Virtual Assistant Services that will help you to grow in a Competitive World

A virtual assistant is a person who provides a variety of services to entrepreneurs from a remote location. From digital marketing, event management, personal errands to scheduling appointments hiring a virtual assistant makes it all stress-free.

Services Provided by Virtual Assistants:

  •   Virtual Admin Services: Virtual admin services include managing appointments, organizing tasks and scheduling meetings. It is important to hire a virtual assistant to carry out daily routine activities like general administration tasks, data management, and mailings and calling tasks. It will lead to an increase in work productivity. These regime activities may look small but affect drastically the core tasks if not handled on time.

  •   Accounting and Finance: Accounting and finance is the most important function of a company. This task being lengthy and having standards to follow it is recommended to hire a virtual assistant. The services provided by the expert virtual assistant are calculation and accounting services, assisting financial reporting, updating and maintaining invoices and checking deductions and taxes. Increase employee productivity by hiring a virtual assistant and lessen the burden of senior-level employees so that they can focus on more important tasks like forming efficient strategies and executing those strategies to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

  • Virtual Tech Support: Technological developments have been increasing at a fast pace and these advancements have proved beneficial to the business. But just installing software is not enough entrepreneurs need to manage it too. Virtual assistant providing tech support includes services like software installation, CCTV surveillance, windows support mac support, set up and configuration and remote diagnostic services. The tech support services work the best for small businesses that are willing to expand.

When an organization hire a virtual assistant to do a job in a professional way it saves cost on training employees to do the same task. The organization saves on salary as virtual assistants don’t work full time so the payout is also less. The most important aspect of hiring a virtual assistant is that it will save time for organizations as they can outsource activities to professional assistants and can focus on more important tasks.

Hiring a virtual assistant is beneficial in this competitive world. As virtual assistants are well trained and qualified, they can handle any tasks given to them. By hiring virtual assistant, entrepreneurs can expand the business as entrepreneurs don’t have to handle all tasks. 

The 7 Most Misunderstood Facts about Online Personal Assistant

A virtual personal assistant is a skilled and experienced person who serves business owners, entrepreneurs and small clients from a remote location. They take care of the administrative force, financial tasks and many more. A virtual assistant has a stable grasp upon the working of the internet and the new trends on it. They keep themselves updated with the latest upgrades, government norms and the needs of the market.

The demands for an online personal assistant has risen at the present time as many large companies are opting to hire a VA instead of appointing a secretary or more employees.

However, some people are still not aware of the details and facts about online personal assistants and have quite a lot of misconceptions about them. So here are the most commonly misunderstood facts about online virtual assistants.

  1. It is a belief that online personal assistants charge quite a hefty amount for the services that they provide as and when appointed. But it is a complete myth because they charge pretty less compared to the amount you pay to the employees and other workers of your company.

  2. Online personal assistants are mostly multi-tasking but as they perform their job from a remote location, they fail to understand the immediate needs of the company and thus it might happen that their suggestions and advice may not be fruitful for you at all times. This is again a misunderstood fact as these VAs are quite aware of the needs of the company, depending on the communication at the time of signing the contract.

  3. The virtual assistants may not agree with the terms and conditions of your company when you improve them in the long run and they might choose to not adapt to the changes and decisions taken by you. Again, something that VAs don’t normally do.

  4. Virtual personal assistants might lag behind in scheduling a meeting and taking care of the requirements of your clients as they would not get the information timely if your client faces a sudden issue and reschedule the meeting at the last moment. However, this is not true as these VAs can function efficiently with proper communication.

  5. Even when most of the virtual personal assistants are experienced and have a stronghold over their domain of work, if you end up leaving all the responsibilities upon them, you can face problems at every step. This is not true as VAs treat the clients as their own company and work efficiently and faithfully.

  6. Virtual assistants serve with full dedication and commitment but their work efficacy and productivity fail to meet the needs or their performance may lag behind the employees. It isn’t true at all as they are as efficient, or more than in-house employees.

  7. They aren’t always available upon communication as they are based on a remote location. However, VAs adjust to the work timing of the clients. Hence, they are mostly available for communication as and when needed.

However, an online personal assistant is capable of assisting in your business in many ways. If you can instruct and supervise them according to your needs, you might not face all the troubles with the misunderstood facts.

How to Get Hired as a Virtual Personal Assistant

A virtual assistant is an independent contractor who provides services to business owners and entrepreneurs from a remote location. Although the demand for a virtual personal assistant is growing rapidly these days, there is still a large number of people who don’t understand the duties and role of this job profile.

Starting from administrative tasks to managing the client’s work schedule, a virtual personal assistant has a lot to offer than you can even imagine. Depending upon your knowledge, skills and your area of interest, you can choose what facilities you want to offer to your consumers.

Find out your areas of interest and strengths and chalk out the tasks accordingly. An intense desire to learn, amazing communication skills and a bold and positive attitude are all you need to start working as a virtual personal assistant

Here is a gist of tips that you can follow to serve as a successful virtual assistant.

  • In order to work as a virtual assistant, firstly, you need to have a strong grasp of the working manner of the internet and the latest trends and customs of the services you want to provide to your clients. Thus, frame a business structure by keeping in mind the strengths and working experience you have.

  • The best part of this job profile is that it does not follow any specific rulebook and thus, there are no hard and fast regulations that you need to stick to. Decide which virtual personal assistant services you want to offer to your clients. Once you start working in this domain, you will be able to adapt and change your services accordingly on the basis of the requirements of your clients, the profitability and your personal area of strength.

  • Time management and organizing an expenditure structure is a major point to work upon before you start serving as a full-time virtual assistant. Keep a track of the monetary condition and the expenses and personal time you need for your regular lifestyle. There will always be an episode of bargaining with your clients regarding your payments and thus it is better to demand a higher rate than you require. In the long run, you won’t feel satisfied if you work for inadequate pay.

  • The next step is to design an attractive website for your business and to establish your presence. Maintaining a proper website and updating your social networking accounts is a major step to gain attention among your clients. 

  • Figure out your target market first and grow your network based on that. Find out the prospects and needs of your ideal clients and start offering the services accordingly. Serve in such a way so that you become the irreplaceable one in your duty.

By working as a virtual personal assistant, you are going to help others expand their business, thus being an extremely satisfying job profile. But you also need to take care of your needs and must set a boundary so that you do not end up suffering while trying to assist someone else to develop their business.

5 Common Mistakes while Hiring a Virtual Assistant Services Provider

A virtual assistant services provider is someone who works from a remote area and helps you to tackle the administrative tasks of your business. This job is normally done by the employees, who used to work under you in your office itself. However, virtual assistant services offer the same perks but without burdening you with the responsibilities you would have for in-house employees.

In the present generation, a virtual assistant services provider is the most preferred solution as these people mainly multitask and end up managing all your tasks and needs, single-handedly. However, hiring a virtual assistant can be quite frustrating at times if you fail to explain your working style properly. Most companies opt to hire VA services providers to solve immediate needs without thinking of the consequences. 

Nevertheless, there are some common errors you need to avoid. Here they are mentioned below:

  • It is necessary to find out the reason why you want to hire a virtual assistant. Without sorting out your needs, do not look to choose a virtual assistant randomly. That would put you in more trouble and the entire process would end up getting more messed up along with wastage of both money and time. Make a proper list of the tasks you need to get done and then look for a qualified and experienced VA who can serve you in a proper way.

  • When you are appointing a VA, it is advisable to not keep a lot of expectation from a single person. The field of expertise will vary from person to person. Thus, if you are hiring a person for managing your websites and social media accounts, it can be possible that he is not well-versed in handling your clients and management process. It would be a waste to over expect from your VA and in order to avoid complications, maintain clarity of your requirements and communicate accordingly.

  • Hiring a virtual assistant does not mean you won’t review their works. It is needed to maintain a calendar and to examine their progress so that you can also suggest amendments and changes. It would boost your knowledge and would help to avoid the repetition of mistakes.

  • In recent years, there has been a rush in outsourcing VA to overseas companies as it benefits the financial side and also does increase the productivity of work. However, you need to give a thought to the part that language and cultural barriers may affect his service to some extent if proper instructions are not provided as and when needed.

  • Virtual Assistant Services are mainly provided by administrative experts who are trained and have a fair experience in this domain. Yet, they need proper instructions and briefings for the service and work to be done. Prepare a step-by-step guide that would help you to get maximum benefit.

By taking care of the steps you need to take from your side, you can prevent blunders and increase the productivity of your business Plus, all of this at much lower cost.