Find out how you can make money by becoming a virtual assistant, A virtual assistant makes ends meet by working for multiple people online, Have you ever wondered, “What exactly is that Virtual Assistant that you keep hearing so much about?” or probably you've not heard about it before, The answer is simple
A Virtual Assistant, or VA, is an administrative professional who provides immediate professional support, services, and skills to busy entrepreneurs and business managers via the Internet usually from their home office, They are virtual because they provide assistance to clients from a home office in the form of administrative, technical, social or creative.What Is The Work Of A Virtual Assistant?
There are many 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. But here are just few things they can do online.
- 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
The job can involve a wide range of tasks, from simply answering phones and sending emails to book-keeping, business planning and desktop publishing. The more specialized your skills are, the more you’ll be able to charge. For example, if you’ve had five years’ experience working in the marketing industry and have extensive knowledge of Microsoft Publisher, you can advertise yourself as a virtual assistant specialising in marketing and desktop publishing. Businesses hire virtual assistants because they don’t need full-time workers. This option saves them money on office space, full-time staff and benefit payments.
A virtual assistant is not a temp or a part-time employee – they are self-employed professionals and deal with their own taxes, expenses and office supplies and equipment. You’ll be responsible for chasing up your own payments, finding your own clients and advertising your business in the most effective way. To be a successful virtual assistant, you’ll definitely need to be computer-savvy. Even if you have good office-based experience, you have to know that you can deal with a PC meltdown because you’ll be working on your own at all times – without an IT department to come to your rescue. Starting out as a virtual assistant, you’ll have a few upfront costs – such as setting up your own home office.
You’ll have to have a broadband internet connection, a separate phone line (and a phone with holding facilities), a decent set of office stationery, utilities (some of which you can claim tax back on), a computer with all the necessary office programmes and a shiny new headset for optimum answering of phone calls.
You Want To Become A Virtual Assistant?
Before you embark upon the virtual assistant journey – you will need to decide which skills you have which are going to make marketing your services easy. Make a list for each of these categories:
- Skills and programs you’re experienced in and are good at (for example Microsoft Word, Excel, customer service, handling telephone inquiries).
- Skills and programs you have no experience in or aren’t particularly good at.
- Skills and programs you want to learn.
- Skills and programs you enjoy using – and those you don’t.
What do you need?
You need to be familiar with word processing (i.e. Microsoft Word), email (Outlook Express or Outlook) and contact management software (i.e. Outlook).
An excellent telephone manner is essential. Typically, all calls must be answered within three rings, all emails and letters answered the same day.
And yes, clients are notorious for calling up and testing your efficiency.
Research the market
As with any business, you’ll need to do sufficient research so that you know what you’re talking about when speaking with clients. Not only this, but you’ll need to think about the demand for VAs and whether the market you’re aiming for really needs another virtual assistant. Are there already companies hiring VAs for this purpose? Are there too many as it is? What do others charge for their service? You need to think about every facet of the work, and then find out as much information as possible about each aspect.
Establish your services
Yes, you have to establish your services! Virtual assistants offer a variety of services and you have to decide what your skill set is. Decide what services you can offer, and more importantly, which ones you can't provide. If you can really use Facebook, you probably going to be great at running someone's social media campaign. If there are services you feel you could offer if you had a little more education, put those on a separate list.
Get out and meet people
You can't be a virtual assistant if you don't have clients. And to have clients, you have to meet people. Think about previous business contacts and get in touch with them. You don't have to directly solicit them. You can just inform them of your new venture and tell them to let you know if they're aware of someone who needs assistance.
Of course, you are a virtual assistant, so getting out and meeting people doesn't necessarily mean in person (though local chamber of commerce meetings and other conventions aren't a terrible idea).
You can also build a website and start a LinkedIn page and Twitter account to connect with people online. Many online conferences give you the opportunity to chat with fellow attendees, so that's also a good place to meet people.
Here is a list of some legitimate companies that are looking for Virtual Assistants.
- Super Human Super Human looks for Virtual Assistants to work from home managing clients schedule. Most clients are from start up companies that need to hire help. Pay is around $10 per hour with paid training. This position don’t involve being the phone.
- Virtual Gal Friday This company has a variety of virtual assistant jobs. You will be required to do phone work and have Skype.
- Odesk Odesk is an online freelance site, where virtual assistants can find a variety of clerical and administrative jobs.
- Worldwide 101 This company has virtual assisting jobs focused in the real estate industry.
- Zirtual.com Zirtual is now hiring what the call “Zirtual Assistants” to work from home. You will be completing various tasks as scheduling,research, booking travels, and other misc. tasks.
- Time Etc. This company is looking for freelance Virtual Assistants to work from home. The starting pay is around $11-$16 an hour.Some of the tasks you handle involve making travel arrangements,writing, making phone calls, scheduling meetings, and more!
- 24/7 Virtual Assistant This company has openings for Virtual Assistants. VA’s are typically paid a minimum of $10 per hour. There is an extensive application process which involves being able to successfully pass a background check. You can pick and choose the hours you work.
- Virtual Office VA This company contracts Virtual assistants to work from home.Pay is around $9-$10 an hour. You must have acomputer, high-speed internet, and phone line.
- Fancy Hands This company hires independent contractors to work from home as virtual assistants. You will be doing online research and different tasks.
- Assistant Match This company hires virtual assistants to handle customer service, website updates, blogging, research, scheduling, and bookeeping.
