Virtual Assistant: What it is and what it can do for you

Everyone is looking now ways to make money online and the truth is that the internet offers many professional outlets.

Except that not all ways are the same. And Of course, not everyone works for everyone.

As in the traditional, offline world, the royal road is to rely on your experience and skills, offering what sets you apart from the competition.

So if the goal is full recovery or supplementation of income, there is an excellent solution. And for the man who wants to work, but also for the businessman.

In fact, in the new data of teleworking that was suddenly imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, the virtual assistantship is gaining more and more ground…

Virtual Assistant: What is

The virtual assistant is an external partner of a company that works from its own space. He works from home, ie on behalf of his client and manages pre-agreed aspects of the business, unloading the workload.

As Freelance operates, bringing his skills to the company. In a remote way. Virtual assistants are usually experienced and well versed in their subject matter and provide assistance to the professional branches in which they operate.

In other words, he is a self-employed partner who offers what he knows on behalf of others. All his work is done outside the office, covering administrative, accounting, financial or technical tasks.

Although it operates out of the office, it has remote access to business documents and data when needed, of course.

And while so far most entrepreneurs have turned to a virtual assistant for administrative or accounting projects, new technologies have opened up a host of possibilities for many professionals.

From managers social media and copywriters to graphic designers, marketers, advertisers and more. Teleworking is slowly being introduced, so the way the remote external partner works is no longer alien to even the most traditional entrepreneurs.

A virtual assistant can, for example, take on customer service, business appointments, email communication, event planning, and even secretary duties from home. Or purely administrative or accounting work. Finally, it practically does not exist here.

For any need that may arise, more and more specialized professionals will be available to help from their field. Without having a job in the office, that is, with all that means for labor costs.

Virtual assistants have become almost essential in the new professional challenges posed by the pandemic. But also in the new professional ethics of startups and small businesses, offering the employer the flexibility to employ them for as long as the work he has in mind.

Self-employed as it is, it costs less in a company than in a full-time employee, helping to reduce the operating costs of the business. It may not have a physical presence, but it remains a vital part of the company.

Why does an employer need a virtual assistant?

More and more people are turning to virtual assistants, who seem to have come to stay. The benefits of their employment are many and varied, however they can be summarized in three main categories.

First, they offer a better use of the workforce. They can take on the simplest, smallest and most everyday aspects of running a company, relieving full-time employees of such things.

The people that a company trusts for their talents and abilities, in order to go further.

It is indeed the best way for an employer to keep his core team happy, freeing it from the boring and repetitive tasks of everyday life. To deal with ambitious things or pressing problems, just as they do startups to succeed.

The second big reason is the reduction of the operating costs of the business, the main advantage of outsourcing. Instead of hiring a full-time employee for a small and simple job, you outsource it to a self-employed person, who always costs less in terms of pay.

The lowest price, however, is not the only way the company saves money with a virtual assistant. Experienced as he is in the work he undertakes, he does not need training from him employer.

Training new employees always costs time and money. With the virtual assistant, the employer hires an experienced professional, specialist in his field, who can start work immediately.

The third key reason is time saving. And it is in fact one of the most important aspects that direct an entrepreneur in the search for virtual assistantship, especially in small businesses, as research constantly confirms.

If a company, for example, does not have a staff management department, then hiring a new employee can be very demanding and time consuming. All this can be avoided if the project is assigned to an external specialist in recruitment, who will undertake the whole process (advertisement, discarding CVs, interviews, etc.).

How and why to become a virtual assistant

The virtual assistant path is paved with rose petals if flexibility is required. Here you are your own boss, you just rent your skills and knowledge to an employer for a pre-arranged job and a predetermined pay.

You have all the benefits of the self-employed, that is, in terms of hours, as you decide what kind and how many jobs you will undertake. All you need is a fast internet connection so you can work from anywhere in the world.

The position of virtual assistant is, however, a serious job and needs due care. In other words, you have to see what kind of jobs and tasks companies usually entrust to external partners and which of them you can undertake responsibly and reliably.

Do you have experience in a call center? Then a remote location on the phone customer service would be ideal for you. You have experience in social networking; Then you can help a company with its social networks.

This is crucial to getting started as a virtual assistant. If you do not explicitly state what exactly you provide, then no one will take you seriously, choosing people with less qualifications. But they know how to sell themselves better.

The second crucial step is to decide exactly what the structure of your professional offer will be. Will you provide, for example, a full-time job? Or do you just do it to supplement your income with a few hours a day or a week?

It is necessary to know this in order to decide what kind of work you will undertake. No one wants two hours of customer service. But in two hours you can create content for a corporate social media account.

Third and equally important, the way payment yours. Keeping in mind that you are not a full-time employee, the wages you are asking for should be commensurate. If you cost more than a regular employee, the entrepreneur will choose the 8-hour employee.

Also, you are not entitled to insurance and such benefits, which you must take into account. In fact, if you maintain your own website, you must also share the costs for your own operating costs.

It is a good idea to look at the charges on freelancers websites to get an overview of how this market works.

If you are into virtual assistantship as a complementary activity, then it is usually enough to set up your profile in one of the dozens of freelance marketplaces. However, if you look at it professionally, creating a personal website is almost a one-way street.

This is the step that makes a virtual assistant look professional. And in this area, professionalism equals credibility. Equally important is networking with industry professionals, which allows customers to find you even easier.

Virtual assistantship: What else you need to know

The virtual assistant is an external partner that the professional will usually never meet in person. And so the whole transaction involves the familiar risks of such a process.

There are many variables involved, which is why some people think about it two or three times before assigning a task to a virtual assistant.

In most challenges, however, there are simple solutions. And they all have to do with modern technology and the tools we now have in our hands for corporate communication, productivity measurement, etc.

With an application like Slack, for example, the professional maintains direct contact with the virtual assistant, exchanging ideas, files and messages. With other programs (such as ClickUp) you distribute the tasks to the virtual assistant and control their progress.

There are even monitoring and recording applications dedicated to the work you have assigned to them, making the most difficult aspect of such a toy a toy. cooperation: the trust. Especially if he is charging you with the hour, you may want to see what he is doing at the moment.

The market has ways to tackle any such challenge and the internet tools are innumerable here.

Finding the services of a virtual assistant can actually be a step towards further development of a business. But also the vocational rehabilitation of people looking for work…