What is a day like as a virtual assistant?

2 / 23 / 17 5 / 25 / 18

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What I normally do first thing in the morning as a virtual assistant.

A day in the life of Juli;

“Reply to emails”

“Respond to clients”

“Do clients work”

“Reply to emails”

“Bathe”

“Sleep”

“Do it all over again”.

No, I am only joking. So I wanted to let you LadyPreneurs know what it’s like to a be a virtual assistant, the person who is always helping others out.

The first thing I do when I am up is read my daily bread. I am trying as much as possible to fit in my meditation part of my life to make my life more balanced and centered.

When I have finished doing this, I make my breakfast (yes, I do make this on my own) while doing that I sign into my account to see who have messaged me. I normally tend to answer my emails first thing in the morning.

When I have that out of the way, I also check to see if I need to do any tasks for my clients for the day or to focus on my business. If I do have a task, I do it for that day and then go on to focus on my business.

What I normally do as the day progress as a virtual assistant.

You might be wondering what my task entails? I tend to look on what part of my business needs to be done for that day. So let’s say that I have to market my business, do a blog post or do some follow up with a client.

This is what my remainder of my hours for the day looks like. I try to do most of my client’s works between the hours of 10:00 am- 3:00 pm. Outside of those hours, I focus on my business, whether this may take the form of doing a blog post, doing a follow up with a client or marketing my business.

I theme my days so I am able to achieve and get more done per week for a particular day. You can see what I am talking about in this previous blog post. ” How to manage your 24 hours”

What is a day, like as a virtual assistant!

You might tend to wonder, wow I do spend a lot of my time on my computer and I am not going to lie and say no.

I try to get myself more out there on social media platforms more than anything for prospective clients to know more about my business and what I can do for them. This normally entails promotion of my services or networking.

I also do my consultations on specific days for new prospective. This consultation is normally free for 15 minutes if you are interested to know more how I can help you! You can Book your time here.

I normally end my day by catching a few reality shows, checking my personal emails, and looking for new trends in the fashion world and what I can wear when I do go out to pamper myself.

You might be saying that there is really nothing to my day, and it might be bland and not as exciting as you have anticipated, but because I am always helping others I tend to organize my days so I am better able to be of service to my clients and prospective clients.

How do you start and end your day? Sound off in the comments below and let’s see who has the most exciting day.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

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Photo Credit: Haute Stock

4 common misconceptions in the Virtual Assistant industry

12 / 1 / 16 6 / 15 / 18

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

As an online business owner, it can become overwhelming for business owners to find and research the right virtual assistant.

Once you have found the right fit, it’s always encouraging to ask in-depth questions, policies and what a VA will and will not do. Here is a link to the most FAQ questions that have already been asked about hiring your first virtual assistant.

But on the other hand, because you might be familiar with working from the 9-5 and transitioning, you might think that a virtual assistant will have the same mindset and work from the same platform that you were in.

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Here I have summarized some misconceptions of what a virtual assistant will not do:

Walk your dog
Be on call when your house is a mess
Paint your house
Be your babysitter

I sure hope I got some laughs on some of these things that a VA will not do. But on the serious side of things, I will elaborate some more on some misconceptions in the VA industry and this may spill over into other online industries.

A Virtual Assistant is an employee

So many times, you might think because you are outsourcing for a specific task that you can dictate what is expected and set the hours and payment for the person you are hiring.

This is not the case because a virtual assistant is a home-based, independent contractor, he/she normally sets their prices, their hours to complete a specific task, as well as manage his or her own insurance, as well as taxes.

A Virtual Assistant should provide a Resume’

Now that you are comfortable with finding a VA for your business, you are now at the next stage for hiring and would want a VA to provide his/her Resume.

Remember that because a VA is an independent contractor that the best sorts of reference that a VA will and should always provide are their testimonials from past clients or references.

A Virtual Assistant is a jack-of-all-trades

You have finalized working with a VA and you have explained the tasks that you will need him/her to complete, you have suddenly realized that because your VA is so wonderful they can do this additional task.

There are many VA’s who specialize in many industries, some might be even happy to learn and complete this task for you, but, if not, chances are that a VA will know someone who can complete that task for you.

Please do not ask your VA to do such a task and then penalize him/her with words such as “if you can do this, I will give you additional money” or “testimonial” while this might be great, some VA’s might not specialize in the task that you have outlined so it’s good to find another VA who has the knowledge and expertise of the task that you are outsourcing.

A Virtual Assistant will work on your hours

Although this might be somewhat true in some cases. A virtual assistant might work hourly, set packages and even on retainers, but it’s always best practice to work with those VA’s who can accommodate with working on your schedule.

In some instances, a virtual assistant will set the timeframe for a task to be completed and when to deliver such a task to you.

Now that you have seen some of the misconceptions about the virtual assistant industry, this might be happening in your industry. Feel free to comment on some misconceptions in your industry.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

Photo Credit: Haute Stock

What task can you give to your Virtual Assistant?

8 / 7 / 16 5 / 5 / 18

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

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So, you have spoken with a virtual assistant or need to hire one and do not know where to start in implementing which or such task to your virtual assistant.

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I recommend starting out small with a task that is somewhat not hard to do. When I came across some clients who first came to me, they were not sure how to give me access to their information and were at times confused how I could do the task with not being there physically or a phone call away to help solve their problems.

There are options to show your VA what to do on your virtual task.

My personal favorite in instructing a virtual assistant and you can’t go wrong is doing this in a video if you have the time. If not, you can have a step-by-step PDF or Word document guide on how you like things to be done in a specific way.

Please note that because business is mostly online based and your virtual assistant might not get it the right way (or your way on the first attempt), it’s always best to start on a trial basis.

An example was when I got my first task as a virtual assistant, A client wanted me to send out emails for them on their behalf. That client was a bit wary of trusting me with their password.

What I had suggested was creating a temporary password for me to access. If you are not comfortable with that method, you can go as far as creating a new email and giving that virtual assistant access to do your task. This does pose the issue for informing all your clients of the new email address that is being used.

What I have recommended from working with my clients is using the LastPass vault, it manages your passwords and you are felt more secure as in some cases when the password is shared you do not have to even know the password.

However, when you have moved on from that step, how do you go about tracking the progress of your work you have assigned your virtual assistant is up to what you agreed on. You can have a look at my previous blog with Tools I recommend.

Want to be updated about your virtual task?

I normally use a project-based platform by the name of Asana for both my personal and my business tasks. This is an easier tool to keep track of the progress and this is if your virtual assistant uses this project based tool or any at all. If he or she does, then the VA can grant you access to their email of the task being done at each stage and how long it will take to complete. This, again, is if the VA has this in place and has agreed to this when the contract was signed.

When you have done a trial and you feel comfortable about hiring your virtual assistant full time or part time, and you have passed doing the video tutorial for the task to be done, you can outline a job description on what you expect from the task.

What to look out for when you hire your Virtual Assistant?

Most virtual assistants mainly do a consultation before agreeing to a task, which, in most cases, is not free. So it’s best to have this information in place to outline what it is you need to be done and if the VA will be the right fit for your business.

Another option you can use when you have hired your virtual assistant to do your task is allowing the VA access to such information that you may use on a day-to-day basis in your business.

If you use any social media platforms and you know it’s time-consuming to provide such passwords for each of the VAs, you can grant access to your VA via Dropbox, Google Drive, LastPass or any other platform similar to this that you will be using.

So now that you feel confident in delegating a particular task to your virtual assistant, please make sure that you have read over the contract between your virtual assistant and you now have a detailed description of the task in place to be completed successfully. Also, make sure before a consultation that you do have questions in place to ask your virtual assistant.

After the consultation and you have way passed the confidential stage of hiring and you have met your ideal VA, here are some things to look out for before signing a contract.

Now, that I have hired my first Virtual Assistant now what?

Confidentiality plays a big role on the online platform, so make sure any and all tasks are kept confidential. Secondly, you do not dictate your pay base on thinking that you have hired a virtual assistant as an employee; they are an independent contractor (that is why the contract is there). In most cases, this will be outlined in the contract that the VA provides to clarify what a VA means.

You both will need to agree on how you will pay the virtual assistant, either if it’s full or partial payment upfront or 50 percent upfront and the other half after completion.

Finally, if the VA offers to price for hourly and or packages, either both or only packages unless the VA has stated otherwise. This is another requirement that you must understand and be clear on hiring before hand.

Most of my suggestions are what I have experienced for myself and or was educated on by other virtual assistants before me. You can, however, tailor your tasks base on what the VA has agreed to do.

You will know what task to assign your VA once you have worked with that VA and you are comfortable with the end result of the work that was produced. The funny thing is that, most times, when you hire a VA and you are so pleased with the work, even the task that the VA does not do, you are happy for him or her to learn to do, but this is if your VA has the temperament to learn to do so or can recommend someone for you.

Your VA, in most cases, can find the additional support for you if he or she is unable to do so. But please check to see that what you need is something your VA can offer. If not, he or she can research this information for you.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

Photo Credit: Haute Stock