Why A VA?
No matter what industry you work in, your business generates a great many administrative tasks that need to be done in a timely manner in order for your business to be successful. And whether the work is outsourced, done by an on-site employee or you do it yourself, there is a cost to getting these tasks done. Let me show you how outsourcing these administrative tasks to MouseWorks can be the most cost-effective and beneficial option for your business.
Let’s say that your business generates about 20 hours per month of administrative tasks such as preparing reports, sending out literature, preparing proposals, invoicing, web site maintenance, creating presentations, making travel arrangements, maintaining a contact list and creating and distributing a monthly newsletter.
Hiring An Employee
You decide to hire a part-time employee to assist you with paperwork and office tasks. Finding someone to work only five hours a week proves impossible. After extensive networking and advertising, you finally find Nancy. She has the advanced experience and skills that you require and has agreed to work two days a week for four hours each day. You have agreed to pay her $20 per hour. It looks like this option would cost you $640 a month, right? Wrong.
You need to add in the cost of employer contributions to Social Security, Medicare as well as worker’s compensation insurance and unemployment insurance. Factor in overhead expenses such as office space, office furniture, computer, supplies, telephone lines and other such items whether the office is in your home or outside the home. And be sure to include the cost of advertising and interviewing candidates and the time spent training her (both your time and hers). Now your cost has jumped to more than $850 a month. If you plan to offer vacation pay, holiday pay, sick pay and bonuses, these will need to be factored into the cost also.
And your cost could go even higher. Say you get a call from a prospect that needs a proposal and related materials in their hands first thing in the morning. Nancy has already left for the day, so you end up canceling your afternoon appointment and spending the time preparing the proposal and materials. If your time is worth $100 per hour, then your cost for the month just went over $1,000. And if she only works two days a week, how many times do you think this scenario or a similar one will happen?
And what is the cost when four months later Nancy tells you that she has decided that she needs a position with more hours and gives her notice? Now you have to start all over with more advertising costs and more time spent interviewing and training a new employee.
Actual Monthly Cost: $850 or more
Doing It Yourself
After figuring the cost of hiring an employee, you decide to do the administrative work yourself. That way it won’t cost you anything but your time, right? Wrong. Doing the work yourself may save you out of pocket costs, but it is the most costly option for your business. Your time certainly has a dollar value associated with it. For example, if your time is worth $100 an hour and you spend 20 hours a month on tasks that you could easily delegate to an assistant, it is costing the business $2,000 a month. But that’s not all. It has also cost you the additional revenues that would have been generated if you had spent those 20 hours marketing your business and servicing the additional clients you would have brought in.
Actual Monthly Cost: $2,000 plus additional revenue streams
Outsourcing to MouseWorks
After hearing about the virtual assistant industry and doing some research, you decide to contract with a virtual assistant to handle your administrative tasks. You sign a retainer agreement with MouseWorks for 20 hours per month at a rate of $35 per hour. It looks like this option would cost you $700 a month, right? That’s right. There are no hidden fees or expenses.
MouseWorks is not an employee, so you do not have to pay any employer contributions or insurance. You also do not pay for coffee breaks, lunch hours, vacation days, sick days, holidays or personal time or have to worry about having enough work on a specific day to keep an assistant busy. You call MouseWorks when you need them and you are only billed for actual time spent working on your projects. Since MouseWorks performs all work from their own fully equipped offices, you do not have any extra overhead expenses as for an employee.
You also do not have training expenses. MouseWorks provides your first two hours free of charge to allow time to discuss your particular situation and needs and to work out the most comfortable and effective working arrangements. And you never have to pay for time spent learning a new skill or a new piece of software that is not proprietary to your business.
Actual Monthly Cost: $700