Friday, September 18, 2009

Working With an Administrative Virtual Personal Assistant

One of the things that struck me as most interesting and most unusual is the high demand nowadays in hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA).

Hiring a "Virtual Assistant" is having a remote administrative help who:

1. They work distantly to which all your communication will be either online or through the phone, with the possibility that you may never meet your VA in person even if you work with them for years.

2. They're worldwide. That is, they don't live and work in the same state or country as you.

Why is there a need to hire a Virtual Assistant?
Hiring a Virtual Assistant is about allowing someone to take care of repetitive things that allow you to have a free time to focus on the things that may increase my effectiveness in my field of work.
1) What do you have to understand about hiring a virtual assistant to integrate into your work routine?
It is important to reflect through your goal so that you can determine if it their purpose to you and your business. If your need to use that extra time get more workloads done, you are getting your “priorities” done.
2) What’s a virtual assistant for?

Having a busy pile up work load, home schedules and social gatherings that needed to be attended to combined with the annual holiday rush, and this question seems to answer itself. So, what would you have an administrative assistant do for you? Here are a few ideas for both personal and work-related tasks:


• Social Network Management (Facebook, Twitter)
• Bookmarking
• Advertising
• Keyword Research
• Lead Generation
• Traffic Management
• Video Disposal Tool
• Email Disposal
• Articles
• Audio Typing
• Business Administration
• Business Plans
• Conventions
• Copy Typing
• Correspondence
• Customer Services
• Editor
• Email Administration
• Event Management
• Office Management
• Payroll
• Personal Administration
• Personal Assistant
• Presentations
• Purchasing
• Research
• Resumes / CVs
• Secretarial Services
• Spreadsheet Design
• Travel Plans
• Event Planning
• Presentations
• Update Address/Contact List
• Birthday/holiday gift buying
• Market research
• Online marketing
• Set and cancel appointments
• Answer incoming calls
• Type and send letters or contracts
• Make travel arrangements
• Call for quotes
• Link Building
• Client Support
• Internet Research
• Project management

3) How would you communicate and define the task you want your VA to accomplish?

Having knowledge and identifying their different skills set comes with each Virtual Assistant. This will help you determine the qualifications that your VA should have.

4) How can you be an effective administrator towards given tasks?

Note down down exactly what you want your VA to bring about. Then, think through the steps that you would take to achieve an output. Another important element is time allocation. Determine the amount of time the task should take and set multiple milestones to make sure the project is heading in the right direction.

5) Remember the reason as to “Why” you hired one.

You hired a VA to give yourself a break, enabling you to spend it with your family aside from focusing on growing your business.

6) How should you institute a healthy workflow environment?

Do you expect your VA to be available at certain hours of the day, every day? Can they work on longer tasks? Set expectations for when you want your VA to be online and encourage them to handle the manner of communication you prefer. Assimilate faster communication system into your workflow. However, for longer projects, written instructions are better so your VA can reference it.

7) How should you designate your VA depending on their league of expertise?

You may have a range of tasks that require different skill sets. Find out what your VA can accomplish so you may assign them to higher level tasks that require some technical skills, and choose to hire a lower cost VA to do the data entry work.

8) Provide instructions that are clear to comprehend.

Upon giving instructions, assume nothing and be as specific as possible with the requirements that you need. Do not assume that your VA will be able to assume anything. Many of these Virtual Assistants work on many types of tasks across all industries, so unless you hired a specialized VA, don't assume they can fill in tasks that are not within their forte of expertise.

9) Why is there a need to delegate task and be sure that your VA validates and identifies your task requirements?

You have to be verified that your VA understands the goals of the project and the given instructions before accomplishing it. Through upfront verification, the chances of your VA wasting time for doing the wrong thing can be evaded. Don’t forget to always update instructions to streamline the task and expect a two to three times more time allocation for the task.

10) Outsourcing SAVES you a LOT

Experienced business owners will often take the long-view since outsourcing work frees them up to accomplish higher work profit for a much reasonable cost. Always take the long-term benefits in mind.

2 comments:

  1. This post provides a good overview from the business owner’s perspective of the expectations for hiring and working with a Virtual Assistant.

    I find the clients who get the most out of working with a VA are the one’s who have done just as you’ve suggested. Delegating properly, good communication and having a very clear idea of what you’d like for your Virtual Assistant to help with are the keys to a successful relationship.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Virtual Assistant can do many of the administrative and time-consuming tasks in the company and the company can simply enjoy the outputs.

    ReplyDelete

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