What is a Virtual Assistant?

Recently, businesses and entrepreneurs have realized they do not need to hire a full-time employee to get the work done, which gave rise to the first virtual assistant. Virtual assistants provide support to businesses remotely. They perform basic administrative tasks and other tasks as required by the company.

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant is one who works from a remote location and provides an administrative task to businesses. Online businesses and small businesses prefer to use virtual assistants rather than hire a full-time employee. They can help them carry out specific tasks such as social media management, content writing. They carry out the job that any other support staff can do. Virtual assistants are not limited to only administrative tasks. They also perform several tasks, such as web design, bookkeeping, data entry, and other services. They have specific skill sets that are related to the job they perform. 

What do they do?

The following are tasks they carry out.

1.     They help with Calendar Management.

Managing a calendar can be exhausting for most business owners, and that's why they hire a virtual assistant. When it comes to managing your calendar, they can:

·        They help to Coordinate and schedule calls and appointments. 

A virtual assistant can schedule calls and appointments on your behalf. It keeps you from doing a task you may not like. All you need to do is give your virtual assistant rules about your appointments. They can also schedule meetings and calls for team members.

·        Confirm appointments. 

All you need to do is give your Virtual Assistant a list of appointments to confirm. It eliminates wasting time when the other party cancels at the last minute.

·        They provide reminders about calls and appointments. 

As a busy professional, you might forget to make specific calls or forget about individual appointments. Your virtual assistant can remind you to ensure you do not forget. Also, you may need to reschedule your appointment, and they can do that for you.

·        They provide notice of schedule changes to others. 

If you reschedule an appointment, your Virtual Assistant provides notice to the other party and confirm the rescheduled meeting.

·        They help to protect your time. 

Sometimes, you may have an unwanted guest at your office, and you may find it difficult to say no to them. But Virtual assistants can help you maximize your time effectively.

·        They manage your pending list.

Each week, your virtual assistant can send a list of people on the pending list and wait for your response. They remind you of setting up a call or meeting to meet these people.

·        Inform essential people when you will be out of town.

Virtual assistants can inform essential people of your absence by providing a calendar invite with your out-of-town dates and hotel details. They also tell them about your arrival and set up a meeting with you. 

2.     They help with email and contact management and communications.

Sometimes, you may have tons of emails, and it's challenging to respond to all of them. A good virtual assistant can save you time and energy by performing the following tasks:

·        Screen emails. 

A virtual assistant can delete, respond, or forward emails according to your request. They can also flag an email for your attention.

·        Add people to contacts. 

When you have a new contact on your email, they can add the person's details to your contacts. They can also update a person's information that was previously not there.

·        Add contacts to the CRM software. 

A significant problem with CRM is data entry. That's why small business owners outsource this task to virtual assistants. They can add data and organize existing data on your CRM system.

3.     Research and analyze data on your behalf.

Research is fundamental to every business. Without it, it will become challenging to expand your business. However, it is time-consuming to research while trying to run your business at the same time. When it comes to research, you need to hire an individual who has a flair for analyzing data. Virtual assistants can help you research your competitors' products; they analyze existing consumer trends and screen applications for an affiliate program. Assigning these tasks to a team member who already has duties is not the best idea. It will be overwhelming and less productive. That's why it's essential to hire a virtual assistant to carry out any research about your business. They focus on gathering data and analyzing data for your company.

4.     Accounting

Performing accounting tasks such as creating an invoice, sending invoices can be exhausting and dreadful. Why not hire a virtual assistant to do it for you? They perform accounting tasks such as:

·        Maintain books. 

With the required skill, they can review transactions and handle monthly reconciliations.

·        Create and send invoices. 

With existing templates, they can create an invoice and send them to your clients.

·        Chase down payments.

Virtual assistants can track down payments in your business. All business has an account receivable process, and they follow that process to track expenses. 

Most virtual assistants have several years of experience working as an administrative manager or personal assistant. They can handle basic tasks such as bookkeeping, data entry, booking flight, and boost your business's productivity. As most of them work remotely, you do not need to provide working tools or require a physical office. However, there are risks associated with hiring a virtual assistant. The best solution is to hire them from good sources. You can hire them from the freelancers' market or hire them from companies that offer the service. When you are hiring a virtual assistant, you need to make a list of tasks you will delegate. These are activities you want to outsource and create a schedule to calculate the payment.