Saturday, January 26, 2008

New Poll Shows the Need for Virtual Assistants



A recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive, one of the largest and fastest-growing market research firms in the world, revealed some interesting facts about how people view virtual assistants.

It turns out that 64% of American adults would gladly outsource a whole range of tasks to someone else. When asked if hiring a virtual assistant would give them more time or reduce stress in their lives, more than 70% said that it would. An even higher number (75%) believe that personal assistants aren’t just for celebrities.

When asked what types of tasks they would have a virtual assistant do for them, the survey found a long list of things that people would rather have others do for them. Topping the list, 33% would rather not research and organize their own travel and vacation arrangements. Coming in a close second, 28% of the survey participants said that organizing and paying bills was something they would rather not do themselves. The survey found that men find this task more dreadful than women at 31% versus 25%.

There was a tie for the third most hated task. Answering calls and taking messages along with writing and mailing thank you, holiday, and birthday cards came in at 26%. It also turned out that younger adults, age 18-34, were 85% more likely to hire a virtual assistant to help them with these unwanted tasks.

The survey found American adults also feel strongly (73%) that hiring a virtual assistant would definitely be beneficial. 55% fell they would have more time for important tasks and errands if they had a virtual assistant while 34% percent feel they would perform better in their work, and 52% stated they would have more time to spend with family and friends or time to exercise or vacation time.

This particular survey also noted that almost three quarters (72%) of respondents would not feel comfortable hiring a virtual assistant from overseas. People also don’t feel comfortable in sharing their valuable information such as credit card information (67%).

And who would be more likely to hire a virtual assistant – a man or a woman? The survey found that men (77%) see the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant before women (69%). The total number of people surveyed was 1,005 with 503 respondents being women and 502 being men.

From the results of this survey, it seems that the virtual assistant will continue to grow. As the American adult gets busier, the need for virtual assistant services will become more evident. As the young adults move into busier lifestyles they will be more likely to look to a VA to help them succeed.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Press Release - Virtual Assistant Practice Adds Resources for Clients and Other VAs

This is my latest press release:

Right-Hand-Man Virtual Assistant Services, a multi-VA practice, is now offering resources to other VAs and their small business clients. You can now purchase the “7 Essential Keys for Responding to VA RFPs” e-book and its companion, “7 Essential Keys for Writing VA RFPs” on the new Resources page at the Right-Hand-Man website.

The new Resources page also offers the latest e-book, “Essential Article Marketing Secrets”, written by Darrell Williams, the owner of Right-Hand-Man Virtual Assistant Services. This e-book will help you to write articles that get noticed and comes with a list of 999 article directories where you can submit your article.

Williams says, “I wrote this book out of my own experiences with article marketing. Even though I haven’t written a great deal of articles, the articles I have written have been picked up by bloggers and published in newsletters and ezines. I just wanted to share what I learned with other business people.”

As the Resource page grows, Williams will add other content. He is on the lookout for other e-books and software created by small business for small business. He would like to see this one page grow into a whole new website offering products and services for small business owners. Williams says, “I see providing information and products as an integral part of being a virtual assistant. The more you can do for your clients the better you can serve them.”

Right-Hand-Man Virtual Assistant Services has been in business for 11 months. In that time it has been awarded the VANetworking.com’s “VAccolade Business Entrepreneur Award”, served clients from all over the world and has grown from one person to a multi-VA practice with a team of 7. The company offers a full range of services at industry standard rates.

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Darrell Williams
Right-Hand-Man Virtual Assistant Services
902-367-5019
contact@righthandmanva.com