Ah, the virtual assistant myth. We’re actually tired of these myths surrounding the industry we’re in, hence the mission to bust these myths and misconceptions one step at a time. We especially put this post together for you if you’ve been thinking about using a virtual assistant service but these things are still holding you back. Read up on the most common misconceptions below and find out the truth.
Virtual Assistant Myth #1: They Can’t Do Anything Else Besides Administrative Work
This is the most common misconception that misinformed people seem to have. If this, this, and this aren’t enough to convince you, we don’t know what will. So before you start generalizing that all virtual assistants have the same skillset, think again. Our agency even has virtual assistants as young as 17 to handle an international company’s PPT design and copywriting. We have varied skillsets and services to cover your business needs. Our key is to carefully screen and curate candidate applications, therefore we only scour the best talents to work as virtual assistants to serve our valued clients.
Virtual Assistant Myth #2: They are More Expensive Than Full-Time Employees
This can’t be further from the truth. Hiring a virtual assistant can dramatically reduce business costs and expenses. If you have your own business, you don’t have to think about employee benefits, paid leave, taxes, and overhead costs such as office space or internet bills. Plus, most virtual assistants work efficiently and only charge you the actual working hours, not full-time. Plus, a virtual assistant’s actual rate per hour on average is significantly lower than those of full-time employees, particularly if you know where to look.
See the cost comparison below for reference:
| Full-time Employee | Virtual Assistant | |
| Hourly Rate | $20 | $10 |
| Benefits* | $5 | $0 |
| Overhead costs** | $10 | $0 |
| Annual costs | $72,800 | $20,800 |
*Healthcare, retirement plans, bonuses, etc
** Office space, overtime, business travels, etc
Virtual Assistant Myth #3: You Can’t Trust Them with Sensitive Information
Pro tip: Hire your virtual assistant from trustworthy crowdsourcing sites or agencies! Like us, for instance. That way you’ll know you are protected from breach or any other kind of violation since agencies or crowdsourcing sites usually have their own policies and regulations set in place. Before you begin, it would be wise to interview the candidates to assess how far they’ll go to protect the clients’ sensitive information, and how experienced they are in handling them. Make sure they use password management tools like Lastpass or 1Password to make sharing credentials more seamless and secure. Of course, you also may want to ask if the agency you’re hiring from is sufficient when it comes to legalities like agreement and NDA to maintain and protect confidentiality.
Virtual Assistant Myth #4: They May Not be Reliable and Honest with Their Hours
Whoa, hold up. There is always a risk–even when you’re hiring a full-time employee! This is why, virtual assistants or not, you need to carefully screen your candidates so you can secure the right person to do their job. Try to search for experienced virtual assistants with excellent reviews and feedback. If you have no idea where to start, hire from reputable agencies or crowdsourcing websites like Upwork. We don’t mean to brag, but we’re a bit of both. We’re among those on Upwork who earned the Top Rated Plus badge, which according to Upwork, is “freelancers and agencies who consistently perform on large contracts at the highest level.”
A good virtual assistant agency usually has its own time-tracking, project management, as well as a weekly or monthly reporting system to ensure the quality of work and on-time task delivery. Once you score an experienced virtual assistant to (duh) assist you with your pile of work, it’s a guarantee that you’ll be able to sleep soundly knowing your work is in good hands.
Virtual Assistant Myth #5: You can’t expect them to be as productive as full-time employees
In 2016, a U.K. survey conducted research that revealed that nearly 2,000 full-time office workers reported working about 3 hours a day on average. Another U.S. survey conducted in 2021 found that as many as 1,000 full-time workers spend an average of 4 hours a day. And it’s normal, apparently.
So who says remote workers like virtual assistants can’t work as productive as your full-time employees, given the above findings? Besides, virtual workers usually only charge you for the hours they log, and that’s what makes hiring them great for cost-saving.
You may have read the case study of a client hiring a VA from our agency to be their virtual assistant, and over time, the responsibility evolved from only personal assistance to bookkeeping, finance, HR, website management, and so many more! And the VA didn’t even need 40 hours per week to be productive juggling whatever was on their plate, they simply worked more efficiently.
Virtual Assistant Myth #6: They Are Stay-at-Home Moms in Pajamas
Okay, touche. Some might be stay-at-home moms juggling between homemaking and working, but quite a chunk of virtual assistants in our agency are actually young professionals with various backgrounds and expertise. We have graphic designers, video editors, copywriters, sales specialists, and so on! Some are undergraduate or graduate students with serious talents in their field who choose the practicality of working at home while pursuing a degree. Besides, we don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a mom virtual assistant as one of your business workforces. That doesn’t take away from anyone’s professionalism, experience, and expertise.
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This post only discussed barely half of the misconceptions surrounding this industry as there’s a lot of inaccurate information out there about us virtual assistants. But once you work with them, you’ll soon realize that virtual assistants are basically the same as on-site employees, only more flexible and ahem, inexpensive.
