In the last article, we discussed about 3 unique benefits of hiring a virtual assistant to get your work done. Taking our discussion forward on the topic, in this article I am going to talk about 3 more benefits that we get from hiring a virtual assistant to do our work.

As discussed in the previous article, there are many functions that a virtual assistant (VA) performs, and they are not always related to doing your back office work, or conducting research. In the world enabled by the digital revolution (led primarily by the Internet), a virtual assistant can help you deal with your competitors and customers in a much better way then was ever possible earlier. Let us look at things that a VA can help us perform that would make you outrun your competitors, and exceed the expectation you have seeded in your customers.

Help you get competitive advantage

Strategically speaking, there are many advantages of having a virtual assistant. You can employ him to keep a tab on competition, and to gain insight on the competition, or you can use him to dig into competitive data. What I am saying here is you can use a VA to stay ahead of the game.

A virtual assistant is preferred over a full-time employee because he costs less and his performance is comparable to that of a regular employee. Just imagine what you can do with the extra dollar you save by replacing a regular employee with a virtual assistant to perform the work with comparable quality.

Not only a virtual assistant does save your time, but he also saves your time, which you can invest in plotting a strategy map that, in turn, will help you stay ahead of the game. You can use a VA to provide you all the relevant data on competition that will assist you in planning an assault.

Help you keep your office open 24X7

If you are the owner of an online business that needs an employee to constantly keep an eye on the operation — like a web hosting business where 24X7 support and server uptime monitoring is required — then you should think of employing a virtual assistant to look for this job. This will be economical for your business. And for the kind of work that needs constant monitoring, you should hire a VA from a country that comes in different time zone.

Suppose, you are running your business from the United States then you should hire a person who lives in countries like India because the time difference in these two countries are around 12 hours. The time difference makes a virtual assistant your perfect replacement to work in the graveyard shift. This way you will be able to have a person who looks after your business when you are asleep. It will help you run your business 24X7.

Help you get an unique, unbiased perspective

If you are doing something for quite some time then it is but natural to build a point of view about that thing. It applies to business as well. The point of view that you have developed, as a result, may not be right, or may not factor every aspect of a business, so you need a fresh view of a person who does not get influenced by you, and who has complete information on the business.

A virtual assistant is a natural choice for this, as he understands your business as any insider does, and he even carries an outsider perspective on business because of his physical distance from your business. This you can use to your advantage. Ask your VA to give an honest view about your company or brand’s standing vis-à-vis your competitor or related industries.

As evident from the reasons I have cited above, I am more in favor of occasionally using a virtual assistant to dig into competitor’s data. We can also use a virtual assistant to gain insight into consumer choices. And a VA is definitely useful in managing your online business.

Whatever your reason is to hire a VA, stick with the one you have chosen, as you would not like to walk the same road of training a virtual assistant for your business again and again. And quality of a virtual assistant should be the sole criteria of hiring one. Do not hire someone because he is asking for less money.

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