subject: Virtual Assistants: Good For Business And For Workers [print this page] What is a virtual assistant? What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is someone who works from home as competently and diligently as in an office setting. Virtual assistant jobs are as diverse as the people who work as home-based office assistants. Workers are able to assist employers without being there in person through phone calls, emails, Skyping or texting.
What kind of jobs do virtual assistants do?
Many virtual assistant tasks may be simple, standard office work, or they may be more specialized and tailored to specific business needs. Depending upon experience, education and skills, home workers can help businesses accomplish many routine--and even not so routine--office tasks. Today, virtual assistants are being hired to do some of the following jobs:
answer customer emails
provide phone and online customer service
perform data entry
use bilingual skills for non-English speaking clients or customers
use bilingual skills to translate foreign documents
assist with computer help-desk queries
write business communications
create power point presentations
proofread documents
pay bills
keep books
create spreadsheets
fabricate websites
maintain websites
write website content
execute search engine optimization
market products, services or ideas
write grants
create and conduct political and business surveys
monitor, respond to and write social media content
host podcasts and webinars
perform Internet research
While its impossible to hire one person who can do all the jobs mentioned, the business owner is able to hire specific virtual assistants for each task matching the most skilled, available at-home worker to each job.
How does a virtual assistant save a business owner money?
By not having to pay for vacation days, sick days or personal days, and by saving the enormous cost of health insurance and other benefits, many businesses are finding its a bargain to outsource jobs to qualified virtual assistants. They can select the perfect worker to do their job from a pool of knowledgeable, experienced people. Although some virtual assistants become long-term assets to the business owner, most specialized assistants are hired for small jobs specific to a current need.
How do you apply for a virtual assistant job?
Virtual assistant jobs are plentiful and so are they ways to get yourself on the list of available workers. Some virtual assistants have morphed from being a full-time employee to acting as a home-based contractor because of a good relationship with their former employer.
Others have signed up on websites that take a fee for matching potential assistants with client specifications. Online classified ads also showcase current virtual assistant jobs, and freelance employment websites work to match clients with qualified assistants.
Is a virtual assistant an employee?
Virtual assistants are not employees but are independent contractors. Usually this means that the assistant is responsible for reporting his or her income, maintaining work schedules and meeting deadlines.
What are the advantages of being a virtual assistant?
Working from home is a dream many people have but think is impossible to achieve. The advantages of working from home are obvious, but some people think they'd never be able to make enough money to pay their bills with a home-based job.
The thousands of virtual assistants who are happily working from home are testimony to the fact that it's possible to provide for one's family, enjoy your job and never have to walk outside your front door unless you want to. Business owners and virtual assistants are united in the belief that outsourcing office work is good for business and workers.
