How much ‘Virtual Assistant’ assists you for your Business?
In the up-to-the-minute business, you necessitate everything for more profit in your business. Sometimes you call for more assistance in your business at that time you can appoint a virtual assistant from anywhere on the planet. Technology makes everything trouble-free for doing healthier business. A virtual assistant can be given a hand for data entry, e-mail marketing, blog posting, stock market in addition to much more. Sometimes you cannot give any time for your business at that time your assistant can do it. You can assist a virtual assistant with a minimum cost paying. So you can do better businesswith your virtual assistant.
Don’t feel embarrassed if you can’t answer this question. I couldn’t either until I began researching an idea for a new business enterprise that would cater to small businesses and entrepreneurs in need of hourly administrative services, graphic design and copywriting on a flexible or supple basis. It wasn’t until then that I became conscious there was already a name for this niche called Virtual Assistance.
Based on my own prior lack of familiarity with this relatively new field, I’ve been leery to use the term in networking situations, or as part of my all-important ‘elevator speech,’ and rightly so. I attended an event a few nights ago and thought I’d test the waters to see whether there had been any progress in awareness on this front. By the glazed look that overcame 95% of my new acquaintances when I described myself as a Virtual Assistant, I realized that this niche remains a bit of an enigma.
When I thought it over afterward, I realized that, outside of the virtual nature, there are few hard and fast rules applied to the services or providers within this field. Virtual Assistant Services can be as basic as Transcription or Data Entry, as well as as assorted as Administrative Consulting, Marketing, Research, Graphic Design and Ghostwriting. This in no way diminishes the value of virtual assistance; it merely illustrates what an incredibly diverse resource this has become, in large part due to the recent state of the economy and to the much advancement in technology.
Generally speaking, Virtual Assistants are experienced professionals who have worked in a variety of corporate, administrative and creative fields, and provide support on an hourly, weekly or monthly basis. Many are former administrative assistants, bookkeepers, human resource and office managers, executive secretaries and paralegals. Some have retired from careers in corporations to raise families, to put an end to the dreaded commute, or to gain more flexible hours. My own business came from a desire to group together and utilizes all of my varied talents, instead of working in just one field day after day.
Indeed, the merely thing I’m convinced that Virtual Assistants have in common is that they are independent contractors who pay their own taxes, insurance, and overhead, work from their own home offices via the internet and cloud-based services, and that successful virtual assistants have great insights into many of the aspects of running a business as they are themselves entrepreneurs.
The term is even loosely used by outsourcing agencies who hire out individuals from third world countries with minimal skills for pennies (many of whom have never worked in a professional environment). I don’t minimize these agencies or the services they provide, however, there is a great difference between outsourcing and virtual assistance, the main one being that the first is an unspecified, hired hand with no answerability/ liability/ accountability, and the second a one-on-one, skilled resource with a vested interest in the success of your business.
Rapidly changing economic times require flexibility, and Virtual Assistance is a sign of the times. There’s never been a better time to get familiar with this field and try one out. As for me, I intend to keep working my elevator speech, defining my own niche, and putting virtual assistance on the map. It is, after all, an amazing resource with a thoroughly modern concept, and it’s time the word got out.
