What a Virtual Assistant Can and Can’t Do

Because a virtual assistant is one who will work for someone on a contract basis, there are a variety of things that they can do for you. Often times, it is easy to cross over the line of what you want them to do, or what you think they should do. No matter what you have your virtual assistant for in the beginning, you will want to make sure that the job role is completely understood.

A virtual assistant is one who can do administrative, technological or creative work for a company, even while being outside of the company. Often times, smaller businesses will use virtual assistants for an all in one source for taking care of the little things. Larger businesses will also have virtual assistants to provide several duties.

However, when defining the role of a virtual assistant, it is easy to continue to ask them to do things, even if this isn’t in the job description. One thing to be aware of, either as one who is hiring a virtual assistant, or one who is working as a virtual assistant, is where the line is. The standards of being a virtual assistant have been set in order to eliminate conflict while working virtually.

The first definition that is set for a standard is that a virtual assistant is not necessarily anyone who works at home. The job profession has strict standards that stick to administrative and technological abilities. Even though a virtual assistant will usually have specific niches, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they will just be someone who works at home.

Another important distinction that most virtual assistants will make is that they don’t get involved in specific roles with a company. For example, it is not proper business to ask a virtual assistant to be a consultant. It is also not appropriate to ask about marketing services or bookkeeping, unless the virtual assistant has told you that they are willing to do these types of tasks and have defined them in their specific duties.

The important thing to keep in mind with virtual assistants is that there are specific roles that they play in their job. It is important to keep in mind that, even though they work on a contractual basis, their specific duties should be defined. By doing this in the beginning, on either or both ends, there won’t be any difficulties in making sure that the job gets done.

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