Several Do’s and Don’ts for Starting a Virtual Assisting Business

Virtual Assistants (VAs) are highly skilled professionals who provide administrative support and specialized services to businesses, entrepreneurs, executives, and others who have more work to do than time to do it. Examples of services a VA can do include web design and maintenance, word processing, meeting and event planning, desktop publishing, internet research, e-mail coordination, business start-up consultations and so much more. This can be the perfect work-at-home opportunity for many with good computer and Internet skills. Following are several Do’s and Dont’s to keep in mind for starting and operating your Virtual Assisting business.

DO — Decide on a targeted market and initially focus your marketing efforts in that area. By developing a “niche” in your field, your reputation spreads quickly and soon you become a recognized expert. Several specialties include: medical, legal or business transcription, resume consulting, transaction coordination — real estate industry, desktop publishing, manuscript preparing, academic typing, e-mail support, internet research, etc.

DO — Be creative about where you can find business. The Internet offers a large variety of potential for clients just waiting for you to contact them. Actively network and don’t limit your marketing to simply placing a few ads in newspapers or the Yellow Pages. You want to find where there might be a need—and go fill it!

DO — Write a complete business plan and marketing plan. Too many leave out this vital step and waste valuable time unorganized and without a clear-cut goal and direction for their business. When starting a business you will have tons of ideas floating around. You need to materialize all these and put them into a workable plan of action.

DO — Develop a website that looks sensational! Your website is often the first connection a potential client has with your services. It must immediately let them know that they are dealing with a professional. Your site must then have the POWER to draw them to you and contact you. Let them see that you value quality by the look and feel of it. Additional tips include letting them know what services you offer and why you are qualified to offer those services by mentioning your experience and education. Be sure to include points on why you stand out among the rest and are the BEST! For example, if you have been featured in articles, radio shows, etc., have them listed with the dates.

DO — Learn everything you can about starting a business. Knowledge is power and the more you know, the greater your chances for success. Look to online services and message boards and chats to talk with other Virtual Assistants operating a business. Remember these are often run by pros who have been in business for years and are willing to share their experience. For example, I mentor and manage virtual assisting boards on several entreprenuer forums. With 20 year’s experience, I often know what works and what doesn’t in starting a business and staying successful, so my experience can prove beneficial.

DO — Join associations that are targeted for our Industry. A few of the more popular ones are IAVOA.com and IVAA.com, but there are many others. By connecting with these associations and being active, you learn from them what works and what doesn’t and you are able to post your questions to associate members via list serves often getting answers to your questions within minutes.

DO — Read, read, read. By frequently continuing to increase your skills and your knowledge of your profession, the end result is a more confident satisfied you. Every tip you get from a book can be a new tool in your business. I recommend highlighting areas from several books and adding them to your library. Keep in mind that you might not use that idea today, but it might apply to specialties you might add down the road.

DO — Enjoy!! There’s no greater feeling than landing that first client or finishing your first big project. Plus, wait until you get the opportunity to tell someone you own and operate your own virtual assisting business. It sure beats I’m a secretary at …. Plus, when you enjoy your business it shows. Your clients will sense your positive attitude and want to be a part of your team.

DON’T — Underprice your services. The average virtual assistant today makes $25 to $70 an hour, depending on their skills, services offered, location, and years of experience. Don’t make the mistake of assuming if you charge the lowest prices, you’ll get the most work. You won’t. Instead, you’ll end up working outrageous hours for peanuts! Clients will pay more for professional services. When a potential client discovers you’re charging a lower rate than standard, they often feel they will receive a quality of services that is also lower.

DON’T — Overextend yourself. One of the common mistakes many virtual assistants make is to accept too much work and then not be able to accurately complete it. Learn to say no or have a back-up helper who can assist you with any overflow work. Remember one of the most important ingredients for success is keeping your clients satisfied. If you overextend yourself and make a lot of errors, it will jeopardize your business.

DON’T — Get discouraged. It takes time to get a business going. Plan ahead and have money saved in reserve. Don’t buy items until you have found the best possible price and there is an absolute need. This advance planning takes the pressure off of having to make money NOW. If things are slow and the phone just isn’t ringing … MAKE IT RING!! There’s plenty of work out there, you just need to aggressively pursue it.

Finally, the most important ingredient for success is your belief in yourself. If you believe that with your skills and experience, you can own your own business, then there’s nothing stopping you. DREAMS DO COME TRUE. SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED TO MAKE THEM HAPPEN.

Why Outsourcing To Virtual Assistants Is A Must

Why Outsourcing to Virtual Assistants is a Must

Introduction

            A decade ago, “virtual assistant” might have conjured up some a vision of some sort of real-time robot helper.  Today, however, there are professional organizations devoted to virtual assistants, numerous websites supporting the virtual assistant industry, and even a virtual assistant “Chamber of Commerce” on the Web.[i]

            Virtual assistants form a core of our company’s business.  We’ve commissioned this paper in order to explain what virtual assistants do and where the industry has come from.  In this report, we’ll provide:

background and definition of the virtual assistant industry examples of work that has been outsourced to virtual assistants a case study based on actual use of a virtual assistant questions for you to consider as you evaluate why outsourcing to virtual assistants is a must

 

            Of course, we’ll also provide you with information about how you can contact us to arrange the services of one of our professional virtual assistants.  Because you need to focus on the things that are core to your business and lifestyle, and virtual assistants are an essential part of helping you do that.

 

Virtual Assistant Defined

            Simply put, a virtual assistant is an administrative assistant who provides services to businesses, entrepreneurs, executives, or just busy people.[ii]  The International Virtual Assistants Association offers a more formal definition:

            A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis.[iii]

 

            Virtual assistant assignments are usually communicated through e-mail, phone, fax, or mail-that’s why we’re called “virtual.”  Even though we may not be on-site, though, it’s important to remember that virtual assistants are entrepreneurs who are invested in their own business.  In other words, we make it our business to make your business and life run more smoothly.

            The virtual assistant industry has tracked closely with the development of the Web.  Email, Twitter, Facebook, even EBay, have created a multitude of ways for business relationships to grow.  But virtual assistants are also experienced in business before Web 2.0.  A 2008 study commissioned by the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce quantifies how recently the industry has emerged.  Over half of the 500 virtual assistants surveyed had started their business in 2007 or 2008.[iv]  However, the virtual assistants surveyed were not inexperienced; 72 percent of those responding had over ten years of administrative experience and 27 percent had over 20 years of administrative experience (Figure 1).[v] 

 

Source: Survey of 375 virtual assistants (2008 Virtual Assistant Survey Highlights)

 

            As an experienced administrator, a virtual assistant will typically charge a base hourly rate between $30 and $60, as did nearly 70 percent of the virtual assistants surveyed in 2008.[vi]  Of course, rates can be lower-for less experienced or less specialized virtual assistants-or much higher for highly specialized tasks.  Most virtual assistants operate on a monthly retainer specifying a certain number of hours worked, while staying flexible to meet additional time demands placed by the client.

            For a company of any size to flourish in the kind of virtual environment that has caused the virtual assistant industry to emerge, help is needed to simply manage the daily tasks and relationships involved in everyday business.  But virtual assistants aren’t just there to help you with secretarial tasks.  Let’s now take a look at the realm of work that virtual assistants provide through the lens of a case study, based on the actual experience of an entrepreneur who has successfully utilized a virtual assistant’s services.

 

Common Services Provided By Virtual Assistants

Customer Support

Telephone Handling

Medical Billing

Data Entry

Travel Planning

Medical Transcription

Email Handling

Helpdesk

Office Administration

Event Planner

Visio

MS Outlook

Spreadsheets

Research

Power Point

Word

WordPerfect

Word Processing

 

 

Alan and the Brainstorm

            It began as another one of Alan’s great ideas.  He noticed that he was getting more and more calls from a particular sector of his client base related to one of the company’s products.  But he couldn’t justify the numbers for a full-blown market research report, and he simply didn’t have the time to put together all the information himself.

            He had heard about virtual assistants at a sales conference, and he decided to see if he could retain an assistant for three months to do the legwork that help him quantify his hunch.  He located a virtual assistant that had administrative experience within his specific industry.  He outlined his needs, listened to the assistant’s questions, and hired her within a week to begin his project.

            Alan knew that the project would interest him too much to simply forward the incoming emails to his assistant, so she handled everything directly to her inbox.  She formatted a short survey with questions that Alan had designed, and provided some skilled editing and layout-along with ideas to clarify the questions so he would get the information that he wanted.  She handled the arrangements for printing and mailing the survey, took all the phone calls from clients that had questions about it, and received all the hard copies while also summarizing on-line responses.  After Alan’s initial analysis of the data, she helped him create a Power Point for presentation at his next management meeting.

            As the project was finishing, Alan realized that his virtual assistant had done a skilled job and could be valuable long-term asset.  He had to focus more of his attention to financial analysis, one of his strongest management skills, and he needed someone to manage his email and help with creating the weekly reports that he sent to the sales and management teams.  So he retained the services of the virtual assistant, who had proven herself for the task, for the coming year.

 

Next Steps

            Maybe you find yourself in need of targeted administrative help, like Alan.  Or maybe you’re in need of an administrative generalist, someone who can simply spend the hours each week “doing it all” that you no longer have time to do.  Or, perhaps there’s a part of your non-business life that needs more planning-upcoming events, vacations, retreats, community activities.  If so, a virtual assistant is essential.

            Be sure to keep the following three things in mind as you seek out a virtual assistant.  For a more comprehensive list of other considerations, you may wish to surf to a helpful article called “How to Hire A Virtual Assistant,” referenced in the endnotes.[vii]

 

1.         A Virtual Assistant is Virtual

            Your primary connection to a virtual assistant, and their primary connection to you, is virtual.  So evaluate potential assistants based on their virtual presence.  Their website should be clean, crisp, and professional.  Their ability to respond to your emails, IMs, or other electronic communication during the interview process should indicate to you the eventual quality of their work. 

            Finally, ask for references or referrals that you can access virtually to see how the candidate’s network operates.  After all, everyone’s heard of (or interviewed) the candidates that seem perfect until the HR person views their Facebook page….

 

2.         A Virtual Assistant Should Be Highly Qualified

            Working virtually is no comment on someone’s qualifications.  In fact, many employers of virtual assistants find them even more qualified than their on-site options for completing administrative and professional tasks.

            Be sure to ask your potential virtual assistant not just about their past qualifications and experience, but also about how they are able to administrate.  Does their philosophy of business line up with yours?  Is their business experience at a similar level that you’re operating?  Ask for examples of how they’ve completed tasks, and how familiar they are with the things that are important to you.  Give candidates the opportunity to listen; the best virtual assistants, like the best employees, are superior listeners.

 

3.         Hiring a Virtual Assistant is B2B

            Quality virtual assistants are entrepreneurs; they own their businesses, write their own business and marketing plans, and develop their own sales strategies.  They’re an essential part of helping you do business and organize life; but they’ve also chosen to work as entrepreneurs.  We’ve found that, like any business relationship, the best virtual assistant-client relationships are built on the sort of mutual trust and respect that is founded between colleagues.

 

Your Next Step

            ThoughtPoint Virtual Assistants, Inc invites you to contact us to discuss how a virtual assistant might serve you.  Our team of assistants has already been filtered based on qualifications and experience, and we are prepared to listen closely to your needs to help find the optimal virtual assistant match for you.  You can contact us by visiting our website, www.mythoughtpoint.com, where you’ll find directions for reaching us at any time.  We appreciate your review of this information about our industry and look forward to your inquiry about how a ThoughtPointTM professional might assist you.

 

 

References

 

 

[i] For example, see the websites www.ivaa.org and www.virtualassistantnetworking.com

[ii] From our website, www.mythoughtpoint.com

[iii] The IVAA claims over 1,000 members. www.ivaa.org/

 

[iv] Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce.  2008 Virtual Assistant Survey Industry Highlights.  October 6, 2008, p. 13.  Accessed February 2009 at

” title=”http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/how-to-hire-a-virtual-assistant.htm

” target=”_blank”>www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/how-to-hire-a-virtual-assistant.htm

 

Virtual Assistant Services For Your Company

When running a business, there are a lot of time consuming tasks that you wish you can do without. This is why outsourcing has been a big trend in the business world these days. The hiring of virtual-assistants and acquiring their services has helped businesses big or small to make significant profit by lessening their expenses and earning at the same time.

Virtual assistant services are an instant hit due to the fact that they can help you save money. If you compare the salaries of a regular full time employee and a virtual-assistant, there is a big difference. You pay for a regular employee for the whole day regardless of what that employee produces whereas when it comes to virtual assistants, you only pay for the hours of work he or she used to finish your task or you pay an agreed amount once the work is done.

Aside from that, virtual-assistants work from their own offices therefore you do not have to worry about additional office space or providing them office equipments since they will use their own. You can have a virtual-assistant working for you on the other side of the planet. Communications with them are usually done through e-mail, fax, telephone or instant messaging. All files are sent electronically as well.

You will find that most virtual-helper services are administrative and secretarial. Having a virtual-assistant acting as your secretary can help give you more time and less pressure especially during busy days at work. You can assign them to deal with paperwork and other tasks that would be too consuming for you to handle in regards to your time.

Another virtual-helper service that you can get is to have people answer calls and act as receptionists for you. That way, you are able to continue and maintain your business even if you are busy. Virtual-assistants under this specialty can manage all your calls properly and give special assistance or customer service as well. They can also call your clients and verify appointments for you. You do not want to miss any connections with potential clients and business partners so it is vital that you have someone live to connect your business to them. Other virtual assistant services would include transcription, book keeping and proofreading.

No matter what virtual-assistant services you are looking for, you can be assured that virtual assistants will work efficiently and will do their best to give you accurate and rapid results that are of high quality. You can be assured that all significant information will be confidential and will be given security by the virtual assistant.

4 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Virtual Assistant

Many people with online businesses are taking merit of virtual helpers to make their workloads a little lighter. For those who haven’t yet thought about hiring a virtual helper you may be held back because you are not privy to the five reasons why you should hire a virtual aid.

The truth is that a virtual helper won’t only make your workload lighter, but they can also help you grow your business dramatically and higher sales profits are something that’s universally understood by everybody as a benefit. If this sounds excellent to you also, keeping reading to discover a more detailed explanation of why you should hire a virtual helper now.

Ability to delegate – One of the explanations that the general public love working with a virtual helper is really because it makes holiday time a possibility again. Most people who run web businesses frequently feel as if they never get a break or a true vacation because they are either checking their e-mail many times a day or checking their website.

However with a virtual aid you can delegate requirements so you can really walk away from the small office for a while and have the confidence and security of knowing your business is doing fine.

Time efficient-One of the main issues that the general public have with building their own companies is time constraints. After you get down to the details there are thousands of tasks that has to be completed in order to keep your business running, and thousands of extra jobs that need completed if you want your business to run smoothly and continue growing.

With a virtual aid you can concentrate on the expansion of your business since you can delegate smaller jobs to your virtual helper. Therefore, you can find that the day feels less cramped and more comfortable when you free up a little time in your schedule with a virtual aid.

Specialization perks- One of the best parts of hiring a virtual helper is that you get to choose the attributes and skills that they possess. The internet is filled with virtual helpers who have specialized abilities from SEO strategies to bookkeeping to web design and onward.

Therefore, you can make it a point to hire a virtual helper who compliments your abilities so you get a more expert appearance for your business. It is comprehensible that you don’t possess every skill it takes to run a business, which is why your objective should be to hire a virtual helper who can help fill in the missing pieces.

Budget friendly- finally, the last reason you may need to hire a virtual helper is because they will be able to fit into your financial position without much fuss, unlike a genuine world helper. Virtual aides get paid by the project and do not require any type of benefits or tax authorization since they are independent contractors. Therefore, you can start employing a virtual aid now without any strings attached and find out for yourself just how beneficial they can be to your business.