The world is changing, and so is the way we do business and grow our teams. After running a virtual assistant agency for several years in the financial industry, I started listening to the pain points from my interior designer friends around finding great team members. Many struggled to find local candidates that had the right skillsets and those that tried to hire virtually from general hiring platforms were left with candidates who didn’t know anything about the interior design world.
One of those interior designers literally said to me, “Why aren’t you matching virtual design assistants with interior designers?”
Needless to say, I started doing that right away. I learned back in 2009 that I had a knack for networking and connecting the right people to each other, so this seemed like a no brainer and in 2019 Elite Design Assistants was born.
In an effort to make the process as seamless as possible, we offer an as needed contract, no minimums and flat hourly rates. Everyone on our team has several years of experience in the interior design industry and I match them to interior designers based on the specific skills and talents those interior designers are looking for.
This is the modern way to build a team and scale your business the right way … by hiring experienced and professional virtual design assistants (VDA).
Whether you are building a team, need someone just to fill one specific need for your existing team, filling a maternity leave, vacation or other – we are here to help!
My clients typically build their teams based on specific niches within the interior design industry. For example, they often hire a VDA for administrative tasks, one for social media & marketing, one for drafting & 3d rendering, one for bookkeeping, etc. This is a cost-effective and very efficient way to build a team, and you can start by hiring one VDA and grow from there. You get experts who know each niche of the industry versus one person who knows a little about a lot.
I have other clients who already have several in-house team members but are struggling to find a great candidate for one specific niche – let’s say for example administrative tasks in Studio Designer. Through our company they are able to hire a VDA specifically for admin in Studio Designer.
Other clients have worked with us just to fill maternity leaves, vacations and during their busy seasons.
Since our contract is as-needed, our services are perfect for interior designers who have fluctuating schedules throughout the year. We all know that you could have ten projects at the same time and then suddenly only two. We also know certain times of year tend to be busier than others.
And even though the contract is as-needed, we are still matching for long-term business relationships because many of our clients continue to work with the same VDAs for years.
Building a virtual team also allows you to become the CEO of your firm and step into the role you want. Let’s say you want to focus more on design and less on the bookkeeping, admin tasks and/or social media. Or perhaps you always wanted to offer 3D renders to your clients but you either don’t have time to learn a new program or have time to create the renders … you can outsource it. This is a great way to add new services to your firm, without having to learn anything new or spend your own time offering those services.
At the end of the day, the best way to scale your business is to outsource. Outsourcing allows you to take on more clients, offer more services and increase your revenue. And the modern way to build a team and outsource is by using experienced, niche specific VDAs.
If you’d like to learn more about Elite Design Assistants and how they help interior designers, check out their website at www.elitedesignassistants.com
Want to learn more about Studio Designer?
Studio Designer is the leading digital platform for interior designers managing and growing their design businesses, featuring fully integrated project management, time billing, product sourcing, and accounting solutions.
Want to learn how Studio Designer can work for your design firm? Schedule a call with our team: https://www.studiodesigner.com/get-a-demo/
We can’t wait to connect.