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As a CEO of a small start-up two years ago, Jonathan’s requirements for resources to operate his software programming business were limited. A small office, a couple of computers and one helper to get him coffee and run other errands were among some of his basic needs. As he began putting hours of intelligent efforts into making his business a success, Jonathan soon realized that he also needs a secretary to take care of clerical jobs. When he began a hunt, he found salary expectations of wannabe assistants to be huge in his opinion. In reality though, the newly-opened bank account of his firm didn’t allow him to part away with such a fixed amount of money every month. It was when he heard about virtual assistants.
“I was in software programming business, but I had surprisingly not heard that people were hiring virtual assistants. Initially, I wrote off the idea as it seemed impractical, but it kept doing rounds in my mind. Finally, I decided to give it a try,” says Jonathan.
That’s when a close business relationship with his assistant Dinesh, working at Neyox Outsourcing’s Delhi office, began. Dinesh was physically located thousands of miles from Jonathan’s office. Their only means of communication were emails and Skype. Dinesh in his resume declared himself to be an online virtual assistant. His company – Neyox Outsourcing – charged a fixed amount of dollars on hourly basis. He told Jonathan that he would work from Neyox Outsourcing’s office in New Delhi.
It turned out to be great experience for Jonathan who had to pay his virtual assistant for only 25-30 hours a week. Jonathan says that at that time, this many hours of assistance were quite enough to run his start-up. “As the business expended, I hired eight more virtual assistants. You will probably not believe, but six of them – also from Neyox Outsourcing - are working for me through vertical means. In fact, I have never come face-to-face with them. I know them from their photos on resumes and through our online communications,” Jonathan says.
Gradually gaining popularity among business organizations, especially among small and mid-sized ones, virtual assistance is a viable option to cut down on salary costs and infrastructure and operational expenses. However, experts feel that employers have to be extra careful before hiring a virtual assistant. Whether you can entrust a person with all your business secretes is the first question that hits an employer’s mind.
“Credentials must be verified before hiring a virtual assistant. There are several ways to do this including seeking references and digging into the background of the agency offering virtual assistance. Besides, professional efficiency of the virtual assistant is also to be taken into account before making a decision,” says Mr Parnami, Outsourcing Consultant at Neyox Outsourcing.
Mr Parnami says that online communication means have made it easy to ensure efficiency and productivity while working with a virtual assistant. “The employer must be comfortable with online communication. Having an assistant sitting across the table and taking notes from you proves to be a bit more convenient sometimes, but cut-down on salary and expenses is the biggest rewards of hiring a virtual assistant. By hiring a virtual assistant, you don’t need to pay an employee for 40 hours a week when you need much less, let’s say 25-hours of assistance,” says Mr Parnami.
About Neyox Outsourcing: At Neyox Outsourcing, you can hire an experienced virtual assistant for any work which can be managed by using a computer like: website design, website development, search engine optimization (SEO), copywriting, admin, data entry, insurance, legal, accounting, teaching and much more. At Neyox Outsourcing, we have virtual assistants working for our various clients based in US, UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and many other countries for last three (3) years now. For more information, please visit:
www.neyox.com
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