Hiring a Virtual Personal Assistant in Mexico: Benefits and Tips

Do you feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks you need to do? Are you struggling to keep up? If so, it is time to consider hiring a virtual assistant in Mexico.

You inevitably have to delegate job titles and tasks as your business grows. One solution is to hire a virtual personal assistant to make time for what truly matters and work on the business.

This article includes key information about the definition, benefits, and steps in hiring a virtual personal assistant in Mexico. It also covers the signs that you need to hire one.

Six Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Personal Assistant in Mexico

Hiring a virtual assistant comes with many benefits. Did you know that virtual assistants help save up to 78% of operating costs annually? Apart from money, they help save you time and energy, which you can reallocate towards business aspects that require a personal touch.

That said, you can only reap the benefits when you learn how to hire a virtual personal assistant in Mexico. So partnering with a reliable virtual assistant firm or back-office outsourcing provider is key.

Read on for a detailed look at why hire virtual assistants from Mexico and the specific benefits of working with virtual personal assistants in this region.

1. Lower Costs for Staffing and Operations

Hiring a full-time on-site personal assistant is expensive. Costs increase quicker than you think between hours worked, benefits, yearly salary increases, and vacation time. What is the perk of hiring a remote personal assistant in Mexico? You essentially get the same experience except virtually, and with the added advantage of the lower virtual assistant cost in Mexico and without the full-time commitment.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 31% of workers’ average pay goes to benefits. This figure means you pay almost a third of the total wage towards benefits—not the hourly labor cost. This suits large enterprises with many budgets, but every business should have a great assistant without the high-cost barrier.

A virtual personal assistant from Mexico works on an hourly basis. Plus, they are not your employees. They are the third-party firm’s employees, making it the vendor’s duty to pay for benefits.

2. Core Business Functions as the Primary Focus

You likely handle most tasks by yourself during the beginning stages of starting a business. However, doing everything alone becomes harder as your business expands. You must identify which tasks are important to manage and which you can delegate to others.

Concentrating on macro decisions, such as your business strategy, product development, and yearly budget—aspects that form the foundation of your company—makes more sense since no one understands your business goals as much as you do.

Conversely, repetitive admin work does not require a thorough understanding of your company’s mission, and a virtual assistant from Mexico can easily accomplish these tasks. Duties such as scheduling meetings, generating invoices, and taking notes are tasks virtual personal assistants can do on your behalf. Here is a close-up look at the tasks you can delegate:

• Personal tasks. Need someone to make a personal appointment over the phone? Do you want someone to handle customer support and process a refund? Or do you require a worker overseeing small daily life tasks that you would rather not worry about? A virtual personal assistant can help.
• Calendar management. Business leaders can always use additional calendar management, no matter the organization’s size and level. Maintaining work-life balance and staying on top of appointments are easier with a dedicated virtual personal assistant experienced with calendar management.
• Phone calls. A virtual personal assistant can answer and place phone calls for you and represent your business while you concentrate on other matters. This is useful if you are planning a weekend or long-term vacation trip and need someone to keep you informed about emergencies while separating you from work.
• Online research. How much time do you waste with online research? Whether it be to find the best printer for the office or contact center as a service (CCaaS) solution to expand capabilities, research is time-consuming. A virtual personal assistant can handle your research needs and help you make management-level decisions.
• Business odds and ends. Do you hate dealing with customer service? Do you need help with a business podcast? Do you need to expand capacity for the holidays? Hiring a virtual personal assistant rather than a full-time employee ensures you can bridge your business gaps and easily let workers go when the demand diminishes.
• Data entry. Data entry is many people’s least favorite task when running a business. You can delegate this function to a virtual assistant so you can focus on other problems.

3. Flexible Hours and Increased Productivity

Increased demand, flexible hours, and remote work capability are all factors that encourage people to become virtual assistants. On average, workers are only productive for three hours a day. Hiring full-time staff means paying a lot for those three productive hours.

Working with virtual personal assistants means there is a more direct connection between productive hours and the amount paid. If you pay them to work on data entry services for three hours, you can directly see the results without any guesswork. You can see the fruits of their labor and the direct connection between the service rendered and the paid hours.

This type of arrangement is good for Mexico-based virtual assistants, too. They clock in and out at flexible hours and often work from the comfort and safety of their own homes. They need not commute to the office in the morning, saving time and energy daily.

4. Work-Life Balance

The stress of building, managing, and growing a business is enough to take a toll on anyone’s physical and mental health. Separating your work life from your personal life becomes challenging when you micromanage all tasks. Many entrepreneurs have a hard time caring for loved ones as a result.

You are responsible for the company’s success, which can be a heavy burden in the long run. However, you must also take breaks to focus on your physical and mental well-being. After all, being healthy and maintaining peace of mind is important for long-term success.

When you hire a virtual personal assistant, you work with a trusted individual who shares responsibilities, making your day-to-day schedule less busy. They can take menial tasks off your plate and allow much-needed time off. This lets you maintain accountability with the confidence that your virtual assistant will complete all assigned tasks.

5. Easy Access to Top Talent

Business leaders considering hiring virtual personal assistants from Mexico can potentially reach more talent. Companies can now find talent from all over the world without restriction by geography. They can tap into skilled professionals in nearshore markets, leveraging the benefits of nearshore talent with closer proximities and more manageable time zone differences.

This is an incredible value-add for organizations in lower-tier metropolitan areas or smaller towns where the local talent pool is already exhausted or shallow. Those who need specialized capabilities and skills can also increase their chances of finding qualified help by widening the scope of their search.

For instance, a company might not find a qualified assistant with advanced Excel skills, a background in business development, incredible accounting knowledge, strong editing chops, and a knack for operational efficiencies if they only look within a 40-mile radius. A virtual solution increases the chance of hiring such professional “unicorns.”

6. Higher Engagement and Employee Happiness

Think about not having to commute daily and what that does for a professional’s total workday and general quality of life. According to the Census, workers took an average of 25.6 minutes for a one-way commute to work in 2021.

It worsens in major metros and big cities with highly populated and expansive suburbs. Professionals drive 90 minutes or more per day to report for duty. Conversely, remote work means enjoying the comfort of working from one’s residence, wearing casual clothes, and having healthy snack options only a few footsteps away.

The benefits of remote work for the well-being of professionals extend to businesses as well. The setup offers higher work enthusiasm, positive sensibility, fewer sick days, and longer hours that work-from-home (WFH) staff voluntarily offer.

Moreover, Owl Labs discovered that  90% of remote workers are more or less productive working from home compared to the office. Another study from Gallup shows that they feel more connected to employers and clients. Since virtual assistants in Mexico work remotely from their homes, you can also see these positive benefits.

How to Tell When You Need a Virtual Personal Assistant

Maybe the benefits above sound nice, but you are still unsure. How do you know if you can get enough productivity from a virtual personal assistant to make the investment worth it? Perhaps you are not sure if you even need one.

The first thing you must know when learning to hire a virtual personal assistant is the indicators that you need one. Here are five signs that you need a virtual assistant to handle essential virtual assistant tasks:

Admin Tasks Consume Most of Your Hours

Have you audited your work schedule? Are you aware of where you spend most of your time? If administrative tasks take up most of your workload—more than 30% to 40% of your time—consider bringing a virtual admin assistant.

Is your company successful if you spend more time on administrative duties and less on profit-generating work? Sending out emails, scheduling appointments, generating invoices, and editing social media posts are important. Still, a virtual assistant from Mexico can perform those tasks for you so you can allocate your time better.

You Turn Down Opportunities That Might Grow Your Business

Imagine your dream customer reaching out to you to ask about your service offerings. You have been dreaming of this opportunity since you founded your brand, and it finally happened—only for it to vanish because you lack the space in your day to assist the customer.

You are turning down your dream client and refusing work that might help your company’s profit growth. Worse, you are missing out on the chance to work on a job that fits your strengths because you are too busy with admin work. You can prevent this from happening by providing your company with the help it needs using a virtual assistant.

You Are Constantly Burned Out

Are you constantly losing hours of sleep due to late nights spent working? You might not have enough time to rest and recharge or feel overwhelmed by day-to-day operations. Consider hiring a nearshore virtual assistant from Mexico if you spend all your time on the business and feel it takes up every waking hour.

One of the upsides of running your own business is setting your working hours and taking time off when needed. So if you live in a constant state of burnout but cannot step away from work, it is time to bring on a virtual assistant. 

You Have Lost Productivity

You might have noticed how easy it was to dedicate all your energy to work when you started. However, administration takes up much of the business as your company grows. No wonder big corporations have armies of payroll officers and legal staff to help with the workload.

Luckily, the solution is easy. Research from SmallBizTrends shows that remote workers are more productive since they control their time and spend fewer hours commuting to the office. Since a virtual personal assistant in Mexico works remotely, you might find that they are more efficient than someone on-site.

You Do Not Have the Skills Necessary to Complete a Task

Running a business includes specific components you might not be an expert in. For instance, tech support is a type of customer service that you might need to learn more about. You need not be an expert in every business area.

Instead, try leveraging experts in certain business aspects. You can try outsourcing tech support or hiring a virtual assistant to help customers troubleshoot problems with products. Alternatively, you can employ a virtual personal assistant to help post social media content.

You Cannot Afford to Hire Full-time Employees.

If you are pulling your hair out because employees are overworked and the company cannot meet the demand, then you have likely considered hiring new staff. However, hiring more people is expensive and might be out of your budget.

A virtual assistant helps offset some of the costs. You can save up to 78% on operating costs. Moreover, a virtual assistant is a great stepping stone to growing your business’s capacity if you are unsure whether to expand your business.

Your next task is to learn how to hire a virtual personal assistant in Mexico now that you are sure your business needs additional help.

How to Hire a Virtual Personal Assistant in Mexico

Hiring a virtual personal assistant from another location or country is easier with a third-party provider. It has more knowledge about your target location and talent in the country. Thus, it can match you with candidates that fit your needs best.

Here is a step-by-step guide to how to hire a virtual personal assistant in Mexico:

1. Document the tasks you want to delegate. The first step in learning to hire a virtual personal assistant is to list the tasks and processes you plan to delegate. If these are tasks you used to perform, create training documents and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and specify the outcomes you expect.
2. Create a job description. After identifying the task you want to delegate, the next step is to write down job descriptions for the role. A job description should include the level of experience, education, and skills required. It should list responsibilities and duties. It should also mention tools, software, or apps the candidate will use.
3. Post your job description or pick an agency. Once your job description is complete, the next step to hiring a virtual personal assistant is to post your vacancy online. You can post it on freelancing websites, but a better option is to use a virtual assistant hiring service or directory specializing in Mexican talent.
4. Review applications. If you choose to work with an outsourcing company or a virtual assistant agency, it will present you with pre-screened candidates that match your job description. You can vet the applications by meeting with each candidate to find the right one.
5. Start with a trial period. The final step in how to hire a virtual personal assistant is to choose the best candidate and start with a trial period of 30–90 days. This incentivizes the virtual assistant to do a great job for you, considering it will lead to a long-term position on your team.

Reasons Mexico Is a Good Destination for Hiring a Virtual Personal Assistant

To fully maximize the benefits of Mexico’s outsourcing industry, you must follow these steps in hiring a virtual personal assistant.

Mexico is a top destination for outsourcing business processes and finding virtual assistants. What is business process outsourcing (BPO)? It is the process of contracting areas of operation to a third party to leverage economies of scale.

Whether or not Mexico is the right location for your virtual assistant and outsourcing needs depends on specific factors. That said, selecting this region has a lot of benefits. Mexico’s cultural similarities to the U.S. create smoother outsourcing relationships, and its geographic proximity enables nearly the same time zones.

• Almost real-time communication. Most of Mexico is in the same time zone as the U.S. or is only a few hours apart. That means communication is almost real-time. Also, finding a virtual assistant willing to work your hours is easier due to time zone similarity.
• Low staff turnover. The competition for talent in Mexico is better than that of other countries because it is a young outsourcing destination. Moreover, the 15% attrition rate in Mexico is way better than the 57.3% in the U.S.
• Significant cost advantages and low labor cost. Low labor cost is an attractive factor when hiring nearshore, but salary expense aside, coordinating projects with a Mexican team is cheaper than in other parts of the world. With almost real-time collaboration, the risk of mistakes and misunderstandings is also lower.

The Bottom Line

If you feel overwhelmed with managing your business, you are not alone. Many business leaders work long hours because they do not know how to leverage their time and delegate work to others. What they lack in efficiency, they make up for in work ethic, often at the risk of burnout.

A virtual personal assistant is not the only support you need as the company grows; it is one of the first. Choosing the right virtual assistant saves you from costly operating expenses and helps free up your time so that you can concentrate on activities with a greater impact.

Now that you know how to hire a virtual personal assistant, let us discuss how Unity Communications can help you find the right talent. Contact us now.