its cities. Philippines’ BPO industry began to show the world its strengths recently. This is not surprising because this southeast Asian country has proved flexibility. Filipinos can do almost anything. Their creativity and flexibility allow them to be in all sorts of fields.

The growth of the IT sector in the country has been due to huge demands. More college schools would want to offer computer and information technology courses to keep up with global demand and to produce competitive graduates that can go up against the global pool of workers.

The top player in this industry today is India and there might be no way that Philippines can go beyond. Let us face the fact that there is just greater work force in the former and that is attributed to their higher population. In addition, it has been around in the scene longer. However, there is no issue between work quality and performance between these two countries. Philippines’ BPO has proven the worth and one way to gauge that is through the number of foreign investors looking at the country to seek work force.

The local BPO industry sees a boon because it is unlike any other kind of private industry that give their new hires minimum wage rates and heavy work load. Most call centers and outsourcing companies attract new hires with a higher salary rate. Thus, many of these firms can ensure there would always be available work force. In addition, the increasing demand from foreign clients that wish to outsource jobs has caused expansion of huge BPO firms and establishment of new companies.

Take note, however, that while the wages of workers in these companies are generally higher than that of workers from other private firms, such wages would still be much lower compared to what workers in US, UK, and Europe earn. This means that a businessmen offshoring to Philippines’ BPO firms cut back on cost. In fact, they can save as much as 40% of operational cost. That is a great of cost reduction, and the spared funds may be even used to finance other projects.

Whether you own a big enterprise or a small business, you need assistance in a way or another. You can’t do all the tasks yourself and most of the time it’s not a question of insufficient expertise but of inability due to time restraint. Even the most IT-savvy businessman may look for external services because doing everything is just impossible. This is one instance when a virtual assistant for hire becomes necessary.

Yesterday’s personal assistants are today’s virtual assistants or VA’s, which function like the former but have taken on much significant role in today’s online business milieu. Personal assistants and VA’s share the same sort of duties and responsibilities and what they do generally depends on what industry they are in. Like an ordinary in-person assistant, an online professional’s work hinges on the demands of the client employer.

Key qualities of virtual assistant for hire

• Verbal Proficiency – Communication occurs every now and then so it’s vital that the assistant possesses such skill at a competent proficiency. Since he or she may write articles, notes, or letters on your behalf, you need to have someone who has a remarkable language facility. In the field of IT-BPO, the necessity for virtual assistants to be proficient in English communication is fundamental.
• IT skills – This is an outright requirement because they would be doing a lot of tasks carried out using the internet, computer, and software. Thus, a technological savvy is preferable to someone who needs further training in this field.
• Favorable personality – Competence should be matched with a good personality. Typically, employers can only catch a glimpse of an applicant’s personality and attitude during the interview. Professionals whether they are working online or in-house should display ethics and etiquette. While you handle job stress on your own, the assistant must be able to handle theirs as well.
• Problem solving skills – Different problems can arise—problems that the assistant himself encounter or those the employer or manager encounters. Both are considered issues involving the work environment and must be given solution effectively by any means.
• Hardworking – Employers want diligent people because they are vital to business growth. If you have people who work hard to achieve your objectives, then you can work together to success. Even with remote assistants, this trait is a must.
• Timekeeping – There are deadlines to meet from time to time and you want your assistant to accomplish tasks on schedule. A good way to gauge this before even hiring one is to find out how he or she observes your interview appointment. If they come on time for the interview, that’s a good indication.

It’s vital to do a careful choice at the start because you want your company to run smoothly and it can only do so if you have the right set of people.

Today’s business world is no longer as it used to be—this time business can run with few people in it. There is also little need to put up an office facility and hire in-house assistants. Typically, any business person does need a virtual assistant for hire in replacement of a personal employee.

Despite differences in economic and technical development between countries, globalization brought by advancing technologies are increasingly leveling the playing field in most industries. This is felt no less than in the field of business process outsourcing. Its result is the flourishing of outsource service providers in the Philippines, a phenomenon which is steadily growing. Another effect of global outsourcing is that countries like Russia and Ireland have formulated strategic and systematic plans to prevent what have been termed as “location shifting.” However, experts who regularly conduct top-level assessments of outsourcing recipients report that the Philippines will continue to be a prime source of outsourced services.

Highlighting the literacy rate and English fluency of Filipinos, the Philippines have gained a good market share in the outsourcing industry among the other colossal Asian countries like India and China. The country can not only provide popular services, it also offers a large pool of talents with specialized skills. Since Filipino agents have grown up largely influenced by western culture (primarily, in entertainment), their sensibilities are perfectly suited to the promotion and marketing of western products and services.

Though Philippines has been caught and held by cultural and religious differences, its peoples are unified by one affecting language—English. Filipinos do not only consider the language official for business transactions; they speak it with proficiency, having taken it as their second language – and sometimes speak it better than their own native language. This has provide the Philippines with a big advantage over other Asian countries who still has to master English. With a higher level of fluency, Filipinos can easily take on any type of outsourcing jobs, may it be on telemarketing, data analysis, ghost writing or search engine optimization.

Foreign-based employers get the advantage of less supervision since the basic knowledge of a Filipino is twice as adept in all areas than that of any outside agent. Filipino agents no longer needs intense monitoring and supervision because they are already practiced by the Western education. From elementary to tertiary level, every student is trained how to think critically and to work for the advancement of their community. Thus, every employer is ensured to have a hard-working employee who can do any type of work.

A Filipino isn’t self-interested whenever he is in the workplace. Rather, he goes after the value of his/her work; if it does benefit the company, or if it needs further evaluation. This exemplary behavior catches a number of foreign agencies and allows Filipinos to venture into a global setting with much regard to their previous experiences.

Finally, a good business does not only revolve around the technical aspects. That is how Filipinos envisions their ideal work partner. Somewhere underneath a successful company lies an essential and more humane aspect. Any type of business cannot just meet its long-term goals through a series of mission-critical projects or a provision of reliable products; the quality of every single personnel must also be kept as core aspect for it greatly affects the progress in the later run. These are just some of the reason why outsourcing companies in the Philippines are preferred in this field.