Frequently Asked Questions
Employee vs. Virtual Assistant?
Employee vs. Temporary Employee
How do I decide I may need a VA?
What if I only need the services of my Virtual Assistant occasionally?
Is there a confidentiality agreement?
What are your fees and payment policies?
What are your hours of operation?
What are your e-mail, instant messaging and phone call policies?
Do you offer a Referral Program?
How do you handle client specific educational hours?
What others are saying about Alpine Small Business Solutions?
Employee vs. Virtual Assistant?
If you choose to hire a part-time or full-time employee instead of working with an off-site Virtual Assistant, you will soon realize that your costs and obligations increase considerably. You must pay unemployment taxes, employer social security taxes, workersʹ compensation insurance, medical, dental, and vision care benefits, retirement plans, vacation time, sick time, maternity leave, and holiday time. You must comply with the local labor standards, including minimum wage and overtime payments. You have legal responsibilities that include employee policies on working hours, sexual harassment, leave of absence, benefits, performance reviews, grievances, terminations, substance abuse, and training if you hire someone and lay them off, your unemployment rate may increase for years to come.
Please click here to see a cost comparison.
Employee vs. Temporary Employee
A Virtual Assistant collaborates with their client to provide their own professional tools and capabilities. A Temporary employment agency contracts employment and utilizes the temporary workers professional tools and capabilities to try to meet the client’s needs. With a temporary worker, an office, computer, telephone, and office space will still be needed on a regular basis, as well as the extra time and potential hassle of training and providing guidance to a temporary employee. Keep in mind that working with a Virtual Assistant avoids the risk of lawsuits, OSHA requirements, and various other legal and regulatory issues that apply to an employer, regardless if they are a full time employee or a temporary employee. In addition, temporary workers are usually engaged on a brief or transitional basis while VA’s typically have longevity with their clients and are a big part of their growth. VA’s take their business relationship with their clients seriously. Virtual Assistants are small business owners who, like any other business owner, define their success by customer and client satisfaction. The relationship between a Virtual Assistant and the client is as simple as two business owners who mutually benefit from a long-term professional relationship.
How do I decide I may need a VA?
The best time to make the decision is before you are overwhelmed with everyday details of your professional and/or personal life. Take a hard look at tasks you are currently doing (especially those you never seem to get to because you donʹt like tackling them) as these may be the ideal projects to delegate to a VA. Take a month and write down the tasks that you are doing currently that you wish to delegate (include how much time they are taking you), and then compare what the costs of using a VA to what you could have earned during the time you would have freed up.
What if I only need the services of my Virtual Assistant occasionally?
That is not a problem. A Virtual Assistant is completely flexible and works for you only when YOU need them. That may be just for one or two hours a week; once every six months; or during those busy parts of the year. On the other hand, you may require office support services on a regular basis and we also offer a retainer package for this very reason. As the client, it is entirely up to you as to how often I work with you.
Is there a confidentiality agreement?
That decision is up to you. We have a basic confidentiality agreement we prefer to use. You, as client, are invited to provide your own preferred confidentiality agreement if you so choose.
What are your fees and payment policies?
Please see the rates section for more detailed information on this topic. Click here to view ASBS’s rates.
What are your hours of operation?
ASBS’s hours of operation are:
8:00am – 6:00pm MST, Monday – Friday
Weekends by request and appointment only.
What are your e-mail, instant messaging and phone call policies?
E-mails and phone calls are generally answered immediately, but please allow 1 business day for all e-mails and phone calls to be returned.
Instant messaging is a great tool to get instant answers to questions that clients may have. We understand the urgency and effectiveness Instant Messaging has in the Virtual Assistant field and ASBS does everything to assure quick and prompt responses to all questions, concerns or comments. Please note effective immediately all ASBS virtual assistants if actively online using their instant messaging service they are not required to answer a instant message instantly. If the VA is assisting other clients, or is away from their desk they will respond to your message by the end of the business day if not sooner.
Do you offer a referral program?
Yes, we do. For more information on how to get started, click here.
How do you handle client specific educational hours?
Alpine Small Business Solutions only will charge up to 2-hours for educational hours. The rest is on our own accord, as it ultimately proves to be beneficial to the business. Especially when it can be used for future growth. Alpine Small Business Solutions only charge additional educational hours if it is a proprietary programs that needs to be learned that is unique to only your business, tasks that deal with your own particular process or procedure, specific troubleshooting that is not related to “how to”, but rather technical glitches that are caused by the software, platform, etc…
What others are saying about Alpine Small Business Solutions?
Click Here to see what people are saying about Alpine Small Business Solutions!