Virtual Assisting: A most important online job of Up-work

 

Virtual Assisting

With the increase in the speed and flow of information and communication in today’s technological advanced society, more and more business entities, freelancers and self-employed individuals are now outsourcing their administrative tasks to VAs. Virtual assisting as a profession is very flexible allowing one to work remotely and easily earn a stable income while catering to administrative needs of others. If you like working with agendas and schedules, emails and being involved in support services then this could be the perfect online earning opportunity for you. Over the course of this blog, I’ll be explaining what virtual assisting is and some of the tasks that you as a VA might be asked to do, and how you could begin your career as a VA.

What Is Virtual Assisting?
A virtual assistant is a person who works under the direct supervision and control of a client and offers administrative and technical services to the businesses, executives or other entrepreneurs. As opposed to holding a conventional workplace, VAs do assignments on the computer from their home or anywhere they can get a connection. The job description of the VA is highly flexible and will depend with the needs of the client to be serving.

In general these are some of the regular duties a virtual assistant performs:
Some of the tasks that virtual assistants engage in include the following as it is determined by the client. Here are some common responsibilities:Here are some common responsibilities:

Email Management: Managing emails received which includes the sorting of emails, responding to the emails and organizing the emails that have been received.
Scheduling: Consolidating appointments and other schedules manage.
Data Entry: Data entry and crafting of the data in Excel, databases, or customer relationship management databases.
Social Media Management: Content creation, content scheduling and content posting on the various social media platforms.
Customer Service: Providing customers with answers to their questions through either email or through a live chat.
Research: Escorting or conducting surveys, collecting data, or compiling documents.
Travel Arrangements: Making bookings of flights, hotel, and car hire for organizational business travels.
There are certain VAs that can deliver specific services based on their area of focus they include accounting services, graphic designing services, or marketing services among others.

Advantages or Reasons Why One Should Join Virtual Assistant Services

Flexible Work Environment: There is flexibility involved in the job, meaning that since you’re a virtual assistant, you have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, thus having the freedom to create a healthy work environment for oneself.

Diverse Clients: Another advantage of the career is the versatility of the virtual assistant’s scope of practice; it is possible to work with interspecific clients and locations.

Low Startup Costs: It is not very expensive to start a VA business since the initial capital that is needed is minimal. The requirements for this form of work are mere necessities which include a dependable computer, efficient internet connection and fundamental office utilities such as email and communication software and productivity applications.

Control Over Workload: The advantage you have as a virtual assistant is that you decide how many clients you wish to attend to in a given period and hence you can dictate the revenue you make.

Continuous Learning: The versatility in working for different clients and industries enable the registering VAs to learn as well as to further develop their skills.

Looking at our outline, one can easily ask the question: how to start as a virtual assistant?
Identify Your Skills: Begin with listing the areas of your strength which you find interesting and/or comfortable with, for instance, working in the time line, dealing with social networks, excellent customer relations. Because you want to totally dominate a particular market, you have to set your area of specialization to target clients’ needs.

Set Up Your Workspace: Make sure you have a quality space with stable internet connection and acquire any tools that would assist with the organization and in implementing workflow applications (trello, asana, slack, zoom etc,) as well as office applications (Microsoft office, icons Google Suite etc.)

Create a Portfolio: Most employers like their candidates to have a portfolio that displaying the kind of work the candidate is capable of doing. Also, provide some sample of the previous work or project which will show the employer that you are capable of handling the tasks offered in your ad.

Market Yourself: To do so search for new clients, register at freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer. Or, you can advertise your services on social media networking sites or developing a website that involves information about your specialties, services and successful performances.

Set Your Rates: Determine what format you will use in billing for the services you will be offering. Much like with any other service, one can set an hourly rate or work based on the size of the project and the services to be provided. Compare with other Virtual Assistants offering similar services so that you can be able to set reasonable rates.

Provide Exceptional Service: Producing quality work will also ensure that you have clients who would wish to continue hiring your services and most of your clients are normally from referrals. Being a good communicator, meeting the designated time as well as providing an added value to the client should be observed at all times.

Tips for Success
Stay Organized: Take advantage of online calendars such as Google Calendar, Trello or Asana to ensure that you are able to organize your work and work for different clients efficiently.

Keep Learning: Depending on your expectations and dynamics of your company, you need to upgrade regularly in accord with the trends in technology and business. This means that one must ensure that they are up to date especially in fields such as; social media strategic management, project management, and digital marketing among others in an effort to offer more solution to the clients.

Establish Boundaries: Despite having more flexibility when working remotely it clearly stated that they should have some restrictions when it comes to clients during the working hours or days that they are willing to attend to their clients without interfering with their personal lives.

Network: This will allow you to meet other VAs who can share important information with you such as leads on job posting or new ideas.

Conclusion
Virtual assisting is one of the fascinating ways of earning online and is quite flexible that can help anyone who has organizational and administrative skills to assist businesses and entrepreneurs from all over the world. Opportunities for the growth of virtual assistants’ profession are vast, if the specialists improve time management, communication, and focus on providing excellent services. Then, if you’re willing to build your own schedule and work from home, virtual assisting might be the best job for you!