If administrative tasks take up most of your workday and do not give you time to do strategic, big-picture planning that can grow your business, then you likely need to hire more people. However, hiring full-time employees can be expensive — full-time wages, paid leave, benefits, and other expenses can add up and are difficult to budget for, especially when you are bootstrapping a business.
In this case, we recommend hiring a virtual assistant (VA). VAs are trained professionals who handle administrative tasks that include marketing, email management, calendar scheduling, copywriting, web development, graphic design, and many more small jobs required to grow a business. They can work part-time, full-time, or hourly, and you only pay for the tasks you need to complete, making them much cheaper to hire than a full-time employee. VAs give you the same benefits as a full-time employee but at a fraction of the cost!
When hiring a VA, you should remember that not all are equal. VA fees can vary greatly depending on geography and the staffing agency you work with. To help you navigate VA hiring, this blog will give you the benefits of hiring an assistant from the Philippines and help you make a more informed decision.
If you’ve been searching for a VA for a while now, you’ve likely noticed a wide disparity in pricing. You can pay anything between $1,000 and $5,000 for a full-time assistant! While factors like agency, prestige, and tasks offered play a role in pricing, it is predominantly due to where the assistants are based. VAs based in the Philippines cost significantly less than those in the U.S., U.K., or Canada due to the differences in cost of living. An entry-level Filipino VA usually costs between $3 and $5 per hour, while a U.S.-based VA starts at $15.
The Philippines is well-known as a major outsourcing hub for VA work. In fact, business outsourcing is an estimated $30 billion industry in the Philippines! Hundreds of staffing agencies worldwide operate with Filipino VAs, who are flexible and can cater their services to diverse clients. Their reputation preceded them and they are highly skilled in different VA tasks across several sectors. The VA you hire has likely worked with foreign companies in the past and is cognizant of cultural nuances, able to adapt to different time zones, and is a good communicator.
English is one of the official languages in the Philippines and, like many other countries with a colonial history, it is ingrained into the country’s education system. Many Filipinos — especially those who work in the outsourcing industry and with foreign clients — speak fluent English, ensuring clear communication when working in a team. Given U.S. control of the Philippines and the fact that Filipinos consume American media, their English is known to have an American-influenced accent, making integration into Western teams easier.
The Philippines is a global hub for outsourcing work, with over 1,000 companies hiring remote workers from the Asian country. Thus, a Filipino VA has likely worked with foreign companies before, speaks fluent English, is well-versed in Western workplace culture, is a good communicator, accurate, aware of Western holidays, knows what is expected of themselves when working, and can execute tasks like email management, digital marketing, calendar management, social media, bookkeeping, accounting, and more effectively.
Filipino VAs are experienced and have likely worked with companies operating in your country before. They are aware of cultural nuances and how Western companies usually operate. While you would have to spend some time onboarding them so they understand the specifics of your organization, they are good at their jobs and the tasks they are trained in — copywriting, web development, marketing, social media management, accounting, etc — have high transferability across sectors, so you can be sure they know what they are doing! Most VAs also come from reputed agencies and will have references to ensure they are reliable and work well.
You can find Filipino VAs trained in skills specific to your industry. If you work in real estate, you will easily find assistants knowledgeable about the sector, with good administrative know-how to effectively organize the paperwork involved in real estate, effective communicators who can deputize as a reliable point-of-first-contact, and VAs who are resourceful and can help you find new leads, among other necessary qualities. Similarly, VAs who work in healthcare will be skilled in communicating with patients, handling medical records, adept at medical transcribing, and general administrative support. The same holds for VAs who work as executive assistants and those who work in law and other fields.
The Philippines is 12 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast and 15 hours ahead of the West Coast. Filipino VAs work during off-hours in the U.S., which can be highly advantageous and give your business round-the-clock operations, as you can delegate tasks to your VA at the end of the workday and have them ready the next day. Moreover, your business can even offer 24/7 customer support, which can boost sales and general customer satisfaction. Generally, Filipino VAs are flexible enough to adjust their schedules to align with their clients as much as possible, so you have some assistants online during your working hours.
Respect is important in Filipino culture and this is transferred to the workplace. Filipino assistants respect hierarchies; they are less likely to undermine authority and will efficiently complete a task, delivering high-quality work within deadlines. This is especially useful if your business has a robust delegation process. That being said, they are adept at problem-solving and work best when given agency — when faced with a problem, a Filipino VA is more likely to find a solution themselves and present a completed task than leave work incomplete.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Leverage Assistants is a white-glove service that helps you find 1% assistants and then teaches you how to build leverage with them. If you're interested in a strategy session to learn how to use an assistant, click here.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
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