As a travel advisor, you’re probably very busy. On any given day, you have to keep up with the news in order to stay current on all of the changing travel protocols, stay in touch with supplier partners about deals and opportunities available to your clients, manage your marketing and social presence, keep track of expenses and commissions, handle customer service requests, and manage a high volume of clients who need your help booking their next trip!
Now, let’s face it: there’s only so much time in the day.
One of the best ways to handle everything and manage your time effectively is by hiring a virtual assistant (VA). By hiring a VA to help you with your business, you can focus on what matters most: helping your clients plan their dream vacations!
Why Every Travel Advisor Needs a Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants can help you save time, increase efficiency, be more productive, and even help take care of all of those little things that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle.
Here are some things that every travel advisor should know about utilizing a VA in their daily operations:
1. You Don’t Have to Be a Wizard
Many people think that if their business relies on technology, social media, and digital platforms, then they need to be an expert in those areas themselves. Well, that’s not true!
Virtual assistants are experts in their fields—whether it be technology, sales, customer service, lead generation, social media management, marketing, or administration. You name it, and they can handle virtually any task related to your business!
With these experts at your disposal, you have no reason to deal with tasks that feel like a waste of your time or seem too difficult to learn and understand. You should be able to focus on what makes you and your business unique instead of being bogged down with all the little things that take away from your time (and money).
💡 TARC Tip: Think about it: if you spend two hours trying to troubleshoot a technical problem rather than spending those same two hours selling and booking travel, how much money (and time) did you really lose? Learn to delegate tasks that don’t suit your expertise.
2. You Don’t Have to Hire an Employee
If you’ve ever had to hire a traditional employee, then you know exactly how much it costs. You have to navigate everything from payroll setup and taxes to administration, onboarding workflows, and possibly even human resources compliance.
If you’re a small boutique business owner who can’t comfortably afford to hire someone to work for you part-time or full-time on a payroll, then a contracted VA is definitely something worth considering!
- Flexible Pricing: Yes, they do charge by the hour (or by the project), but their rates are usually much more flexible depending on the amount of work or hours you need them for a specific task or project compared to hiring a full-time employee.
- Contracted Support: Think of a VA as a contracted worker. They will provide the specific skill(s) you need to get the job done.
- Collaborative Relationship: This doesn’t mean that they need to have a finite, rigid number of hours before they’re done working with you. You can set them on a schedule that works best for your business needs and coordinate with them to build an incredible work environment and culture! They want to see you succeed because your growth ultimately means more work and job security for them. It’s truly a win-win!
3. They Can Save You Hours of Time
As travel advisors, you have a lot on your plate (and even more in your inboxes). Between answering client emails, booking trips, and keeping up with social media accounts, it can be incredibly hard to find time for anything else—especially if you’re running your business as a solopreneur.
A virtual assistant can take some of those heavy tasks off your plate so you have more time to focus on creative growth:
- Keep Your Voice, Delegate the Rest: Maybe you want your social media channels to still have your authentic voice. If so, you can create the raw content for it and let your VA help invoice clients, build out itineraries, send follow-up emails, and organize your inbox in the meantime.
- Leverage Creative Strengths: On the other hand, some VAs are incredible at content creation. If social media isn’t your forte, then stop wasting your time! Work with a talented VA to curate a social media experience that works for you and your business.
⚠️ Please Note: VAs can help you grow your business by helping you streamline processes and improve overall productivity. Don’t underestimate their specialized skills, software capabilities, or long-term business-building potential.
4. They Usually Have Wide Networks
So what happens when you need help with something that’s completely outside your expertise? You could hire an external agency to do it for you, but that often means paying a premium, teaching them about the project, and spending hours training them along the way.
Alternatively, you could hire a VA and only pay them for the specific hours they’re actually working on a project. The best part is that most VAs are deeply interconnected within their industry and maintain professional networks of fellow virtual assistants. Hiring a VA naturally expands your contact network for other specialized projects as they arise.
When you’re working with someone who’s an expert in a particular area, it’s easier to get things done more quickly and much more efficiently. Let’s be honest: you probably wouldn’t let your CPA cut your hair, so why are you trying to learn accounting or web design if it’s outside of your professional wheelhouse?!
How a Virtual Assistant Can Help Increase Your Revenue
By taking over non-revenue-generating administrative work, VAs free you up to focus on high-ticket sales.
VAs can make your travel business significantly more successful by:
- Identifying Opportunities: Tracking client anniversaries, birthdays, or renewal windows that you might have missed.
- Boosting Sales: Creating visually stunning marketing content and newsletters that keep you top-of-mind.
- Managing Social Media: Scheduling posts, responding to standard inquiries, and engaging with your audience.
- Maintaining Your Online Presence: Updating your website, organizing supplier folders, and managing your digital profiles.
- Supporting Initiatives: Helping coordinate localized marketing campaigns, webinars, or database outreach.
- Managing Client Experience: Handling emails, standard intake questionnaires, and general customer service.
- Generating Leads: Filtering through initial inquiry forms to qualify high-intent travelers.
- Building Itineraries: Importing supplier confirmations, mapping out routes, and updating itinerary apps.
- Streamlining Operations: Setting up, documenting, or standardizing your client workflows.
Having someone who can handle the day-to-day administrative tasks of your business frees up your precious mental space so you can spend it doing what matters most: growing your business.
How to Prepare Before Hiring a Virtual Assistant
My best advice before hiring a virtual assistant is to know exactly what you want first.
- Audit Your Tasks: Make a list of what you’re looking for and what specific tasks they can help you with. Keep in mind that while one VA might not be able to check all of your boxes, the ability to contract with multiple specialized VAs instead of hiring a single employee with a single skill set provides significantly more flexibility and opportunity for your business.
- Document Your Tech: If you want your assistant to use a specific software or new technology, try to create an easy-to-follow screen recording or standard operating guide for them if you already know how to use it. Alternatively, provide them with the resources to learn it themselves. Chances are, even without much direction, professional VAs will easily find a way to figure it out!
- Use a Task Manager: I highly recommend using an organized task management system (like Trello) to keep track of what projects you’re passing to them. This visual layout keeps you both aligned and organized without requiring constant back-and-forth emails.
Most of all, don’t look at a virtual assistant as an added expense to your business. In reality, they could easily become your most valuable business asset!
Reclaim Your Time and Scale Your Agency
There are tons of reasons why you need a virtual assistant in your busy career as a travel advisor. As you can see, the operational, mental, and financial benefits of working with a professional assistant are undeniable. If you’re looking for someone to help with some of your business’s more time-consuming or difficult tasks, consider hiring a virtual assistant today!
Ready to Find Your Perfect Assistant?
Do you want to hire a virtual assistant? Fill out our quick referral form below, and we’ll put you in touch with a hiring manager for one or multiple highly-vetted VA staffing agencies specializing in the travel industry!
