How a Virtual Assistant can be an Executive Assistant

Executive Assistants are an entrepreneur's most reliable ally.

They offer support, assistance, and advice in their employers' professional and personal lives. In addition, they are often the people who take care of the backend work to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Executives depend on their assistants for everything, from administrative roles to project management. And in the digital era where deals are closed online, and meetings happen virtually in different time zones, the traditional 9-5 doesn’t cut it anymore. Nor does the traditional job description of an executive assistant.

You need someone who can adapt to changes quickly, be proactive, and be skilled in multiple roles. A person who can simultaneously be your executive assistant, personal assistant, and business manager. In short, you need a Virtual Assistant.

In this blog, we’ll discuss how a Virtual Assistant can fulfill all your expectations of an executive assistant and more and how a VA can be an indispensable asset to your business.

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Executive Assistant vs. Virtual Assistant

Executive assistants work mostly in-house and help with administrative tasks. They traditionally work a 9-5 schedule. EAs are internal employees; the employer bears their salary, insurance, benefits, and other expenses.

Virtual Assistants are 100% remote, work from home, and can handle multiple roles based on your requirements. Working remotely allows them flexibility, and they can work different shifts based on your convenience and needs. VAs are often contractors; their salaries and other benefits are handled by the agency from which they are outsourced. The employer is responsible for paying a monthly/weekly fee based on the number of hours worked by the Virtual Assistant.

Now let’s discuss some key differences between executive and Virtual Assistants.

Cost

The average salary for an executive assistant is around $54,000 a year. A Virtual Assistant from Wishup will cost you much less. There are also no additional expenses like office space, equipment, or other infrastructure costs with Virtual Assistants.

Hiring Process

With an executive assistant, the hiring process must be handled by the employer. They will need to shortlist and select the candidates themselves. With a Virtual Assistant, the agency handles the hiring and training process. Every agency has its own selection process. At Wishup, we hire only the top 0.2%, ensuring you work with the best talent in the industry.

Job Roles

Executive assistants are highly-efficient, super organized, excellent planners, meticulous, and have impeccable time-management skills. They assist their clients with administrative tasks, customer care, managing their schedules, and organizing data. They often have previous experience in offices working in administrative roles.

Read our Top 10 Skills for Executive Assistants blog to learn more.

Virtual Assistants were initially hired for administrative tasks, much like EAs. However, over time, as businesses went digital and e-commerce became popular, VAs evolved with the times and are now specialized in multiple roles. They can manage various tasks like administration, lead generation, marketing, business management, sales, talent acquisition, and more. The best thing about hiring assistants from virtual service providers like Wishup is that you can mention your requirements in your preliminary call, and the agency will customize a package with services tailored to your needs.

This means that any freelance agreement you sign will be customized based on your requirements, ensuring that your specific needs are considered.

What if we told you that you could get the best of both worlds? The efficiency of an executive assistant combined with the diverse skillset of a Virtual Assistant? A dedicated asset who can single-handedly manage the backend operations, leaving you enough time for more crucial tasks?

If you’re someone who needs end-to-end assistance, whether in executive tasks or in running your business, you can significantly benefit from a virtual executive assistant.

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What tasks can a Virtual Executive Assistant do?

A virtual executive assistant can assist executives and business owners in operations, backend, and administrative roles that can free up time for networking and growth strategy and help their employers achieve a better and healthier work-life balance.

Let’s explore the tasks you can delegate to a virtual executive assistant.

Organize your inbox

You can hire a VA to help you organize your inbox, ensure you don’t miss out on important mail, and keep your inbox free from spam and other unwanted emails.

Manage your calendar

Your Virtual Assistant can keep track of important events, birthdays, and meetings and ensure you don’t miss any deadlines.

Take care of travel arrangements

Tired of looking for the best deals on flights and the hotels closest to your meeting locations every time you have to make a work trip? Your Virtual Assistant can help with all these things as well as plan the perfect itinerary, including the best sightseeing spots and restaurants you can visit in your free time.

Handle internal and external communication

Your VA will become the point of contact between you and other internal departments and clients. They can deliver important information and announcements on your behalf.

Make presentations

If making presentations and reports for meetings take up a chunk of your time that can be spent on more productive endeavors, leave that job for your virtual executive assistant.

Organize data

VAs are excellent at organizing and storing data. They can handle form filling, take care of survey collection, manage email and online data processing, and present the collected information in sheets or reports.

Conducting research: Whether you are trying to analyze the market, study your competitors or get to know your target audience better, your VA can help you with in-depth research.

Project management

If you are someone who has multiple projects running simultaneously, keeping track of everything can be overwhelming. Trust your Virtual Assistant to oversee projects, give you regular updates and ensure project deadlines are met.

Taking down the minutes of the meeting

Whether in virtual or in-person meetings, your Virtual Assistant can be present and take down essential takeaways from the meeting for your perusal.

Helping out in recruitment

As mentioned, hiring can be tedious and time-consuming. Your Virtual Assistant can help you shortlist and narrow down candidates before you interview them.

Sending gifts and thank you notes

Networking is a big part of an executive's life. Your Virtual Assistant can send out gifts and thank you notes to colleagues and clients on your behalf.

Managing social media

Your Virtual Assistant can help keep your social media updated by scheduling posts and blogs, optimizing content, and engaging with your audience online.

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Why should you hire a Virtual Assistant from Wishup?

Virtual Assistants are not only incredibly skilled and highly affordable but also have other benefits.

Flexibility

In fast-paced, rapidly growing environments, traditional 9-5 roles are not sufficient anymore. You might require assistance even after your regular work shift, especially executives working with clients in different parts of the world.

Since Virtual Assistants work remotely, there is room for flexibility in their work timings. For example, you can decide whether you need them to work the day or night shift. Additionally, if you need assistance round the clock, you can hire two Virtual Assistants and still pay lesser than what you would typically pay for an in-office executive assistant.

Ease of scalability

It’s not plausible to hire more assistants just for a brief period when there’s a surplus of work. There are long-term contracts in place that cannot be terminated easily.

However, with Virtual Assistants, you can grow your virtual team in a matter of hours. In addition, since the virtual assistance agency handles hiring, you can onboard additional Virtual Assistants in less than 24 hours.

No long-term contracts are involved since you pay by the hour, and you can unsubscribe from their services once you feel they are no longer needed.

Pre-trained assistants

While hiring a quality assistant can take months, onboarding procedures must be completed before an in-office employee can start work. These include training and familiarizing them with tools used within your organization.

With Virtual Assistants, the training part is taken care of by the agency. At Wishup, all our Virtual Assistants undergo a four-week training process where we prepare them for various aspects of the role and train them in over 70+ tools commonly used by organizations across the globe.

We also believe in continuous improvement and learning and frequently offer our Virtual Assistants upskilling courses and opportunities.

Free-trial and instant replacement

While in-house employees have a probation period, they are still paid for their time in the organization. There is no concept of a trial period with in-office employees.

At Wishup, we offer our clients an opportunity to try a Virtual Assistant's services before deciding to subscribe.

Read our blog: Free Virtual Assistant 7-Day Trial – How To Make The Most Of Your Wishup Virtual Assistant to learn more.

Additionally, we offer our clients an instant replacement at no extra cost in case their primary Virtual Assistant is unavailable, so their work is unaffected.

Work with the best talent in the industry

At Wishup, we value quality above all else.

We have a rigorous hiring process, and only 2%, 1 in 500 applicants, make the cut. We hire both US-based and India-based Virtual Assistants, so you can pick which works best for you according to your requirements.

We are particular about hiring college graduates with relevant experience with pre-existing skills and knowledge about the role. We then use our in-house training resources to polish and refine those skills.

Hire a Virtual Assistant today, and stay on top of your tasks

A Virtual Assistant can fulfill all your expectations of an executive virtual assistant and much more. There is no doubt that a talented Virtual Assistant can become an indispensable part of your organization and contribute to the company’s growth.

If you are ready to join our team of over 500 happy clients, click here to schedule your free consultation today, or drop us an email at [email protected], and we’ll get back to you soon.