When you are looking to hire a virtual assistant for your business, some of the most important questions you will ask are, "where is the best place to get a virtual assistant service from?" and "how much will a VA cost me?"
The truth is, there is no easy answer to these questions. As a business entrepreneur in the UK, you do have several options on your hand and you have to choose the one that suits you best.
This blog post is a detailed guide that will aid you to choose the best-suited virtual assistant service for your company.
What is The Cost of a Virtual Assitant in the UK?
Let's answer the second question first, how much does a VA cost? Well, depending upon where you hire the VA, the rates may vary.
If you are looking to hire a VA from a UK-based virtual assistant company, the rates will be somewhere from £25 to £35 per hour (approx 35 to 48 USD per hour).
On the other hand, if you find it suitable with hiring a VA from an offshore virtual assistant company or from a freelancing platform such as Upwork, or Fiverr you may get rates as competitive as £3.5 to £5.10 per hour (4.5 to 7 USD per hour).
Hiring an offshore virtual assistant can be a really good option, cause top-rated VA companies always provide assistants who are fluent in English, experienced, professional, and can get your work done in a timely manner.
However, sometimes it may be better to hire a UK-based virtual assistant, for tasks where you need someone living in the UK to handle it and an offshore person will just not do.
When considering hiring a UK-based VA and an offshore VA, here are some factors to consider:
Is the task something that only someone living in the UK can complete? if so, then it is better to hire from the UK.
Can you afford to pay the high costs? For most small to medium-sized businesses in the UK, when they hire a VA, they are looking to cut their costs. If they had to pay £25 per hour for a UK-based VA they could just hire an office staff instead.
Can the VA work at your preferred time? Most offshore virtual assistant companies can provide you with VAs working at the time you prefer.
How skilled and fluent is the VA in English communication? Even if you don't need the VA to handle calls, you do need someone who can converse with you and understand your instructions. Most top-rated VA firms from Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines provide assistants who are well-versed in English communications with neutral accents.
How is the level of security of the VA firm in protecting my data? One edge that good VA companies have over home-based freelancers is that they provide a lot of security measures in order to protect their clients' data.
Does the VA understand the culture and economy of the UK? Some tasks require the virtual assistant to be very much familiar with the culture, industry, market, and economy of the UK in order to work for the client. Not all offshore virtual assistants may be an expert in these areas and depending upon the level of understanding the VA needs to have in order to work, it may be better to hire a UK-based VA sometimes.
Where To Get The Right Virtual Assistant For Your Business?
If you search google, you may find many virtual assistant companies as your option. But you might be unsure of who is the most suitable to hire for your business.
One thing to remember is that services such as front-desk support, administrative work, back-office support, call, and email handling, and web research can be provided by most VA firms.
However, specialized tasks such as accounting, legal support, digital marketing, content writing, and support with e-commerce sites are usually provided by VA firms that are specialized in these tasks.
This is why most VA firms specialize in certain tasks and provide their services to a specific set of industries. So in order to find the VA who is most suited to your needs you have to find one who has the expertise you are looking for.
So let's look at some of the options you have for the UK market and see what services the VA firms are offering:
UK-Based Virtual Assistant Firms
Here are some UK-based companies that you may look into if you need a virtual assistant who is based in the UK. For offshore options, Click here.
1) Virtalent
Virtalent is a UK-based virtual assistant firm that provides expert VAs for your business. They offer Virtual assistants who have an average of 15 years of experience before joining Virtalent. Most being personal assistants, executive assistants, and marketing managers prior.
Virtalent offers:
Virtual PA Support
Marketing Support
Remote Project management
Remote Customer Service
HR and Recruitment
Business Management
How To Get Started With Virtalent?
You can click on the "free consultation" button to book a free 20 min consultation to discuss your specific needs with a senior Virtalent team member and if you want to move forward with them, they can match an ideal Virtalent VA for you within 24 hours.
Virtalent Costs:
They have 4 virtual assistant packages from which you can choose:
For Entrepreneurs, 10 hours package for £270 per month, you can add more hours for £27 per hour.
For Small Businesses: 20 hours package at £520 per month.
For Executives: 40 hours package at £1000 per month.
And lastly, 60 hours package at £1440 per month.
With all 4 packages, you have the option to roll over unused hours to the next month.
2) The Assistant Quarters
The Assistant Quarters is a virtual business service that empowers female founders to help them grow their businesses.
They offer:
Virtual Assistants
Online Business Managers
Social Media Consultants to help female founders develop their social media strategies.
How To Get Started With The Assistant Quarters
You can book a 30-minute discovery call with them to discuss your needs and what they have to offer.
The Assistant Quarters Cost:
For VA Support their pricing is:
10 hours (in a month): £370/ month + VAT
20 hours (in a month): £740/ month + VAT
40 hours (in a month): £1480/ month + VAT
For Operations & Business Management it's £1,000.00. month + VAT
This averages out at $37 per hour for their VA services.
3) SmartPA
SmartPA is a virtual personal assistant service provider and one of the top VA services in the UK per Cluch.co.
They offer:
Diary & Email management
Bookkeeping services
Hr & Employment
Remote Personal Assistants
Document Production
How To Get Started With SmartPA:
You can give them a call at 0330-202-1110 or book a call with them through their website.
SmartPA costs about £300 to £750 for their Virtual PA services per month. These are not full-time prices, however, but rather for part-time VA that would complete about 1 - 5 tasks at most.
Offshore-Based Virtual Assistant Firms
Now, let's look at some of the offshore virtual assistant firms, especially those from the Philipines and Bangladesh as they are the most popular places to hire a VA firm if you are looking for offshore options.
1) Remote CoWorker
Remote Coworker is a Philippine-based VA firm that provides not only VA services but also bookkeeping, and real estate outsourcing services. Their prices are very competitive and much lower than any VA firm located in the UK.
They offer VA services in areas of:
Customer Support Reps
Back Office Support
Technical Support
Their price range is from $6.99 per hour to $9.99 per hour if you need bilingual support.
2) ASL BPO
ASL is a BPO solutions provider situated in Bangladesh. They provide virtual assistant services to clients in USA, UK, Australia, and Spain. Per Clutch.co they are one of the top-rated virtual assistant firms in Bangladesh.
They offer VA services in the areas of:
Social Media Management
Administrative work
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Customer Support Services
Sales and Marketing
e-commerce
Web Research
The price for VA services is $6 per hour for full-time assistants and $525 per month for part-time assistants.
3) Unity Communications
Based in the Philippines, Unity communications is another BPO service provider that has been providing its service since 2009. They have won multiple global awards for scaling and growing brands.
They offer services in the areas of:
Business Process Outsourcing
Contact Center as a Service
E-commerce Virtual assistants
Healthcare BPO
They offer competitive pricing that is tailored to their client's needs and budgets. So you can contact them to know more.
Conclusion
Ultimately, if you are running a business in the UK, it would be your choice whether you want to hire a VA that is UK based or offshore. You will get quality service from any well-reputed
VA firms wherever they may be based. However, hiring an offshore might be the cheaper choice in most cases.
Do you use a Virtual assistant for your business? If so where are they based from? let me know in the comments.