When businesses grow rapidly, the number of tasks to complete can seem endless. Hiring a virtual assistant is an easy way of reducing your workload and passing on some of your administrative and repetitive tasks. But how much will you have to pay your VA? Is hiring a digital assistant worthwhile, or should you pay for an additional in-person employee instead?

In most cases, a VA is much less expensive for US businesses. The salaries range from $5-60 per hour, depending on the location of the VA, their skillset, their educational background, and their experience. What’s more, your VA will work remotely, so you don’t have to pay for any office space. If you choose a company like VIVA, you can save up to 60% when compared to an in-person assistant, and your new VA will be exceptionally efficient.

How Much Do You Pay a Virtual Assistant?

The cost of a VA depends on many factors. If you select a professional from the US, you might have to pay between $15 and $60 per hour. However, someone from a lower cost-of-living country might only cost $5-20 per hour. Hiring someone from a different country could be a great way of reducing your company’s costs without sacrificing the quality of the assistance you receive.

However, there could be certain issues, such as cultural barriers, time zone differences, and language barriers. To get the most out of your VA, you should hire one from a reputable agency. Here at VIVA, many of our employees come from Latin American countries, so they are in the same time zone as our American customers and are fully bilingual. We also make sure that everyone who works for us has a high level of education.

What Does VA Pay Depend On?

Aside from the location of the assistant, there are several other factors that affect how much you will have to pay. They include the type of education and qualifications the professional has, the skills they have built up, the experience they’ve acquired, and the tasks they are able to perform. It goes without saying that someone who has learned very specific skills and is able to target their services to your industry is more expensive than a general assistant.

Education

Anyone can claim to be a VA. As a company, you have to be careful not to hire someone who has no experience and is uneducated. Even though this person might be cheaper, they might not be able to complete the work to your satisfaction. Instead, you should make sure your new employee has completed high school and, if possible, college.

While there is no specific course for VAs at most colleges, the skills required can be gained from other degrees. If your employee has taken courses in finance, computing, accounting, or data management, they might be more competent, and you’ll have to pay them more. Similarly, they’ll be more valuable and more expensive if they’ve gone through a VA course, such as the VIVA Academy.

Skills

A general VA can perform many tasks. Some of them include managing your social media accounts, setting up and organizing events, providing customer support, writing emails on your behalf, managing your schedule, managing your website, and writing reports. These services, which aren’t specific to one industry or type of business, aren’t very expensive.

However, you might have to pay more if you want your VA to have specialized skills related to your company. Some firms hire a VA to help the finance and accounting team with repetitive data entry tasks, and some companies require higher managerial services from their VAs. In this case, you should expect to pay more because you’re asking your new employee to take on more responsibilities and challenges.

Experience

A virtual assistant with no previous experience is much cheaper than someone who has worked for several other companies in your industry. If you’re short on cash, hiring someone with little experience could be a good idea. As long as they have the required educational background and have undergone specific VA training, it’s likely that they will be competent.

What’s more, someone who is new to this type of work won’t have formed previous habits. Therefore, they will be eager and happy to learn from you. Companies that have a larger budget could opt for someone more experienced, who will be able to complete tasks more quickly and efficiently and who might have a broader range of skills.

Tasks Completed 

Virtual assisting is a very diverse profession, and there isn’t a set of rules that dictates what kinds of tasks a VA has to complete. Instead, a high-quality professional is flexible and can adapt their services to your company’s needs. Despite this, not all VAs are happy and able to complete all tasks, so you’ll have to find someone who fits your business’s individual needs.

A basic VA will only complete general tasks like answering emails and managing your schedule, but a more skilled and experienced employee might be able to help you with marketing and other tasks. At VIVA, you can also choose a virtual receptionist, who will speak directly with your clients. These professionals might be more expensive because they are able to perform a wider range of tasks than a basic VA.

Do I Need a VA?

Are you or your employees struggling to get through your daily tasks? Are you frustrated by the repetitive administrative or data entry tasks? Do you need someone to take over your website or social media accounts? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, you should look into getting a VA. The primary benefits of an online assistant are that they allow you to save time and money.

However, there are also additional perks. You can delegate tasks you don’t enjoy, so your workday will improve. This increases your productivity and decreases your stress levels. When you work with a company like VIVA, your VA plan is very flexible. If you no longer need the professional, you can let them go, and if you need additional help, you can increase their hours or hire a second VA.

You Want to Save Time

The primary reason why businesses hire VAs is that their current employees are having a hard time coping with their workload. If you’d like to delegate routine tasks to someone else, a VA is the perfect choice. They will be able to complete a wide range of tasks, but you won’t have to worry about setting up an office for them.

When you hire a VA, you can get rid of all the administrative tasks that took up a lot of time. As a result, you and your employees can go back to the tasks you’re best at, which might include working directly with your customers, developing your product or service, collaborating with other businesses in your niche, and finding new customers.

You Want to Save Money 

You can save around 60% when you hire a VA from VIVA. This is because our professionals come from Latin America, so their cost of living is much lower. Therefore, they are able to accept a lower salary than someone who lives in the US. Despite this, you can expect excellent quality because everyone we work with has gone through VA training.

If you have a specific budget in mind, you can let us know, and we will match you up with the most competent and experienced VA available at that price. Our VAs have various skill sets, and you can also request something specific. While our highly skilled professionals are more expensive than those offering basic services, we are still able to provide you with a much lower price due to the location of our workers.

How to Find a Talented and Affordable VA

There are thousands of VAs looking for jobs around the world, but not all of them have a good educational background. If you hire an untrained VA, you might run into problems because there’s no guarantee that they will be fluent in English, and they might not have the skills necessary to serve you well. What’s more, their internet connection might not be stable if they are in a location with bad infrastructure.

For these reasons, it’s almost always better to hire someone from an agency. At VIVA, we vet all candidates and only accept those with a good education and the skills necessary to succeed. All our VAs have to go through VIVA Academy before they start working. We also favor candidates who are bilingual, so you can serve Spanish-speaking as well as English-speaking customers. What’s more, our VAs work during American business hours.

As your company grows, you might feel overwhelmed with all your tasks. In this case, hiring a virtual assistant is the best way of reducing your workload because it’s much cheaper than hiring an additional in-person employee. A VA from Latin America might cost between $5-25 per hour, but it all depends on their skill level, educational background, location, and the kinds of tasks they can complete. Call us now at VIVA to find out more about our friendly VAs.