Online Virtual Assistant

As explained on wiki, A Virtual Assistant (typically abbreviated to VA, also called a virtual office assistant) is an entrepreneur who provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office.With a full range of options to choose from, you can customize your remote receptionist service to meet your exact needs. Your calls can be screened, announced and seamlessly connected to you or your employees anywhere. They usually work for other small businesses, brokers and consultancy groups. It is estimated that there are as few as 5,000-8,000 or as many as 35,000 Virtual Assistants worldwide; the profession is growing in centralized economies with “fly-in, fly-out” (FIFO) staffing practices.

Then, what’s the benefit of a virtual assistant?

Yes, we can hire a secretary to handle all the daily trivial things, which is very common and convenient. However it is not wise to expect all the skills that you need on merely one person. You may need a professional PPT designer when you have a presentation to prepare, you may need a note dictator who writes fast when you have a meeting to hold, you may need a clerk to write your report when you don’t have the time to do it yourself… but how can one possesses all this skills, and if we take a step back, assuming you finally find one, how much would you like to pay for such a virtual secretary?

So, sometimes it is necessary to hire a virtual assistant, and outsourcing all the vital yet trivial things to a team of reliable professionals. Leave the specific work to specialists; hire a team at the cost of hiring one ordinary secretary.

Better still, you can avoid all the unnecessary cost by hiring a virtual assistant. You don’t need to worry about the insurance, the farewells, this may not mean that you can save money on that, but it means you don’t have to keep an eye on that. You save the energy. You usually have to pay your assistant when they deal their personal problems during working hours, as often the case when you hire a human assistant. While you can avoid this cost by hiring a virtual assistant for you, because you only pay them for the time they spend on your task, not anything else.

You even save the time and money on supervising them. If you enter the phrase “virtual assistant” in Google, you can get nearly 5 million results within a second; this indicated the emerging of this industry, and the intense competition among the number of enterprises who provide this service. In this way every enterprise has to keep an eye on the quality of the service they provide to their customers, so as to keep their quota in the market. In this way you leave your burden of supervising your staff to the market which is most just and efficient.

Has your business slowed due to the economy? Have you made sacrifices like letting valuable staff go? Have had to trim back on certain expenses and find yourself working longer each day just to try and stay ahead? These are questions I am sure you are saying yes too!

Each day you make that to do list that seems to always carry over to the next day with more and more projects added you sit there and wish that you had a genie to make it all go away!

Hiring a virtual assistant as an extension to your company will help ease your work load. They will take that to do list and make your wishes come true. With a virtual assistant you can expect the highest level of service, and the strictest confidentiality. Some clients may want to consider using a non-disclosure contract between them and the assistant, this will protect both parties involved.

A virtual assistant is someone who works as an independent contractor you will not have to pay a salary, medical, 401K, life insurance or FMLA like you would for a salaried employee. The virtual assistant someone you can call, email, instant message or fax your project to. They can build mail merges; create spreadsheets with cost analyst, pay your bills are to name a few of the items they can do for you and your business so you can focus on building your clientele and maintaining your current clientele.

Remember the virtual assistant has extensive knowledge of the administrative assistant functions, and will give you the confidence of knowing that your letters, spreadsheets, research, travel plans and/or marketing projects are in good hands. They will take your company in a new direction by handling the small but important items.

Save yourself time and add a valuable team player to your company while you focus on building your business.

What exactly can a virtual assistant do for your business? A better question might be is there anything they cannot do (except maybe bring you a cup of coffee in the morning, although they could easily arrange to have one delivered.)

More and more companies large and small and from every sector of the business world are turning to virtual assistants to help them run their business more effectively and cut down on overheads. As such an employee is not based in a company’s physical office and is hired only as an independent contractor there is no need to pay for health benefits, worry about payroll taxes or even buy them lunch (or pay for their time while they are eating it. )

Virtual assistants can be hired to perform a multitude of tasks in almost any arena you can imagine. Need some basic clerical work and typing done? A VA has you covered. Need someone to promote your website or business online using the latest in Web 2.0 tools? As a successful virtual assistant must be up to date on everything that is internet related in order to success they are your best bet for the success of your own venture.

Many large companies are outsourcing their customer service operations to VAs as this makes even better economical sense than a call center and a virtual assistant will be able to tailor their services to exactly fir an individual clients needs.

Because they are not tied to your office, your VA can be hard at work on your big presentation at midnight in her own living room while you are fast asleep. When you get up in the morning the finished project is sitting right in your email inbox, ready to go.

Like any other business not all VAs are created the same. But if you take the time to find a well qualified and reliable virtual assistant (hint: ask for verifiable references, just as you would for a “regular” employee) you will probably end up wondering how you ever survived without one.

Stressed out about what virtual assistant services you can offer your clients? If you are starting a home business as a Virtual Assistant then these top 10 virtual assistant services should be on your list of services provided. 1. Word processing. The majority of Virtual Assistants offer this service to their clients. It is the one service that is used by the most businesses. This work usually includes correspondence, reports, manuals and memos. Most VA’s already have a good word processing program such as MSOffice on their computer to be able to provide this service. 2. Writing. This service can encompass many aspects of the written word which includes technical or business writing. Resume writing, newsletters, press releases, business plans, manuals, articles, blogs and web page content are just a few of the things that can be accomplished by a creative writer. Not only is this a service utilized by many different types of businesses it can also be beneficial to the Virtual Assistant themselves by increasing their own exposure to their target market. 3. Desktop Publishing. By being creative a VA can design business cards, newsletters, brochures, product labels, training manuals and flyers. 4. Bookkeeping. This is a specialized service and appears to be in high demand but requires a certain level of competency and should only be done by experienced bookkeepers. However, I have noticed that anyone who is skilled in bookkeeping usually has a full list of clients. 5. Transcription. By using different types of transcription machines this service is used by both the medical and legal fields. Writers can be an excellent source of business since many speak into a tape recorder with their material and then need it to be transcribed prior to submission to editors. Seminar Speakers may need to have their classroom tapes made into eBooks and written training material. 6. Event / Meeting Planning. If you are a natural organizer then consider providing this service. It can include organizing a meeting comprising of finding a location, arranging for food, beverages and technical equipment. This may also include making transportation and accommodation arrangements and co-ordination of absolutely everything pertaining to the event to ensure its success. This service may include parties and weddings. 7. Website Designer. The designing of a website, blog setup and ongoing maintenance is handled by website designers. Everyone should have a website but not all have the capability or time to take care of one. By packaging a website service with ongoing support and search engine optimization good designers should be kept fairly busy. 8. Social Media Marketing. This is a fairly new service provided by Virtual Assistants and seems to be in high demand since marketing via social media sites like twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn are becoming common marketing tools to most businesses. Not everyone has the capability or time to handle it. A Social Media Specialist can provide different packages to their clients both online and locally. 9. Internet Marketing / service support. This is a very broad subject that may include development of sites adding shopping cart capabilities, email maintenance and online marketing campaigns. Campaigns that include article marketing, blogging, SEO, trackbacks, and monitoring forums. This service ties can be tied in with Social Media Marketing. 10. Concierge Service. Arranging dinner reservations, travel and transportation, tickets, and gift buying are just a few of services that can be offered. I have even known these service providers to pack their clients suitcases, buy their groceries, pick up the dry cleaning and arrange newspaper delivery. Unlimited potential for someone who likes to be kept busy. Many administrative assistants who wish to become a Virtual Assistant do not always understand that their services can be much more than just word processing. By using their skills and work experience and by taking advantage of available courses there are many services they can offer – even more than the top 10 Virtual Assistant Services I have listed above. Carol Ann Quibell is the co-owner of Lorac Virtual Solutions providing businesses with start-up assistance, administrative help, writing services and training material. She loves to share her knowledge and skills with her clients so they will succeed. If you are looking for more information on how to become a virtual assistant Visit her at http://loracvs.com/category/virtual-assistants/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=CarolAnn_Quibell

A lot of business owners, like those of you who are reading this article, are over-loaded by daily administrative and accounting duties. Instead of keeping up with the industry and rolling out new marketing champagnes, you are stuck with maintaining the business’ day to day operations such as data entry, contact management, bookkeeping which makes less time for blogging, marketing and social networking of the business. First of all, these time-consuming duties can be eliminated without the cost of hiring an employee to handle these matters, just simply outsource these tasks to a virtual assistant (VA).

A VA is an independent entrepreneur; therefore, business owners do not have to worry extra overhead-cost on office space, equipments, insurance, taxes and employee benefits. VA only charge by the hours that have been input to the business. Holidays and leaves will not be accounted for to the business, unlike full-time employees. Yet again, a VA is only considered successful if its client succeeds on their business.

A VA can work with many levels assisting a company and lighten up the loads of work from you. They can provide standard administrative and secretarial support such as receptionist, email management such as sorting and responding to inquiries, data entry, schedule management, reminder service, update contact list, travel arrangements, event management or research on a specific topic, products or industry.

Some can even assist you with accounting duties such as invoicing and follow-up with clients or settling charges to the company and basic bookkeeping services. Just outsourcing the said tasks and you can save a lot of time and focus on the core business itself. Other then the basic administrative and accounting duties, there are 2 important key duties that a virtual assistant is capable of doing is to support growth and marketing the business is through internet marketing and setting up social networking platform.

1. Internet marketing consist of several approaches, such as search engine optimization (SEO) using the best keywords on the product or service description enabling it to be search on the internet easily, article submission, blogging, AdWords champagnes, advertising and sending out newsletter and promotion email champagnes.

2. Establishing a social media platform is very important to businesses nowadays. Through social media networks, it is the key to public relation which is a great way to maintain and establish relationships with clients and potential clients. A virtual assistant can help the business to setup a blog, a Twitter account, Facebook fan page, MySpace account to reach out existing and potential customers and receive critics and testimonials of the business’ products or services to better position the business in the future and yet another way to promote the company’s business and establishing a brand for company.

Transparency of a company is important to the public because it helps gain trust to the company and therefore will be essential for a successful business. Consult a VA today to know your options for a more successful business and let the VA do the work for you!

Whether you’re earning $300 or $50 an hour for your services, knowing how to best make use of your time will save you significant money in the long run.

Sure, we all like to think we can do everything ourselves. It’s a point of pride if you’re in business for yourself. But have you thought about how much more productive you would be if someone scheduled appointments for you, responded to emails, transcribed your interviews, answered phone calls – or any number of other time-intensive activities.

Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) is a smart choice, since you only pay for the time that you use. And when you compare the three hours you’ve invested playing phone tag with your most important client at your customary billable hour (or its equivalent opportunity cost) to what you would have spent handing the task off to a virtual assistant, you can see how outsourcing office help makes solid business sense.

Weighing the Pros vs. Cons

As with any business decision, it’s important to compare the advantages and disadvantages. Here’s how hiring a virtual assistant stacks up:

Pros

- Increased productivity. As mentioned before, your time is money. And odds are your professional expertise is worth more in the marketplace than someone who can answer your phones, handle your scheduling and help you manage your day-to-day business operations. A virtual assistant can free you up to build your business – and make the most of what you do best.

- No extra costs. With a full or part-time assistant, not only do you pay for his or her hours, you also pay for taxes, benefits, and possibly vacation and sick time. If this assistant comes to you through an agency, then you’re also paying an agency mark up. When you work with a virtual assistant, all those associated costs are covered.

- No training and no downtime. When you hire a virtual assistant, he or she is ready to go from day one. Virtual assistants are skilled professionals with several years of high-level administrative experience. Over all, you’ll spend more money hiring a less-skilled, on-site assistant at a lower wage than an efficient virtual assistant who takes less time to do much higher quality work.

Cons

- Out of sight. Because your assistant is virtual, you’re not going to have a smiling face greeting you every morning nor can you check to see if your assistant is updating her Facebook page rather than making your travel reservations. If you’re the type of person who feels you need to physically see someone to know if they’re working, than a virtual assistant may not be for you.

- You need to delegate. If you’re a Type A entrepreneur, learning how to let go and not do everything yourself can be very difficult. A virtual assistant is only as good as you’ll allow him or her to be. If you can’t delegate tasks – and be open to new ways your assistant can help you – you won’t make the most of your assistant’s skills.

The bottom line: You really can’t afford not to hire a virtual assistant. To compete in this difficult economy, you need to focus your expertise on what you do best. Let a VA take the day-to-day administrative tasks off your plate and see how your business grows.

If you’re like most sole proprietors and entrepreneurs, you began and are probably still operating on a tight budget. Maybe you tapped a savings account or worked long hours to secure the capital you needed to begin, so you’re not about to spend one dollar more than absolutely necessary. In your mind, there is no extra money to invest in using a virtual assistant (VA), and you can’t justify the expense.

Besides, you believe you can save money by doing it all… no matter how much time it takes. However, in attempting to do it all, you’re actually undercutting the time you need to market and grow your business. Maybe you’ve decided that you’ll dedicate the number of hours needed no matter how long it takes. That’s very simply the quick route to stress, burn-out, and dissatisfaction with your choice to fulfill your entrepreneurial dream. It can ultimately lead to business failure.

Start by determining your hourly rate. What really is the value of your time? What is your expertise worth? This is the true enterprise value of your business. Period. Now calculate the amount of time you spend on tasks you can easily delegate to a VA. Those tasks are things like appointment scheduling, phone calls, data base maintenance, travel planning and reservations, Internet research, and bookkeeping. If your small business is like most, these tasks consume twenty hours or more each week.

Let’s do the math, and to keep it simple, we’ll presume your hourly rate is $250.00 (which is not uncommon for many professionals). That said, you’re spending $5000.00 every week on administrative work. Is it worth it? Do you get a $5000.00 return on the time you spend on those tasks? Of course you don’t. No one would. Now let’s presume you delegated all those tasks to a VA at $20.00 per hour, for example. Your weekly expense is $400.00. While you may be thinking that you’ve incurred a $400 expense, what you really need to understand is that you’ve just saved $4600.00 instead.

To be clear, another perspective is that the time you spend completing VA-oriented tasks is lost revenue for you. Ultimately, you lost valuable time doing minor work, and you sacrificed potentially $5,000.00 of billable income that would look far better on your bottom line than in your expense column. It’s important to understand that as a sole proprietor, every hour you spend on VA-oriented tasks is an hour that you can’t bill. In addition to gaining billable hours and the accompanying revenue, the value gained by using a VA is even more extensive. Imagine having twenty extra hours each week to dedicate to marketing your business and prospecting for more clients. No business can grow and succeed without time spent on these critical functions. In addition to finding new clients, you can spend time catering to your existing ones to grow their loyalty.

Which one contributes more to your overall profitability: sitting in front of your computer scheduling appointments or actually sitting in front of your clients? Only you can do the latter, so why not create more time for it by using a VA to handle the former? Which one contributes to your overall success and happiness: spending ten hours a week analyzing your data base or spending that time with your family? You know the answer, and ultimately, you can’t afford not use a VA for your administrative help.