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Under what circumstances might it make sense to employ a local admin assistant rather than a remote Virtual Assistant?

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4 Answers

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For me, it would be if:

  • I have time sensitive needs that change constantly (e.g. report deadline)
  • Local things that needed doing (like looking for an office, hosting an event, etc.)
  • A creative project that requires lots of visuals (like tweaking a pitch or something like that)
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I can see the following situation:

  1. Required skill is not available locally at the price it is available virutally.
  2. One does not have a place for the local guy to come in and do the work.
  3. You do not have a fixed time slot of working or not free in the busy office hours for the local guy.

There could be more....

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I think you are answering the wrong question. He asked why hire locally versus remotely, and you answered why hire remotely versus locally :-) – Zuly Gonzalez♦ Jan 13 '12 at 14:40
Yup he did but I will +1 anyways as good points – Ryan Jan 13 '12 at 16:40
Oh such a silly mistake. Thanks for pointing out. Need to be much more careful. Thanks Ryan for the upvote. – Natwar Lath Jan 14 '12 at 6:17
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I think it's better to hire an admin assistant locally if you're into local business marketing. It's better to have an assistant who has intimate knowledge of your target location and demographic.

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If your doing multiple things at once can be useful. For example having someone on the phone and being able to call across the office "did we get that payment this morning??".

They can deal with the mail and be first into the office getting you open early. Because personally I prefer to work later in the day but some clients like to call at 8am.

They can process your mail, get the invoices in the post, run errands that need to be done in person. Adds a personal touch for people that visit your office.

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