Our In House Expert Lists Four Reasons Hiring a Virtual Latino Assistant Will Benefit You
Anyone who has operated a small business is well aware of just how many daily tasks are necessary to achieve success. Between financial reports, accounting, hiring, payroll, scheduling, client meetings, and client communications, it can often seem like you don’t have time to sleep at night, let alone get started on the tasks that will actually grow your business. Worse, attempting to be a jack of all trades often leads to the other half of the old adage, “master of none.” In other words, spreading yourself too thin on too many tasks has the unfortunate effect of making you less effective in your efforts on each one.
It’s a scenario all too common for entrepreneurs and other business owners, and one that often has unfortunate consequences: 20% of small businesses fail within their first year; that figure grows to a full 50% by year five. While the reasons vary from poor customer outreach (14%) to an inadequate team (29%), it’s clear that attempting to handle everything yourself does not bode well for the future of your business. For that reason, more and more small business owners are recognizing the value of hiring a virtual assistant.
What to Consider When Hiring a Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant can help you with any of the daily tasks of doing business – from managing customer communications and handling administrative duties to providing customer support, sales, marketing, and much more. What’s important is that you assess your strengths, your areas of need, and then determine which tasks you’ll benefit from outsourcing to a virtual assistant. Then, you’ll be able to focus on the key ventures that will help you grow your business.
While there are a number of purported top virtual assistant companies in existence, however, it’s essential to choose a legitimate, quality business. When Jaime, our in-house expert, was first starting his own marketing company, he decided to outsource some of the administrative tasks to a virtual assistant; upon a recommendation from a friend, he hired an assistant from the Philippines – a decision that had unfortunate consequences. The virtual assistant had relatively poor English skills, was all but unreachable during North American business hours, and provided almost no return on our expert’s investment. Although we’re aware this doesn’t happen to everyone working with Filipino VAs, it does happen to many (including various existing Virtual Latinos clients).
From this experience – as well as his subsequent, much more successful experiences with hiring Latin American virtual assistants, our expert has agreed to provide his insight regarding how to hire a virtual assistant as well as why you should choose a Latino virtual assistant for your outsourcing needs. Consider these recommendations when making your final hiring decisions:
1. Time zones make all the difference
As Jaime learned the hard way, utilizing a virtual assistant halfway around the world can have some unfortunate consequences; hours of operation differ wildly from those of a North American business, such as in the US or Canada, and you or your customer base may not be able to reach your virtual assistant during operating hours. Conversely, Latino assistants live and work within the same time zones as you do, allowing you full access to develop internal relations, address productivity, provide customer outreach, and more. Better yet, the entire Virtual Latino team is located in the same few time zones, allowing excellent cross-communications via phone, email, or video conferencing.
2. Excellent English skills are non-negotiable
Our experts stress the importance of full English proficiency for any virtual assistant you hire. Besides the obvious advantages of hiring an assistant with fluent, non-accented English to aid in your most crucial client or customer service communications, it’s essential to ensure your virtual assistant reads and writes English flawlessly and can adapt to English-language tech in the virtual age. Virtual Latinos hires only highly English-proficient assistants so that each can handle tasks such as cold calling, sales, tech support, customer service, blog writing, marketing, lead generation, general administrative, and more with ease.
3. True bilingualism is a selling point for your business
With over 85% of US businesses relying on Spanish-language employees to conduct business with America’s growing Spanish-speaking population, it’s crucial to recognize the importance of the business you stand to gain by including Spanish-speaking support options. While proficient in English, Latino virtual assistants can easily switch to Spanish if required in the operations of your daily business. According to Jaime, “Being fully bilingual is an opportunity for businesses to offer Spanish services – having someone who speaks both fluently and clearly is important.”
4. Consider the cost savings
While Jaime’s first Filipino virtual assistant experience was a costly failure, yours doesn’t have to be. In fact, Virtual Latinos offers significant cost savings compared to hiring a US-based assistant. For qualified virtual assistants based in the US, the going rate is $25 an hour on average. If you compare pricing from $5 USD/hour for a Latino assistant, you see a 30 to 80% discount even compared to US minimum wage, which is a huge factor to consider!
Virtual Latinos Is Your Source For Quality Virtual Assistants
Recognizing the benefits of outsourcing some of your daily tasks of business is the first step towards shifting your focus towards activities that will grow your business and hiring the right assistant is the second. Ensure your success with Virtual Latinos – our skilled, fully bilingual and English-proficient assistants from locations like Mexico, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico provide you with expert services at an affordable rate. Contact us today to learn more about how we can serve you.
