Get to know more about what a Virtual Assistant does and how they help Entepreneurs (VA)

What is a Virtual Assistant?

As the name suggests, a virtual assistant is either an independent contractor or a full-time employee. They provide administrative, secretarial, or creative services to their clients or employers from an office or other location that is not where they live.

What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?

Virtual assistants can do almost anything that can be done from home, like data entry, technical support, and general administrative work, among other things. The type of work is very much based on what the client wants. As a rule, VAs do one or more of the following things:

• Manage a calendar, schedule appointments, and arrange travel bookings
• Respond to emails, phone calls, and enquiries
• Create web content, moderate comments, and manage social media accounts
• Perform customer service, payment processing, and website maintenance for online business and e-commerce stores
• Source photos, create graphics, and edit pictures
• Handle bookkeeping, invoices, and payroll

A virtual assistant may also be able to help you with transcription, email outreach, and lead generation. There are people who can help you with personal things, like shopping for a birthday gift online or planning a family trip.

How Do You Become a Virtual Assistant?

Virtual assistants don’t need any special skills or training to become one. Even so, virtual assistants need to have the right background or experience to meet their clients’ needs. People want skills like social media management, administrative support, and financial administration, but they also want people who can do these things. There are a few ways to get started as a virtual assistant: 1. Find a job

• Change jobs from being a secretary, administrative assistant, or office manager to something else.
• Learn the skills you need through free courses, videos, and other resources.
• Earn a certificate by taking an online or in-person course on how to be a Virtual Assistant.

A background in administrative support is the best because it gives you a lot of skills that you can use when you become a virtual assistant. If you work in another field or just graduated from school, though, you can still learn what it takes to become a VA through a short course. Once you know how to do things, you can look into a lot of different ways to get a job. They are:

• Become a self-employed freelancer and look for clients through your network, family, and friends
• Join a virtual assistant agency or freelancing platforms such as Upwork or Fiverr
• Set up your own business and website and start marketing your services
• Apply to full-time virtual assistant jobs on career websites and job boards

VA FLIX is a good source of information for both new and long-time virtual assistants in the PH. The platform has information, tools, and even job listings.

What Skills Do I Need to Be a Virtual Assistant?

Potential clients look for different skills in a virtual assistant based on the type of work they want them to do. Truth be told, if you’re a quick learner and have a good computer and a good internet connection, you may only need Google to do a simple virtual assistant job. However, you may not be able to charge as much for your services as a more skilled VA. However, here is a list of the most common skills that virtual assistants have:

• Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Trello are communication and project management tools that you should know how to use.
• In this job, you need to know how to use productivity and image editing software, like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop.
• Good speed and accuracy when you touch type (many jobs require a minimum of 40-50 words per minute with 99-100 percent accuracy)
• Excellent organizational, problem-solving, and time management skills
• Reliability, resourcefulness, and diligence

As we said earlier, the skills that are most important to the client and the industry they work in play a big role. Some jobs require that you have a background in finance, while others require that you know how to use certain software. So, it’s a good idea to specialize in a field and learn the tools and tricks of the trade so that you can market yourself as an expert rather than a general VA.

How Long Does It Take to Become a Virtual Assistant?

Because of your work experience and background, it could take you no time at all to become a virtual assistant, or it could take a few weeks to become one. When a secretary wants to become a VA, they can do so easily, but a person who just left school would need to learn the basics of the job first.

Virtual assistant requirements

Virtual assistants need a lot of education, training, and skills to do their jobs well. While there may be some common expectations, the nature of these expectations can change based on the type of work each virtual assistant does.

• Education
• Training
• Certifications
• Skills

Education

Many virtual assistants can get a job with a high school diploma, but some employers prefer someone with a bachelor’s or associate degree, especially if the assistant does a lot of different kinds of work. It all depends on what kind of job a virtual assistant does. They could get degrees in marketing or business administration.

Training

There are a lot of online training courses for virtual assistants. Courses in word processing, spreadsheets and databases can also be taken. You can also learn about business and management. Training is also available in social media management, graphic design, and how to build a simple website. There are also virtual assistant training programs that teach basic administrative skills and how to do them from home.

You may be able to take training classes at local community colleges or online. It all depends on what kind of class it is. People who work as virtual assistants can take a lot of different classes to make them more appealing to employers.

Certifications

There are no rules for virtual assistants, but certification can show that they are dedicated and have a lot of experience in different fields. You can become certified as a virtual assistant or get certified in certain areas. These certifications are:

Certified Virtual Assistant

It’s for people who have worked as a virtual assistant for at least a year. This course is from VA Certified. The VA Certified review board asks applicants about their education, virtual assistant experience, and achievements before giving them certification.

Microsoft Office Specialist

Many jobs for virtual assistants require some knowledge of basic office software. Specialist, Expert, and Master are the three levels of this certification that you can get. A helper can also get this certification for all versions of Microsoft Office, from 2007 to 2016. As a virtual assistant, you need to take a training course and pass an exam in order to get any of the MOS certifications.

Google Ads Certification

Google’s certification is one way to show that you know a lot about online ads. Before you take the exams, Google gives you a lot of training in the different areas that are covered by the certification.

Language Certification

Virtual assistants need to be able to speak another language. American Translators Association and the American Council on Foreign Language Education have certification programs for people who want to learn how to translate and teach foreign languages in schools in the United States.

Skills

A good virtual assistant has a lot of basic soft and hard skills, like:

• Computer skills: You should know how to use word processing, email, and the internet, especially for research. Proficiency with virtual conferencing and video chatting is also a very good thing.
• Communication: As someone who is taking phone calls, you should be able to speak clearly, listen well, and give out information about the company. People who do a lot of writing, like updating websites or writing business emails, should have good writing skills.
• Organization: For the virtual assistant, being organized is an important part of getting things done on time. If your job requires you to keep track of calendars and do administrative work, you need to be very organized.
• Multitasking: A virtual assistant may have to do a lot of different things for a lot of different people. If you are good at multitasking, it might be easier for you to do different things at the same time to stay on time.
• Time management: As a virtual assistant, you have to keep track of both your own time and the time of your clients as well. Managing multiple calendars is a job that many virtual assistants do. This includes setting, rescheduling, and canceling appointments and meetings.
• Interpersonal skills: Because virtual assistants work from home, they often work with managers, employers, coworkers, and customers. You should be friendly and professional in emails, on the phone, through video calls, and on message systems if you want to be a virtual assistant and do well at it.

Virtual assistant work environment

Virtual assistants can work in a lot of different fields, depending on their skills. These include:

• Healthcare
• Real estate
• Law firms
• Marketing agencies
• Engineering firms

Many virtual assistants work from home, but some work in an office with other virtual assistants or with high-speed internet. Some good virtual assistants may work for the same company for a long time. They usually work for clients as contractors rather than salaried employees. In some cases, they could work full- or part-time. Some people have to work at certain times of the day, while others have to finish a list of tasks by a certain date.

They communicate with their clients and do research on the internet, so most of their work is done on a computer. A computer with a microphone and camera is usually needed for meetings and phone calls. They may work on their desktop or laptop, but they usually need a computer with these things. It’s common for them to work for a company as a contractor, so they should be able to use their own hardware and software. If the job requires special equipment, the employer might provide it.