Small, medium and large companies all share one thing in common, sometimes they need more help.  Hiring a permanent replacement or addition to the team is often not necessary, so companies will often seek out temporary help. 

Solutions for this problem have evolved over the last few decades, here’s a quick run down:

Business 1.0

• Go put an ad in the newspaper
• Call a friend or a friend of a friend
• Promote the mail room person

Business 2.0

• Place an ad on Monster
• Call a friend or a friend of a friend
• Call Manpower, hire a temp, train them and give them a cube
• Do it yourself at night after hours because
  • most of the above are too much of a corporate hassle to deal with as compared to just doing it yourself, and
  • you are quickly running out of friends or even friends of friends of friends that have any spare time or availability for a project.

Business 3.0

• Everything in Business 1.0 or 2.0 or
• You can hire a virtual assistant or online contractor

Benefits of Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants don’t require cube space, laptops or even a phone.  This can be a big help, especially if you are a telecommuter yourself.  As an example, INVESP virtual assistants can provide virtual assistance with writing, editing, project management, business plan write ups, or general administrative work.  They can cover claims processing, invoicing, desktop publishing, business card design and more.

The pricing is comparable to what you would expect to pay for services from Manpower or any other temp or contracting agency, but you save money on overhead.  Cubicles, computers and phones cost money, if they are even available.  A virtual assistant does not have the need for these excesses.  Plus, as the manager you do not have to change your own schedule or routine as much to get them going and working.  You don’t have to call in that favor with the head of IT to have a laptop configured by say, ‘Oh how about tomorrow?  No, Next week?!’ 

You can get someone working and up to speed on the job and project right away.

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