Virtual Assistants add a lot to a business by removing the burden of Administration of business functions. This avoids you wasting time on tasks that do not make money. They should also have expertise in their area, so that they can complete administrative tasks with greater efficiency and execute a better quality of output than you would be able to do.

Who Should Use A Virtual Assistant?

Personal Trainers, Massage Therapists, Sports coaches, Construction workers and many other small business owners are turning to Virtual Assistants to minimize the amount of administration that they have to spend time completing. The rise of the VA (Virtual Assistant) has been supported by people in these types of industry.

They use VAs to manage their emails, chase up sales leads, manage social media, manage projects, answer the telephone and other such functions. Although the hourly rate can be higher than a normal employee, you have no risk.

There is no danger of an employee dispute or having to take care of the employee’s insurance requirements, run their salary or risk employee claims. It is effective and simple; you just pay an invoice and avoid the complications of employing people.

What to look for in a Virtual Assistant

• People skills: The Virtual Assistant is not just an Executive Assistant who works remotely, they are running a business. They need to be easy for you to work with and able to amend their position to meet your needs. You should be on the lookout for these signs when hiring them. Remember they are not trying to match the Executive Assistant you have seen in offices.
• Customer Skills: Most likely you will use them to chase sales leads and manage your emails. Therefore, they have got to be able to deal with customer complaints, sell to new customers and maintain a good customer relationship.
• Administrative Skills: This is an obvious one, but could potentially not be effectively checked in an interview. You should construct a couple scenarios for how the VA would carry out your administrative tasks and see if you are dealing with an expert or just a pretender.
• Social Media Skills: They must be able to run Social Media Campaigns and tune them into building your business. Past examples and campaigns ideas are fundamental. Many personal trainers have built their customer base on a good social media campaign and this should not be overlooked. No one can avoid this area.
• IT Skills: They need to be your right hand in so many ways, so you need their help when you do not know how to fix your IT problems. Also to run your affairs they will need IT skills. They don’t need to be IT support desk level, but a working knowledge is great.
• Bookkeeping Skills: Why hire a Bookkeeper get a good deal with a VA who does Books.

How to Become a VA

VA work is ideal for anyone looking for a healthy work-life balance. Anyone who does not like going into the office to face the same desk every day will like being a VA. However, you do have the responsibilities of maintaining customers and building your business.

The best way to become a VA is to have some office admin or executive assistant experience, so that the core skills required for the job are strong and transferrable. You should also build on that knowledge with a Virtual Assistant Training Course by a recognized provider. You can find out more about Virtual Assistant Courses at specialist training centers such as www.souterstraining.com.