What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant is a self-employed administrative or personal assistant who works remotely (usually at home) for various clients. When most people hear "virtual assistant," they assume it's a secretary who works from home.

But the field has exploded into a variety of skill sets that could be valuable to various professionals. These days, a virtual assistant is someone a lot of busy professionals just can't do without.

Why do people hire virtual assistants?

A lot of people wonder how virtual assistants stay in business. I mean, if you need an assistant, why not just hire someone to work at your business full time?

It's pretty simple, really. It comes down to money and convenience. A full-time administrative assistant can cost anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 or more (based on data at Salary.com for beginner to senior-level administrative assistants in Dallas, Texas). That's not even including benefits and bonuses. That's a hefty price to pay if you don't need someone around all the time or if you only need their help on a few projects.

A virtual assistant makes ends meet by working for multiple people. So you can hire them to work for only the hours or tasks that you need them for. If you just need someone for five or so hours a week to take phone calls while you're in meetings or onsite with a customer, they can do that. If you need them to work more hours one week, they can usually accommodate that. And if for some reason you need to save some cash, depending on the kind of contract you have with them, you can usually just discontinue their services until you've got the cash to afford it.

What can a virtual assistant do?

There are a variety of virtual assistants and they all have different skills. Some may gear their work more toward scheduling and logistics, while others may focus on web-based services like manning email accounts, doing research or social media. Here are just a few things they can help you with.

• Upload blogs or email newsletters
• Respond to emails and set up email lists
• Transcribe voice memos, conference calls and more
• Run your calendar and plan your travel
• Research
• Compile data into organized spreadsheets
• Handle forwarded phone calls when you're unavailable or out of town
• Any time-consuming or repetitive tasks
• Help you hire other employees by doing preliminary research on candidates
• Write and distribute standard business communications
• Prepare presentations
• Manage your social media accounts
• Coordinate with vendors
• Place orders for new supplies

There are actually so many things a virtual assistant can do, we can't list them all!

How to hire a virtual assistant

Just because virtual assistants can do all this stuff doesn't mean they can all do it equally well. Look for someone who has experience in what you need. A lot of VAs can write press releases, for example, but often you're better off hiring a writer, as press releases are their own skill set. And a VA who's great at press releases can't necessarily handle an extra-busy schedule.

The key is to write down a list of which skills you need, and find someone who can do them all!

by Heather Barnett

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When Your Personal Assistant Is Virtual By Verne Kopytoff

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Govind Davis, who runs a business software firm in Cleveland, has never met his assistant Jackie—although they work closely together. All he’s seen of Jackie is a photo she posted with her online résumé and on Skype, which is almost their sole means of communication.

Jackie Cullen, whom Davis hired four months ago, is known as a virtual office assistant, an independent contractor who does secretarial work from her home in North Carolina. She works only when needed, usually about 30 hours per week at $12 per hour, to book travel, schedule appointments, and do research. “Certainly, it takes a mental adjustment,” says Davis, chief executive of MCF Technology Solutions. “But Jackie, she’s turned out to be great, and I have no concern about paying her.”

Virtual assistants are a small but growing phenomenon at companies looking to minimize overhead. Because they are contractors, virtual assistants are paid only for hours that they actually work instead of a guaranteed salary for a 40-hour week. Not only do companies save on employee benefit costs, but there’s also no real estate or equipment to fund, no need to lease space for an extra desk or buy a computer.

Acquiring a virtual assistant, however, comes with additional peril. Can you trust someone you’ve never met to handle sensitive corporate information? And how will you know if they’re goofing off?

Virtual assistants are not new. Before the Internet era, they used faxes and telephones to keep in touch with their employers but remained a relative rarity. The term virtual assistant had yet to be coined. Today, they are far more common, according to Kathy Colaiacovo, marketing director for the International Virtual Assistants Association, a trade group that provides certification for its members. Exact numbers are impossible to come by, however, because there are no estimates about the size of the niche. The association, however, has around 700 members.

Companies have become more accepting of remote and mobile workers in recent years as online tools have made it easier to keep in touch with the home office and do clerical work from afar, Colaiacovo says. “When I started four and a half years ago, I had to explain a lot to people what a virtual assistant does,” she says. “I rarely have to do that anymore.”

Of all companies, small businesses are the most likely to hire virtual assistants, Colaiacovo says. A mom-and-pop operation does not necessarily need a full-time assistant, often having only enough work for just a few hours a week.

Companies also gain from the flexibility. Instead of being locked into paying for a set number of hours per week, a business owner can adjust according to the amount of work needed. As with many contractors, a virtual assistant’s hourly cost tends to be higher than that of a full-time employee. However, virtual assistants based overseas in, say, the Philippines or India usually charge far less.

Colaiacovo recommends that the parties sign a contract that spells out what is expected. In many cases, employers pay a deposit up front—half the fee for a project, for example.

Even under the best of circumstances, virtual assistants aren’t for everyone. People who hire them must be willing to give up some control and be comfortable communicating online. “If they need that person there to touch the shoulder and say, ‘This is what I need done,’ it just doesn’t work,” Colaiacovo says.

Davis, the software CEO, says that a virtual assistant is a natural fit for his company, most of whose 45 employees work from home. In all, the business has six to eight virtual assistants, although some of their duties go beyond clerical work. Typically, Davis says he hires virtual assistants for a limited time or for a small project to see how they do. If they excel, he keeps them.

Jackie is the second virtual assistant to work directly for Davis. A previous assistant floundered, for which he takes some of the blame. “I just didn’t take too seriously that I had to vet her,” Davis says. “She was helpful on a few things, but she didn’t have the range of skills.”

Vetting a virtual assistant by checking references and online sites is obviously important. In the end, trust is crucial, particularly if you’re going to share account passwords, for example.

When seeking work, virtual assistants post their profiles on job sites, such as oDesk, which charges employers a 10 percent commission on top of what they pay their hires. Companies can also go through agencies that provide virtual assistants.

Some employers are inevitably concerned that a virtual assistant will charge for hours when they are actually watching television. Silicon Valley’s oDesk, for example, provides some assurances. When an assistant is logged into a job on their computer, an automated program takes six snapshots of the screen every hour. The employer can check those images remotely to see whether their assistant is fooling around on Facebook (FB).

Jackie usually communicates with Davis through Skype’s instant messenger, as he does with most of his employees. They rarely talk on the telephone.

One of the few downsides of her being 500 miles away, Davis says, is that he has to mail her paperwork that piles up on his desk rather than just handing it to her. But the cost savings outweigh any negatives, he adds.

“You have to form some new brain circuits to get used to it,” says Davis. “But I don’t personally feel like I have any downside to it.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-04/when-your-personal-assistant-is-virtual

Partner With a Virtual Assistant to Grow Your Business

I have some honest words for you, based on personal experience: If you are trying to grow your business, and you are doing it alone, eventually you are going to hit a wide, massive plateau. It's going to look like something from a National Geographic magazine -- flatness for miles, especially from your viewpoint -- which will be you standing on top, scratching your head.

You can't do everything that you need to do on your own. It's impossible. There are not enough hours in a day. And as a business owner, your main focus should be on your clients and customers, how to obtain more of them and networking so you have a growing list of leads to nurture and eventually convert to future clients and customers.

When I launched The Writing Whisperer, I knew I needed three pivotal people on my team: a business coach, a virtual assistant who could handle the many tasks needed to keep my business running, and an accountant to run reports, handle the bookkeeping and take care of all my tax needs.

Did I have the money in reserve to partner with these three individuals right away? Of course not! I hadn't even launched my website yet. But, I knew that in order to grow my business, the way I envisioned from the very beginning, I needed a support team from the get go.

My virtual assistant (VA) is a lifesaver. Her name is Sandy Wiles, and we have been working together since before I officially launched my business. (I partnered with her three months before the launch, so we could get everything ready to go.)

At first, I was nervous to give up control. I'm sure you, as a fellow business owner, know what I am talking about: The no-one-can-do-it-like-me syndrome. Sound familiar? I had to let that perfectionist thinking go, as it wasn't serving anyone well -- not me, not my VA and certainly not my future clients. Once I was able to completely turn over many of the tasks needed to keep my business running on "the backend," business growth was inevitable.

But first, you might be wondering what tasks does my VA handle? Here is just a small sampling:

• Facebook targeted ads
• Set up of all events in Eventbrite
• Scheduling newsletters and auto responder campaigns
• Creating images for marketing
• Social media posts
• Timelines for product and service launches
• Website updates
• Document formatting

Because I learned to delegate these tasks, my business has grown tremendously. Just 5 months after the launch of my company, I walked away from a 15 year career in teaching. I have finished a memoir about leaving the failing public school system, and I have been able to focus on the steady growth of my private coaching practice and copywriting clients. Because I gave up control, it also freed up time to write for The Huffington Post, increasing my exposure to millions of readers. Those readers have called me, emailed me, interviewed me on their radio shows, and invited me to participate in events and Twitter chats. To put it bluntly, I am happy to say that my business view has never been from the top of that plateau, scratching my head, surrounded by flat terrain.

When I am speaking with new business owners, or ones that can't seem to find the time to get everything done, the very first piece of advice I offer is to partner with a virtual assistant. And once you do, you should embrace this person and her unique skill sets and treat her like a key player in your business. Ask her for advice. Get her input. Make her feel welcome and a part of your team.

After having this conversation, about 8 out of 10 times, the business owner I am speaking with will respond in one of two ways:

• I don't have the money to hire a VA. To which I say: Then your business will not grow. If you free up your time by partnering with a competently trained virtual assistant, then you can bring on more clients.
• But I have an intern who does that stuff. To which I say: An intern is temporary, in most cases, and looking for the next big gig. Why not bring someone onto your team who shares your vision and your passion and will support you every step of the way?

Are you struggling to grow your business, or completely distraught by the amount of stuff you just never seem to get done? If so, I recommend you start by partnering with a well-trained virtual assistant. It has changed my business and my life. And from one business owner to another, I want nothing but success for you!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m-shannon-hernandez/partner-with-a-virtual-as_b_4397910.html

Article by 

M. Shannon Hernandez

Founder and Word Ambassador, The Writing Whisperer

 

Hiring a virtual assistant can increase productivity and reduce costs

In the end, I don’t believe that hiring a virtual assistant is all about price. I have a friend who runs a multi-million dollar business and had a $15 an hour in-house employee walk out on him. I convinced him to hire a virtual assistant – actually, several – to replace said employee, and he built a stable of several $3 an hour workers to handle the same tasks. For him, it just wouldn’t be worth it to deal with the frustrations of hiring a team of $0.50 an hour virtual assistants; he’s too busy and he needed someone to get the tasks done correctly, right away.

That said, don’t think your business is too sophisticated to hire a virtual assistant. I’ve turned friends of mine in the high-end financial services industry onto these tactics, and they love them. In the 21st century, there’s no reason to overpay, especially since even these high-end businesses have issues with their well-paid American employees.

Like anything else in business – especially in internet business – testing is the name of the game. Find out which approach works best for you and build your virtual assistant team accordingly. If you’ve never hired employees before, you may not understand just what a pain it is.

Hiring a virtual assistant allows you to save money and choose from the best talent around the world, but people are still people. Some people quit with no notice. Some people do a mediocre job. Some people do a great job, will be loyal to you, and deserve a nice bonus.

If you want to hire a virtual assistant, put the time in and make a serious effort to build a great team that works for you long-term, not a short-term scorched earth strategy.

by Andrew Henderson- Expat entrepreneur. Perpetual traveler. Citizen of the world. Andrew visits over a dozen new countries each year in search of more freedom and better opportunities. His tips show how you can make money and take back your liberty beyond your own borders.

Virtual Assistant Jobs and Contests | Freelancer.in

Virtual Assistant Jobs and Contests | Freelancer.in

I am Dhara with 4 years of experience as a virtual assistant from India.I understand the importance of your time, that is why me as a Virtual Assistant execute your non-core activities and free up your time to concentrate on higher value tasks, and this results in better efficiency and higher personal gains for you!
I  assist with administrative tasks like managing your MS Outlook and MS Office. We also provide sales support, basic internet research, management of social networking sites, creating blogs, and e-newsletters.


Tasks that can be done by me:

• Upload blogs or email newsletters
• Respond to emails and set up email lists
• Transcribe voice memos, conference calls and more
• Run your calendar and plan your travel
• Research
• Compile data into organized spreadsheets
• Handle forwarded phone calls when you're unavailable or out of town
• Any time-consuming or repetitive tasks
• Help you hire other employees by doing preliminary research on candidates
• Write and distribute standard business communications
• Prepare presentations
• Manage your social media accounts
• Coordinate with vendors
• Place orders for new supplies

you can contact me at dharavino43@gmail.com