Personal Assistants & Virtual Assistants: Are They the Same?

Personal assistants have been around for a while and sometimes the nature of their work is confused with that of virtual assistants, but there are some specific differences between them.

Virtual assistants are people who work remotely from anywhere in the world, which creates a lot of opportunities for both the business owner and the VA.

One of the most important factors to work with virtual assistants is the cost-saving in comparison with personal assistants, which standardly work on American soil and are employees; but, of course, we need to understand that the world is always changing and what it seemed to be a good investment 20 years ago, today is really not.

The Evolution of Technology

The industrial revolution marked a before and after in the way we did business in the world. Since then, we have seen how life has transformed into things that were thought impossible at one time.

When, for example, we saw a global transformation that began in 1989 with the invention of the World Wide Web and what was intended to be exclusively for communication by scientists at CERN, it ended up becoming a tool that would change the way personal and professional life was conducted around the world.

It seems incredible that 31 years have passed since the invention of our largest global communications network and today it is hard to imagine what life would be like without the tools we have.

In spite of this, there are still people who simply do not want to keep up with the times and refuse to use the internet because they are overwhelmed by the amount of information it handles. And this is completely understandable. We have all been there at some point. When facing something new, we feel overwhelmed and might choose not to get involved. The thing is, the business world is quite similar to the African savannah: if you don’t adapt, you die.

A Changing World Requires Adaptation

A clear example of this was 2020 when thousands of businesses around the world had to close. Some went bankrupt and others have been on standby.

Some, those who survived, had to reinvent themselves. And the vast majority had to rely on technology to keep their business afloat. The decision was to adapt or go bankrupt.

In the same way, 2020 has taught the entire world that there are other ways to develop businesses. What was once the basis of companies began to transform to adapt to new needs, given the global circumstances.

Something similar has happened with personal assistants.

Who are Personal Assistants?

The concept is quite simple, the name says it all: personal assistants are those trusted people who have taken care of all the personal or professional needs of their bosses for years.

Personal assistants have historically been the right hand of businessmen and they take care of the smallest personal details such as organizing the groceries shopping, scheduling appointments, attending meetings, or developing financial reports, among other tasks.

However, for years the Internet has been used as a necessary tool to develop businesses and in this sense, it has been found that outsourcing could also be done with business tasks; so the first companies dedicated to doing the necessary work of other large companies mainly located in the U.S. began to emerge.

The main destination was India but over the years the Philippines also emerged, and at this time we are seeing the rise of Latin America, especially Colombia.

With outsourcing, we started to have a sense of what is foreign. Because of that, some businessmen still think that virtual assistants are very different from personal assistants.

Yes, we know that there are many tasks that a virtual assistant can do and there is a lot of offer in the market. To be sure of which would be a good option for you, at There is Talent we have dedicated ourselves to selecting personnel with the specific skills that each one of our clients needs.

Let’s review some benefits offered by our virtual assistants:

Personal Errands

Your virtual assistants can take care of scheduling reservations for you, send out letters of congratulations and gifts, even coordinate the purchase of your groceries and organize and pay your home bills, among many other details.

Administrative Tasks

Our team is well versed in handling calendars, scheduling appointments, meeting organization, client follow-up, report creation, research, among others.

Accounting Tasks

Virtual assistants can help you keep both your personal and business finances up to date with the organization of your accounting books, credit card, and bank account reconciliation, organization of bills payable or receivable.

Marketing Tasks

Our virtual assistants are specialized in managing tasks such as community management, post design and content creation for your social networks, website, or newsletter.

Nearshore

All of our virtual assistants represent savings compared to on-site staff. Our VAs also represent lower costs than a virtual assistant in the USA, being completely bilingual and working in the same time zone or at least much closer to you than an assistant in the Philippines or India.

Skills and experience

One of the main differentiating factors that we have in the market when compared to sites like Fiverr or Upwork is that we select the most qualified people to do the work you need. To do this, we carry out an analysis of skills and experience as well as the soft skills to match you with the right person you need and who will represent a great asset for your company.

As you will see, our virtual assistants are a perfect balance between a personal assistant and a solid member of your operational team. They also help you control costs and maintain very good communication given the time zone proximity. This is a flexible option since you can end the relationship at any time. You can also choose to have your assistant work for you with a 40-hour weekly package. That way you’ll have a dedicated person for your needs.

Change is constant and it is up to you to decide if you are going to join the ranks of business owners who are reducing their workload and growing exponentially.

What are you waiting for?

Book a strategic call right now with our director Claudia to answer all your questions and start working to empower your business!