We’ve all heard the sales pitch about how Filipino virtual assistants can do anything. But I know some of us have been burned by Filipino virtual assistants who don’t meet expectations.

“Filipino VAs are too much of a hassle.”

“Any savings you get from outsourcing to a Filipino VA isn’t worth the convenience and quality of having your own staff or outsourcing to local business.”

Have you heard any of that before?

What most people don’t realize is that the right Filipino virtual assistant can take your business to a whole new level. The key is to find the right virtual assistant, and the first step is to have realistic expectations of what a Filipino virtual assistant can do. Then, from there, you’ll get a better idea of how much they are really worth.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

 

A virtual assistant is an individual who provides professional:

• administrative,
• technical,
• creative, or
• social

assistance to clients.

They don’t fix broken businesses.

They can’t build your business for you.

VAs are there to assist you in your business, to help you run things more smoothly. So you can have more time to do things that give you more value.

We surveyed experienced Filipino virtual assistants all over the Philippines and asked them about their skills. We also asked what their employers and clients ask them to do. We made a list of these tasks and estimated how long it takes them to do these tasks.

What we saw is that almost all of the recurring tasks that businesses need require long-term, part-time assistance. Most business owners might be wary of this because it means long-term, recurring costs. That is why we also did a cost-benefit analysis to illustrate how much it would cost to hire Filipino assistants compared to hiring someone in house or outsourcing the same tasks locally on a full-time basis.

From there, we get a better idea of what Filipino virtual assistants can do, how much time it takes them to do it and, how much it costs to hire a Filipino worker to do these things.
All the rates below are based on starting rates. This means the local employee, local VA and Filipino VA would all be relatively inexperienced.

Administrative VA Tasks and Costs

General VAs/ project managers, real estate, legal and medical VAs all fall under this category because they provide administrative support. This category is common for a Filipino VA, and it is often seen as a starting point for virtual assistants who want to specialize in other fields.
Below are the tasks most Filipino general VAs can do. The amount of time it takes to complete these tasks depends on the amount of work provided, but on average, most of these tasks can be completed in under an hour.

Tasks Most Filipino General VAs Can Do:

• Filtering emails
• Managing spam
• Database building
• Updating contacts or CRM
• Answering customer service emails / tickets / chat support
• Calendar management and appointment setting
• Travel arrangement and planning
• Transcription of video and audio files
• Preparing online meeting minutes
• Online research and data mining
• Receptionist duties
• Basic bookkeeping
• Personal errands (purchasing gifts online, tracking deliveries)
• Project management and training tasks.

For a general virtual assistant to do all these tasks for you on a regular basis would require from 20 hours to 40 hours a week.

Starting Administrative VA Costs and Savings – In House vs Local vs Filipino

Technical VA Tasks and Costs

Programmers, web developers, and SEO specialists fall under this category. These virtual assistants typically cost more, but those who specialize in these tasks often have years of VA experience under their belts. They can usually handle more responsibility like general VA tasks, writing or design.

Tasks include:

Programming Tasks

SEO Tasks

Starting Technical VA Costs and Savings – In House vs Local vs Filipino

Creative Virtual Assistant Tasks and Costs

You can’t have a website for your business without fresh content on a regular basis. To get regular content, hiring a full-time writer/designer is often the best option. Most Filipinos are proficient in written and spoken English, which makes writing tasks easier for them than their Asian counterparts.

Businesses who outsource often call on Filipino VAs do to these tasks:

Writing Tasks

Starting Writer VA Costs and Savings – In House vs Local vs Filipino

Design Tasks

The presence of graphic design communities all over the country have increased the number of graphic designers in the Philippines these past few years.

Starting Graphic Designer VA Costs and Savings – In House vs Local vs Filipino

Social Virtual Assistant Tasks and Costs

Social media is a great way for businesses to engage with their market. It can turn customers into advocates. It can give small businesses a chance to reach a bigger market.

Most social media tasks can be done by a general VA in less than an hour. And with social media tools, it can even be done even faster. Social media specialists are capable of setting up social media campaigns and tracking the progress of these campaigns through analytics to make sure that your business is being noticed.

Most Filipino VAs can be called upon to do the following tasks:

Starting Social Media VA Costs and Savings – In House vs Local vs Filipino

Can You Afford To Hire a Filipino VA?

Below, we’ve put together how much it would cost to have all this done in a year, this is assuming that you would

• Hire one person for each category
• And hire someone relatively inexperienced to save costs.

Let’s say you would rather outsource locally to a VA that costs $20/hour and only hire that VA to work for 52 hours a year (or 4 hours a month). That would only cost you $1040/year.

But how much work would that VA get done?

What about tasks that require special skills like programming or SEO?

You would have to hire another freelancer at a higher hourly rate, which would increase the expenses you make.

A lot of you may say that these figures seem too good to be true. But taking a close look at figures, you’ll see that the cost of hiring 5 Filipino virtual assistants full-time, with benefits, actually costs less than hiring one full-time, in house employee for a year.

Hiring an entire team would only cost businesses $55,369.60, while a full-time, in-house employee would cost you at least $81,422.80.

Even if you increase their salaries within 6 months by $50 each, it would still cost less than $81,422.80.

Think about it. You could hire 5 Filipino VAs with all of their skill-sets for less than what it would cost you to hire one full-time employee. You can hire an entire team of 10 experienced VAs at their rates, get more work done, and still pay less than if you had 5 full-time employees.

If you had some of your VAs doing multiple tasks (a general VA to do social media, your SEO VA to also do writing), this would bring down your costs further. Even if you were to raise their hourly rates and give them more benefits, it would still be cheaper.

Do you still think hiring a Filipino VA is not worth it?  Is taking the time to hire, train, and manage a Filipino worker so much of a hassle that you would be willing to lose almost a hundred grand just to avoid outsourcing? In the end, the real question isn’t how much a Filipino VA would cost but rather, can you afford NOT to hire a Filipino VA for your business today?

Check our updated salary guide here.

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About Julia Jasmine M. Sta Romana

Julia has been working for OnlineJobs.ph since 2012, first as a writer and now as its social media manager and content development specialist. She also founded the Davao Virtual Assistants Association, the biggest VA association in Davao City.

She’s a full-time wife and mom and volunteers her time as an internet rights advocate.

 

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