Posts Tagged ‘Virtual Assistant’
What is a Virtual Assistant
January 9th, 2009 | 
Author: The explosion of the internet has opened up dozens of possibilities for people who are computer literate. One of the best starting opportunities for someone who wants to work from home is to work as a virtual assistant.
According to Wikepedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_assistant) a virtual assistant is defined as:
“a business owner providing professional level administrative, technical or sometimes creative assistance to clients, usually to other independent entrepreneurs and solo and small business practices. Virtual assistants work from their own office, hence ‘virtual’, thus making it a fairly popular and growing profession.”
Wikepedia goes on to state that there are currently 5,000-8,000 virtual assistants in the world, and that a minimum of five years experience in an office setting as an administrative assistant, office manager, secretary or similar jobs is usually expected.
Some skills needed to become a virtual assistant are:
- Writing. A virtual assistant should have solid language and grammar skills.
- Organization. Exemplary organizational skills are needed to be able to keep projects in order.
- Good communication skills. You will find quickly that many clients expect you to be able to read their minds. Being able to keep channels of communication open is a necessary skill for VAs.
- Good internet skills. You have to be comfortable using the internet to succeed as a virtual assistant.
- Entrepreneurial spirit. Starting a virtual assistant business is exactly that: a business. You have to be willing to do the work, whatever that entails, from hustling work to juggling more than one client to keeping your business records straight. You have to be self-disciplined enough to get the work done and to set a schedule for yourself when no one is looking over your shoulder telling you when to show up for work or what to do.
- Marketing skills. You need to have or be willing to develop the ability to market yourself.
You can charge by the hour, the project or the page. You may be able to get started finding work on sites such as http://www.elance.com.
For more information on becoming a virtual assistant, visit the International Virtual Assistants Association at http://www.ivaa.org/ or the Virtual Assistant Networking Association at http://www.vanetworking.com/.
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