As businesses in Australia gear up for 2025, virtual assistants are becoming more essential for achieving their goals. Smartshoring—a modern outsourcing strategy that blends the cost benefits of offshoring with the quality and ease of onshoring—provides a flexible and effective approach.
This method ensures that businesses can maintain high standards while managing costs and enhancing flexibility. Whether you’re looking to boost productivity, control expenses, or drive innovation, using virtual assistants through smartshoring can deliver the tailored solutions and competitive edge needed for a prosperous new year.
Key takeaways:
Understanding Smartshoring
Smartshoring is the thoughtful combination of offshoring and onshoring, designed to give businesses the best of both worlds. This modern approach to outsourcing is tailored to fit the unique needs of each business, to provide an optimal balance between cost, quality, and operational flexibility.
Smartshoring promotes:
- Cost Efficiency: Traditional offshoring aims to minimise expenses by transferring tasks to lower-cost regions. Smartshoring builds on this by choosing locations not just for their cost advantages but also for their capacity to deliver value in specific areas of business.
For example, our Australian clients prefer outsourcing to our skilled VAs from the Philippines for minimal timezone issues 🕜 - Flexibility: One of the core strengths of smartshoring is its adaptability. Businesses can outsource different parts of a project or operation to the most suitable markets 💼 This approach allows for a more customised strategy that can quickly adapt to changes and new opportunities.
- Quality and Speed: Rather than compromising on quality, smartshoring focuses on selecting partners who excel in delivering top-tier results promptly. This may involve selecting a location known for a particular expertise or a track record of efficient service delivery. You might have your client-facing sales consultants from the United States or Australia, for example, and decide to hire English-proficient Filipino VAs as your customer service staff.
👉 Related: How Customer Service VAs help improve your client relationships
By integrating smartshoring, companies can achieve a bespoke outsourcing solution that enhances their operational capabilities while still being cost-effective.
The Role of Virtual Assistants in Smartshoring
Outsourcing Angel CEO Linh Podetti (left) and her executive virtual assistant Seeta Nair from Singapore (right) have been working for 5 years—and counting!
Virtual assistants are integral to the smartshoring model, because their roles are versatile and can be tailored to meet all sorts of business needs.
👉 Related: The Ultimate List: What Can VAs Do?
Here’s how reliable VAs help you implement smartshoring strategies:
1. VAs provide specialised skills at lower cost: Virtual assistants provide specialised skills without the associated costs of full-time employees, such as benefits, office space, and long-term commitments.
Your business can then access a global talent pool, selecting VAs from regions with lower cost structures for routine tasks, while still hiring from higher-cost regions when specialised expertise is required.
2. VAs help enhance service quality and responsiveness: By strategically selecting virtual assistants based on specific skill sets and regional strengths, companies can ensure high-quality output and timely delivery.
For instance, a VA from a region with a strong background in tech can manage IT operations, while another from a region known for excellent customer service can handle client interactions.
👉 Related: Create A Smashing Sales Pipeline On a Budget (7 Tips)
3. VAs help you operate 24/7: Smartshoring with virtual assistants allows your business to operate across multiple time zones, ensuring that some part of your operations is always active. This can lead to faster turnaround times for projects and a 24/7 approach to customer service.
In short, smartshoring with VAs enables your business to optimise resource allocation, which then improves operational efficiency.
How to Implement Smartshoring in Your Business
To effectively implement smartshoring with virtual assistants, here’s a hands-on approach:
Step 1. Evaluate Business Processes
Begin by conducting a thorough analysis of your business operations. Identify areas where efficiency can be improved, such as:
- administrative tasks
- customer support
- or digital marketing efforts.
You can even document these processes in detail to understand where a virtual assistant could provide the most impact.
👉 Related: Importance of Systems and Processes to Your Business
Step 2. Define Specific VA Roles
Once you’ve identified the processes that need support, outline specific roles for virtual assistants.
For instance, if customer response times need improvement, consider a VA specialised in customer service management. Create detailed job descriptions for each role too, including:
- expected tasks
- required skills
- and performance indicators.
Outsourcing strategist Alex Brooks (right) and CEO Linh Podetti (left) thrive in matching growth-oriented business owners with heart-centred virtual assistants.
Step 3. Choose VAs with Relevant Experience
When selecting virtual assistants, prioritise candidates with direct experience in the tasks you’re outsourcing. Use platforms that vet VAs for quality and reliability, or work with a reputable outsourcing agency that matches you with pre-screened VAs 😉
Conduct interviews and reference checks to assess their understanding of the tasks and fit with your company culture.
👉 Related: How we hire heart-centred virtual assistants from the Philippines
Step 4. Implement Robust Onboarding and Training
Develop an onboarding program that includes training on your business’s tools, processes, and expectations. This could involve step-by-step guides, video tutorials, and initial task simulations to ensure the VA is well-prepared.
Step 5. Establish Communication Rhythms
Set up a communication schedule that aligns with your business hours and the VA’s time zone.
Our marketing manager Annie Nguyen and copywriter Arielle Calañas during their monthly 1:1, where they discuss progress, future plans, and any work and personal concerns.
At Outsourcing Angel, we implement regular one-on-one meetings with our VAs to discuss their progress, address any concerns, and plan for upcoming tasks. Additionally, we utilize job scorecards as performance trackers for our staff. These scorecards should detail specific objectives and key results expected, providing a clear basis for both routine assessments and monthly reviews.
Step 6. Monitor and Adjust Workflows
Use the first few months to closely monitor the VA’s output and the impact on business operations. This is the perfect time to solicit feedback from your team and the VA themselves to identify any workflow adjustments or additional training needs. You can then adjust task allocations based on performance and business priorities.
Step 7. Review and Scale
Regularly review the effectiveness of your smartshoring strategy. If a virtual assistant is delivering exceptional value, consider scaling their responsibilities or bringing in additional VAs for other tasks based on the model’s success.
By following these steps, you can start to implement smartshoring with virtual assistants, to meet your 2025 business goals.
Success Stories from 2024
Case Study: Clock Wise Productions
Nina Froriep, owner of Clock Wise Productions in New York, struggled with finding the right virtual assistant (VA) after digitising her business in 2015. Her challenges included operational inefficiencies and a breach of privacy when her previous VA shared her personal information on LinkedIn 😮
Challenges:
- Ineffective VA hires lead to privacy concerns
- Difficulty adapting to remote operations
- Lack of support for VA integration and culture
Our Approach:
- Provided personalised support and guidance throughout the VA hiring process
- Outsourced routine tasks to allow Nina to focus on core business activities
- Ensured a good fit through a rigorous recruitment process and integrated the VA into a supportive community with ongoing benefits
Outcome:
With the right support from Outsourcing Angel, Nina successfully overcame previous setbacks, enhancing her business operations and setting a robust foundation for future growth, especially critical during the pandemic.
I never found the right VAs, and the right set-up of a VA, until I found Outsourcing Angel.
Other success testimonials:
OA can provide the support any business needs
Outsourcing Angels has added value across our business from improving customer service to optimizing collections.
We have worked with multiple VAs within OA who have a range of skills that seem to be able to fit any requirement.
- Mark Newstead
Chief Operating Officer, Butn
[My VA] is certainly someone I could trust with my life.
[VA Donna] is certainly someone I could trust with my life [and] I know she knows what to do…I don’t have any issues whatsoever and she’s always been wonderful. She has great ideas I just couldn’t think of ‘cause she’s operating from a different angle.
- Barbara Braithwaite
Principal Speech Pathologist, Safe Swallowing Australia
Try Smartshoring in 2025
As we look ahead to 2025, the strategic use of virtual assistants through smartshoring presents an exceptional opportunity for businesses in Australia to optimise their operations and achieve their goals.
It just might turn 2025 into your most productive and successful year yet!
Want to hire a Virtual Assistant?
Smartshoring with Outsourcing Angel not only offers cost efficiency, risk mitigation, and access to a global talent pool but also ensures high-quality results tailored to the unique needs of your business.
If this interests you, book a Discovery Call with us so we can discuss how smartshoring would look like for you and your team!
