Everyday Tasks of a Virtual Assistant
What is a Virtual Assistant?
To fully understand the everyday tasks of a virtual assistant, it is imperative to know their duties and responsibilities as they vary depending on their required skill sets.
A virtual assistant is a freelancer or independent contractor who assists busy and overwhelmed business owners in various tasks such as arranging travels, phone tasks, updating contacts, email management, calendar management, and other business operations. By stepping in on tasks that business owners find less important, they free up time for them and allow them to focus on more tasks that matter for scaling the business.
Virtual assistants communicate with their clients directly via email while working remotely, generally from a home office computer with an internet connection. This implies that they will be able to send you real-time feedback via email. Moreover, virtual assistants do not necessarily have to work exclusively for one business as they have the option of choosing to work independently as contractors or with a specific employment firm.
What Kind of Tasks Does a Virtual Assistant Do Every Day?
1. Phone Tasks, Communications and Email Management
General virtual assistants can do light receptionist duties. They can answer calls for you in the event that you cannot while taking notes on important matters. In addition, they can also transcribe voicemails and just forward them to you via email so that you can just read them whenever is convenient for you.
Among the virtual assistant tasks everyday is to check emails. A virtual assistant can screen those emails and separate those that are of relevance apart from spam. You can also allow your virtual assistant to delete, forward, respond to, and flag emails based on your preference.
Lastly, a virtual assistant can manage your contacts by adding new people, looking for new connections, and updating new information to your CRM.
2. Travel Arrangements
Going on business trips or traveling around could really be exciting, isn’t it? However, arranging a flight plus accommodations could be a hassle and time-consuming sometimes. So having a virtual assistant prepare them for you will really save you more time. Apart from researching flights to book them, a virtual assistant can also research and book hotels for you and secure your means of transport, whether car rentals or how to go through public transportation. Lastly, if there is an event or concert that you want to attend, they could also secure those tickets.
3. Calendar Management
Being a business owner or professional, you ought to attend to many schedules, whether for personal or professional business. And keeping up with your calendar can be such a headache. That is why among the core duties and virtual assistant tasks everyday is to manage your calendar. From coordinating, scheduling, and confirming appointments, to providing notices and reminders, a virtual assistant can handle it effortlessly for you. They are responsible for protecting your time and ensuring that all your important appointments are not neglected.
4. Business Operations, Management, and Development
As an effective business owner, it is your primary task to plan ahead and strategize for your company. That is why it is critical that you get to focus on creating projects that will lead your business to scale. That said, busying yourself with menial tasks such as filling out forms, updating file management, taking minutes from meetings, converting files, and doing market research could be a waste of time. Thus, including them in the virtual assistant tasks everyday would be such a relief for you. Other management functions such as assembling reports, recruiting human resources, looking for leads, and designing presentations can also be easily delegated.
5. Personal Errands
The main reason business owners hire virtual assistants is to have that work-life balance despite a hectic workload and busy schedule. So, a part of a virtual assistant tasks everyday is to tend to personal errands such as managing your family calendar and paying your bills. You also would not need to take the long queue to dine in your favorite restaurant because your virtual assistant can make restaurant reservations for you. More so, a virtual assistant can research and send gifts as well to whoever recipient you choose. Hiring a virtual assistant can greatly help you in maintaining your personal relationships.
What are the Common Skills of a Virtual Assistant?
You are not supposed to hire a virtual assistant who does not have the appropriate skill sets that are needed for the job. Right? But to find the perfect candidate for a virtual assistant, you must ensure that they have both hard and soft skills to be efficient, productive, and successful in their tasks. Below is a list of hard and soft skills you can use to assess whether the candidate is the right and competent fit for you.
1. Hard Skills
Communication Skills
A virtual assistant must have top-notch communication skills because all communications happen online, whether through video conferences, voice calls, text messaging, or emails. An effective virtual assistant must be eloquent in all mediums to be able to communicate and comprehend well. It is also an additional point if the virtual assistant can understand several English accents to accommodate different clients from various parts of the world.
Computer Skills
It cannot be stressed enough how important it is that virtual assistants have the basics of operating computers. A virtual assistant’s computer skills include proficiency in different search engines, Microsoft Office, and other digital software. It would also be very impressive if the virtual assistant knew about web development and design.
Planning and Scheduling Skills
Basic virtual assistant tasks everyday is planning and scheduling of daily meetings, activities, and tasks. Hence, it is only imperative that a virtual assistant has the skill to organize and plan schedules in the most convenient method for you without compromising less urgent activities. Having a virtual assistant with excellent planning and organizing skills will help you navigate your days easily.
Proficiency in Project Management Tools
Being proficient in different project management tools is a very important skill a virtual assistant must have because it can be quite time-consuming to teach every management tool. So having a virtual assistant with previous knowledge of navigating project management tools can be an advantage for you.
Research Skills
When talking about knowing how to research as a skill, this does not mean digging into published journal articles to know the root cause of a problem but rather having the basic skill to search the internet concerning the topic that is needed to be looked into. It is relevant for a virtual assistant to have basic research skills because, as an employer, when you need supplementary information on a certain topic, your virtual assistant has to compile results and synthesize them accordingly.
2. Soft Skills
Honesty
Although it is quite impossible to identify if a virtual assistant is honest from the get-go, as a business owner, you should try to identify their honesty within the probationary period of your hired virtual assistant. Establishing rapport within your team is recommended for you to get to know them more and develop trust. Building good working relationships with your virtual assistants is also a great way to evaluate their personality.
Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness is a skill that most business owners value the most. Because you wouldn’t be present every time, your virtual assistant must be resourceful enough to look for methods on how to complete his/her task. Making your virtual assistant too dependent on you will not lessen your workload but rather increase it.
Responsiveness
Most business owners have problems with the promptness of virtual assistants in responding to important communications. That is why it is important to look for virtual assistants that are responsive and attentive. In that way, you can ensure that they are trustworthy and would consistently show up for work.
How often does a Virtual Assistant work?
It depends!
If you are in need of a virtual assistant to work full-time for you, then you may compel them to work for eight(8) hours per day and five(5) days a week.
However, if you want a virtual assistant to do specific tasks for you, then you may pay them according to the hours they render per task.
Virtual assistants work freelance and have flexible work hours, which means they work depending on the efforts needed for a task to get done.
There are also instances where virtual assistants have a fixed schedule, especially if they work for an agency. For this instance, you may coordinate directly with their virtual assistant agency.
SmartVAs is a virtual assistant agency that offers you a virtual assistant team to help you with whatever virtual needs you have. You can also customize your virtual assistant’s working hours depending on which is convenient for you.