You are here: Home / Working Virtually

Virtual Assistants: Not Your Typical Secretary!

January 31, 2009 By Julie Cioffi-Brawley 5 Comments

Virtual assistants used to be an unknown commodity. These days however, virtual assistants provide superlative support and backup to major corporations as well as home-based business owners. For small businesses, the expertise and professionalism of virtual assistants may often mean the difference between success and failure.

Virtual assistants are trained and experienced in a multitude of fields and industries and may complete administrative or support services from home offices utilizing Internet connections, traditional telephone, or fax lines. Virtual assistants are available to provide support and assistance in more than just clerical work and often specialize in web-based Internet marketing endeavors, financial and bookkeeping fields, medical industries, legal fields, and executive positions.

Many people mistakenly believe that virtual assistants cost an arm and a leg, and while wages for virtual assistants may range on an average of $20-$70 an hour, many are able to offer Fee-for-Project services on a per hour basis that are more than worth their weight in results and payoff.

Virtual assistants are not glorified secretaries. They are business owners. They may specialize in webpage development and search engine optimization, shopping carts, or create and develop seminars, conventions and more. What can you expect from a virtual assistant? Check out just a few of the benefits that a virtual assistant can offer you:

•    Specialized experience and knowledge – some virtual assistants are specially trained in legal and medical fields.
•    Expert knowledge in Internet Technologies
•    Often work on retainer basis, saving you money
•    Multilingual capabilities
•    Increased efficiency
•    Support in executive, financial, and business relationships

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. A good virtual assistant is worth his or her paycheck and may offer priceless support as well as development in any service, business, or industry.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re a one-man operation or a huge corporation; a virtual assistant is available at the click of a mouse.

In today’s depressed economy, one virtual assistant is often able to complete a full day’s work in half the time it would take a traditional workplace employee, because distractions, conversations, and interactions with other employees are limited. Virtual assistants are often experienced in business development and may provide invaluable resources and support to new or infant business ownership and launches.

One of the biggest benefits of hiring a virtual assistant is that they are independent contractors. Those who hire virtual assistants are not required to pay taxes on wages, or benefits, which saves employers hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year.

Virtual assistants are utilized by nearly every career field and industry and can be catered support to your specific needs, whether you need their services for several hours a day or several hours a month. Highly trained and experienced virtual assistants adhere to a code of ethics, not only for traditional and common business environments, but within the legal and medical field as well.

These days, hiring a virtual assistant will help reduce overhead while still offering business owners the support they need to excel in a multitude of business environments.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Working Virtually

Virtual Reality

December 18, 2008 By Julie Cioffi-Brawley 1 Comment

Running a business is challenging. Finding and hiring assistants or employees can also be a frustrating endeavor. To make matters worse, there’s never enough time in any given day to get everything done.  For those who own their own business or company, whether home-based or office-based, there is no such luxury of being ‘done’.

Many consider hiring a secretary for the office, if the space is available and your income is such that you can afford to hire one. However, many employers cringe at the thought of retirement packages that must be negotiated and arrangements made for holidays and time off, including sick days.

However, in recent years, outsourcing has grown increasingly popular. That’s where today’s Virtual Assistants come in. There are many kinds of Virtual Assistants out there. Some virtual assistants gear their skills toward a certain profession, while still others are literal ‘Virtual Girl Friday’s’ who can strut their stuff through a vast array of skills that include proficiency with various computer programs such as Word, Excel and Power Point, running the financial side of a business office and transcribing notes, taped or video meetings into hard copy documents.

The most common tasks for Virtual Assistants these days include, but are not limited to the following skills:

  • Internet Research – A good virtual assistant can help you and your business stay on top of current trends, or spend the hours necessary to research events, information or project planning tasks that you don’t have the time for.
  • Record Keeping – Hate to balance your books or track your marketing or promotional endeavors and budgets? Hire a Virtual Assistant to do it for you.
  • Making Travel and Speaking Engagement Arrangements – enough said.
  • Managing databases and email correspondence and campaigns – ditto above.
  • Phoning, Faxing, Communicating – Sure, you want to stay in touch with your customers and clients, but let’s face it – sometimes, there just isn’t enough time in the day to do it all.

Virtual assistants offer a variety of skills tailored to particular fields or professions. They also offer the benefit of savings, as you pay them to do only what you want them to, per job, or if you so choose, per month, for specific duties that range from providing transcripts from business meetings and interviews to creating and maintaining document files. They provide word processing services as well as support for overflow work.

The best thing about Virtual Assistants is that they are available at the click of a mouse. They’re there when you need them to provide research and secretarial support.

Make a list of all the things you dislike having to tackle in your job, and chances are there’s a way to outsource that list. With today’s demands on quality and skilled professionals, you should be saving your best for what you do best, whether you’re a self-employed business owner or run a busy office in a large downtown building. You need to focus on your priorities, which means your customers or your projects. Let someone else do all the rest.

Filed Under: Tips & Tools, Working Virtually