Running a startup is tough. After navigating the precarious early months, the entrepreneur’s next focus usually shifts to sustaining and growing the business, but it’s easier said than done.

According to research by Statistic Brain, 50% of all US companies fail after 5 years, and over 70% after 10 years. In Australia, 86.9% of failures during the 2017/18 financial year were businesses having fewer than 20 employees.

To minimise the chances of your business failing, you’ll need to:

• Maintain cash flow.
• Reduce operating costs.
• Hire and retain quality staff.
• Increasing sales and revenue.

Interestingly, you can solve most (maybe even all) of these pain points by addressing just one of them: hiring and retaining a high-performing virtual assistant.

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant (or VA) is typically a self-employed professional who provides various administrative, creative or technical services to clients remotely. Because VAs are independent contractors, companies won’t have to worry about health insurance, superannuation or other types of employee benefits when working with one – other than the VA’s fees, of course.

VAs can do a myriad of tasks for clients, such as:

• Managing email inboxes.
• Handling property management functions.
• Programming and other IT-focused responsibilities.
• Developing sales strategies.
• Preparing financial statements.

Outsourcing or Offshoring?

The hiring of VAs is generally an offshore arrangement and isn’t necessarily outsourced. The difference is that outsourcing involves contracting work out to a third party, while offshoring is having the work done overseas.

Outsourcing and offshoring aren’t mutually exclusive; one can exist without the other. For instance, you can hire a nearby firm to handle your design requirements (which is outsourcing) instead of maintaining an internal department.

Likewise, companies can offshore work without outsourcing it – like when a Telstra call centre in the Philippines serves Australian customers.

Benefits of hiring a VA

hiring a virtual assistant in the philippines gives your startup more advantages than having them on-site. These include (but are not limited to) the following:

Cost savings

There are several reasons why having a VA is cheaper than regular employees:

1. More often than not, your only expense when employing a VA is their fee, which is computed on a per-productive-hour basis. So if the VA doesn’t work, you won’t have to pay them.
   
   
2. VAs are self-employed remote workers who normally handle their own operating costs, including equipment, rent and internet connectivity. This means you won’t have to spend for office space, electricity, supplies and (as mentioned earlier) employee benefits – unless you require the use of particular paid software.
   
   Consider this hypothetical scenario: a startup of 5 will probably need a 90-sq-ft office, which costs upwards of $200 per sq ft in prime locations like London or New York. That’s over $200K a year, outside of utilities. With a remote team of VAs, you won’t have to shoulder that expense.
   
   
3. You employ professionals from other countries where labour is cheaper. With Remote Workmate’s Philippine-based VAs, for example, you’ll pay only 20-30% of what you pay a local employee.

VAs offer the reliability of in-house staff

Unlike outsourced departments whose operations are external to your company, employing VAs is essentially like having someone in-house. Why? Because VAs work directly with you and other members of your fledgling company (albeit remotely).

This setup gives you the dependability of an established team, minus the associated upkeep.

Your VA can handle everyday business functions

As your startup’s primary decision-maker, you have limited time and attention. Thus, it shouldn’t be on you to handle everyday business functions like:

• Scheduling your own appointments.
• Entering receipts into an accounting system.
• Updating your website and social media accounts.
• Preparing the company payroll.

Because if you did, you wouldn’t be able to get any actual work done.

However, you can hire VAs to perform peripheral-yet-vital tasks: By delegating these responsibilities, your business continues running smoothly. At the same time, this allows you to focus on your core business – the primary activity your business was founded on.

Offshore staff are more productive

Working remotely makes people happier, and more productive and engaged. Perhaps it’s the time they save from not being in traffic; or maybe they’re not constantly distracted by co-workers. Whatever the cause, various research support this assertion:

1. A Stanford University study found that employees who worked from home recorded a 13% increase in performance, mainly because they took fewer breaks and sick days.
   
   
2. According to recent US-wide SurePayroll survey, 65% of respondents think a remote work schedule would increase their productivity, and 86% preferred to work alone to reach maximum productivity.
   
   
3. A TINYPulse study titled “What Leaders Need To Know About Remote Workers” reported that remote workers are happier because they “enjoy the freedom and flexibility.” This matters because a separate UK study found that happy employees are more productive in the workplace.
   
   
4. In the same TINYPulse study, 91% of remote workers said they “get more work done when working remotely” versus only 9% who think they don’t. While actual output isn’t quantified (it’s an employee self-assessment), the significant difference is noteworthy.

VAs level the playing field

Your startup doesn’t have the resources to match the internal support services (e.g. HR, accounting, IT) which large companies have. However, hiring an offshore team of VAs will give you access to your own in-house support services and enable your business to act big, just like the major players in your industry.

You get access to a larger talent pool

When a company looks for candidates, it’s usually limited to a certain distance from its premises. If the search goes beyond this area (e.g. a neighbouring state, the opposite end of the country), the company will have to deal with:

• A shrinking candidate pool (because applicants don’t want to commute that far).
• Higher costs to relocate the top candidates.

You won’t have to deal with this problem with remote workers. When recruiting VAs, you get access to a larger talent pool. Granted, the selection isn’t really worldwide as there are only select offshoring destinations, but you’re looking through a far wider area than what a local talent hunt provides.

Offshore staff lets you operate in different time zones

Does your business routinely need to respond to inquiries/complaints from customers in other countries? Or perhaps your publication produces content on a 24-hour cycle? With an offshore team of VAs, you can operate in various time zones and service your audience without having to establish offices in those locations.

Having your VAs working round the clock enables your startup to have a wider reach and be more productive, putting you in a better position to succeed.

So how does addressing one pain point help your startup?

To sum up: by hiring and retaining VAs in your ranks, you’ll be able to lower your costs, which in turn helps you better manage your cash flow. With the productivity and flexibility that your remote workers provide, you’ll be able to boost your sales and revenue as well.

VAs aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but working with them helps your startup’s chances of surviving a highly competitive business environment.