When we think of outsourcing, what image comes to mind? A friendly worker with a headset on? Telemarketers cold-calling a list of prospects? Customer service representatives handling complaints and fielding requests?
Well, you wouldn’t be wrong. It is standard practice to farm out such functions in sales and marketing. Dealing with customers all day can be time-consuming, and is best left to professionals.
However, there’s a whole other aspect of your business that you can and should outsource before anything else. These have to do with your back office.
IN THIS BLOG
- ➤
What Your Back Office Is and How It Functions - ➤
Why You Should Outsource Your Back Office Functions First - ➤
1. They require specialised skills that you might not have. - ➤
2. Most of the tasks are routine and won’t require major decision-making often. - ➤
3. Back-office functions are especially well-suited for remote work.
What Your Back Office Is and How It Functions
To put it simply, your company’s back-office encompasses its administration and support personnel. What makes it different from your front office is that these people are not client-facing.
Now, the back office is essential to your company’s operations, even if they might seem invisible. Their roles enable and equip the client-facing employees to do their jobs well as provide all business functions related to operations.
Back-office administrators are thus an umbrella term covering diverse specialisations. Accountants, bookkeepers, virtual assistants, data entry personnel, and human resources (HR) staff are just a few examples.
Generally, if a function falls under HR, Operations, IT, Accounting, or Compliance, it counts as a back-office one. Aside from their daily tasks, these employees also need to stay on top of ever-changing federal regulations, safety laws, and employment standards. Keeping information systems and bookkeeping records up to date is also a key task.
Why You Should Outsource Your Back Office Functions First
There’s a reason why many companies and entrepreneurs often outsource for virtual assistants first. (And if that’s what you need, click here for our in-depth guide.)
You see, while back-office functions are crucial, they don’t directly generate revenue. That’s what the front office is for. Interacting with customers, making cold calls, and working on marketing drive sales, after all.
However, if you’re just starting out and are on a tight budget, it might not be possible to outsource for both your front and back office right away.
So, here’s why you should outsource your back office’s functions first:
1. They require specialised skills that you might not have.
Accounting and bookkeeping can take years to study and master. The same goes for some human resources functions, particularly the ones that involve labor laws.
So, bunkering down to these things yourself would be an inefficient use of your time, especially if there’s someone out there who can do it better. It would be best to leave these things to the experts. Apart from saving time, that could also spare you from making any mistakes that could incur heavy regulatory penalties.
2. Most of the tasks are routine and won’t require major decision-making often.
Once you standardise your operations and if you onboard your back office staff properly, it should run like clockwork. Tasks like data entry and updating the books hardly require a business owner’s personal input. All you need to do is review the output afterwards so you can make the right decisions.
Outsourcing these routine tasks frees up your time and lets you focus on the other important task that only you can do: reaching out to new customers and promoting your product and/or services to them.
Candidates:
Filter by Role:
*Booking interviews depend on candidates' availability and interest.
All-inclusive Rate: USD $9.02/hr
Maria
Candidate ID: 252309
ADVANCED
-
Real Estate, Property Management, Sales, Administrative Support...
INTERMEDIATE
-
Customer Service, Bookkeeping...
Median Rate
$9.02
$9.85
if $1 = PHP52
$11.68
if $1 = PHP40
Currency Fluctuation Range
*includes service fee. Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate, and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
**Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
Employment Preferences
(inclusive of service fee)
*Plus GST for Australian Businesses
Full Time: $USD 9.02 per hour or $USD 1563.23 per month
Remote Staff Recruiter Comments
Technical & Industry Experience:
- Gem has been working remotely since 2017 and is well-acquainted with the demands of virtual collaboration.
- Her real estate admin background includes tasks such as preparing lease agreements, handling renewals and rent increases, coordinating with tenants and landlords, and managing compliance documentation.
- She is adept at using platforms such as PropertyMe, PropertyTree, and other complementary tools like InspectRealEstate, Inspect Express, and PriceFinder.
- Although she has limited experience handling rent allocations within real estate contexts, she is confident with basic bookkeeping due to her academic background in accountancy and her prior experience using Xero.
- She is available to start immediately.
Strongest Behaviors
- Private, serious, introspective, and reserved. Takes time to connect to and trust new people.
- Focused; can concentrate on the task at hand for long periods. Quickly notices and understands technical matters more than social ones. Consistent and patiently thoughtful.
- Works at a steady, unwavering pace; most comfortable with familiar processes, environments, and co-workers. Doesn’t easily change.
- Unhurried and deliberate, stable and will do things using the established process; finds it difficult to change these systems. Dependable, consistent and needs familiar environments and coworkers to be most productive.
- Cooperative, easy-going, and agreeable in getting along with others. A focused, uncritical listener who won’t “rock the boat.”
Maria Gema is thoughtful, disciplined, and particularly attentive to, careful of, and accurate with the details involved in the job. Identifies problems, and enjoys solving them, particularly within their area of expertise. Works at a steady, even pace, leveraging their background for the betterment of the team, company, or customer.
A modest and unassuming person, they work autonomously in their area of expertise. When working outside of that area, their drive is to seek specialized knowledge by finding definitive answers from written resources, authoritative management, or established subject-matter experts. Is most effective and productive when they work within or close to their specialty and experience, and prefers to stick to the proven way. If it becomes necessary for to initiate or adopt change, she will need to see cold, hard, evidence to prove that the new way is proven, complete, and yields high-quality results. In addition, they’ll carefully plan the implementation to minimize problems and maximize results.
Employment History
VA Office Admin Assistant
Industry:
Property / Real Estate
Employment Period:
May 2022 to February 2025 (33 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Preparing signup packs and lease renewals for lease properties
- Provided clerical support to company employees by copying and filing documents.
- Created and updated digital files to maintain current accurate and compliant documents.
- Email arrears reminders to tenantsProcessing invoices
Real Estate Admin Virtual Assistant
Industry:
Property / Real Estate
Employment Period:
January 2019 to November 2024 (70 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Provided administrative support to real estate agents and property managers, managing multiple transactions simultaneously.
- Created and updated property listings, ensuring accuracy across.
- Assisted with contract preparation and document management, ensuring compliance with state regulations.
- Managed CRM systems and led client communication.
- Coordinated appointment scheduling and follow-ups, reducing administrative time by 15%.
VA - Lead Generation
Industry:
Entertainment / Media
Employment Period:
October 2018 to July 2019 (9 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Opened new accounts and documented personal, demographic and payment information in system.
- Educated customers on product and service benefits, explaining features and answering questions.
- Pitched products and services to potential customers, securing new deals and sales opportunities.
- Collaborated with marketing teams to develop and execute promotional strategies.
- Set up appointments with interested customers according to schedule availability.
VA - Customer Service
Industry:
Apparel
Employment Period:
April 2017 to June 2019 (26 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Outgoing calls and emails to current customers and asked openminded questions to determine needs.
- Developed lasting relationships with customers, which helped to bring in additional business opportunities.
- Developed and maintained user documentation to establish product understanding.
Customer Service/Travel Agent
Industry:
Travel / Tourism
Employment Period:
August 2014 to May 2017 (33 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Responsible for the sales order process-taking orders, discussing customers requirements and providing knowledgeable advice regarding their flight itenrary.
- Responsible for ensuring that customer enquiries are resolved at first point of contact.
- Promoting company’s products and services to customers.
- Handling objections professionally Issuing refunds or compensation to customers.
Education History
Field of Study:
Finance/Accountancy/Banking
Major:
Accountancy
Graduation Date:
March 31, 2001
Located In:
Philippines
License and Certification: :
N/A
Skills
ADVANCED ★★★
-
Real Estate, Property Management, Sales, Administrative Support, Administrative Skills,
INTERMEDIATE ★★
-
Customer ServiceBookkeeping
Work at Home Capabilities:
- Internet Bandwidth: Between 5mbps to 100mbps
- Working Environment: Private Room
- Speed Test Result: N/A
- Internet Type: Fiber
- Hardware Type: Laptop
- Brand Name: N/A
- Processor: N/A
- Operating System: Windows 11
*includes service fee. Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate, and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
**Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
3. Back-office functions are especially well-suited for remote work.
With today’s technological advancements, an accountant or bookkeeper can draw up your financial statements and have them in your inbox shortly. Even if they happen to be on a different continent or time zone. Virtual assistants can manage your Google calendar, book your flights and accommodations, pay your bills, and so on from anywhere in the world as well, just so long as they have the right access.
Best of all, outsourcing your back-office functions can help you save money. Why? Because you can choose to hire remotely in places with low costs of living, where the exchange rate makes your Australian dollars go much further.
For instance, the Philippines is home to a lot of highly-qualified remote workers who happen to be quite fluent in English. Costs of living here are some of the lowest in the world, so you can save on labor costs while still providing someone with a decent living.
Are you ready to experience the next level of convenience that comes with outsourcing all those tedious back-office functions? Well, you’re in luck!
Here at Remote Staff, we have no shortage of applicants for all sorts of back-office jobs. Plus, we even take care of onboarding them for you so you can be sure that they’ll be ready when you are.
Click here and schedule a callback with us today.
Serena has been working remotely and writing content for the better part of the last decade. To date, she's written for Pepper.ph and Mabuhay Magazine, among others, and has churned out more than a thousand articles on everything from The Basics of Stock Market Investing to How to Make Milk Tea-Flavored Taho at home.
