While the culture of hiring virtual assistants still trying to gain grounds in Nigeria, Sidekicke was launched to further promote it, enabling SMEs, busy professionals and organisations to hire skilled virtual assistants for different tasks. These highly trained assistants are independent contractors and they work remotely thereby reducing the overhead costs (office space, tax, pensions and HMOs) that will by incurred by hiring a full-time staff. In addition to being trained as executive assistants, Sidekicke employs individuals that have specific set of skills that will enable the assistants work in various capacities, including Writing, Translation, Marketing/Social Media, Calendar scheduling, Telemarketing, Online research, Customer service and Project Management. The platform currently has virtual assistants in present in all states of the Nigeria, with the company headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. Sidekicke assistants are graduate students, pregnant mothers, single parents and skilled people looking to make extra income. According to the founder, “we have successfully created a database of skilled assistants that are available to work virtually and provided an e-learning portal for continuous training to meet global standards. These assistants are employed via a strict and cut-eye medium”. The use of virtual assistants is a popular culture in many developed cities around the world. With Sidekicke, the same should apply in Nigeria, and entrepreneurs should find it easier to start their businesses, without having to think of the cost of getting an office space and filling it up with full-time staff.
