Hire a Virtual Assistant Archives

Hire a Virtual Assistant Archives - Virtual Latinos

24Aug '20

How Latino Virtual Assistants Prove to Be Important in Real Estate

Imagine if, as a real estate agent, your primary job was just to sell properties. No hours spent every week managing online marketing and social media, no scheduling cleaning services, photographers, or landscapers, no booking all of your property showings on your own. If that makes it sound like your life could get easier overnight, that’s because it can. Outsourcing all this work to a real estate virtual assistant would give you just that, so you can turn your focus to where it’s best concentrated: selling.

If you have the opportunity to hire virtual assistants as a real estate broker or agent, it is highly recommended that you do so. They can streamline your business for you and provide true growth potential on many different fronts. If outsourcing some of your workload is starting to sound more enticing, there are three big basics you should consider, going in.

The 3 Big Basics of Outsourcing in Real Estate

1. Identify which of your daily, weekly, or monthly tasks could be outsourced. This may be a matter as simple as figuring out which aspects of your agency do not need to be handled by a licensed real estate agent. For example, a real estate virtual assistant could manage your social media, marketing, client scheduling, landscaping, or other service coordinating, in addition to any number of other activities.

Why hire a virtual assistant from Latin America for your outsourcing?

- We offer fully bilingual services. At Virtual Latinos, our entire team is fully bilingual. This means they are also able to reach out to a wider range of clientele in the real estate world. Most real estate agencies have a high percentage of clients who speak Spanish. Imagine being able to better engage with and serve a whole new demographic, overnight. A virtual assistant from Latin America can help you achieve that.
- Latin American professionals working remotely are generally in your time zone. This is a huge benefit that most overseas virtual assistants are unable to offer to real estate businesses in the US. When you work with real estate virtual assistants working remotely from Costa Rica, Mexico, or Peru, time changes are simply not an issue. It ensures the virtual assistants from Virtual Latinos will always be available during your “normal” hours of operation. This means that we are always ready and able to handle any day-to-day real estate tasks that need tending to.
- The majority of the experienced virtual assistants we work with through Virtual Latinos have spent significant amounts of time in the United States. This speaks directly to their firsthand understanding of American English, and common business practices here, in addition to the nuances of everyday life. In other words, they are uniquely aware of the differences in property types, like condo vs. loft, for example. Our virtual assistants have the necessary experience, not just scripts and theory, to inform their real estate skills.

2. Consider using specific workflow software for coordinating with your virtual assistant. There are many options available for real estate workflow software. Other, more general workflow software is also available, which can help simplify all your communication with your virtual assistants, rather than using texts, emails, and other types of messages on separate platforms to try to coordinate efficiently on a daily basis.

Latin America and the United States share many values, in business, technology, education, and otherwise. When you hire a real estate virtual assistant through Virtual Latinos, you can be assured that they not only understand the culture of the US, but that they’re also familiar with the technology. 90% of our virtual assistants have university degrees, making them among the most tech-qualified in the world. If you need suggestions for workflow software, for example, our virtual assistants can provide you with recommendations tailored specifically to the needs of your agency. They are professionals, after all.

3. Determine the best means to hire a real estate virtual assistant.

Not all virtual assistants can both meet the needs of a real estate agent and do it in two languages. The virtual assistants at Virtual Latinos are able to provide bilingual real estate services in digital marketing, content creation, social media platform management, reception, booking, and scheduling, among many others. Virtual Latinos can help you expand your agency’s reach in ways you may have not even yet considered.

Virtual Latinos can help you find the help you need to conduct your real estate business more efficiently and in fewer hours. Contact us today to invest in a real estate virtual assistant.

Spotlight on Guatemala

Virtual Latinos

News

16Aug '20

Few countries in the world can boast of the same rich history and culture as Guatemala. Once the cradle of the Mayan civilization, it has long-standing art, music, textile, literary, agricultural, and architectural traditions, among others. The many sacred Mayan sites preserved in the dense jungle are a driving force growing tourism in Guatemala; some sites receive nearly half a million visitors each year. Indigenous textiles, woven with vibrant colors and often embroidered by hand, are some of the most sought after in the world.

Although much of Guatemala’s history and traditions are rooted firmly in the past, modern technology is also an enormous part of everyday life for a considerable portion of the population. For example, Guatemala has the largest economy in Central America, and its growth has been steady but slow. With a GDP that’s still substantially smaller than most countries in the global north, it’s no wonder that so many young professionals are turning to remote work for companies in the United States.

What Are Some Benefits for Virtual Assistants Working Remotely From Guatemala?

Better PayScale, Across the Board

The pay scales in the United States are frequently more than double those found in Guatemala. For example, this means that a university-educated professional living in Guatemala City would make more than twice as much working remotely for a US-based company. It’s a smart, professional decision.

Remote Work Saves Time

As in the United States, doing remote work in Guatemala saves people time by sparing them sometimes lengthy commutes. Traffic congestion is a real problem throughout Guatemala, but especially in the cities where most professionals reside. Working remotely means that people can reclaim hours of their day, rather than being stuck in traffic jams.

Compensation in a More Stable Currency

With the US dollar being one of the more stable currencies globally, it’s a logical choice for professionals to make.

Professional Development

Dedicated virtual assistants working remotely from Guatemala also can develop connections in the international market and utilize their English skills regularly. This kind of experience is difficult for many professionals to acquire otherwise.

More Time With Family

Family throughout Guatemala is highly valued, and working remotely gives professionals more time to spend with their loved ones.

For many virtual assistants, working remotely offers the perfect combination of advantages. Flor Ganzaro, who works remotely for Virtual Latinos, has nothing but praise for her experiences working with US-based companies. She says,

Just a month after I started working for my client/employer, I was promoted to a new position, which has implied new learning, new challenges, and a huge satisfaction to know that my work is being appreciated. … I have nothing but gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity of working for Virtual Latinos. If anyone is fluent in English, looking for a safe and legitimate form of online work, whichever their set of skills, I encourage them to put aside any fears and insecurities; they can find a great job opportunity.

How Does Hiring a Virtual Assistant in Guatemala Help Your Business?

When companies decide to hire virtual assistants, it’s also a decision to hire quality professional assistants who can ease many of the burdens of everyday operations. In short, if it can be done remotely, a dedicated virtual assistant can do it.

What Sort of Tasks Can a Virtual Assistant Help Perform?

One standard function of virtual assistants is to manage a company’s social media. From posting to responding to comments, even creating marketing campaigns, our virtual assistants have you covered in the social media world.
Virtual assistants regularly take over phone duties, making and answering client calls as well as making appointments.
You can finally unburden yourself from emails when you hire a virtual assistant, as well. They can help with email inquiries, digital newsletters, invoicing, and more.

Many cultural similarities exist (from business to family values) between Guatemala and the United States, owing to their intertwined histories, which makes the partnerships between virtual assistants in Guatemala and US-based companies particularly beneficial. Additionally, they’re usually working in the same time zone, which makes coordinating that much easier.

Here’s what one client of Virtual Latinos had to say:

I needed someone who could answer questions and help customers and hired from you guys; that’s what the VAs do; they do their work and took that work away from me, which is why we hired them, so yes, they are helping us achieve our goals. – Ian Einheiber, Highlevel, LLC

More and more companies are going the way of hiring a virtual assistant from Latin America because it just makes sense. Contact us today to get started!

Why Do Latino Professionals Choose to Work as Virtual Assistants?

Virtual Latinos

Hiring

6Aug '20

Why Being a Latino Virtual Assistant Is So Sought After in Latin America, and Why The Hiring Rates Are So High

Virtual assistants in Latin America are on the rise – and for good reason. As more and more people turn to work remotely, it should come as no surprise that this trend is swelling throughout Latin America, as well. Working in relative geographic and cultural proximity to the United States, Latino virtual assistants already have a leg up on virtual assistants from overseas; they already know how to navigate adeptly between languages and cultures.

What are some other reasons professionals in Latin America are choosing work as virtual assistants for US-based companies?

Pay scales in the United States are much higher than those found throughout most of Latin America. This means, for example, that a college graduate located in Quito, Ecuador can make up to 300% more than they would in-country. Working remotely is simply a smart professional decision for many.
Working remotely saves time, every day, by cutting down on daily commutes. In congested cities across the world, commuting can take hours out of a day. Imagine having to navigate traffic in a city of 22 million people, like Mexico City. It makes sense that so many would opt-out of this in favor of working remotely.
Being paid in US dollars means that their income’s currency is stable and won’t fluctuate as much in value. Rapid inflation and currency devaluation in parts of Latin America are real issues for many. If you could choose a paycheck in the more stable USD, rather than in Venezuelan bolivars, wouldn’t you? Again, it’s the smart choice.
Being a virtual assistant allows for an opportunity to use their English skills on a daily basis and to develop professional contacts in the US.
Professionals working remotely also get the added benefit of being able to provide more stability for their families and spend more quality time together as they’ve cut out lengthy daily commutes.
Latino professionals choose to work as virtual assistants for US-based companies because they are able to learn and develop new skills that are not always available in their home country. Examples include utilizing certain software programs, apps, and tools. It’s often a welcome challenge for Latino professionals to expand their knowledge.

How hiring a virtual assistant can ease your everyday business burdens

When you hire virtual assistants, you’re hiring a top-quality assistant whose literal job is to make yours easier. In essence, virtual assistants can help with anything in your business that can be done remotely. Every business’s needs are unique and a little different, but the scope of things a virtual assistant can do for you are wide and adaptable to your specific needs.

Consider some of what they can do for you:

Virtual assistants can answer client calls and respond to questions the clients may have. They can also act as a receptionist, making sure you get only the most important calls. This ensures your time is used more efficiently, as you won’t be dealing with simple questions like business hours or whether you have a certain product in stock.
Virtual assistants can make any outgoing calls you need placing to current clients or to potential customers who may require your services. They can confirm appointments, place orders, or even organize catering over the phone.
Managing social media posts, comments, and questions are tasks that most small business owners realize takes a lot of time and energy. Rather than have an in-house staff member (or yourself) glued to social media seven days a week, a virtual assistant can easily manage those tasks for you remotely at a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house team.
Virtual assistants can take over the logistics of scheduling and appointment booking. This leaves you more time to focus on your services themselves. Many small business owners know how much of a major time-sink these necessary activities can be, sometimes occupying hours within a single day.
If you hire a virtual assistant, they can also relieve you of the burden of sending out and responding to emails. This could include handling invoices, receipts, sending out your digital newsletters, or responding to any customer inquiries that may arrive in your inbox.
A virtual assistant can also compile research for you, whether that be general market research, competitor research, or anything else.
Hiring a virtual assistant also means never having to conduct website maintenance yourself again. Whether or not you’re tech-savvy, simple website updates shouldn’t be occupying your or your in-house staff’s time. Let a virtual assistant take care of that for you.
A virtual assistant can also easily manage projects and help coordinate the many moving parts and people that go into each one. Remote team coordination is just one of the many things a virtual assistant can do.
Most digital assistants are also well-versed in digital marketing, and a high proportion of them have university degrees in that area. Let an experienced professional take this off your marketing team’s plate for a reasonable rate.

Virtual Latinos is the first and leading virtual assistant company dedicated to offering hand-picked virtual assistants from Latin America. Let us help you connect with a professional virtual assistant today.

Here’s How the Bookkeeping Industry Can Benefit From Latin American Values

Virtual Latinos

Tips & How To's

30Jul '20

Why You Should Leave Your Bookkeeping to Virtual Assistants from Latin America

Most businesses and non-profits, whether large or small, would benefit from outsourcing their regular bookkeeping tasks to a dedicated virtual assistant. Bookkeeping is just one of the many reasons that people hire virtual assistants these days, and those numbers are only growing as more and more remote work is being done around the globe. In fact, Latino virtual assistants are especially poised to assist you with your business’ daily needs, bookkeeping, or otherwise. Shared values between the United States and Latin America make the partnership easy, efficient, and natural.

How a Latino Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your Bookkeeping

Here are just some examples of what a virtual assistant can help you with:

Payroll. Imagine being able to pass the administrative work of doing payroll off to a virtual assistant each week. A virtual assistant can handle payroll for you, freeing up hours of time, on a regular and on-going basis.
Invoicing. Gone are the days when small business owners have to do all their own invoicing. Virtual assistants are experienced in many bookkeeping skills and can even help you to automate your invoicing process.
Data Entry. Financials are important to keep organized, and a virtual assistant can help you do just that by helping with a variety of data collating and data entry of any kind.
Management of accounts payable and accounts receivable. A bookkeeping dedicated virtual assistant can easily manage these important accounts for you remotely.
Organization of tax documents. Take the stress out of taxes when you hire virtual assistants who can get all your tax documents organized and categorized for you ahead of time.
Budgeting. A virtual assistant can not only help you to establish a budget but help you stay within it, on a regular basis. This saves you not only time but money, too.
Inventory. Virtual assistants can help you to analyze your inventory to help you better track it.

The hand-picked virtual assistants that we connect our clients with at Virtual Latinos can provide you with administrative support for most of your bookkeeping needs and a whole lot more. Our virtual assistants share many of the same values and understanding as to the US-based businesses they work with, which makes them especially qualified to assist you in operating and growing your business or brand.

Here are the top 5 values that Latino virtual assistants can bring to your business:

Our professional virtual assistant team is entirely bilingual, meaning they can better engage with a wider range of personnel you may staff, in addition to increasing the potential clientele you can reach. Imagine being able to engage with a whole new demographic. A virtual assistant from Latin America can help you achieve that.
The US and Latin America share a lot of the same core values in business, education, and culture. Our bi-cultural virtual assistants understand the culture of the US much better than any of their overseas virtual assistant counterparts. This means less time with onboarding, among many other tasks, which ultimately keeps things moving along at a more efficient pace for all parties involved. Furthermore, 90% of our virtual assistants have university degrees, making them among the most qualified in the world.
Virtual assistants working remotely from Latin America are generally in the same time zone as your business, which offshore virtual assistants can’t offer. Coordinating with virtual assistants working remotely from Ecuador, El Salvador, or Mexico is simple. This also means that Latino virtual assistants will always be available during your business’ normal hours of operation to handle any daily issues that may arise along the way.
Many of the pre-vetted virtual assistants that we partner with at Virtual Latinos have spent a significant amount of time in the US. This means that they understand, firsthand, the nuances of American English, how business is typically conducted, and the particulars of everyday life. Our virtual assistants have experience, not just theory backing their skills.
In addition to bookkeeping, our virtual assistants can provide you with bilingual services in digital marketing, content creation, social media platform management, reception, booking, and scheduling, among many other administrative tasks. Virtual Latinos can help you expand your business or brand’s reach in ways you may have not even yet considered.

Virtual Latinos is the leader among virtual assistant companies. Virtual Latinos is the first virtual assistant company dedicated to Latinos, and can find you the assistance you need to do business more smoothly in the new and changing global economy. Our virtual assistants can also help you do that in more than one language. Contact us today to invest in a virtual assistant for your brand.

A Snapshot of Mexico: Your Gateway to Successful Nearshoring

Virtual Latinos

News

25Jul '20

Why Mexico Is a Prime Source of the Best Virtual Assistants in the Americas

Mexico is one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America and home to some of the most beautiful scenery in the Western Hemisphere. The United Mexican States are home to nearly 125 million people and the country’s GDP has steadily climbed since 2016. Visitors can enjoy an incredible range of amazing places to see and interesting things to do, from exploring the coastal Mayan ruins at Tulum to relaxing on the beaches of Cancun and Playa del Carmen along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Mexico is an undeniably beautiful country that has continued to grow rapidly in many ways.

One of the best things about Mexico is the diverse range of rapidly expanding industries. For US-based businesses, this means many opportunities to expand into territories and captivate new audiences more easily thanks to bilingual, highly vetted, and easily accessible support. If your organization could use the help of a Latino virtual assistant, hiring a virtual assistant from Mexico could be a gateway to many new and surprising opportunities for your business.

Why Hire a Virtual Assistant from Mexico?

Many opportunities for outsourcing virtual assistant services exist all over the world, but many American companies encounter common difficulties when working with offshore companies far from the US. Mexico not only shares time zones with most of the United States, but Mexican business values are very similar to those held by American businesses. This makes it much easier for top virtual assistant companies employing Mexican virtual assistants like Virtual Latinos to provide dedicated virtual assistants to companies in the US with minimal onboarding time.

A virtual assistant from Mexico will be familiar with United States business norms and conversational trends, so it will be easy for your new virtual assistant to start coordinating with your team, your partners, and even your customers. Virtual assistants from Mexico are also incredibly engaged with their work, taking full advantage of their ability to work from home to balance their professional and personal lives:

“I love working at Virtual Latinos because it is an authentic project, with ethics, that cares about its assistants and is always there for us. It’s also given me the opportunity to continue to develop my professional career from anywhere. It provides me the flexibility to combine my work as a VA and as a mother of three children. Every day I am more grateful, happy, and proud to be part of Virtual Latinos.” -Yelia, Virtual Assistant from Mexico for Virtual Latinos.

“Virtual Latinos gives me the opportunity to work from home and be more productive. I love deciding my schedule and from where I work. Jaime is really involved in every project, you won’t feel like you are on your own, he’ll coach you from the beginning, so you can feel comfortable from the very first day.” -Pepe, Virtual Assistant from Mexico for Virtual Latinos.

These are just a few examples of how virtual assistants from Mexico can be some of the best virtual assistants your company ever hires. They understand American business practices, hold similar values, work in an agreeable time zone that enables easy coordination with American companies and their clients, and truly enjoy the work they do. Bilingual virtual assistants can also open new doors for companies breaking into Spanish-speaking communities or markets in Latin America.

Investing in a Virtual Assistant from Mexico Can Help Grow Your Business

If you’re wondering how to hire a virtual assistant from Mexico to assist your company with a wide variety of business-critical tasks, it’s as easy as contacting Virtual Latinos for an in-depth explanation of all the various ways a new virtual assistant based in Mexico can assist your organization. One of the benefits of working with a virtual assistant based in Mexico is the close proximity to the US. This affords your organization with easier travel options, close cultural relations, and in-depth familiarity with US norms, pop culture, and social trends.

Trust Virtual Latinos to Provide an Experienced Virtual Assistant from Mexico for Your Business

Business professionals in Mexico and the United States have much in common, and many American companies turn to outsourcing to help them solve gaps in their operations in a cost-effective manner. However, looking too far outside the US and trusting an offshore outsourcing company comes with a host of potential frustrations.

Choose a closer option, and work with some of the best virtual assistants on this side of the world by trusting Virtual Latinos. We have a wide network of experienced and highly vetted virtual assistants working from Mexico, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and throughout Latin America that can help your company grow with added confidence. Contact Virtual Latinos today to learn more about the virtual assistant services we offer.

Our In-House Expert’s Advice: Use These Five Steps to Hire a Virtual Assistant

Virtual Latinos

Hiring

15Jul '20

Latino Virtual Assistants: the Affordable Approach to Hiring a Virtual Assistant

If you’re reading this guide, you’ve likely found – as many business owners eventually do – that you just don’t have enough time in your day to accomplish all the tasks essential to running and growing your business. While you could easily decide to shift your focus from business growth to simply staying above water with your daily operations, this isn’t a long-term solution. In fact, many business owners agree; last year, nearly 40% of small businesses already outsourced at least one business process and over 52% planned to do so by year’s end.
For many of those businesses, outsourcing means hiring virtual assistants – individuals who supply administrative, customer support, tech support, accounting, or other services remotely from a home office. Delegating tasks to an outsourced virtual assistant means you can take some of the administrative, creative, or menial responsibilities off your own plate so you can focus on the essential endeavors that can grow your business. The key is choosing the right virtual assistant, a process our in-house expert has learned well over his years in business.

An Inside Look at Virtual Latinos

Perhaps no one knows the ins and outs of hiring a virtual assistant quite like Jaime Nacach, founder and CEO of Virtual Latinos, one of the top virtual assistant services in North America. After an extremely poor experience with a Philippines-based virtual assistant company when he was beginning his own marketing firm, Jaime learned a great deal about what it takes to hire the best virtual assistants. For Virtual Latinos, he puts a great deal of focus on the skills and proficiencies of potential applicants.

First and foremost, Virtual Latinos assistants must have an excellent grasp of the English language, both spoken and written. As such, most are already familiar with the United States and have either lived here or are generally familiar with the culture – this allows Virtual Latinos to perform tasks like sales calls, customer service, tech support, marketing, content writing and more with ease. To gather this elite pool of assistants, Virtual Latinos utilizes an extensive screening process, selecting only 7.5% of its applicants into its community of pre-vetted virtual assistants, 95% of whom have a college degree in a related field. According to Jaime, all hires must be organized, self-motivated, show technological proficiency, and continue to pass frequent English-language screenings.

Hiring Your Own Virtual Latino Assistant

So, how do you go about learning how to hire a virtual assistant from Virtual Latinos? Utilize these five steps, straight from our in-house expert:

1. Gauge your virtual assistant needs

What tasks do you want to outsource? What skills are non-negotiable when it comes to the responsibilities you’ll give your virtual assistant? Spend some time outlining the tasks you’ll need accomplished and the skills you expect before making the call to Virtual Latinos.

First timer’s hiring tip: The most important first step is for you to make a list of all your needs. Create a simple Google Doc with the 15-30 most common tasks you or your team do on a weekly basis, the rank them from low, medium to high importance.

2. Choose the Virtual Latinos Directory or Agency

Based on your needs and your VA search needs, you can choose between utilizing the Directory or the Agency. The Directory is suggested for individuals with VA hiring experience (Less than 10% of our clients), as you are responsible for locating, interviewing, and hiring an assistant from our broader directory of qualified assistants. For individuals or small businesses without hiring experience (90%+ of our clients), we recommend utilizing the Agency; the Agency’s hiring experts handle all recruitment work, providing you with the top 3% of candidates for your needs.

3. Get the BEST VA for your needs: Let’s get to know you, set up a client interview

After a brief initial call to discuss overall pricing and needs, Virtual Latinos will schedule a more lengthy conversation at your convenience – we call it the “Client interview”. This call really gives us the opportunity to truly get to know you, your needs, goals, and the type of team member virtual assistant that will be the perfect addition to your team.

Depending on your needs, Virtual Latinos’ hiring experts will discuss your ideal virtual assistant with you at length, including your listed qualifications and company needs. Jaime himself will give suggestions based on his extensive experience as the two of you work together to determine exactly the type of virtual assistant you need.

4. Conduct interviews

If you’re experienced at hiring virtual assistants, this is when you’ll utilize the Virtual Latino Directory to locate and interview an assistant. If you’ll hire through the Agency, Virtual Latinos will dedicate hours to interviewing up to ten individuals who meet your initial needs. At the end of this process, the field will be narrowed to two or three finalists.

5. Select your assistant

In this final step, our expert Jaime will again act as your guide and VA hiring consultant, assisting you in conducting your final interview with the finalists. He’ll suggest essential questions to ask, qualifications to highlight, and more. In the end, you’ll select the finalist who most aligns with your brand identity and needs.

Virtual Latinos Can Save You Valuable Time and Money

Whether you’re inexperienced in hiring a virtual assistant or have undertaken the task in the past, the Virtual Latinos process can help you learn how to find the best English-language virtual assistants possible. Better yet, our process is built to help save costs as well as the extensive time necessary to hunt down the right assistant yourself. Contact us today and see the difference a virtual assistant from locations like Costa Rica, Honduras and Cuba can really make for a business like yours.

A Guide on How to Hire and Manage Virtual Assistants

Virtual Latinos

Hiring

6Jul '20

Looking to hire a Virtual Assistant?

Hiring virtual assistants and managing them can be really difficult to handle if you don’t establish clear guides and steps to follow for making the process run at its best.

Sure, they are cost-effective which is very convenient for your business, but, what is it that makes it tricky to handle?

Well, let’s see a few reasons:

a) You’re hiring people with different works habits
b) You’re hiring people you’ll have to manage from a distance
c) You’re hiring people you haven’t met face to face

See what I mean? But don’t worry, luckily for you, in this guide, we’ll be sharing with you 5 main practices to hire and manage your newly hired virtual assistant or virtual assistants team.

1) Do I need a virtual assistant?

In order for you to answer that question, we give some ideas on what key points to consider:

* Why do you need a virtual assistant?
You have specific tasks that you know someone could help you with, or, you have specific tasks that you know you shouldn’t be doing yourself so you can have more time to focus on your core business functions.

*Do I have the budget?
By analyzing your finances you’ll help yourself to have a clear scenario on how your costs and expenses are and see if you can incorporate hiring a virtual assistant on your annual budget. It’s better to do it that way in order for you to understand your business costs in general rather than just defining a budget every time you hire a virtual assistant.

*Where do I hire my virtual assistant from? Analyze the pros and cons to make the right decision

Here we provide just a few points to consider:

Pros – less expensive, flexible hours, you can hire them for a short amount of time if it’s just for a specific project.
Cons – different timezones, different cultural approaches, no quality of work.

After considering all of these points, you may be starting to realize why a Latino Virtual Assistant is the best option for you and what advantages a Latino Virtual Assistant has compared to other VAs from abroad.

2) What type of virtual assistant do I need?

This will be defined according to the type of tasks you want them to do. Here at Virtual Latinos, we can provide you with virtual assistants who perform many types of services.

* If you need help on tasks related to answering emails, booking trips or meetings, answering phone calls, inventories, placing orders, etc, then you’ll mostly need a General Virtual Assistant (Administrative/Executive Virtual Assistant, Customer Support virtual assistant).

* If you need help on tasks related to Digital Marketing, Video edition, Graphic Design, Sales, Real Estate, Property Management, etc, then you’ll need an Expert Virtual Assistant (Accountants/Bookkeepers, Community Managers, Digital Marketers, Content Creators (Bloggers, Copywriters), Traffickers,etc.)

3) Time to hire!

When you reach this point, this is the main question you have to ask to yourself now: Do I want to hire on my own and do all the work required to hire someone? or do I want someone else to do all the hiring process for me?

Well, that depends on many factors, but luckily for you, here at Virtual Latinos we got you covered and we offer you the two options to hire:

a) You do all the hiring process on your own by selecting and hiring the VAs from our Directory, or,
b) You can hire through our Virtual Latinos Agency and let us do all the process for you, helping you save a LOT of time with the guarantee of knowing you’ll get the best applicants for your business needs and goals.

4) Start working with your virtual assistant.

The following are the most important suggestions that we, as experts, consider are very important when starting to work with your new virtual assistant:

* Define tasks and provide training.
Now you have a new member of your team. You have to make sure they know why you hired them and what they need to do. For that, proper onboarding and training is the key. There you’ll fully explain your new VA about your project requirements, expectations, deadlines, tools you use daily for communication, time tracking, and task management among others.

* Organize / Document your Processes
In order to make things efficient, you must get used to the idea of creating documentation for your corresponding tasks’ procedures. This is done by creating SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). SOPs gather all the information about the steps on each operation on your company that your new virtual assistant can have as a reference and part of his/her training. SOPs will help you ensure that if you or anyone in your company isn’t able to work, the company can still run as instructions are already built there for people to take over and also avoid miscommunications and failure to comply with determined procedures.

* Set up daily check-ins and a constant schedule for meetings with your virtual assistant.
This is a great tip that will make you keep your VA really in constant communication with you and from there, build, and achieve confidence and a strong work environment.

If you let your new virtual assistants know, from the beginning, that they have to communicate, then you’ll have a huge percentage of achieving a successful work routine. Our suggestion for daily communication is using an Instant Messaging tool such as Telegram or Whatsapp. In that way, you can establish that your VA checks with you when they start and when they finish their working hours and also give a brief summary of their daily progress.

Now, regarding the scheduling of meetings, we highly suggest to do them every two weeks, where you can catch up, talk about goals, strategies and also provide feedback for both of you on how you can improve. By doing this periodically, you’ll get to know your virtual assistant a lot better, both of you will get more comfortable working with each other and understanding the way you work better.

5) Make them feel valued and supported.

Besides letting your new virtual assistant know about your business, it’s time to also build trust, camaraderie, try to include them in your company’s culture just like your regular employees.

Show them that you care about their professional growth too by giving them quality projects, providing all the resources for them to perform at their best. Make payments on time. Be a trustworthy leader. Do constant follow-ups on their work so that they feel you care about how they’re doing and if you are being communicative and clear enough with what you want them to do.
Once you have done all of this, be sure that your virtual assistant will be working happy and will be willing to keep working with you and create a longterm lasting work relationship that will definitely benefit you both.

Conclusion

I know what you might be thinking right now, it might seem like a challenge to hire a virtual assistant in the beginning, right? especially if you haven’t done it before, but don’t worry, by achieving all of what we have suggested here, be sure you are all set and ready to feel confident in doing a good job on hiring and managing a virtual assistant. Just remember, everything starts with you:

Asking yourself, why do you need a virtual assistant? What are the key points to consider before hiring one?
After defining your budget for affording a virtual assistant, now you must know what type of virtual assistant you need. Remember to consider the tasks you want them to do for you.
Ok, you know what type of virtual assistant you’ll need, it’s time to hire!
You have hired your new VA, good! Now, it’s time to start working with them. Which first steps will help you start in a successful way?
Finally, now it’s time to know the person behind the desk, understand their needs, make them part of your company’s culture, make them feel included.

I, as the Customer / VA Success Manager here at Virtual Latinos, really see closely how everything that we’ve shared here has actually built successful work bonds while working virtually. Part of my job is to make sure you and your new VA work on this, together, make this a really growing and satisfying experience for you both. So, find out why choosing us is the best decision you can make for hiring a virtual assistant today!

Answers From Our In House Expert: Why Should I Choose a Latino Assistant Over Other Options?

Virtual Latinos

Tips & How To's

15Jun '20

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.

The Growing Trend of Telehealth Options and How a Virtual Assistant Can Improve Your Healthcare Clinic Outcomes

Virtual Latinos

Tips & How To's

6Jun '20

How Hiring Virtual Assistants from Latin America Can Help Grow Your US-based Healthcare Business

Now more than ever, we see how global healthcare affects us all. Technology has brought us to the point where even doctors telecommute into patients’ exam rooms and emergency room beds. Imagine being a stroke victim in a rural area, with no on-call neurologists for 300 miles. A doctor can now teleconference directly into your room from a major city to help with your diagnosis and treatment. Patients are more than willing and able to accept this level of care from their doctors. Why shouldn’t we be utilizing virtual assistants just as much, if not more, for much less dire circumstances in health care?

All market reports seem to suggest that the need for virtual assistants in global healthcare is strong and only growing stronger, with extreme growth expected between now and 2028, particularly in the healthcare industries within the United States. Furthermore, with over 40 million Spanish speakers in the U.S., the demand for bilingual services is high and also only growing.

Here are some other trends we’ve identified suggesting the need for global healthcare offices to hire virtual assistants:

Multilingual support in health care tools for virtual assistants is increasingly necessary and relevant.
There is an increased focus on the development and implementation of conversational virtual assistant tools for ease of communication.
The demand for technologically-advanced solutions to our healthcare needs and issues is high.

All these trends indicate that hiring a virtual assistant, particularly in the healthcare field, is not only a smart move, but a prudent investment for health care businesses in the United States.

Benefits of Working with Virtual Latinos

There are many benefits of investing in Latino virtual assistants to improve the outcomes of your burgeoning telehealth clinic or one you plan to start. Here are a few to consider.

Bilingual, Multi-cultural Support for Your Service

All our virtual assistants are bilingual and multi-cultural. This means that our virtual assistants are uniquely qualified to translate among those realms – between patients and their doctors and nurses – who may not all have grown up within the same language or culture or may not talk about their health problems in the same way. This also has an overwhelmingly positive effect for your business, in terms of serving communities that have been historically underserved and misunderstood, which is enormous. It’s also just good business; you are able to reach that many more clients, effectively, organically growing your office.

General Administrative Support

Virtual assistants can do anything a person behind a computer in your physical office can do, without taking up space or resources. They can audit patient charts, establish new medical records, and even do digital intake. These are truly good effort and time-saving procedures to have in place, virtually. Having a virtual assistant who can do this, and in more than one language, only makes it a better investment.

Marketing Tasks and Announcements for your Healthcare Business

Most healthcare workers are concerned with just that: healthcare. There is no reason for most to know how to deal with marketing, promotions, or available services. This is one of the places that a virtual assistant can step in to promote your services. Trust our team to handle marketing. Virtual assistants can grow your business while you care for patients. Updating social media and other content creation are tasks that can be achieved from almost any location in the world.

Phone services

Virtual assistants can always answer the phones for you, in both English and Spanish, to schedule appointments, answer questions, and discuss patient options. Anything your offices do over the phone, can be done via your virtual assistant. marketing virtual assistant

Leverage the Benefits of a Latino Virtual Assistant for Your Healthcare Business

Investing in a virtual assistant from Latin America for any business will open many doors, but that is particularly true for those in the healthcare industry and considering the current state of medical care. A Latino virtual assistant can streamline your daily tasks more efficiently and can open up your healthcare clinic to a greater population. Grow your healthcare business by simply including more options.

Grow Your Telehealth Business With a Latino Virtual Assistant Today

If your healthcare business needs some backup with the constancy of new patients in the present medical environment, get help and grow your business by investing in a Latino virtual assistant. Contact Virtual Latinos today to hire a dedicated virtual assistant for your global healthcare business – whether telehealth continues to be a norm for your business or just a temporary solution to the pandemic that is affecting all our lives, a virtual assistant can improve patient outcomes while growing your base. All our Latino virtual assistants are hand-picked, bilingual, and fluent in English and Spanish. Over 90% have completed a 4-year college degree, which allows us to boast that we have the top virtual assistant services available at Virtual Latinos.

How Virtual Assistants Could be the Key to Your Small Business Staying Afloat through COVID-19

Virtual Latinos

News

6May '20

Why You Should Hire Virtual Assistants to Help Expand Your Reach

These are not easy times to be a small to medium business owner. In the face of the rising COVID-19 global pandemic, many of us are left with questions about what moving forward during and after this crisis means. Perhaps the biggest question of them all being:

“How do we move forward, quickly, before getting left behind?”

We get it. Many small businesses are in the process of having to completely re-structure their day-to-day operations, which is a lot of work and takes a great amount of logistical coordination. Think about some of the changes we’re seeing in so many small businesses in the past months:

In order to just stay open, restaurants are shifting over to online ordering with take-out and delivery only.
Yoga studios are moving their classes to Zoom, Skype, and other platforms.
Accountants are telecommuting with their clients and solely accepting digitized documents.
Various places of worship have begun to offer streaming services and private video counseling rather than meeting in person.
Many small retail shops are finding themselves jumping into online e-commerce, some for the very first time.

These kinds of expansions can feel intimidating to small business owners, even given appropriate amounts of time and under the best of circumstances. However, whether your business is considered “essential” or not right now, it is probably time for some overhauling of your processes. Our world is changing and adapting to that fact is more important than ever.

At this moment, the common thread we see in businesses that are thriving amidst the COVID-19 pandemic is the ability to adapt and incorporate technology into their daily operations and in their deliverable products. Technology is more accessible than ever before, and it’s allowing so many businesses to reach wider audiences and brand new markets.

Remote work has never seen such high numbers – and it’s not just in the U.S.; it’s around the world, and the current global pandemic has created an increased necessity for it. While there is no way to make your small business completely “pandemic-proof,” there’s one easy step you can take to keep the chaos of the moment at bay as you move forward – you can hire virtual assistants (and do it without breaking the bank).

Regardless of what kind of business you run, chances are that you need extra help right now and aren’t necessarily in a position to hire more in-house staff. Do you dream of being able to delegate tasks like email or database management? Is a ringing phone keeping you from managing other tasks? A Virtual Assistant might be the solution to many (if not all) of your problems.

What Are Some of the Benefits to Hiring a Virtual Assistant?

Probably the single most important thing a virtual assistant can do for you is provide relief from the day to day processes that slow you down from actually running your business. We are all feeling a little overwhelmed these days, but imagine if you had an assistant who could take a few tasks off your hands every day and lighten your workload? There are many benefits when you hire a Virtual Assistant, some of which you may not have even imagined (yet).

Virtual assistants already know how to work remotely

In a time when remote work is new to many, it won’t be to your virtual assistant. It’s likely that they’ve been working remotely for much longer than most. Virtual assistants can help streamline the process for you and won’t need the training or long “onboarding” time that is typical of a new employee, especially in a remote environment.

If your entire business is shifting to a remote-work model, as many are, they can also help you train your current employees to do so efficiently. This is vital in maintaining clear communication within any company, and a virtual assistant is just the kind of person who can facilitate this for you.

Handling all of your marketing tasks just got easier.
Do you spend an inordinate amount of time writing promotions and putting together other marketing content? There are virtual assistants who specialize in this and can handle the work for you, from afar. This includes:

Web Design
Many small businesses don’t update their websites as frequently as they want or need to due to lack of time and/or ability. If you hire virtual assistants, they can do this for you. They are well-versed in most standard webtools and can quickly update your website to reflect the daily changes in our lives (and your business) during a global health crisis and beyond.
Social Media Monitoring
One of the major time-sinks that many small business owners lament having to worry about is social media. Whether it’s post updates, keeping stories current, comment monitoring, or responding to customer questions and reviews, it’s time consuming and not necessarily the best use of your working hours. Virtual assistants know their way around social media, since, in addition to having formal backgrounds in technology and media, most of them have grown up with it. They can help you improve your content, increase engagement on your posts, and chat with your following.
Blog or Newsletter Writing
If your small business maintains a blog or sends out a newsletter, you know how easy it is to get behind on updates, especially when daily operations take precedent. Whether you’re a flower shop or a property management company, chances are, you need to be reaching out more to your clients, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Let your virtual assistant help create regular blogs or newsletter posts to keep your public informed and aware of what you offer and what (if anything) is changing.
Branding, Graphic Design
If you are one of the many businesses moving to e-commerce, you have undoubtedly realized how important both branding and graphic design are. Many virtual assistants specialize in these areas and can do the work for you at a fraction of the cost of a graphic design firm.

Aside from the various marketing-related tasks you can have taken care of when you hire virtual assistants, there are still many more daily and weekly items to consider being able to free yourself of.

Payroll
Managing payroll can be time consuming, especially for small business owners who may not have a dedicated division or staff member to handle it. This is another task that a virtual assistant can take on, so you don’t have to.
Customer Support
Virtual assistants can and do regularly handle customer support for small businesses from property management companies to yoga studios and even accountants. If your accounting firm were to go entirely online, wouldn’t it be nice to have a dedicated staff member to contact clients and prepare them for what they’ll need to have digitized before your video chat with them?
Employee Support
If you are changing day-to-day operations of your business but keeping your staff on (remotely or otherwise), this is a really great way to make sure they feel supported. A virtual assistant can field any questions your staff might have and be the central hub for announcements, changes, and updates.
Market Research
Even if you are unsure which direction to take your small business in during a global pandemic, a virtual assistant can find this information for you! Market research on similar business types is essential to see what is working and what isn’t in these highly unprecedented times.

Other Reasons to Consider Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Those are the most common tasks that bring businesses to seek out virtual assistants, but they are more aspects of running a business that they can take off your plate. Here are a few such tasks.

Scalability
Virtual assistants work within your budget, on short-term contracts, so there are no hidden fees or obligations. For example, if you are a restaurant owner looking for lots of tech support for the first month or two of implementing on-line ordering, your virtual assistant can help you establish a system that works for you and your staff, then decrease their hours as needed. This is a big selling point for many small businesses because it allows them to have an expert consultant involved in the process, helping to increase revenue, but with diminishing labor costs over time. Of course, once you start working with a virtual assistant, it’s entirely possible that you’ll find more for them to do, as it becomes clear what a valuable asset they are to your company.

Handle any tasks you might not know how to do, and/or don’t have time to learn
With time and study, of course, you could become a social media guru or an expert programmer, but most small business owners don’t have that kind of time, especially right now. If, for example, you need to convert your small retail storefront’s website over to e-commerce, and fast, you’ll want someone who already has experience doing this. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Virtual assistants can help facilitate making this transition and set it all up for you, so all you have to do is mail your product out to your customers. They can even set up and schedule any video conference calls you may need to have but were too busy to figure out how to organize.

Increasing your company’s reach through website localization
Many virtual assistants are bilingual, which means that they can also help you to localize or translate your website and services into another language and provide support in that language – organically growing your business. With there currently being more Spanish-speakers in the United States than in Spain, this is a huge market reach that you may not have considered before. Think about being able to reach 50 million more consumers, instantly.

Whether Your Business Is Retail or Accounting, Virtual Assistants Can Help

From marketing tasks to employee support and market research, a virtual assistant could be the key to adapting and growing your business in uncertain times. Many of the businesses we see thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic are doing so precisely because of their embracing technology. Top virtual assistant services are leading in many of these technological charges, as they have the expertise that most small businesses need with years of experience in the field.

If you’re wondering how to hire a virtual assistant, Virtual Latinos can help! Our certified team is at the ready for any of your virtual needs and can help you start growing your sales today.