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What Is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is an independent contractor who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client’s office. A virtual assistant typically operates from a home office but can access the necessary planning documents, such as shared calendars, remotely.
People employed as virtual assistants often have several years of experience as an administrative assistant or office manager. New opportunities are opening up for virtual assistants who are skilled in social media, content management, blog post writing, graphic design, and internet marketing. As working from home has become more accepted for both workers and employers, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for skilled virtual assistants is expected to grow.
How Hard Is It to Be a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant has some of the same challenges as an in-person assistant, including working with a variety of programs, managing and prioritizing competing tasks and answering to an employer. What’s different is that the virtual assistant is doing all of this remotely, without frequent in-person interaction, in a different location than their employer. This may be a less stressful environment for many employees. However, it’s also an environment without any technical support staff on hand if there are any technological problems.
How Can You Become a Virtual Assistant?
Having previous experience as an administrative assistant or support staff member is helpful, but not necessary. Even individuals without past experience can take training courses to learn needed skills, such as the Microsoft Office Suite or other administrative software. Freelance networks such as Upwork and Fiverr provide marketplaces where contractors can seek out positions. Contractors can also seek out work on more traditional job boards or through networking sites such as LinkedIn.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant
With the increasing number of freelance contractors who work from home, the employment market has seen a proliferation of Web-based companies that serve as intermediaries between prospective employers and contractors. Some freelancer sites have enormous work pools made up of individuals across the globe with a wide range of experience and expertise.
On these sites, clients can post details about the type of tasks they need the virtual assistant to perform and the maximum rate they are willing to pay. Freelance workers may then bid on the job and give the client samples of their work for review. In some cases, the client can set up a video conference to interview the applicants and to more thoroughly assess their qualifications.
How a Virtual Assistant Works
Virtual assistants have become more prominent as small businesses and startups rely on virtual offices to keep costs down and businesses of all sizes increase their use of the internet for daily operations. Because a virtual assistant is an independent contractor, a business does not have to provide the same benefits or pay the same taxes that it would for a full-time employee. A virtual assistant is different from a salaried administrative assistant who works from home and would have the same compensation and same tax structure as any other full-time employee.
Also, since the virtual assistant works offsite, there is no need for a desk or other workspace at the company’s office. A virtual assistant is expected to pay for and provide their own computer equipment, commonly used software programs, and high-speed Internet service.
The common question business owners face is, “How can a virtual assistant help your business?” Well, virtual assistants streamline work processes to ensure your business runs smoothly.
No matter how large or small your business may be, or irrespective of the industry in which your business functions, there will be hundreds of processes dealing with customers or clients. The least you can do is free up your staff to take up more pressing responsibilities and leave the rest of the work to a virtual assistant (VA).
So, how can virtual assistants help your business? Here is an overview:
Writing content
Scheduling appointments
Tracking your bills and accounts
Managing customer relations
Social media marketing
Filtering job applications and recruiting
Designing, developing, and maintaining websites
Handling payments
Helping you with sales
How Can a Virtual Assistant Help Your Business Grow?
Writing Content
Getting your message out in front of your potential clients or customers consistently is not easy, especially when you have a business to run.
Virtual assistants can essentially help you with content writing tasks. More specifically, you can take their help in producing blog posts, managing social media content, and sending email newsletters.
Furthermore, they can provide editing and proofreading services for your articles and web pages. This is to ensure that high content quality is maintained by identifying and removing any spelling, grammatical, or factual errors.
They are also able to assist your business in preparing formats for official corporate documents, presentations, and letters.
Simultaneously, they can write and send outreach emails for your business.
How a Virtual Assistant Works
Virtual assistants have become more prominent as small businesses and startups rely on virtual offices to keep costs down and businesses of all sizes increase their use of the internet for daily operations. Because a virtual assistant is an independent contractor, a business does not have to provide the same benefits or pay the same taxes that it would for a full-time employee. A virtual assistant is different from a salaried administrative assistant who works from home and would have the same compensation and same tax structure as any other full-time employee.
Also, since the virtual assistant works offsite, there is no need for a desk or other workspace at the company’s office. A virtual assistant is expected to pay for and provide their own computer equipment, commonly used software programs, and high-speed Internet service.
Virtual Assistant Duties
The specific duties of a virtual assistant vary according to the needs of the client and the terms of the contract. Some virtual assistants handle clerical and bookkeeping tasks, while others may post regular updates to social media or write articles for a blog. A well-rounded virtual assistant may also handle travel arrangements, appointment scheduling, data entry, and online file storage.
Virtual Assistant Qualifications
While there are no hard-and-fast educational requirements to become a virtual assistant, many clients will look for virtual assistants who have some higher-level education or specialized training. A few online companies and community colleges offer courses and certification for virtual assistant skills.
A virtual assistant should be tech-savvy, having a wide range of computer skills and a high level of proficiency with commonly used software and business programs. A virtual assistant who specializes in bookkeeping should be adept at basic accounting tasks, such as account reconciliations and double-entry bookkeeping.
Benefits of a Virtual Assistant
For the client, one advantage of hiring a virtual assistant is the flexibility to contract for just the services they need. Depending on the terms of the agreement, some virtual assistants may be paid by the task rather than by the hour. In contrast, employees in a traditional office setting usually must be paid for a fixed number of hours per day.
For small business owners, hiring a virtual assistant can help them free up valuable hours to focus on growing the business and generating revenue. It can be easier and more cost-effective to outsource tasks that are tedious and time-consuming, to someone who is skilled at them.
Scheduling Appointments
You may think scheduling appointments as per your availability is not a tough job.
However, you may be leading a complex life featuring a large number of appointments with various other businesses and significant persons, such as colleague outings, client meetings, hotel bookings, doctor visits, and so on.
You cannot afford to have a single appointment clash with another one, because then managing your appointment schedule would become hectic. For this reason, you would need someone to schedule, move, and cancel your appointments.
A virtual assistant can do so efficiently, making the entire process a breeze for you and keeping your business calendar decluttered. They can also handle all your reminders and confirmations.
Social Media Marketing
How can a virtual assistant help your marketing endeavours on social media?
Well, your virtual assistant can help you conduct research to determine which social platforms and channels resonate the most with your target audience. After that, they can assist you in setting up, designing, and launching social media marketing campaigns.
Replying to each comment on your social media posts may prove to be a tedious job, so why not have a virtual assistant look into it?
Virtual assistants can also grow your social media following and find social groups that you can join for your business needs. They can either use social media scheduling tools or schedule your social posts themselves if the number of posts is not much.
Filtering Job Applications and Recruiting
When it comes to vetting job applications and recruiting candidates for your business, you may get frustrated easily and quickly. Your brand will need to conduct recruitment drives now and then, as per your workload and services.
For example, if you own a content creation agency, you would need to hire content writers, editors, copywriters, social media managers, video producers and editors, and so on.
You would then have to go through thousands and thousands of applications for each of these positions.
However, that would not be possible, as you have a whole business to run. Instead, you can simply provide a list of criteria to your virtual assistant.
They will search through thousands of CVs to find the ones that meet your criteria. Then, they can schedule interviews with the candidates they think might be the best fit for your business.
Conclusion: Virtual Assistants and Business
Due to the reasons stated above, multiple online businesses have already got virtual assistants on board.
And, now that you know the answer to “How can a virtual assistant help your business?”, it is time for you to hire one. Once you do so, you will find your business running efficiently in no time at all.
For hiring virtual assistants, MyTasker would be a great place to start. All you need to do is reach out to our professional virtual assistants and delegate any tasks you would like to be handled. From administrative assistance to digital marketing, they are always ready to help take your business to the next level.
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