10/09/2022
What is a Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant is an online worker who helps companies in their day-to-day operations. This includes a wide range of tasks such as checking emails, managing social media, scheduling appointments, data entry, preparing documents, writing blogs and so much more.
Job descriptions can vary greatly from company to company so it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what a virtual assistant does. Basically, someone who can help reduce workload stress.
It’s almost exactly the same as an assistant sitting in the office. But since most of today’s work is done on a computer anyways, a virtual assistant fills the role extremely well. Several major companies are beginning to realize this and have begun shifting to the work-from-home model at a rapid pace. This is why we predict that demand for virtual assistants is only going to go up. It’s not a question of ‘if demand will increase’, but a question of ‘how much will it increase’.
Skills Required to Become a Virtual Assistant
Most virtual assistant jobs require you to have the following:
Stable internet connection,
Good typing speed (around 50-65 wpm)
A decent computer
If you have these, then you already qualify for most virtual assistant positions.
But like most people, you should always strive to do better than expected. So let’s talk about some other easy-to-learn skills that can improve your chances of getting hired as a high-level virtual assistant.
Administration
Helping out with general administration is probably the closest thing to what many views as an ‘assistant’. Checking emails, handling meetings and reminders, preparing documents, answering phone calls, you name it. High-level managers are usually swamped on most days and wholeheartedly welcome an assistant who can do something even as little as read emails for them.
Glassdoor has a great guide for job seekers on which skills to learn for administrative work. But rather than raw skills, most employers are looking for someone with the right personality. They want to hire someone who is forthcoming, honest, communicative, and most importantly hospitable since you might need consistently communicate with high-profile individuals.
Even if being an administrative assistant isn’t your dream job, it’s a great stepping stone that could lead to some exciting opportunities in the future.
Content Creation
Publishing blogs, press releases, and social media posts are something almost every business or entrepreneur is doing. Posting fresh content consistently on so many platforms can become overwhelming, and that’s where virtual assistants come in.
If you can help someone create high-quality content on a daily basis, then your skills are in high demand. It’s not just about writing, sometimes you will need to proofread and edit content appropriately. If you’re willing to take it to the next level, learn some basic graphic design skills and you can serve as a social media manager. Online tools such as Canva make it extremely easy to put together a compelling graphics that matches the quality of a professional graphics designer.
Bookkeeping
Managing finances is extremely important to ensure smooth daily operations and companies need all the help they can get. More virtual assistants are now being hired to lend a hand with payroll, recording transactions, managing invoices, processing payments and so much more.
Most of these tasks require a basic understanding of working with spreadsheets such as Excel or Google Sheets. But even without those skills, you can go a long way by just helping out with number crunching. In fact, most companies have already created their financial documents and just need someone to do the busy work of filling them in.
Website Management
All companies with a digital presence will need someone to constantly check on their websites. You don’t need to be a professional web developer to take on this duty, you just need to be familiar with the platform.
The world’s most popular website builder is WordPress. Chances are that the company that hires you as a virtual assistant will already be using it for their business website so go ahead and familiarize yourself with it. The best way to do this is to actually build your own WordPress blog which is completely free. Even better, WordPress themselves conduct regular webinars which teach beginners how to use their platform, all free of charge.
Who is Looking for a Virtual Assistant?
Almost anyone with a digital presence is looking for virtual assistants. Small business owners, entrepreneurs, bloggers, youtubers, anyone with a website and so on.
Larger companies have also built their digital channels using a crew of virtual assistants who are working from different parts of the world in different time zones.
Most who are willing to employ VA’s are very flexible with who they hire. Some of them are even aware of the fact that new virtual assistants may not have the necessary skills to take on the job. That’s why they offer in-house training or a grace period to allow virtual assistants to learn everything they need to handle their tasks confidently.
3 Steps to Becoming a Virtual Assistant
IdeasUnlimited has helped shape hundreds of remote workers into confident virtual assistants capable of serving all business niches. Based on our experience, we have developed a very simple checklist for aspiring virtual assistants to set them up for success.
Decide a Specialty
Feel free to scroll back up and re-familiarize yourself with what a virtual assistant does. As you’re reading through, find the things you are most comfortable with. Perhaps a skill that you already know or a task that you have prior experience with. It can even be something you find interesting and wouldn’t mind learning.
The goal is to develop a focus. You could very well offer a wide range of services as a virtual assistant, but we highly recommend sticking to just a few.
In our experience, virtual assistants should strive for long-term projects rather than short-term gigs. In order to achieve this, you need to focus on a few tasks that you deliver extremely well. If you try to accomplish many things at once, you risk underperforming and not making a great impression on your profile.
Create an Impressive Portfolio
A portfolio is doubly important for virtual assistants who want to focus on content creation. Most of the time, you will be required to show a portfolio that will be compared with the work of other virtual assistant candidates and you should therefore be prepared to present one at a moment’s notice.
If you’re looking for ideas for an eye-catching portfolio, be sure to skim through Pinterest for some inspiration from millions of content creators.
Items that could be added to your portfolio include social posts, graphics, website snapshots, blogs, articles, and so on.
Even if you haven’t worked as a virtual assistant, we highly recommend using your free time to craft a portfolio. For example, you could start a WordPress blog (which is free of charge) and begin submitting content on it for your portfolio.
