What is Virtual Assistance?
- Erica Mae Caparos
- Aug 29, 2023
- 1 min read
by ERCA FVA SERVICES | August 28, 2023 | Virtual Assistants Tips
A virtual assistant who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client's office. A virtual assistant typically operates from a home office but can access the necessary planning documents, such as shared calendars, remotely.
People employed as virtual assistants often have several years of experience as an administrative assistant or office manager. New opportunities are opening up for virtual assistants who are skilled in social media, content management, blog post writing, graphic design, and internet marketing. As working from home has become more accepted for both workers and employers, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for skilled virtual assistants is expected to grow.
What Is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients remotely from a home office.
Virtual Assistant Tasks
More and more people are taking steps in that direction by turning to virtual assistants (VA) to offload administrative tasks so that they have more time to focus on moving their businesses forward.
Let's look at the long list of virtual assistant tasks you can outsource.
Organization and maintenance of contact lists, spreadsheets, and calendars
Transcription
Correspondence
Bookkeeping such as billing and accounting
Sending emails and news letters
Responding to client inquiries
Graphic design
Blog writing
Social Media and Marketing Services
What Virtual Assistants Don’t Do
Over time a virtual assistant will learn your business, and some may have skills that enable them to contribute beyond admin tasks. Some have developed expertise in digital marketing tools and social media tools, for example.
That said, virtual assistants are not ideal for specialized tasks that require expert training and deeper business experience.
Examples include:
Advanced graphic design and video editing—a virtual assistant can upload a photo or graphic into a template but probably can’t design your annual report or edit an award-winning documentary.
Web development—making edits to existing web pages is no problem, but coding is probably not in a virtual assistant’s skill set.
Accounting—light bookkeeping, yes, but heavy accounting experience is unlikely.
Personal Errands—Scheduling your doctor's appointment is one thing, but they won't be able to pick up your lunch for you.
How to Become a Virtual Assistant
The number one requirement in starting a virtual career is to have a work-from-home setup. This setup includes laptop or a computer and an internet connection. You can begin your virtual career with these two and then grow there.
Next is to identify the skills that you can offer as services to clients. But, how about if you are new to this type of career? There are many many ways to learn, such as watching tutorials, listening to podcast, and most especially enrolling in an online course.
The third step is to know where to find clients. There are diverse ways to find clients, and you can find them on platforms like:
Facebook Groups
LinkedIn
Google
Pinterest
Referrals
There is no overnight success with virtual assistance career. Yes, this career will provide you many benefits like financial freedom. But, you need to work hard and always provide value to your clients.
Perhaps you are unsure if virtual assistance is for you. Although you may not be aware of it, virtual assistance is for everyone! And if you need guidance and want to experience a thriving virtual assistance career, get trained with FVA, where we provide end-to-end virtual assistance solutions. We recommend the Freelancing (Virtual Assistance) Course to newbies. Enroll now, and visit here: https://www.fvaconsultancy.com/ to get started.
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