Virtual assistants can handle a wide variety of tasks, ranging from administrative tasks to bookkeeping and graphic design. They can also be your virtual receptionist, virtual personal assistant, and many more.
And if you’re looking for a virtual assistant from Canada, you’ll find all the essential information in this article.
We’ll highlight the five top companies to find a Canadian virtual assistant. We’ll then go over the pros and challenges of hiring virtual assistants from Canada and their salary details.
This article contains:
(Jump to a specific section using the below links)
- Virtual Assistant Canada: Top 5 Service Providers
- 4 Key Advantages of Hiring a Canadian Virtual Assistant
- 2 Major Challenges of Hiring a Canadian Virtual Assistant
- How Much Should You Pay For a Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistant Canada: Top 5 service providers
A virtual assistant is a freelancer that can perform tasks for you from remote locations.
They assist you with various tasks such as social media management, marketing, bookkeeping, and more.
Any major virtual assistant company offers services in these four lines of business:
- Administrative support: Everyday office tasks such as scheduling meetings, taking minutes, calendar management, and email management.
- Social media: Creating profiles, interacting with audiences from different social media platforms, sourcing and curating content for your social media profiles, and spearheading your social media campaigns.
- Bookkeeping: Financial duties such as general bookkeeping, preparing balance sheets, tracking receipts and bank statements, monthly invoicing, monthly expense reports and reconciliation, etc.
- Digital marketing: Blogging and other forms of content creation, social media management, email marketing, and SEO for your business.
Read our in-depth article on virtual assistant services to learn everything you need to know about it.
Now that we have an idea of what virtual assistants can do, here’s where to find some of the top Canadian virtual assistants that will get your business processes streamlined.
Find the perfect Canadian virtual assistant for your business with the help of these top service providers:
1. Virtual Assistant Canada
Virtual Assistant Canada is an outsourcing company that connects businesses with virtual assistants who can clear the piles of paperwork you still need to address.
They hire only the top 5% of applicants, so you’re sure to find a quality virtual assistant from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver.
Services offered
- Office administration: Handle office tasks such as storing information in filing systems and preparing communications such as emails, invoices, and memos.
- Bookkeeping: Manage the storage, retrieval, and record of financial transactions.
- Data entry: Keep spreadsheets, databases, and customer information up to date.
- Executive and personal assistant: Will take on some of your daily tasks to free up more time for you.
- Social media management: Keep social media profiles such as Facebook up to date and engage with your company’s online audience.
- Email management: Have emails sorted, addressed, and sent. It also involves scheduling appointments and setting up reminders.
Key features
- Automated time-tracking makes sure you receive an accurate invoice.
- Trained and experienced virtual assistants, so you don’t have to train them extensively.
- Personal dashboard to assign tasks, share files, and leave messages for your dedicated virtual assistant.
Pricing
Contact them to set up a free consultation.
2. Canadian Association of Virtual Assistants
The Canadian Association of Virtual Assistants is a community of virtual assistants that facilitates all aspects of becoming one and connecting with clients. They offer education, training, networking, and many more virtual assistant services.
Services offered
- SEO: Use search engine optimization methods to boost website traffic.
- Website design: Set up the layout and appearance of websites.
- Copy/Content writing: Produce written copy and content as per the requirements.
- Editing/Proofreading: Proofread and edit documents before sending them out to the client.
- Internet research: Compile information and list websites related to the required search terms.
- Resume writing: Create a detailed and insightful resume that stands out for an employer and hiring committee.
Key features
- You can send the company a request for a proposal with details on what you need, and they’ll match you with an available virtual assistant.
- An additional rigorous screening process to find the absolute best match for your needs.
- A member directory for you to handpick a virtual assistant that meets your needs exactly.
- Virtual assistants can be trained even further with the companies’ training material.
Pricing
Members send you an invoice based on their individual rates.
3. Virtual Gurus
Virtual Gurus is a virtual assistant business where Canadian and American virtual assistants can provide assistance for dedicated purposes, special projects, or help with occasional tasks.
Their ‘ready, set, delegate’ approach to virtual service ensures you get paired with the right team for your needs.
Services offered
- Marketing support: To assist with content creation, editing copy, proofreading, managing email campaigns, and graphic design for marketing material.
- Sales support: Provides CRM management, prospecting, and proposal writing for your sales team.
- Office management support: Assistance for small event coordination, project coordination, and managing third-party vendors.
- Real estate assistance: Handling paperwork like creating listings.
- Legal assistance: Prepare case summaries and pleadings, organize material for case reviews, schedule witnesses, transcription, draft complaints, and more.
- Medical assistance: Schedule patient appointments and follow-ups, maintain medical records, provide medical transcription, and order medical supplies and materials.
Key features
- Delegate all your tasks to your virtual assistant through the company’s mobile-friendly project management software.
- A dedicated team identifies top-quality virtual assistants and matches their skill sets with your needs.
- A detailed academy will ensure thoroughly trained virtual assistants provide quality remote services.
- Different packages for the amount of work you require.
Pricing
The virtual assistant plan starts at $350 per month.
4. Canada’s Virtual Assistant
Canada’s Virtual Assistant will handle the mundane and tedious tasks necessary for any business to function. They can offer short-term service and long-term assistance for projects that need more attention.
Services offered
- Online business management: Manage social media, emails, schedules, invoices, and more.
- Content creation & repurposing: Write blogs and design graphic content.
- Executive assistant: Schedule your business and personal appointments, book travel arrangements and handle your emails.
- Project management: Ensure all tasks are up to speed and on schedule.
- Manuals & courses: Facilitate onboarding and staffing processes, staff training, designing courses, and compiling course materials.
Key features
- Free consultation to find a match for your needs.
- Training resources for all virtual assistants.
- Virtual assistants are trained specifically for remote work.
- A portfolio is available to preview the quality of work they provide.
Pricing
Packages start at $525 per month.
5. Upwork
Upwork is a hub for individual virtual assistants and freelancers to market themselves for companies looking to delegate specific tasks and projects. They are one of the biggest marketplaces to find talent for remote work.
Services offered
- Development & IT: Create and manage computer applications, financial systems, and logistical solutions.
- Design & creative: Produce written content, digital media, advertising, marketing, broadcasting, and other written and visual forms of communication for clients.
- Sales & marketing: Manage your business and customer service through email campaigns, SEO, social media marketing, turning leads into revenue.
- Writing & translation: Will draft content for your business and translate it into languages for international clients.
- Finance & accounting: Manage the financial aspects of your business through bookkeeping, tax consulting, fundraising consultants, financial analysts, and interim CFOs.
- HR & training: Develop and train your team members with HR managers, consultants, recruiters, and training & development specialists.
- Administrative assistant: Manage customer service duties, data entry, and tech support.
Key features
- A dedicated account manager to handle your queries.
- Background checks to verify the virtual assistant’s information and work history.
- A central hub for communication between assistant and client.
- Set country-specific search parameters for a virtual assistant.
Pricing
Upwork has a free basic plan, but paid pricing plans cost $49.99/month. The platform charges 5-20% of earnings for freelancers.
Learn more about outsourcing to Canada – its pros, cons, and laws to consider.
So what can you look forward to when you hire virtual assistants from Canada?
Let’s find out.
4 advantages of hiring a Canadian virtual assistant
If you can hire a virtual assistant from anywhere in the world, what makes Canadian virtual assistants stand out?
These advantages will convince you of the value Canadian virtual assistant services can bring to any business support team.
1. English fluency
When dealing with an assistant from another country, a language barrier may slow down your business processes. So having a native English-speaking virtual assistant comes in handy.
Canadian virtual assistants also understand North American culture so they can fit right in even faster to avoid miscommunications.
You can also find bilingual Canadian virtual assistants as the country has a small population fluent in French. This can be beneficial when dealing with French-speaking customers and clients.
2. Less time difference with US companies
When hiring a virtual assistant from anywhere in the world, you must always consider the time difference between their country and yours.
Both you and the virtual assistant need to communicate as much as possible during business hours.
If you’re in the USA, the most time difference you’ll experience is four hours. That means you’ll still be able to communicate for most of the day.
3. Highly skilled VAs
The Canadian academic system is on par with some of the highest-rated educational systems worldwide.
The country’s high standards ensure that skilled and talented virtual assistants deliver the best results possible.
4. Expand Canadian network
Let’s say you’re looking to expand your business in Canada. The first thing you need to do is make the right connections.
And how do you do that?
Simple! With a Canadian virtual assistant.
Delegating tasks to your Canadian virtual assistant will be beneficial to build a local network efficiently. Virtual assistants can find local clients for you and help market your products and services in Canada.
Additionally, a Canadian virtual assistant already understands the cultural nuances to help you make the perfect first impression on potential clients from Canada. A small business can even hire a virtual assistant to handle lead generation in Canada.
Clearly, hiring Canadian virtual assistants offers many benefits.
However, there are some challenges you must consider first.
2 challenges of hiring Canadian a virtual assistant
Hiring a Canadian virtual assistant may seem like a great choice, but there are a few drawbacks to it as well. Let’s have a look at them.
1. High cost
Hiring a highly-skilled and educated Canadian virtual assistant will mean paying higher rates than most other countries.
Most Canadian virtual assistants will have an hourly rate of $15,64, whereas a virtual assistant from South Africa will have an hourly rate of about $9,51 per hour.
However, there are still other benefits to hiring virtual assistants instead of in-house assistants. You only need to pay for each time you hire them instead of an annual salary, and you avoid overhead costs.
So that extra bump in price translates into quality at the end.
2. Might not understand customer needs based on your business’ location
Location is an essential factor when running a business.
How?
Your customer’s needs are tailored around their location. You can expect that most businesses in your area have area-specific products and services.
The problem with hiring a virtual assistant from a different region is that they may not relate to or have experience in the area your potential customer lives.
Canadian virtual assistants may not be familiar even with your exact local requirements and professional standards. This is largely unavoidable if you operate a location-dependent business.
Unfortunately, this could affect meeting your business objectives.
But when all is said and done, and you’re ready to start working with a virtual assistant, the only question left to ask is how much do virtual assistants charge?
How much should you pay for a Canadian virtual assistant
Most independent Canadian virtual assistants will typically charge up to about $15 per hour, so small business owners shouldn’t be too discouraged from hiring one.
Hourly rates also depend on the type of job they do and if it is specialized or not.
For example, you’ll find that virtual assistants who specialize in finance, law, health care, etc., typically charge more as they have pursued higher education in these fields.
Virtual assistant jobs like data entry services or virtual administrative assistant services, for example, would charge less in that regard.
Additionally, virtual assistants who work through agencies would earn less.
Some virtual assistants may also opt to charge alternatively based on:
- Number of projects or services.
- Package rates.
- Number of hours (retainer).
Learn more about the cost to hire a virtual assistant based on three key factors.
Wrapping up
The best entrepreneur is the one who knows how to delegate a task to the right person.
And hiring a virtual assistant can help you do just that.
You’ll find highly-skilled, competent, and hardworking virtual assistants in Canada. And working with them will allow you to expand your horizons and dip your toes into a new market.
Be sure to check out the websites above to find a suitable VA from Canada. Once you have the right VA, you’ll be able to boost your business efficiency in no time.
Andy is a technology & marketing leader who has delivered award-winning and world-first experiences.