This week kicks off a series of videos on the top frequently asked questions about Working with a Virtual Assistant.  Today’s video post begins with FAQ#1, What is a Virtual Assistant?

For small and medium sized businesses that are especially at the start-up stage, the requirement for extra assistance is often vital. But the constraints on funds, space or equipments can prevent them from hiring a full time assistant.

This is where a Virtual Assistant (VA) can be a great resource.

Advantages of using a VA:

•    The need for the traditional office paraphernalia like office space and equipments are eliminated, since a VA independently provides services from a remote location using his/her own equipment.

•    The organization only needs to pay the VA for the time and material, if any, spent on the specific project.

•    Since VAs have prior secretarial or similar experience, the need for training them is eliminated.

•    Employee recruitment cost almost accounts to nothing at all.

•    It cuts down overhead expenses like employee related insurances, taxes or benefits.

Hence, VAs are the best alternative that a growing small/medium scale business has as an economical and efficient alternative to hiring a full time employee.

Businesses that generally use the services of a VA:

The services of a VA can be availed by any person or business. Since a VA normally has prior administrative experience, their services are especially useful in businesses that experience regular periods of excessive pressure occurring due to paper work and other routine administrative tasks.

The businesses that generally use the services of a VA are:

-    Real estate agents
-    Legal professionals
-    CPAs
-    Journalists
-    Authors
-    Website owners
-    Affiliate marketers
-    Teachers and professors
-    Life coaches/business coaches
-    Consultants
-    Therapists
-    Beauty salon owners
-    Artists
-    Musicians
-    Photographers
-    Other small business owners, and so on

When would considering a VA be required?

Businesses should think of using the services of a VA if they are met with the following instances:
1.    More free time is required to focus on strategic and more important goals
2.    Delegation of work to existing staff would affect their productivity and their ability to meet deadlines
3.    Existing staff do not have the required skill set to complete the task in question
4.    There is a limitation on funds with regards to providing training, purchasing of office equipment or space
5.    There is a requirement for a forwarding address when the person in question is away from work for a while
6.    There is a requirement of an extra hand when the volumes of work are too large and difficult to handle on one’s own
7.    There is a general need of a personal assistant

If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, you’ve come to realize that marketing your business online has massive potential for huge profits. But if you’ve done your research on internet marketing, you’ve probably also realized that there are so many different techniques for marketing online of which many of it takes time and effort. And if you are extremely busy running your small business, you may not have the time and effort to market online.

This is where an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant can be your answer. So what exactly can an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant do and how will he/she increase profits for your business?

Here’s a brief list of the different internet marketing tasks a virtual assistant can perform for your business:

Maintain Your Blog or Website Maintenance

If you have a blog or website, you can hire a virtual assistant to load your blog posts and schedule them to post on different days. A virtual assistant with search engine optimization expertise can make sure the right keywords are used on your blog or website. He/She can also update your content regularly on your blog or website when changes are needed. With your website consistently maintained and optimized for the web will help bring you a steady flow of traffic.

Write and Submit Articles

It is well known that writing articles and submitting them to article directories is a sure way to drive a flow of traffic to your website and generate quality leads. Your virtual professional can write and submit 1 to 3 articles a week on your niche. This technique will definitely bring you continuous traffic to your site while building backlinks.

Write and Submit Press Releases

Press Releases are another fantastic way to generate traffic to your website. Each time your company has a new announcement to share, your virtual assistant can write a press release about it. Also, Press Releases like articles create backlinks to your site.

Email Marketing

In order to do email marketing, you need an autoresponder system. A Virtual Assistant who specializes in internet marketing will most likely know how to set up an autorepsonder service for your website. This includes creating the opt-in form for your site and loading all the messages. With this assistance, you’ll be able to concentrate on building a list instead of trying to maintain it.

Post Classified Ads

With so many classified ad sites available on the internet, your internet marketing virtual assistant can post several ads a day on the top visited sites.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is a form of internet marketing which uses sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to achieve branding awareness of a company’s products and services to the masses. If you have an account with any of these social networks, then your assistant can maintain these social networks on behalf of your business helping you stay in touch with your audience.

As stated before, this is just a brief list of the many different internet marketing techniques that an internet marketing virtual assistant can do to help increase profits for your business. When you are searching for a virtual professional, just make sure to ask the person about their experience and expertise in this area before hiring. But once you find that qualified assistant, you’ll be seeing amazing results in your business in not time.

It seems so simple to be in a traditional business world.  You simply put an ad out for someone to fulfill a job position.  One by one, you see who is most credible and confident for the position, eventually hiring the person of your choice.  However, things are beginning to run differently, making it necessary to find different ways to find people.

If you are looking for a right hand person to help with the business, but have decided to go the nontraditional route of a virtual assistant, you will want to make sure that you know exactly where to go.  The job interview for a virtual assistant is not located in an office, but is also located virtually, meaning that the way to find the assistance is different.

There are a few ways that you can find the right virtual assistant.  The first is to look locally.  This means that you can look at either Internet portals that advertise local companies with connections to websites.  You can also look at other local directories that you know will have the right advertisements for you to find a virtual assistant.  Most likely, virtual assistants who are working in the business individually will be listed through these different areas.

Another option that you can follow is to look at directories that have been made for virtual assistants that are qualified.  The Virtual Assistants Chamber of Commerce is one specific area that has virtual assistant directories.  In order to be listed in this directory, one will have to have a certain amount of experience and will also have to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Finding the right virtual assistant directories simply means looking into the most well known areas for virtual assistants.  There are a variety of areas that are available, all which can help to get you to the right person.  Going through a job interview virtually is what will help you to move into a nontraditional method of working with someone; virtually.

Here are just a few virtual assistant directories to get you started on the search for your perfect virtual assistant:

http://www.mediamage.com/va/

http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/directory/

http://www.virtualassistantforums.com/directory/

If you need help finding your perfect assistant, give us a call at 206.350.3504 for free 15 min consultation.

Your schedule is busy and hectic.  Not only is it busy, but it is becoming even more stressful.  You have fifty things to do in one day, but most of the time, these are interrupted by talking on the phone or having to take in service calls.  Happy with the problem, you decide that it is time to expand.

In your expansion, you look at the option of hiring an administrative assistant.  However, this takes paperwork, the need to have someone in an office space all of the time, and complicated factors, such as payroll.  An alternative that seems to be more effective is a virtual assistant.  By doing this, you will have the ability to get all of the administration taken care of, without having to worry about hiring an actual employee.

The ability to use a virtual assistant as an administrative assistant is as simple as making sure that there is an understanding of the vision of your business.  A virtual assistant will be able to take in all of the calls that you need, answer e-mails, send faxes, and do any type of secretariat work that you did.  They can also do some of the simpler tasks, such as keep track of appointments and pick up the mail so that you don’t have to worry about it.  This way, you don’t have to worry about any of the administrative needs and can simply focus on offering services.

One of the important parts to keep in mind about hiring a virtual assistant as an administrative assistant is that there will be an expectation to create a partnership.  This is because the virtual assistant, while working remotely, will be working continuously with you.  This is an important thing to keep in mind, especially if you are looking for administrative duties that include more personal needs, such as handling reservations and appointments.

If you want to take out the small stuff for your daily schedule, then finding a virtual assistant is a good key.  This will allow you and your business to take a step up without the problem of being scattered because of the lack of time.  If you want someone who will offer you the best of an office without an office, a virtual assistant is the one who can put in the paperwork for you.

There are two major ways that you can work with a virtual assistant.  The first of these is with management projects, which are done over a long period of time.  The second of these is based off of short term work, where you simply hire a virtual assistant for a shorter term project that you will need.  Depending on the state of your business, you can determine the time allotment for your virtual assistant.

There are two types of ways that you can approach short term work with a virtual assistant.  Both of these will make a difference in the type of contract that you decide to sign with the assistant, as well as the types of projects you will have your virtual assistant for.  Of course, even if you are only hiring a virtual assistant for a short period of time, you can always use the assistant in the future, as they will be familiar with the company and its needs.

The first type of short term work that you can hire a virtual assistant for is with maintenance that will only need to be updated a few times a year.  For example, if you have specific book keeping that you will need to have maintained once every quarter, a virtual assistant can work on this and consider it a short term project.  Most likely, this will be considered a per-project agreement between you and the assistant.

The second type of short term work will be for when you need extra help for a specific time of year.  Often times, virtual assistants will be hired for an event that is taking place or for an extra busy time of the year.  This will allow the extra customer service and maintenance that is needed to be taken care of.  There is also the possibility to hire a virtual assistant to do a short term project, such as build a website without the maintenance.  This will allow you to find the best solutions for the extra push your business may need.

No matter what type of extra help you need, you can find a virtual assistant who can catch onto the vision and help you to reach your goal.  No matter what the time frame is, you can easily find a virtual assistant who has the ability to do what is needed for your company.

One of the most important parts of becoming involved with a virtual assistant is making sure that the final offers are clear.  This means that all of the contract work and forms should be understood and signed by both sides.  This will prevent any problems from occurring later on, and will help to define all of the terms of services that you need.

There are a variety of forms that a virtual assistant may decide to use, all which will make a difference in the type of services that are negotiated between you and the virtual assistant.  The first of these that you may see is a retainer agreement.  Basically, this will let you know what the work is and will define what the important aspects of the work will be, whether long term or just with a project.

If you are only working with the virtual assistant with one project, you may be looking at different forms.  Most likely, a per-project agreement will be looked at, which will define the terms and conditions of the project.  Most likely, this will be signed once a year, and will be used if you are only using the virtual assistant occasionally.

From this point, you may also be signing other alternative agreements.  Confidentiality agreements may be important to consider if you have the virtual assistant working with paperwork in your office.  Non-solicitation and non-competition agreements can also be looked over with a virtual assistant.  This will ensure that a virtual assistant that only works with you every once in a while won’t go and tell someone else what your business is doing, causing you to be in conflict with competition.

Depending on the type of work you will need from the virtual assistant, you will want to make sure that you have the proper forms to sign.  Having the agreements clear and legal between you and the virtual assistant will help you to make sure that everything is done correctly from the beginning to the assistance that you need.

Finding someone to help out with your business is about finding the right match. You want to make sure that everything works out on both a business level, as well as with a well defined relationship. This will help you to get the best quality of work that is possible for your business, and will help when you need to build a long term working relationship.

One of the ways that you can be sure to get the right relationship is to look at the possibility of working with virtual assistants. Virtual assistants can be found in a variety of areas, all working with other agencies or by themselves. If you are considering a virtual assistant, you will want to make sure that you decide whether to work with them when they work for themselves, or are working under someone else.

If they work for themselves, you have just as much of a chance as finding someone that is effective with what they do. The best way to see what the virtual assistant is doing is to simply look at the ‘about the owner’ page on a website. Most virtual assistants will let you know who they are, what their experience is and what they specialize in. This will give you a good idea of what type of work you will be getting and the quality that is offered through the virtual assistant.

You will also be able to see what types of business credentials a virtual assistant has by finding their website. You should be able to see links to virtual assistant networks on the site. Things such as the International Virtual Assistant Network or the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce can help to verify that they are virtual assistants as a business and that they have the ability to function as a complete business.

Working with an independent virtual assistant simply means finding the right credentials through the individual. By examining the website and learning about the person, you will have the ability to determine whether the person can work with you in a professional member and to build a relationship through the business terms that you have found through their individual site.

When one is hired for a job, it is expected that the first two weeks will be for training. This will allow the person to become familiar with the job and to understand all of the details that are a part of the description. If you have decided to work with a virtual assistant, this may not be the case. Whether it is a project or long term maintenance, it is important to provide the information that is needed.

The first few times that you work with a virtual assistant, you should expect that the communication will be partly about the training into the job. It will be important that you let the assistant know what your business is all about. This includes allowing them to see the vision of the business, let them know the details of what you do, and allow them to see how you are running.

From here, you will need to make sure that you have an idea of what you want from the virtual assistant. For example, if you are telling them to answer the phones for you, make sure that they will answer it with your business name. This also means that you should provide them with some general information that may be related to the business. By doing this, you will have the ability to keep a professional look, even on the first day of the job.

Most likely, you will not have problems with the training. Because virtual assistants work for several people, they know the routine of the first few days. You can not only expect to provide a fast training. Most virtual assistants will have a list of questions that they will ask their clients when they are hired. This allows them to catch onto the job quickly, and will save you if you miss any of the details.

Making business decisions and passing them to a virtual assistant is one of the ways that you can be sure to keep your business image the way that you want to. By doing this, you will have the ability to pass the business to someone who has had some quick training and can make sure to uphold the quality of service that you want to offer.

Every business has a vision of what it wants to be and where it wants to go. At times, this business may only be one person. However, they have taken the step of being the business, which means they want to get somewhere and do something. If you are working as your own business with other businesses, you want to make sure you see both sides of the story.

As a business owner, you begin with a vision. Once this vision starts to be reached, you can begin to expand into seeing the broader picture. Typically, this will be when you hire a virtual assistant. However, hiring a virtual assistant doesn’t just mean understanding your own vision. It also means understanding the vision of the virtual assistant.

As a virtual assistant, this same scenario also applies. It is your responsibility to understand what every business owner needs and where you can fill in the gaps. This is the best way to offer service at a good quality. While there are limits to what you can say and offer, there are also great ways to see at the same level as the business you are working towards.

No matter what side of the coin you are on, this is the best way to work with or as a virtual assistant. This is the beginning to creating a great business partnership and working towards the goals together. Beyond the contracts, the terms and policies, is the understanding of the overall vision. By doing this, it will allow one who is a virtual assistant to work towards quality in their business.

Being a virtual assistant or a business owner at any level begins with a mission and vision statement. This same mission and vision needs to be focused on whenever someone else is brought into the larger picture for assistance. This will help everyone involved to work towards the potentials of each small or large business owner.