With technology advancing and the world becoming global, it is not surprising that the world has become more connected. Technology has also given new meaning to a lot of things and that includes the workplace.
Gone are the days when ‘office’ means the four corners of a room where people work together. Now, the ‘office’ consists of people from different parts of the world collaborating on projects while sitting in the comforts of their homes.
Along with the deconstruction comes the introduction of new jobs. One of these new jobs is the virtual assistant. However, although the term is new, the duties and responsibilities are not.
So what are virtual assistants?
In a nutshell, virtual assistants are like your traditional administrative assistants. The only difference is they work in the comforts of their own homes; hence, the name ‘virtual.’
Moreover, they are self-employed; thus, they can work for a number of clients simultaneously. These days, though, some small and mid-sized businesses hire full-time virtual assistants to do a variety of tasks.
Since they act as a support, they can do almost anything a traditional administrative assistant does from setting appointments to doing some research and creating a report about it. However, there are some VAs that have a special skill set, such as marketing. There are also who only work within a specific industry, such as the real estate or medical industry.
How can a VA help you?
There are many ways a virtual assistant can help you and your business. Aside from managing your calendar and doing some research, here are other things they can help you with:
· Bookkeeping
· Book your travel
· Customer support
· Customer service
· Marketing
· PR
· Manage your website
· Email and social media management
· Graphic Design
· Gather and organize your data
· Creates blogs and newsletters
· Transcribe