As a startup or small business owner, you may have to juggle multiple tasks that may dilute your core expertise. Fortunately, you can hire virtual assistants to take care of any repetitive mundane tasks, freeing up time for you to focus on growing your company.
And if you’re looking for a virtual assistant from the USA, you’re in the right place.
A US based virtual assistant will have the necessary skills and expertise to handle any daily recurring task for you.
In this article, we’ll highlight the five best virtual assistant services in the US and provide some handy tips for choosing the right provider. We’ll also cover the benefits and challenges of working with a US-based personal assistant.
Table of Contents
Let’s get started.
Virtual assistant USA: 5 best virtual assistant services
Virtual assistant (VA) service providers allow a business owner or entrepreneur to outsource time-consuming, mundane tasks to skilled and trained professionals. You can shift a wide range of tasks to your dedicated virtual assistant.
They would ideally be trained to handle simple tasks like scheduling appointments, dealing with a phone call, and more. There are also specialized VAs that can help with executive assistant tasks, customer support, and graphic design.
Skeptical about the authenticity of a virtual personal assistant?
You can keep all your worries aside by choosing VA services from these five US-based virtual assistant service providers.
1. Virtual Assist USA
Virtual Assist USA offers virtual assistant services and solutions to any small business, entrepreneur, and even larger Fortune 500 companies. Their head office is located in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, US.
The company hires only college-educated virtual assistants with a minimum of ten years of experience. Using a proprietary personality assessment, they connect you with a suitable qualified virtual assistant based on their skill sets, work ethics, and communication style.
Services offered
- Administrative tasks: Bookkeeping, CRM, executive assistant tasks, data entry, creating PowerPoint presentations, etc.
- Technological: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Shopify, WordPress, e-commerce, etc.
- Marketing: Affiliate marketing, digital marketing, branding, content writing, graphic design, Amazon author services, social media advertising, copywriting, and more.
- Strategy: Budget reconciliation, business plan creation, market research, project management, training, and others.
Key features
- Provides a dedicated assistant and a trained backup assistant.
- Doesn’t enforce long-term contracts or levy cancellation penalties.
- Offers access to their entire team for different specialized needs without additional cost.
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant.
Pricing
The hourly rate starts at $35 per hour.
2. 24/7 Virtual Assistant
24/7 Virtual Assistant is an online VA business that offers professional and personal assistant services, mainly located in New Jersey, USA.
The VAs use the internet, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and desktop-sharing to handle a wide range of tasks from an intelligent office located anywhere in the world.
Services offered
- Administrative tasks: Calendar management, contacts and phone call management, event management.
- Data entry and writing: Spreadsheet management, transcriptions, editing, proofreading, etc.
- Digital marketing: Email management, tracking and analytics, posting online ads, etc.
- Online research.
- Graphic and website design.
- SEO and social media management.
- Virtual personal assistant service.
Key features
- Employs highly professional US-based virtual assistants that are available 24/7.
- Offers full rollover of the hours purchased.
- Lets you choose a dedicated virtual assistant.
- Has flexible plans which you can renew, upgrade, or cancel anytime.
Pricing
The pricing plans for a dedicated VA located in the US start at $399 a month for 20 hours per month.
3. Belay
Belay is a virtual staffing company in Roswell, Georgia that offers a virtual personal assistant, virtual bookkeeper, social media strategist, web specialist, and more.
The virtual assistants are fully remote and are thoroughly selected to suit your needs, allowing you to save considerably on overhead costs without compromising on quality.
Services offered
- Research and reporting.
- Inbox and schedule management.
- Travel booking and expense reporting.
- Social media management.
- Website design and management.
- Light bookkeeping.
Key features
- Matches virtual assistants according to your industry, personality, working style, and other needs.
- Offers all business solutions at flat-rate pricing.
- Provides regular check-ins and administrative support for you and your dedicated VA during onboarding.
- Provides a confidentiality agreement to ensure the safety and security of your company.
Pricing
Belay offers virtual assistance starting from $1380 per month for 30 hours. Please contact the provider for further pricing breakdowns.
4. Time etc
Time etc is a virtual assistant company in New York that offers easy, affordable, and flexible virtual assistance packages for all your business needs.
All assistants undergo a rigorous selection process and are hired based on their skill sets, personality, and education.
Services offered
- General: Managing to-do lists and phone calls, scheduling appointments, data entry, formatting documents, etc.
- Research: Find facts and figures, service providers, accommodations, research a potential client, locate contact information, etc.
- Content and social media marketing: Create email campaigns, social media posts, research content ideas, content writing, etc.
- Sales administration: General sales administration, prospect research, following up on late payments, etc.
- Marketing administration: Updating web designs, CRM, writing articles or guides, etc.
Key features
- Hires assistants with an average of 12 years of experience in big companies like Apple, Virgin, etc.
- Conducts rigorous screening and testing before hiring candidates.
- Regularly monitors individual performance, ratings, and responsiveness to ensure high-quality service levels.
- Allows rollover hours, so you don’t lose out on your leftover plan.
Pricing
Offers a free trial plan for one task. The paid plans start at $36 per hour.
5.Upwork
Upwork is one of the largest international platforms that connect freelancers and organizations in a single place. Upwork’s global HQ is located in San Francisco, California.
The staffing marketplace is open to all freelancers, and you can easily find virtual assistance providers.
Services offered
- Data entry.
- Lead generation.
- Social media advertising and promotion.
- Social media management.
Key features
- Lets you configure search settings based on country.
- Offers built-in features like messaging and work diaries to collaborate with others.
- Conducts thorough background checks to verify the work history of the freelancer.
- Provides a dedicated account manager.
Pricing
For businesses, Upwork has a free basic plan. The paid pricing plans cost $49.99 per month.
If you’re looking for more virtual assistant websites or freelance talents, check out this list of the best freelance websites.
Additionally, LinkedIn and other job boards like Indeed.com allow you to post virtual assistant jobs and scout for a dedicated assistant without a third party.
Depending on your organization’s needs, you can find specialized healthcare VA, real estate VA, legal VA, and customer service VA on the virtual assistant websites.
With all these choices available, how do you pick the right company?
How to choose the right US virtual assistant company?
Hiring a virtual administrative assistant through a virtual assistant company is a great choice, as it consumes less time and energy.
But how do you choose the best virtual assistant company in the USA?
Let’s look at the factors you should consider before outsourcing to any virtual assistant service provider:
- Budget: The point of hiring a virtual assistant is to save time and money while getting more work done. A virtual assistant agency that offers plans at reasonable prices will be a good choice.
- Education: Choose providers that have VAs with a basic college education and multiple skill sets. It will make your investment in a VA service worthwhile.
- Communication: Look for companies that encourage transparent client communication and use multiple virtual communication platforms like Zoom.
- Reviews: You can look for a company’s honest feedback on sites like Better Business Bureau, where freelancers and previous clients post their reviews and grievances about companies.
- Scams: Some companies may offer rates that sound too good to be true. It might be a scam, and you should approach with caution.
- Support: Problems can occur unexpectedly with the services (technical, financial, etc.), and you’ll have to contact their customer support team. Look for companies with great customer and administrative support to sort out these problems quickly.
Now, is signing a contract with virtual assistant USA services worth it?
4 advantages of working with US virtual assistants
Let’s look at the benefits of hiring your virtual assistant from the USA:
1. Easy communication
Unclear communication may be common while working with a remote coworker or client located in a different country.
If your clients or team members are located in the US, hiring a US based virtual assistant can help you deal with them better as they might have a better understanding of the local work etiquette.
Additionally, a US-based virtual administrative assistant or any other VA will most likely have English as their primary language and also well-versed in foreign languages like Spanish.
This would make it easier for your startup business to communicate with English-speaking clients, resulting in fewer mistakes and significantly saving time and money.
2. Cultural similarities
In addition to the language, a qualified virtual assistant from the US may also share the same culture and customs as your clients from the United Kingdom, Canada, and other parts of North America.
A clear understanding of cultural preferences and acceptable professional behavior helps these assistants better understand your client and business’s needs.
3. Identical or close time zones
Having a virtual assistant in the same or nearby time zones as your American clients or team members will ensure continuous communication, instant responses, and less time wastage.
And, if your head office is located on the other side of the globe— they can get the job done by the time you wake up!
That’s why it’s ideal for your small business to have a virtual employee or an administrative assistant from the United States.
4. Less training
A college education is a prerequisite in a US virtual assistant agency. That’s why a US based virtual assistant will probably have all the skills you need to get the job done.
You may need to guide them on your company’s specific requirements, but they’ll likely not require extensive training.
It can save you a lot of effort and money that may have been otherwise necessary to train a person with lesser skills to finish a task quickly.
3 challenges to hiring US virtual assistants
While working with a US-based assistant may seem like the ideal choice, there are certain challenges that you should consider. Let’s look at them in detail:
1. High cost
One major drawback of hiring an assistant from the US is the higher per hour charges compared to hiring a virtual assistant from the Philippines or India. This is because of the comparatively higher living costs in US cities like New York, San Fransico, etc.
But if you have enough budget to afford a US-based VA, you should go for it. The pros will certainly outweigh this con.
2. Inflexible work hours
If you work in an industry like customer service that requires different working hours and holidays than usual, then an assistant from the US may not be able to fulfill your demands.
Virtual assistants in the US may work when you’re unavailable, but they might be unwilling to cover certain shifts. Additionally, if they share the same holidays as your country, there may be no customer support on those days.
So if your clients are mostly from time zones closer to you, it’s best to outsource a virtual assistant from other countries.
3. Productivity concerns
As with any remote worker, you may worry about how your US-based remote virtual assistant spends their work hours.
But with a productivity monitoring tool, like Time Doctor, you can put to rest any remote work concerns.
What is Time Doctor?
Time Doctor is an employee time tracking software used by SMBs like Thrive Market and large organizations like Erricson to boost employee productivity.
The tool has an extremely straightforward interactive time tracker to start and stop the timer as the VA begins and ends their task.
Along with time tracking, the tool also has robust features like productivity ratings, screenshots, comprehensive reports, payroll, and more. You can use this data to easily track how your VA spends their work hours and pay them accordingly.
Is hiring a virtual personal assistant service worth the cost?
Small business owners may find hiring a virtual assistant difficult due to limited funds or other similar reasons.
On the flip side, you may be burdened with many non-technical tasks but not have enough money to hire a full-time administrative assistant.
In such cases, a freelancer or a part-time virtual personal assistant can be the way out. They can handle multiple recurring tasks but won’t burn a hole in your pocket. It will definitely free up your time and allow you to focus on core tasks to grow your small business.
Final thoughts
Hiring a virtual assistant from the United States can help you manage repetitive and tedious task without much training. They would also have a similar work culture and communication etiquette as other western countries.
You can go through the service providers and tips we covered here to determine what suits your needs best.
Once you have hired the right virtual assistant, you can use tools like Time Doctor to make managing virtual assistants a piece of cake.
Liam Martin is a co-founder of Time Doctor which is software to improve productivity and help keep track and know what your team is working on, even when working from home.
