| As a
small business owner, outsourcing work to Virtual
Assistants is fast becoming a popular and
intelligent decision. The business owner saves
enormous amounts of money by cutting the costs of
offices and equipment overhead as well as expensive
benefits packages.
The ‘Virtual
Office’ creates an enormous amount of personal
freedom and independence for both the small business
owner and the virtual workers. The dedication and
commitment that virtual workers demonstrate
testifies to the satisfaction derived from a home
office setting.
Being on the cutting
edge of this profession offers tremendous
opportunity for technical savvy entrepreneurs to
secure a viable and stable home business
opportunity. A good business plan and well thought
out marketing campaigns are crucial to the organized
success of a Virtual Assistant in both securing
enough clients and/or work to meet their budget goal
as well as adequately being able to balance clients
and deadlines.
Virtual
Assistant’s actually would be well advised to
embrace a business partner or utilize a team of
trusted colleagues to entrust overflow work to. The
standards of a good Virtual Assistant aren’t
easily met and establishing a virtual network of
quality workers isn’t an easy task. Any overflow
work that you outsource must exemplify the same care
and quality as your own or you stand the chance of
alienating your clients.
As the owner of a
home business resource specifically geared toward
professional mothers seeking home based work, I am
often approached for advice on how to become a
Virtual Assistant and also receive many inquiries
about what skills are required to be successful in
the field.
To gain and retain
clients, my main advice is to maintain your
professionalism in all of your interactions with
your client. As much as it is a leap for you to give
up the ‘security’ of working in a corporate
office, it is also a very new concept for business
owners to outsource their work to a team of
‘Virtual Workers’ who they may likely never even
see face-to-face. There is a great level of trust
employed in this relationship and your
professionalism in correspondence and phone calls
will go a long way in securing their trust.
Furthermore, I
advise you to pay great attention to your accuracy
and final product that you submit to your clients.
Meet all of your deadlines, and know at least two
days ahead of time if you are not going to be able
to meet them. Communicate that to your client before
the project is late and keep in communication on a
daily basis from the beginning to the end of all
projects with brief status reports.
Make yourself easily
accessible through email, telephone and instant
messenger. You should have access to whatever
instant messenger service your client prefers. The
most popular are ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo. Be certain to
set your instant messengers to save your history so
that you can easily refer back to client request or
comments without having to solicit the client to
repeat what they already have said.
A rule of thumb is
to remain in communication with the client, but
don’t waste their time. The client should end
their work day each day with a sense of real
gratitude of the skills, organization and
trustworthiness you bring to the table. They should
know that you are available to converse with at
almost any time but you do not bother them unless it
is absolutely necessary.
In the end the
presence of a Virtual Assistant should prove to make
the company more money because the owner and other
business team members can focus on income producing
areas of business that they otherwise wouldn’t
have as much time to do.
The most common and
I would say necessary tools for the job are the most
current version of Microsoft Office. You should have
and be comfortable using Word, Excel, Powerpoint and
Access. You should have either Macromedia
Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage and know the
basics of HTML and ftp’ing files to and from
servers.
So much of a Virtual
Assistant’s work is based online that it really is
crucial to have DSL or Cable internet access. You
also want to have a good computer that you can rely
on.
There is so little
expense in running a virtual office that I don’t
believe it is wise to cut corners with your
computer, software and other office equipment.
Having the latest technology on hand and continuing
to acquire and master new skills will increase your
desirability and worth in the eyes of your clients.
It will also demonstrate your commitment to your
career.
When a client begins
to trust you with important responsibilities and
invests the time in training and familiarizing you
with the procedures of their particular business,
they need to be able to depend on you and to know
that you are committed to your work.
In short, with
administrative skills and above average technical
savvy, coupled with an organized and professional
approach – a career as a Virtual Assistant is
definitely a viable and rewarding option
Lori Redfield, owner
of FreelanceMom.com,
http://www.freelancemom.com
is a Virtual Assistant, Freelance Designer and
Internet entrepreneur. To sign up for her monthly
newsletter, visit http://www.freelancemom.com/newsletter.htm
lori@freelancemom.com |
