Obviously I'm keen to say that using a VA always makes sound economic sense, but when I've got my sensible hat on I know that this isn't always the case.
However, I thought I would give you an example that demonstrates when it's smart to use a VA.
If you're currently seeking to recruit a PA/Admin type person, you're probably advertising a post at around the £8.50 an hour mark as a minimum (assuming you'd like to hang on to them for more than 3 months) and you work in the wilds of Kent - elsewhere it will be more.
Add to that those sneaky on-costs you pay for the privilege of offering someone a job (employer's NI and Tax contributions) and you're nuzzling up to £9 per hour before you've even got them a desk to sit at.
That's a monthly commitment of around £1300. Every month.
So, next get them a desk, computer, chair, monitor, risk assessment, pension, pens, a phone line, tea/coffee, a printer, heating and light and... whoa hang on a minute, this is starting to seem like a scary contract to be entering into!
Back-of-fag-packet type calculations reveal that employing someone doesn't come cheap. And now you've made the commitment to shell out upwards of £1450 every month, nearly £17.5k a year, you're kind of obliged to do it regardless of how sales have gone this week. We all know that asking your full-time employee to be a bit flexible about when and how much they're paid often makes them a tiny bit grumpy.
The natural assumption is that a VA will cost more and, if we're just comparing hourly rates, yes, we do. BUT... for the money you spend in just one week paying the salary of your Admin/PA you could buy 15 hours (at least) of VA time. That's without having to buy the desk, heating, risk assessments, computer, pension, tea and coffee.
And at the end of those 15 hours, if there's no more work for a while, you won't pay anything else. Simple.
Of course, we hope you come back in a couple of weeks with some more work as we'd be pleased to hear from you, you're lovely people to work for and we enjoy the variety, but you get my drift?
If you need flexibility and direct control over costs, getting a VA is a really smart move - I've the figures right here on this discarded fag packet to prove it.
