How You Save Money by Hiring a Virtual Assistant - Breaking Down the Costs

By Amber Frank

Being in the virtual staffing business, we at Team Double-Click® are often asked, “why should I hire a virtual assistant and how would it benefit me?”  The answer is simple: you will save money (nearly 50 percent) and time.

I don’t think it’s any secret that when an employee is in the office 40 hours a week, that they are not actually working all of those hours.  They have numerous distractions a day from children and spouses calling to chatting with their coworkers.  A study by Basex, a New York research firm, found that office distractions total 2.1 hours a day for the average employee – more than 10 hours and 25 percent of a regular workweek. That doesn’t even take into account the amount of time an employee spends on personal tasks at work.  That is time that the employer is paying them for.  With virtual staffing, you only pay for the exact amount of time your virtual employee works.

In addition, you don’t pay for office expenses such as utilities, desk, chair, computer, and the office space itself.
Then there are benefits expenses including, vacation time, sick time, and insurance coverage.  With virtual staffing, the virtual employee (who is an independent contractor) is responsible for those costs. With a virtual employee, you pay for their hourly rate and reimburse for any costs incurred for the job (mailing costs, etc.)

As you can see from the charts below, hiring a virtual employee is extremely economical for your company.

Wage	$15/hour x 40 hr/week	= $31,200/year
Social Security	(.062 x 31,200)	= $1,934/year
Medicare	(.0145 x 31,200)	= $452/year
Workers comp	(.15 x 31,200)	= $4,680/year
Sick time	1 week/year	= $600/year
Vacation time	2 weeks/year	= $1,200/year
Health Insurance	Average	= $7,800/year
FUTA	(.008 x 7,000)	= $56/year
Cost of hiring	According to Business Week	= $3,270/year
Office distractions*		= $8,190 per year
Office utilities	$300 per month	= $3,600/year
Computer	Computer for the assistant	= $1,000
Desk and chair	Modest desk and chair	= $700
Add’l phone line	Phone line install & monthly charges	= $1,300
Office space	Moderate office $900/month	= $10,800/year
Total		= $73,782 per year
	Or	= $35.47 per hour

*A study by Basex, a New York research firm.

Wage	$24.86/hour x 30 hr/week	= $38,782/year
Social Security	N/A Independent Contractor	= $0
Medicare	N/A Independent Contractor	= $0
Workers comp	N/A Independent Contractor	= $0
Sick time	N/A Only Pay for Time Worked	= $0
Vacation time	N/A Only Pay for Time Worked	= $0
Health Insurance	N/A Independent Contractor	= $0
FUTA	N/A Independent Contractor	= $0
Cost of hiring	Team Double-Click® requires no start up payment	= $0
Office distractions*	Working from home there are no office distractions	= $0
Office utilities	N/A Independent Contractor – they pay their own utilities	= $0
Computer	N/A Independent Contractor – they buy their own computer	= $0
Desk and chair	N/A Independent Contractor – they buy their own desk and chair	= $0
Add’l phone line	N/A Independent Contractor – they pay for their own phone	= $0
Office space	N/A working from home	= $0
Total		= $38,782/year
	Or	$18.65/hour

*Workweek is listed as 30 hours because Team Double-Click® only charges for time worked; the Virtual Assistant would still be on call 40 hours.

When all is said and done, you spend nearly double the amount for an in-house employee than for a virtual one.
Time is money. Hire a virtual employee and save on both.





Team Double-Click®, the country's foremost staffing agency for trained Virtual Assistants - Matching Top Virtual Workers with Top Companies! Visit www.teamdoubleclick.com or phone 888.827.9129 for a variety of full-service virtual staffing options.

VirtualAssistingUSA provides Virtual Assistants a place to upload their profile, advertise their services and get access to affordable training, marketing and billing assistance for their business. VirtualAssistingUSA gives small business owners direct access to our database of tens of thousands of virtual assistants - without the ongoing agency fees and gives them access to talent that is not available through other venues. Visit www.virtualassistingusa.com for more information.

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