Posts Tagged "Secretary"

Virtual Secretary Services ? What Benefits Can You Gain?

Posted by admin on May 14, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

Virtual secretaries are just virtual assistants who offer you secretarial services through online platforms. Unlike what the name sounds like, they are not a computer or automated programs. Rather, they are independent professionals themselves. There are several offshore outsourcing companies that provide clients with virtual secretary and virtual assistant services. Virtual secretary professionals generally have extensive industry experience of their concerned fields be it (legal, executive or anything else. And they can employ it for the advantage of your business:

Benefits of working with a Virtual Secretary
One of the primary advantages of working with a virtual secretary is that they can help you reduce your work to a great extent and make lives easier. Here are some other benefits:

Specialized Services – Often businesses need skills and expertise beyond what is available in their own company organization for special or unexpected projects. In such scenarios, it doesn’t make sense to hire new employees on-board for a limited period. This is where a virtual secretary comes into ply. They are able to take on such special or unexpected projects that you may not be able to complete at your end, be it because of lack of staff or equipments. You can hire a virtual secretary at a short notice and they can help you grow your client base and revive business without having you to go over budget for administrative support. In fact, they would cost you a great deal less than hiring a full time employee for the company.

No Overhead Expenses
Virtual secretaries help busy executives shed off the extra work and that too without having to raise their overhead expenses such as cost of extra office equipment and office space.

High Cost Effectiveness
Virtual secretaries are highly cost effective because you only have to pay them for the time spend on your work. You can pay them on hourly basis or a flat fee. And because you are outsourcing your projects to an external service provider, you don’t have to pay any taxes as well.

How to recruit a Virtual Secretary?
There are number of freelancers as well as professional companies providing virtual assistant services to its clients. This is the reason why it becomes a challenging and difficult task to find a compatible one for your business. When you post an ad for a virtual secretary, you may be overwhelmed by the number of response you get. Therefore, you need to be very careful while selecting a virtual assistant for your business:

First, organize the search for a virtual secretary and write a clear job posting. Be very specific about the needs and requirements of your project. A clear listing of the duties and responsibilities of the virtual secretary would help you key in on the best candidate from the pool of qualified potential service providers.

After this, conduct a series of phone conversations or email dialogue. Remember to check the references and past projects that they have accomplished. You need to make sure that the potential virtual secretary has a solid work history of being able to work unsupervised for long periods of time and that they have good follow up communication skills.

Virtual Secretary Jobs: Who Hires At-Home Workers

Posted by admin on May 5, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

Many people hire the services of virtual secretaries. If you have specific skills such as web design, technical writing, graphic design, event planning, or working with advanced computer programs, there are many employers who would be interested in hiring you for specific projects or daily tasks. Those with traditional secretarial skills such as typing, editing, updating calendars, email monitoring, and coordinating meetings are also in need for various projects.

Where to Find Virtual Assistant Jobs

When looking for clients, you should start by contacting former employers and others you feel could use your services. Because some people may not know that they need a virtual assistant until the time comes, sending your business card and making periodic phone calls can help you find future work.

If you are looking for immediate work, look through your local newspaper, contact temp agencies, and conduct research online. There are many websites dedicated to helping virtual secretaries and employers find each other. Some of these website are free, while others will cost a monthly or yearly membership fee. On these sites, you will be able to create a profile page that lists your skills, hourly wage, and location so employers can have a better idea of the types of services you offer.

You can also place an ad in the newspaper; create a website or marketing campaign to let local businesses know that you’ve started a virtual assisting business. Referrals from satisfied clients can also help solidify your reputation and increase your exposure.

Who Hires Virtual Assistants?

Because virtual assistants can work anywhere in the world, you have the opportunity to find work in many different and sometimes unexpected places. Your client list could include the following:
department heads in medium or large corporations, small business owners who need extra help, but who cannot afford to hire a full-time employee, business people who travel often HR departments who offer virtual assistants as part of their employee incentive package,small companies who need seasonal or occasional help, and almost any business in between, great or small.

Anyone who is in need of your skills is a potential client. It doesn’t matter if they’re the head of a large company or if they run a small business from home, the services you offer are valuable to anyone who lacks the time to complete certain daily, monthly, or special tasks.

Typical Work Assignments

Depending on your skill set, you may find yourself working on a variety of projects each week. Typical work assignments range from monitoring email for important messages to planning events. You may also be asked to work on web design projects, edit large documents, coordinate meetings between one or more people, transcription, and typing.

Even if you don’t possess all of these skills, you may be asked to work on projects that require them anyway. If you’re comfortable learning a new skill, then you should take the opportunity. If not, don’t be afraid to turn down work. Clients always appreciate honesty and are usually able to find other projects for you to work on.

If you enjoy working on a variety of projects, then you should find no shortage of virtual office jobs. By maintaining contact with clients, marketing your services often, and providing quality services, you should never have any problems finding enough work.

Virtual Secretary Jobs: Should You Start Your Own Virtual Assisting Business?

Posted by admin on Apr 26, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

If you’ve been looking for a virtual secretary job or online data entry job, and haven’t had any luck, you may have considered starting your own virtual assistant business. A virtual assistant works for themselves – and creates their own client base. If you want to work from home and have more control over the amount you earn, the types of projects you accept, and the number of hours you work, then starting a virtual assisting business may be the right work at home option for you.

In order to become a virtual assistant, you will need a computer with a reliable Internet connection, fax machine, dedicated phone line, and the ability to market your services effectively.

Vital Skills for Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants provide services that traditional secretaries do not. These include technical writing, editing, desktop publishing, and web design. Even though you may not possess these skills, if you’ve worked as an administrative assistant or you have experience in business writing, marketing, public relations, event planning, or legal experience, you should be able to use these skills when promoting your business. Many of your virtual assisting clients may need your help with email inquiries and content management – basically, a person to handle their daily small tasks while they focus on their main jobs. A good dose of web-savvy is a great launching point for a virtual assistant business.

Traditional secretarial skills like typing, transcription, monitoring email, setting up meetings, updating calendars, and reviewing documents are also needed by those too busy to do this type of work themselves. Depending on your prior experiences, you may be able to offer a wide variety of services to prospective clients. Keep in mind that you can also learn new skills once your business is up and running – don’t be afraid to ask your potential clients what daily web chores they could do without on a daily basis.

Finding and Retaining Virtual Assisting Clients

Virtual assistants market themselves in many different ways, and you’ll want to find what works for you. Like most small businesses, marketing your services is important if you want to maintain a certain level of income. Using the Internet to conduct searches in online classifieds, joining social networking groups, freelance job sites, and contacting people you know are all ways to find work.

A great place to find prospective clients is LinkedIn.com – an online networking community for business professionals. You can give and receive recommendations and target businesses in your area of expertise by answering questions and participating in groups.

Offline promotions can offer just as much business as your online marketing campaign. This may mean taking out an ad in your local newspaper, networking with people you already know, going to conferences and other functions to meet people in need of your services, or making phone calls to companies you believe could benefit from your services.

Once you have a steady stream of clients, you should continue your marketing efforts by attending social functions, updating your website if you have one, and making phone calls to companies in your area who might need your services. Unlike other jobs you’ve had in the past, clients who use your services will come and go, so you need to be prepared to find new clients at any time.

Average Income and Terms of Payment for VA’s

If you live in an urban area, you will probably earn more than someone who lives in a rural area because the need for virtual assistants is less. The average virtual assistant earns $20.00-$25.00 per hour and works at least 20-30 hours a week. You can choose to be paid weekly, bi-weekly, per project, or you can work with clients on a retainer. A retainer, commonly used in the legal profession, is paid by the client in order to secure your services. A monetary amount is agreed upon by the client and the business owner for a set number of hours during the month. If you work fewer hours, you get to keep the full retainer. If you work over the set amount, then you can invoice the client for any extra hours worked.

Because you are the owner of a small business, you will be responsible for health care, retirement funds, and other expenses that an employer usually pays their employees.

Becoming a virtual assistant may mean working long hours in the beginning until you have enough clients. You may also have to work occasionally in the evening, on weekends, and during holidays.

Virtual Assistance: The Future of Virtual Secretaries

Currently, there are 3,000 to 5,000 virtual assistants working worldwide. The number keeps getting bigger as more companies take advantage of the services offered by those who want to work from home.

If you want to start a virtual assisting business, creating a sound business plan, having enough in savings to pay for living costs until you begin earning a steady income and aggressively marketing your services to various industries are all important to your success. But once you establish yourself, there are many opportunities to be had in this profession.

Virtual Secretary ? A New Age Online Assistance?

Posted by admin on Feb 26, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

As the global economy melts, business enterprises are looking towards the internet for more effective and cost competitive solutions for their business. In the present times, virtual assistance is a highly sought after service on the web. And one of its emerging forms is virtual secretarial services.

Now, what is a virtual secretary?

It is not a computer or robot that is programmed to deliver secretarial services. Rather, a virtual secretary is just like any other regular office secretary, just that they are not present in your company premises and work for your through the internet. Unlike traditional employees, they communicate with you online and complete all their tasks and duties from there itself. They work from offshore locations, manage their own clients and work on contract basis.

Virtual secretaries generally have considerable experience of the industry and would have worked with many clients before. In fact, because all their work happens on the web, they are guaranteed to be tech-savvy. This means you would not have to spend much time making them familiar with your online tasks. Rather, they might give you a tip or two about how to enhance proceedings on the web.

Benefits of working with a Virtual Secretary

Reduce Workload & Save Time

Just like a regular office assistant, virtual secretaries give you a helping hand with all your work. They can complete all the routine peripheral tasks of your business and leave you with more time to concentrate on the core objectives. They can make appointments, fix up meetings, reply to emails, answer calls on your behalf and do a whole lot of other things that would lighten your work load considerably. In fact, they can also help you with special projects and be available whenever you need them. Moreover, they charge much less that what it would cost you to hire a regular secretary for your office.

No Overhead Expenses

Apart from relieving executives from a lot of extra work, virtual secretaries also help them escape the expenses of extra office equipment and additional office space. Moreover, all the costs related to the internet, their conveyance would be their part of the expense.

Cost Effective

Since virtual secretaries work online, you only have to pay for the amount of time they work. You can pay them on hourly basis or probably pay a flat rate for particular projects. But anyways, you wouldn’t have to pay for idle hours spend at office. In fact, you wouldn’t even have to pay employee taxes or fringe benefits.

Hiring Virtual Secretaries

When you post an ad on the internet mentioning your requirements for a virtual secretary, chances are that you will be overwhelmed with the kind of responses you get. however it is important to make sure that you hire a professional and experienced person for the job. It is advisable to choose a well established KPO firm that provides virtual secretaries for your business. Thus, you can be sure that you would get a professional and highly experienced person to carry out your business endeavors.

The Advantage of Getting a Virtual Secretary

Posted by admin on Jan 26, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

A virtual secretary is an experienced worker who brings with him or her years of work experience in different industries to cater to your business needs.  A virtual secretary will be a great help to you if you need help in any aspect of your business, from administrative to creative, from sales to technical and social, to other parts of your business.

It used to be that organizations need to be in the same physical location to succeed.  As recent as 10 to 15 years ago, working harmoniously with people from another state was unheard of, more so with people from across the globe.  

With the developments in technology and the shift in thinking on how things work, processes became more and more globalized.  It has become possible to have your headquarters in the United States while maintaining sales offices in Asia and Europe.  Not only did technology make it possible but also more cost-efficient.  Businesses soon saw the savings and passed it on to consumers.  These globalized processes have been applied to just about anything: from personal interaction to business solutions.  So now, it is not only very possible to work with teams from different parts of the globe but also logical from a financial perspective.

Hiring a competent virtual secretary in this global workplace is the logical thing to do if you want to save up on costs, time and space.  Hiring a virtual secretary will spare you from the headaches of dealing with a lot of unqualified applicants during the recruitment process.

Getting a virtual secretary guarantees that you get top notch service that is both efficient and fast.  Unlike conventional staff and secretaries, a virtual secretary is also very flexible and may come to work for just a few hours each day or go full time, and even outside of your normal working hours, based on your requirements.  Moreover, hiring a virtual secretary saves you from the worries of having to have office space and office equipment because most of them have their own resources to work with.

And because you only pay for the actual hours a virtual secretary works, you also save on overhead staff cost.  No more worrying about benefits, sick leaves and other stuff that raises overhead by almost three times their salary per staff.  Furthermore, you get qualified and consistent staff  without the high fees imposed by employment agencies.

Companies that have virtual secretary services tries to ensure your success.  Basically, it is the only way they keep you as a client.  In effect, you are assured of a qualified, competent and professional assistant without the high cost of conventional full time secretaries.