As the name suggests, a virtual assistant is someone who assists you virtually. Self-employed, they may choose to work with multiple clients, from small businesses to large corporations to entrepreneurs.
They provide technical, administrative, or creative assistance from a home office. They handle tasks like managing emails, making travel arrangements, scheduling appointments, and more.
This tribe of professionals is growing, and the popularity is because they free up users to focus on more strategic work.
Their ability to save time, boost efficiency, and provide cost-effective solutions is getting them the traction to be seen as an asset to any individual business owner or organization. This new role is particularly appealing for women who’d like to work from home and augment family income.
What Does a Virtual Assistant Do
Their roles are diverse and can go from conducting research, managing schedules, sifting and handling emails, flagging important messages, to providing customer support.
They free up clients’ time to work on core business activities, acting as an extension of their clients’ team, managing the background work that needs to be attended to with unfailing regularity.
VAs assist with managing social media posts – making and scheduling them, keeping the account buzzing with the right content. Some handle customer inquiries, provide support, and act as the bridge between the customers and their employers. They look into the logistics of travel arrangements and can help with project coordination, task management, and ensuring timelines are adhered to.
They are hired not just by small business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers but also by large enterprises. They function just as well in healthcare, finance, and education. Basically, anyone who needs administrative, technical, and creative support stands to benefit from employing virtual assistants.
Skills You Need to Be a Virtual Assistant
Here are some skills you need to get started as a virtual assistant:
1. Organization and time management
Managing calendars to keep track of all important information and maintaining a steady workflow is a vital skill. They are meant to juggle multiple tasks and deadlines. This needs strong prioritization and time management skills. Some VAs are good at basic bookkeeping tasks, like tracking expenses, managing invoices, and generating reports.
2. Professional communication
Excellent verbal and written communication skills are a prerequisite given that they have to interact with clients and other professionals. In the spoken word and correspondence through emails or letters, they have to uphold their clients’ vision and their company’s ethos. There is no space for error.
3. Tech tools
VAs need to be proficient in office suites – from Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) to Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail). A rudimentary knowledge of online tools like Dropbox, Google Drive, and other file-sharing platforms is necessary. They have to be ready to learn and adapt to new tools and technology as per the demands of time.
4. Optional
The ones who are a little more creative may offer services to design for their clients in addition to the routine jobs expected out of them. This may come as an addition to the package they have to offer, where they create using tools like Canva and do away with the need to hire designers additionally. If they are able to feel the pulse of the audience, they may be able to drive their clients’ social media presence and get their company the additional leverage and traction to sell better.
How to Become a Virtual Assistant: Step-by-Step
If you’re unsure where to begin, here’s a step-wise approach to take:
Step 1: Choose your niche or type of service
Depending on your strengths, choose what works best for you. It could be administrative tasks, technical support, customer service, or more specialized tasks like bookkeeping, managing social media, and offering graphics and design services.
Step 2: Set up an online presence
As the world grows into a more compact place, the impact of online platforms on businesses can’t be ignored or undermined. If you create engaging content and post regular articles and updates on LinkedIn, for example, you will start getting noticed by more and more professionals in similar fields or in need of the services you have to offer.
Keeping to a formal tone and staying with a disciplined format while posting will add more credit to your posts.
Make a solid portfolio that speaks of your education, past experiences, and services you are good at offering. Get testimonials, create your own website, and keep it updated. With the world staying close to their multiple screens, online is the way to get yourself into business.
Step 3: Find clients via freelance platforms, Facebook groups, or referrals
Step up your publicity by posting about your skills and what you bring to the table on freelance platforms and Facebook groups. Actively canvas to get yourself more referrals. Build a network and then build yourself into a community with like-minded people.
Step 4: Set your pricing model (hourly, retainer, package)
Once you’ve set the ball rolling, it’s time to decide on your pricing model. Some prefer to go on a retainer when seeking to do business. Such arrangements are for a longer association.
Then, there is the hourly model where you get paid as per the number of hours you clock in or at the end of a pre-agreed number of hours. Some VAs would like to stay with the conventional method of remuneration, which is to agree on a package with every detail of inclusions and exclusions pencilled in.
Step 5: Use contracts and tools for professional management
Professional management of contracts is made of robust processes, legal principles, and the right software tools. It helps in streamlining the contract lifecycle from creation to renewal and/or termination. This helps to improve efficiency, minimize risks, and ensure compliance.
Tools and Platforms to Use as a Virtual Assistant
While there are several tools you can make use of, here are some we recommend:
1. Time tracking: Toggl, Clockify
Toggl
This is a tracking tool that allows users to track the time spent on various projects. Easy to set up in less than a minute, it syncs with a web tracker, desktop widgets, and mobile apps, and one is good to go tracking. The tracking helps to analyze how and where the time is being spent, allowing users to see how they can go about improving their productivity.
Clockify
This is a free, web-based time tracking software. It makes tracking time spent across projects and tasks easier. Users can record time spent on activities and projects and generate reports. The application offers features like billable hours tracking, team management, and integration with other tools.
2. Project management: Trello, Asana
Trello
It is a visual project management tool. It lets users create boards for different projects. The boards have lists representing stages and categories, and cards for individual tasks or ideas. Users can move the cards with more details and comments between lists to show how far the work assigned to them has progressed.
Asana
This project management software platform is designed for team collaboration and work management. It allows teams to track, organize, and manage tasks and projects better.
3. Invoicing: Wave, PayPal, HoneyBook
Wave
This is free, cloud-based accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses. It has tools for invoicing, tracking of invoices, financial reporting, and more.
PayPal
This online payment system allows users to send and receive money, shop online, and manage their finances securely. It is a digital wallet for online payments.
HoneyBook
It allows independent business owners to manage their entire process from one single online account. This includes creating and sending contracts, collecting payments, organizing client information, managing bookings, and scheduling appointments.
4. Client communication: Slack, Zoom
Slack
This cloud-based messaging and collaboration platform offers features like channels for organized conversations, direct messaging, sharing of files, and integration with other business tools. It’s the one place for all of your team’s communication and work-related information.
Zoom
This video conferencing platform can be used through a mobile application or a computer desktop. It allows users to connect online for webinars, live chat, and video conferencing meetings.
Conclusion
Becoming a VA is a low-barrier way for women to step into remote work or entrepreneurship. It doesn’t demand large upfront investments at the start and will take off with a well-picked team that adds value to your venture.
Best of all, with the need to move out or move places out of the way, there is no having to juggle things or feel guilty about neglecting other important aspects of your life.
With the right skills and systems, it can become a flexible and profitable business.
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