Gig Village, founded by Phelan Riessen, is a US-based startup dedicated to connecting virtual assistants (VA) with companies that require their skills. Gig Village offers pre-packaged time-based monthly units starting at acquiring the services of a virtual assistant for 5 hours per week.
According to Gig Village, a virtual assistant “is an independent individual who provides & supports clients & other businesses from a remote location.” For companies struggling to grow their businesses virtual assistants have become the go-to option when it comes to hiring staff members, particularly if the tasks the workers need to perform are repetitive, time consuming & easy to complete from a remote location, rather than in-office. This solution to staffing is even more common currently due to the constraints imposed on office environments due to the Coronavirus.
The most typical areas of expertise for VAs are:
- Administrative/General Virtual Assistant
Managing emails & phone calls, schedule meetings, booking travels & accommodations, managing contact lists, preparing spreadsheets & tracking online records, organizing calendars, doing market research, preparing market presentations, addressing employees administrative queries, providing customer service.
- Technical Virtual Assistant
Website/blog creation & maintenance, social media marketing & maintenance, shopping cart updates, Internet researching, managing emails & newsletters, documentation.
- Creative/Graphics Virtual Assistant
Graphic design, marketing, research, scheduling/organization, blog writing, repurposing content
Hiring full time staff to complete these tasks is not always a sensible option for a business, especially if it’s a new startup, because permanent workers require benefits such as sick leave pay, holiday pay & other types of insurance, which add to their overall cost. Also, many small businesses don’t have sufficient work to engage a full-time employee effectively — they might only require an hour or two per day of the staff members time, so paying a full-time salary is inefficient.
Additionally, searching for a properly trained staff member is a difficult & expensive task. Setting up adverts aimed at hiring staff & taking time out to interview potential candidates is costly & often very time consuming. These factors are avoidable if a VA is hired instead.
Image credit: Gig Village
