Myths About Virtual Assistants You Likely Believe

By Robert K Lerner

Virtual assistants or VAs are of great help to many small business owners in developed countries and elsewhere. They can do a huge variety of tasks and gives many entrepreneurs the chance to focus more time on their businesses and other aspects of their lives. Likewise, many have taken up the virtual assistance profession, thanks mainly to the lax work set up and the growing demand for a VA's services.

However, there are still many who are hesitant to hire the services of a VA due to some prevalent myths among entrepreneurs. Here are the common ones, which we are going to refute: 

• Virtual assistants are a waste of money. Many people think that hiring a VA is not necessary at all as it won't save them any money. This is totally untrue. First off, although the basic salary of a virtual assistant is higher than that of regular employees, the money you spend on your VAs is not covered in your taxes. If you think about it, that will be a lot of money saved, especially if you're one who need to hire multiple VAs. Add to that the fact that you don't need to provide equipment, benefits, work space, and software to your VA, all of which costs a lot of cash combined.
• VAs from developed countries are always better than those elsewhere. Many people seem to think that virtual assistants from such countries fare better than their counterparts in developing and non-English-speaking nations. Generally, off-shore VAs, especially those from India and the Philippines, are no worse than their equivalents in such countries. The quality of a VA always depends on the individual and not from their nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.
• You can only get VAs to do small tasks. Many, even those looking to hire VAs, think that they can only do simple administrative tasks. Fact is that they can actually do more than just keeping tabs and checking your inbox. You can give them bigger tasks like managing entire databases or even looking after your business while you take the day off. Just make sure that you are aware of your VA's skills so you can assign the appropriate task.
• You'll need to micromanage your VA and thus add more to your workload. This statement is generally false. You don't need to provide instructions to your VA all the time and check their work to see if they are doing well. Naturally, you'll need to instruct them once they begin a new task, then let them take it away from there.
• All VAs are work-at-home moms. The WAHM craze seems to have led many people to believe that virtual assistants are generally women who work from their homes. Well, virtual assistance is not a gender-exclusive job. For instance, the writer of this article is a virtual assistant himself and is male.

These are the five most common myths people have towards virtual assistants. You may even believe these yourself but, hopefully, this article have dispelled all these fallacies from you.

Robert writes about virtual assistants, often emphasizing how they can help you increase your productivity and focus more in your business and personal life.

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