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Monday, June 20, 2011

7 Tasks an Online Virtual Assistant Can Handle for You

I’ve been operating with an internet virtual assistant for pretty much a year currently. My current virtual assistant may be a whiz at obtaining repetitive tasks off my desk and letting me specialise in the inventive work my shoppers pay me the large usd for. If you’ve got a growing freelance follow, a virtual assistant could also be able to assist you handle the work load. These tasks are all comparatively straightforward for virtual assistants to require on, letting you specialise in landing and finishing comes that pay.

1. Clean out your inbox. There are in all probability newsletters, junk mail, and piles of different emails sitting in your inbox at once, hiding all the worthwhile shopper emails which will truly cause you to cash. A VA will filter out the less helpful things and, if you offer him some autonomy, answer the a lot of basic emails.

2. Handle the nuts and bolts of beginning a replacement project. whereas you would like to be hands on to really land a project, all the rear and forth necessary to urge the project discovered (getting approval on a contract, obtaining basic data, and therefore on) are often handed off to a virtual assistant. betting on the scale of your client’s company, you'll bet that the pinnacle of the corporate isn’t handling details on his finish.

3. Send nagging emails. With some shoppers, having to send reminders may be a reality of life. you would like to send reminders regarding invoices, regarding data you would like and everything else. you will simply ought to cut and paste an email and send it, that isn't a very effective use of your skills.

4. Schedule appointments. It looks like it will take days of back-and-forth emails to schedule a rendezvous generally. When you’re giving a virtual assistant some autonomy to handle your email inbox, hand over your schedule moreover. As long as you tell your virtual assistant when to not schedule appointments, she will handle obtaining them set on your calendar.

5. Research potential shoppers. It’s smart follow to try to to some due diligence on any shoppers you’re considering operating with. a decent virtual assistant will run those Google searches that we tend to merely skip once we get busy.

6.Double check your work. once you’ve been observing a project long enough, your eyes will begin to glaze over. A virtual assistant will step in and make certain that you’ve got all the bits and items that the shopper initially asked for before you send it on.

7. Repetitive components of your work. I even have one shopper who i want to line up blog posts for in an exceedingly fairly repetitive manner (employing SEO techniques, adding graphics and therefore on). instead of taking time far from my writing, it’s straightforward handy these repetitive and formulaic tasks off to a virtual assistant.

At the tip of the day, there are lots of tasks you'll shift off your desk to a virtual assistant’s. for many freelancers, the question isn’t what might you've got a virtual assistant do, however rather how are you attending to pay one. however there are ways that to resolve that question quickly: it’s rare that you’ll want a full-time assistant and there are several virtual assistants based mostly in different firms who are out there for a lower rate than you may purchase a U.S.-based virtual assistant.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Five tips for Hiring / Working with a Virtual Assistant


1. Be clear concerning what you wish your Virtual Assistant to try to do
The first factor I did was a brainstorm of all the activities I currently did that i might like somebody else to try to do. I then compiled a listing of all the items I wasn’t obtaining done that fell into 2 categories:
Things i might like my VA to try to to on behalf of me

Things that I needed to try to to once I had longer (thanks to my VA absorbing existing work).
“the primary factor I did was a brainstorm of all the activities I currently did that i might like somebody else to try to do. ”
This allowed me to seek out a Virtual Assistant that had skills and skill to match my needs.

2. Articulate your personal quirks

As a soloist such a lot concerning the manner I worked was within my head – like how i favor my day structured, what my response times to enquiries are and the way I word my piece of email. Having somebody else to figure with meant I required articulating all of those things that is less complicated said than done!

3. Be specific with directions and deadlines

This may appear to be stating the plain however it never ceases to amaze me what percentage folks issue letter of invitation for work to be relinquished a deadline connected. Then they get irritated when the work isn't completed after they need it! Deadlines are often as specific as ‘Wednesday 3pm’ or as general as ‘by the top of this week’; simply make sure you have one.

You also have to be compelled to be specific with directions because it reduces the possibility of miscommunication or error. Remember, a lot of of what you are doing is habit and you can’t assume somebody else can suppose constant manner you are doing.

4. Agree on work flow processes
Spend time within the early stages of your operating relationship agreeing on work flow processes. How can you share information? How can you guarantee things don’t slip through cracks or get double handled? How can you issue directions – verbally or in writing? can you send requests as they happen or save them up in batches?
Discussing these items up front can minimize the possibility of things going wrong.
5. Be willing to discarding

I am a self confessed management freak. The foremost difficult factor on behalf of me was to discarding of tasks and trusts my VA to try to do a good job. I didn’t need to drive my VA crazy by continually checking on work and timelines. To assist soothe the management freak inside me; we have a tendency to created processes that guarantee I’m updated often on the progress of labor.

Having a Virtual Assistant is often a beautiful addition to your soloist business. Take the time to form the structures which will support it being a good expertise for each of you.
Have you had any experiences of your own?

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