26 Industries That Benefit From Hiring Virtual Assistants

The virtual assistant industry continues to grow as remote working conditions integrate into the modern business environment.

If you're wondering whether virtual assistants are for you, here’s a list of 26 industries that continue to benefit from hiring virtual assistants. Discover the tasks they delegate and explore how your business can maximize the use of virtual assistants.

1. Arts

Virtual assistants in the arts and entertainment industry tend to be most helpful in the administrative area. They will provide the usual support, such as calendar and communications management, data entry, and marketing support.

Artists and arts managers can also put them in charge of copywriting for press releases and blog features. Arts virtual assistants can also remotely handle social media pages, book studios, galleries, and other venues. They can track equipment requirements and inventory of supplies.

2. Government & Non-Profits

Non-profit organizations and government agencies also outsource a variety of tasks to virtual assistants. Offshore professionals provide a more cost-effective approach to getting jobs done for these groups.

This is especially true for social media services like profile management, graphic design, video production, and customer service. Collaborating with global personnel, especially in project management, also provides the industry with an opportunity to diversify its approach to providing solutions to its constituents.

3. Automotive

Not including the blue-collar production personnel, the automotive industry has also seen a rise in competencies as remote working conditions were mandated. Administrative, marketing, customer service, and other jobs can also be formally outsourced to virtual assistants.

Even sales prospecting can be more efficiently approached with the help of outsourced staff. Recent reports say the automotive industry sees up to 30% of its white-collar jobs performed remotely.

4. Finance & Accounting

Bookkeeping virtual assistants provide assistance not only to the finance and accounting industries but also to businesses and individuals. Their services can range from handling financial data, ledgers, invoices, and transaction reconciliations.

Licensed accountants also provide accounting virtual assistant services at a lower cost than a local hire. Your startup business can even have your finances maintained by a certified public accountant (CPA) without stretching your budget too much.

5. Broadcasting and Media

As broadcasting and media companies also adopted work-from-home practices, virtual assistants have also been called to assist in productions remotely. There are also VAs providing podcast production services, video editing, and channel management, as well as live broadcasting assistance.

We practice this here at Virtudesk, too! Our virtual assistants work on the back-end of our virtual events, webinars, and podcast production.

6. Construction

Virtual construction assistants provide remote support to Construction Coordinators, Project Managers, Planners, and contractual workers. They also perform inventory management tasks and the usual administrative support that they’re known for.

With communication being a core skill for VAs, virtual construction assistants also make for great support specialists for both on-site and other remote workers.

7. eCommerce

Today’s eCommerce environment is commonplace for fully remote teams and businesses. Due to the pandemic, the virtual assistant industry has seen a rise in demand for VAs. They typically help out with order fulfillment, stock management, customer service, and admin work for businesses worldwide.

Whether you sell through Amazon, Etsy, or your own eCommerce portal, there are eCommerce virtual assistants ready to lighten your workload and help you run your online business more efficiently.

8. Education

Virtual assistants also provide a wide range of assistive services to the global academic environment. They can work on the back-end of online schooling systems, provide research support to professors and graduate students.

VAs also take on transcription work from research groups and even assist with running an online academic institution. They can also help with recruitment, fundraising, development, admissions, and other university or schooling programs.

9. Farming & Agriculture

The farming and agriculture industry continues to grow in technological advancements. The industry has available AI-powered technologies for research, production, and a lot of other functions.

Virtual assistants in this industry not only provide administrative support to their clients but also assist in bridging the gap between farmers and technology. They provide customer support to agricultural companies providing equipment and support to farmers, as well as research support to scientific organizations.

10. Healthcare

In the healthcare industry, you can find virtual medical assistants that help out physicians, patients. Telehealth and Medtech companies that use virtual assistants also fall in this category. Typical VA duties translate into remotely managing records, booking, and interviewing for appointments and managing inventory of supplies.

Prospecting VAs and Executive VAs also help out in the Healthtech sector. Virtual personal assistants also render their services to healthcare professionals.

11. Health & Wellness

Wellness studios, gyms, trainers, and coaches all have a ton of tasks that can be offloaded to a virtual assistant. Since the pandemic shifted these industries into virtual practices, their presence in digital platforms had to become more robust.

This called for help from social media virtual assistants, graphic artists, live stream producers, and the like. Check this example out and see the tasks that can be offloaded to a health coaching virtual assistant.

12. Hospitality & Tourism

Virtual assistants in the hospitality, tourism, and traveling business have always been known to help clients out with the booking experience. They typically work for travel agencies and assist customers with reservations for planning their trips.

Overall, virtual assistants in the hospitality industry become an extension of its function of providing a pleasant experience to customers.

13. Human Resources

It’s an existing practice for big companies to outsource departments like marketing and human resources. Early-stage and scaling businesses can also do this cost-effectively by outsourcing their HR processes to remote assistants.

Instead of building a team of local hires, some companies opt to build a team of remote staff. They would be led by an in-house manager to save on hiring, overhead, and other costs.

14. Insurance

Insurance companies and agents are some of the people who need virtual assistants. In addition to their general tasks, insurance virtual assistants also help out with internal quote preparation and maximizing associate management systems.

If you’re an agent, try delegating lead generation, administrative support, and marketing tasks to a virtual assistant.

15. IT & Technology

The tech industry has thrived on remote working conditions long before the pandemic introduced it to the global workforce. Github COO, Erica Brescia, even recommends that tech company founders and SaaS startups hire Executive Virtual Assistants right away.

This makes the tech industry a prime example of maximizing the growth opportunity that virtual assistants provide to early-stage startups.

16. Legal

Legal professionals and law firms employ virtual assistants for a multitude of tasks. It includes professional transcription services, admin support, marketing, and executive assistance. Some specific tasks to delegate include research and client intake.

There are legal science virtual assistants with backgrounds in law who can function like paralegals, but for a lower cost than a local hire.

17. Logistics & Trucking

Virtual logistics assistants also offer a huge range of services for the logistics industry. Virtual assistants provide business owners a more affordable option compared to hiring dispatch services locally.

They become points of contact to help owners and managers run operations smoothly without neglecting any point in the supply chain. They also offer communications services and handle customer queries and updates in shipments.

18. Manufacturing

The use of virtual assistants in the manufacturing industry provides support in many aspects. This includes supply chain management, vendor management, and inventory management using specialized software.

The finance, HR, and marketing departments of companies in this industry also have jobs that can be offloaded to virtual assistants. Prospecting VAs also extend their capacity in this industry to be business development representatives.

19. Marketing & Advertising

Social media managers and marketing specialists are recently populating the virtual assistant industry. Digital marketing and advertising agencies can also take advantage of this opportunity.

Offloading jobs and projects to virtual assistants is a global hiring opportunity that provides them the edge that they need to scale their business. The diversity also brings about collaborations that are innovative and game-changing for companies that use virtual assistants.

You can delegate social media management, digital ads, email marketing, content marketing, strategy, conference logistics, public relations, web design, search engine optimization, and more.

20. Professional Services & Consulting

Virtual assistants in the professional services & consulting industry offer an expansion in productivity by taking over time-consuming tasks. This allows their clients to focus on high-level activities, like spending time with clients Executive assistance allows these professionals to work faster and take on more clients and projects as well.

Consider hiring a personal virtual assistant to remotely take care of the tasks you don’t like to do. Decision-makers in this industry can utilize virtual assistants by delegating reports creation, marketing, operations, customer service, and more.

21. Property Management

Property managers can get very busy depending on a lot of factors. Virtual assistants provide them the opportunity to focus on high-level tasks without neglecting any of the small tasks they have to get done.

VAs can help them find more clients, manage their schedules, and sort out necessary documentation. They can also handle transaction records, and purchases needed for repairs and maintenance.

22. Real Estate

Real estate virtual assistants are remote staff who assist brokers and owners in their day-to-day. Prospecting virtual assistants, transaction coordinators, marketing virtual assistants, and administrative assistants are popular in the real estate industry.

They cover a lot of ground for their clients, multiplying their productivity and revenue. This is through tasks like listing management, lead generation, and CRM optimization, to name a few.

23. Food & Beverage

Digitization has helped the food & beverage industry stay afloat despite lockdown mandates. Virtual assistants working for companies in this industry typically assist with inventory management and order processing.

eCommerce platforms and VOIP technology allow virtual assistants in the F&B industry to continue to help people in this industry adapt to the new normal. Social media marketing tasks are also delegated to virtual assistants to help small businesses in this industry.

24. Retail

The retail industry has also contributed to the rising demand for virtual assistants. As they adopt eCommerce practices, they need people who can bridge the gap between their physical and digital shops. Virtual retail assistants provide internal support and remote inventory management. They are also employed to help out with marketing and admin tasks, and customer support.

25. Small Business Owners & Startups

Smart business owners and startup founders work with virtual assistants. This kind of dynamic allows them to sustain and scale their growth without stretching their budget too far.

Others even grow their business with teams of virtual assistants working on different operations like business development, customer experience, and marketing. Small business owners and startups can save as much as $60k a year per virtual assistant they hire.

26. Solopreneurs

Solopreneurs in any business vertical tend to take on too many roles when it comes to running their business. Virtual assistants are known to help them out by taking over tasks like social media branding, SEO, and other administrative tasks. In essence, VAs cover tasks that keep solopreneurs from working on their businesses.

The Virtual Assistant Industry

As remote work becomes more common and permanent for the global workforce, the virtual assistant industry is also here to thrive. Virtudesk offers highly trained virtual assistants specializing in productivity-boosting tasks.

If your business can benefit from these professionals who work remotely, fill out this form and one of our Consultants will get in touch with you.

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