Growing and scaling a business can be extremely time-consuming, costly, and risky. Plus, finding the right talent to help you grow is easier said than done. Not only does hiring employees produce a huge expense for your business, but finding the right candidate and vetting applicants can be time-consuming. The good news is there are companies that offer reliable and affordable virtual assistant services so you’re not alone in your journey of scaling your business. They can not only invest the time in recruiting professionals with lots of expertise, but help you outsource in order to reduce business expenses. One such company is Virtudesk.
Virtudesk offers highly-trained virtual assistants from the Philippines to clients in the United States and Canada. Their goal is to help entrepreneurs optimize systems and processes, learn how to delegate responsibilities, and focus on revenue-earning activities. In this article, we’ll learn more about Virtudesk’s history, goals, and mission.
Virtudesk at Present
While many industries have suffered setbacks in the last few years, the virtual assistant industry is on the rise. In fact, according to a report by Business Wire, the industry is projected to grow by $4.12 billion between 2021 and 2025. This can be attributed to several factors including increasing digitalization, the remote work trend brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the financial impacts of the Great Resignation.
Since 2020, there have been huge demands for quality virtual assistant services to help combat significant business challenges today. As a result, new companies are entering the scene, and old companies are expanding. Platforms like Fiverr and Upwork are becoming increasingly popular.
These changes in the workplace landscape are not surprising because virtual assistants are a reliable and cost-effective solution during these times of crisis. Their wage demands are much lower but the quality and efficiency of their work compared with in-house employees are on par if not better.
Virtudesk has seen remarkable growth during the boom of the virtual assistant industry. It has grown by 454% over the last three years and ranked 1068th place in the INC 5000 list last year. This 2022, the company is targeting to become part of the first 500 in the same list.
The Story Behind Virtudesk
Virtudesk's story starts in 2016 when CEO and Founder, Pavel Stepanov, was a real estate agent who needed help with his business. He had first-hand experience in leveraging his business through virtual assistant solutions.
Before the company’s founding, Pavel used to work 12 to 16 hours a day as a real estate agent. He decided to hire a virtual assistant to try to lessen his workload. When he did, he experienced incredible business growth and expansion. His virtual assistant helped him book more appointments with clients, which allowed him to close more transactions and almost triple his yearly revenue.
He essentially delegated all administrative tasks to his assistant which allowed him to have more time outside work and enjoy it with his family. In 2016, he started Virtudesk upon realizing that other real estate agents could benefit from the same service. Now, he is helping other entrepreneurs in all industries replicate his own success by offering them highly-trained virtual assistants from the Philippines.
From one virtual assistant, Pavel is now employing hundreds. Virtudesk has grown to become one of the leading providers of virtual assistant services to busy professionals.
Benefits of Choosing Virtudesk
Virtudesk is offering many solutions to business owners to grow their business with talent and technology. What makes Virtudesk stand apart from competitors is its cost-effective and flexible hiring packages.
Many of Virtudesk’s competitors only offer services for full-time work. With Virtudesk, clients can choose to first test out the service with time-block services before committing to hiring part-time or full-time. A time-block service means they can hire virtual assistants for short-term projects or for 20, 40, 60, or 80 hour time blocks.
Besides the time flexibility, Virtudesk offers competitive pricing, a wide breadth of services, and the added security of cyber security insurance. With cyber security insurance, Virtudesk can offer its clients protection from data breaches. If a virtual assistant mishandles a client’s information, any losses are covered. Despite the added security, Virtudesk promotes a culture of accountability, integrity, respect, and honesty that forms the foundation for their employees’ attitudes and work ethic.
Additionally, Virtudesk’s Virtual Assistants go through a meticulous interview and training process before having the opportunity to meet a client. They have to have at least one year of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) experience. They also need to pass English proficiency exams and FBI-grade background checks.
Virtudesk’s Virtual Assistants have varied expertise, with some specializing in sales and marketing, prospecting, customer service, transaction coordination, administrative functions, and many more. Should clients desire to upskill their virtual assistants, Virtudesk has subject matter experts that can guide them through the learning process.
Each virtual assistant and client at Virtudesk also has an assigned account manager who tracks the virtual assistant’s activities and makes sure that they are performing well in their job. This is on top of Timedly, a Virtudesk created time tracker and screen capturing software that comes with their hiring package. If clients experience their virtual assistant unexpectedly quitting, they are not left to recruit another virtual assistant by themselves, but get a replacement right away, saving Virtudesk’s clients time and money.
Virtudesk’s Achievements and Plans for the Future
Over the years, Virtudesk has had many successes. Apart from making it to the Inc 5000 list, the company also hit record signups in 2020, and again in 2022. In 2021 alone, they experienced a 109% client intake growth rate.
They are happy their own success is not their only achievement. In the last two years, Virtudesk has helped their clients achieve the same growth success. For one client, they helped him achieve a 35% growth rate in client intake. Another client expressed gratitude for their Virtudesk VA team landing 300+ new company clients.
In 2021, Virtudesk recorded a company growth of 162.53% themselves. Despite the accomplishments, they are looking to expand and achieve more in the years to come. In the next year, Virtudesk will strive to double their revenue and company growth. They will aim to continue to drive their mission home of helping entrepreneurs build their companies, by not only improving their current services but providing new ones.
When thinking about the long term plan for Virtudesk, they will want to create more technological resources for their clients and more opportunities for clients to efficiently manage their virtual assistants through technology, such as apps and softwares.
Virtudesk will continue to strive to keep their mission statement true for business owners, “We manage the small tasks so you can focus on what's most important.”
Conclusion
In the last two years, the virtual assistant industry has seen exponential growth. Many companies have been founded to meet this demand, but it’s been a quick response to a rapid change in environment. What makes Virtudesk unique is their founding, when and how they started, and how they continue to blend the use of technology and talent to deliver business growth results to their clients.
If you are wondering where to learn more about Virtudesk, you can visit their website or follow their social media channels. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and even Reddit. To stay up to date on the latest virtual assistant trends and business development strategies, sign up for their newsletter or join their private Facebook group, “Leverage”.