In one word yes, I am. However my specialities are aimed at those who work in/ or own a Trade business within Australia. To give a rough outline of what a virtual assistant is for those who are unsure –

A virtual assistant is someone who provide administrative, operational, and personal support while working in a long term collaborative relationship with just a handful of clients. They utilize their phones, email, as well as other merging technologies to support their clients needs across the board, without ever having to step foot inside their client’s office.

The big difference between having a virtual assistant as opposed to a personal one is the price. You are paying the virtual assistant only for the amount of time it has taken them to complete the project/ work required. Whereas with a personal assistant you will be dishing out much needed funds for their cost per hour, their required annual leave, hours worked on a public holiday, any sick pay they accrue, superannuation, additional costs for office space and hardware, not to mention paying additional fees for the require tax surcharge.

How can you say no to that?

After looking at just some of the details disclosed in the previous question? Absolutely.

There are such a wide variety of technologies available in the virtual world. Communicating by Skype, sharing documents through the cloud services and via Dropbox allows for many ways and means to complete a task remotely.

Of course.

I provide administrative and personal support to my clients. To expand on what things could possibly be covered in assisting you in your business, I would like for you to consider the following two avenues of thought as to regarding what I can do for you.

1. Today’s Tasks

2. Tomorrow’s Goals

Today’s Tasks are the things that must be done if you ever intend for your business to operate and run smoothly. These are the things that never really make you money, but are the things that will certainly keep you from pursuing any additional money making opportunities.

As an example, it’s vital that emails are replied to, enquiries are dealt with, appointments are scheduled, calls returned, and paperwork completed. While you could certainly handle them all yourself, if you didn’t have to do any of them and put all your focus into the main aspects of your business, don’t you think you would be able to generate more money?

So while it costs money to outsource these fine details, the thing is that I am a pro with administrative tasks, I can do them faster, and not have those other niggling business details continually butting in that can cause those minor but at times critical mistakes. By having me complete those tasks for you I can create time for you to focus on whatever is most important to you.

So the basic administrative and operational work that I can assist you with includes (but is not limited to):

• Handling your email and forwarding anything to you that requires your immediate attention

• Making appointments and keeping your schedule

• Personal/ business paperwork

• Make/ receive phone calls/ enquiries

• All sorts of research

• Customer care

• Support your online community (replying to questions, resolving issues – passwords or billing problems)

• Light/ basic writing

• Light proofreading

• Handling reservations or seminars

• Reminder services

• Bill paying

• Advocate for billing disputes

• Complaint handling

• Expense managing

• Create/ maintain policy and procedure documents

• Plan any parties (business or personal)

• Create travel arrangements (business or personal)

• Dinner reservations (locally and while travelling on business or personal)

• Buy/ send gifts/ cards for customers

• Research any purchases for you

• Address/ mail holiday cards

Tomorrow’s Goals are those other items that you are busy working towards and the jobs that are essential in them contributing to your bottom line. These are those extra things that assist in bringing extra customers to your business such as

• Staying on top of your company news and distributing the news via social media platforms

• Collaborating with you on appropriate ‘pitch’ ideas for social media about your work

• researching items that you can write about in your newsletter or blog (if you own one or both.)

• Being your gatekeeper – unless they are your friends or family, any potential clients using your criteria are screened, and their information either passed along to you or are referred to alternative colleagues you have listed for such referrals. Anything that you have said that you do not do, I will convey to those who ask, and I facilitate and future steps required about the things that you would want to do.

• Monitoring your reputation and assisting you to improve it

• Create and nurture any campaigns

• set up of any social media/ networking sites as well as giving ideas for future content you to use so as to keep things fresh.

• Create a publishing calendar of various topics that you might want to blog or write articles about

• Systematizing your processes

• Actively looking for people that you could create a strategic partnership with for your mutual benefit, and/ or the benefits of your clients, then making the connection for you should you require it.

• Providing a weekly update of all the news you need to know but don’t have time to seek out yourself and read.

• Learn about any new tools and methodologies that could potentially make your processed and procedures better and more efficient, then implementing them and training you (and any other team members) in their sue. The better that you can work and collaborate, the faster you can respond to any opportunities and challenges, and so the more attractive you will become to potential clients.

While each of these lists have their own level of importance, they are still very different, and as a business owner, they can become exhausting. Especially as your aim is to become both successful and profitable. By outsourcing these ‘back-office’ tasks to me, those time consuming everyday tasks and goal reaching work items can be taken off your plate so that your main purpose for your business can be achieved – work more freely with your customers and make money.