You’re now eager to “level up” your business and increase the size of your team with a brand new virtual assistant. Congratulations!

If you’re planning to hire a VA as your first team member or to include an additional VA (or more!) to your current team there are a number of crucial decisions. You’re considering the skills and experience you’ll require from the person you’re considering. You’re also thinking what the best method to manage your new team member considering the difficulties of working with a virtual person.

One of the most important decisions you’ll need to make when you hire a VA is whether you want to hire an onshore or offshore virtual assistant.

We’ll look at the main distinctions between onshore VAs and offshore VAs to ensure that you’re able to take the most effective choice for your business!

Onshore Vs Offshore Virtual Assistant Services

Which is better for you, onshore or offshore virtual assistants?

Remember that there’s no “right” solution in deciding whether to go with onshore as well as offshore virtual assistants. The only thing you can do is what is best for your needs and your company.

However, here are a few instances in which an offshore VA may be superior to one who is an onshore virtual assistant:

Saving Money is Critical

The most significant benefit of having the offshore VA is that you save money. Certified virtual assistants from countries such as those the Philippines and India and working at rates of between $10 and $15 an hour provide work similar to Western virtual assistants that charge $25-50 an hour.

This savings of 60-70% provides a number of benefits that go beyond the obvious. Since offshore consumes much less of your cash means that you will keep more of your cash, or make sure your VA budget will be more.

If you decide to employ a full-time offshore virtual assistant, instead of a part-time onshore VA More tasks are taken off your to-do list. Then you have more time to concentrate on your creative side and it is easy to develop your business’s size and expand it faster.

In the same way, the lower cost means that entrepreneurs will be able to hire their first or their next virtual assistant to their team earlier than waiting until they could be able to afford an onshore alternative.

When is it worth hiring an offshore virtual assistant?

In a previous post, we discussed some commonly held beliefs about offshore outsourcing. However, this is the perfect opportunity to take a break from our checklist to look at the possibility of adding a few more.

The amount you could reduce costs by hiring offshore is almost like “cheating,” doesn’t it? It may seem unjust, or unfair to pay someone 60-70 percent less than what is the norm in the market of your country.

The main reason behind the differences is the economics and standard of living in other countries in which offshore VAs are operating.

This means that the rates may be “low wages” depending on where you live However, they’re quite reputable elsewhere.

For instance, in the Philippines virtual assistants’ earnings are about the same as those of “professional” tasks like nursing. Thus, when you employ the services of an offshore virtual assistant, you’re offering a person a steady and lucrative job. Being a part of your team benefits them and their families and also their local economy.

Another misconception about bringing in the services of an offshore virtual assistant onto your team is that it’s denying the domestic worker of work, but this isn’t the case as well.

Consider the situation this way: you are a U.S.-based solopreneur who wishes to employ the very first virtual assistant, but she cannot afford to pay $10 per hour. It’s less likely that she can locate a person who is located in the U.S. to do quality work at that price. Therefore, her only options are to search offshore or keep working on the project herself, because she’s unable to pay for the cost of an onshore VA.

No work can be created within this country in the U.S.! However, hiring team members offshore may indirectly help the local economy. However, let’s revisit the topic of onshore virtual assistants.

Choose onshore or offshore virtual assistants based on the need for low-impact tasks

Offshore VAs are extremely generalists and are capable of handling a range of general administrative tasks like:

• data entry
• email management
• appointment scheduling
• creating documents
• Data processing
• transcription

You might be shocked to find out that there’s many easy, repeatable tasks that are related with more “specialist” virtual assistant roles like content and management of social media digital media, and other systems that offshore VAs are able to handle effortlessly.

A few examples of specialist tasks are:

• digital marketing, like social media content calendars and creation of profiles
• trending topics and hashtags, research
• Monitoring blog traffic
• webinar slide designs
• Automated workflows for clients to set up
• web development
• web design
• graphic design

If you’re seeking more ideas for recurring tasks for virtual assistants, here’s a list of various easy, repeatable tasks for general and specialists in our website.

Every task to be completed – and which consumes a lot of time but does not generate revenue tasks are easily given to virtual assistants who are specialized in the field.

Simply the routine for your daily or weekly tasks, and then provide the necessary tools, training expectations, as well as feedback required to be successful and you’ll find that your offshore VA will be a success! You’d be able to be insane not to choose the services of an offshore virtual assistant for repeatable and step-by-step projects.

Is it time to put your team onshore?

One of the most important aspects to grow your business is knowing the times when you must let more time out of your time, and the time to make time available for employees already employed. You recognize the value your team members bring to your company and make sure they’re not wasting their time performing tasks that others could accomplish.

When your business and team expand, remain tuned into the work your team is doing for you and be aware of the things they excel at. When you are able to justifiably justify the cost of adding a team member, consider hiring a VA to take on specific tasks that have evolved into easy for your existing team. This will enable your team to make the most of their strengths and capabilities to help grow your company. The lower price associated with an offshore VA allows you to increase your team and increase your profits.

When it’s more important to wake up earlier to get things done

While it is possible to employ one offshore VA that is employed during your work hours and, as we’ve mentioned this issue, it’s advantageous to employ a team member during times when you’re not.

Imagine opening your laptop at the beginning of the day to discover that the emails that are not needed have been deleted, and others are already handled and you’re left with only those that really require your attention. You sign in to the project management program and you’re able to see all social media images in your scheduling program for the coming month. Doesn’t this sound fantastic?