Questions To Ask a Potential Virtual Assistant
July 23, 2010
As a savvy business owner, you know you can’t do everything yourself. Whether you’re looking to spend more time focusing on growing your business or more time at home with the family, you recognize that you need help. Question is where can you find it? Virtually of course! Virtual Assistants (VA) CAN be found just about anywhere, on Twitter, Facebook, Google, you name it – we’re there. Finding a VA is never a challenge, however finding an exceptional virtual assistant is where the mystery lies at hand.
Quality VA’s are a dime a dozen, and it’s important to distinguish which VA suites your business needs best before you make a final decision. How do you do that? Not to worry, I’ll guide you in the right direction. Here is a sample list of the right questions to ask a potential virtual assistant before you sign on the dotted line.
1. How long have you been a virtual assistant?
2. What kind of experience do you have with __list a task you are looking to delegate__?
3. What projects do you enjoy working on the most? What are your specialties?
4. How will we communicate together on projects?
5. What is your level of competences with _list services your might be inquiring about_?
6. What are your working hours? Do you work weekends or holidays?
7. What is your average time to complete projects? Do you have any rush service charges if I need something done within a 24 / 48 period time frame?
8. How many clients do you currently support? How many hours per week / month do you have available to take on my potential projects?
9. May I have some referrals of other clients you are currently or have previously served?
10. Will you sign a confidentiality agreement?
Ways To Better Utilize Your Virtual Assistant
July 21, 2010
Stumped on ways to better utilize your VA or don’t quite know what tasks you might be able to delegate to a virtual assistant? VAsolutionsNOW offers a variety of services to reduce stress and help simplify your life . Our time saving service solutions are guaranteed to give you the piece of mind you deserve. Our certified Virtual Assistant organization has been built on bringing you the highest standards and quality to enhance your business and life to be worry free. Below are just a few ways out of the thousands of ways you can utilize our services:
Personal Concierge Services
* Appointment scheduling and confirmation
* Travel arrangements and accommodations
* Reminder services
* Gift shopping and purchasing
* Making sure all bills get paid on time
* Email management and filtering
* Write and send personalized thank you, birthday, and holiday cards
* Voicemail and messaging screening
* Bulk emailing
Online Business Services
* Internet Research
* Scheduling meetings and events
* PowerPoint Presentations
* Proof reading and editing
* Online reputation management
* Social media strategy and implementation
* Web site content and development
* Ghost writing and blogging
* Submitting articles to online sites
* Social media marketing
* Video marketing
* Updating websites
* Transcription services
* Word processing
* Database management and processing
* Desktop Publishing
* Contact management and organization
* Formats and creates newsletters
* Sets up user accounts on social networks
* Monitor website traffic
* Promote your website
* Radio and Television bookings
* Write advertisements
* Real Estate assistance
* Marketing support
* Auto responders
* Set up telesummits / teleseminars / webinars
**All legal and ethical requests will be taken into consideration. Contact us for a consultation if you do not see your required service listed**
Romantic or Practicable? What Kind Of Gift Would You Prefer?
July 6, 2010
On July 4th my better half and I celebrated our one year anniversary. As many of you already know shopping for anniversary presents isn’t exactly an easy task. Trying to find something that is fitting, romantic, and something they would enjoy can be tough, but let me ask you this. Why does it have to be romantic? I understand it’s the anniversary, and it’s built around love and celebration, however lets say you and your husband go out on a romantic night on the town — how much would you estimate the cost for that? A hundred dollars maybe? Depending on the festivities of the evening you can wind up spending an easy $500?
This year we decided to try something new. Rather then spending hundreds of dollars on something that only lasts a 
night we exchanged romantic for practicability. Last week my printer took a leap off the deep end and decided that it was no longer going to fulfill its duties in my office. So with that said, my darling gifted me a new printer / fax / scanner / copier that was obviously very much needed since I print about a million and one things. BRILLIANT!
Of course I wasn’t thinking of being as genus as him and decided to go the romantic way and create a masterpiece using my Mac and wrapped a few other surprises here and there. Now here’s the funny part, I wrapped 4 different items and hid them around the house and now can only remember where I placed two out of the four presents. So somewhere around here lies two nifty gifts waiting for his hands to tear open. I wonder if I can convince my daughter to do an early Easter egg hunt for Daddy, only search for wrapped gifts rather then plastic candy filled eggs?
Note to self: When hiding something, make sure to write down where you placed everything to avoid confusion.
So let me ask you this.. romantic or practicable? What kind of gift would you prefer?
**VA TIP: If you are having your virtual assistant shop for your next anniversary gift make sure to give them ideas not only what your significant other may want, but ask for ideas on things they might just need too **
What Does Being Unique Mean To You?
June 22, 2010
What does it mean to be unique? How can someone distinguish you from the millions of internet users? How are you being authentic to stand out from the rest? And more importantly, are YOU being the the person you would want to mimic if you were someone else?
Make a virtual footprint in others lives by being yourself, find out what ability you have to help others and pay it forward.
What is a Virtual Assistant and Can We Be Helpful?
June 14, 2010
What is a Virtual Assistant and Can We Be Helpful?
In a nutshell a VA is your third hand who specializes in providing administrative office support services virtually via phone, fax, and using internet based technology. We are a team (whether one or more) that help, empower, and support your business and personal efforts by easing your workload and freeing up your time.
Can We Be Helpful? YES! Absolutely as long as you use these key steps:
The key steps to finding a VA that you can work with, you need to do a few things:
1. As busy as you are it’s imperative that you slow down for just a moment and really think about the tasks that you are looking to delegate to a virtual assistant.
2. Write down everything you would like your VA to do to make sure you select the right VA that has the experience to get the job done for you.
3. Thoroughly interview the virtual assistant during your initial consultation and ask questions about each task you may be looking to assign. Having trouble thinking of what tasks your VA might be able to take on? Check out our list of Ways You Can Better Utilize Your Virtual Assistant.
4. Communicate and make sure there is a clear understanding what you want done once you begin working with a VA and it’s essential to a great working relationship.
For instance I am qualified and a certified VA that specializes in internet marketing and social media since 2004. As a virtual assistant I offer a myriad of services, however my passion lies with interacting, counseling, and creating content. I enjoy applying my creativity, knowledge, and experience to enhance my clients’ lives by completing their tasks.
When I am communicating with my clients and I know exactly what is needed, I either accept the task or recommend you to another VA that specializes in that area. One of the reasons I absolutely love what I do, is because I have an open communication with my clients and we are both very comfortable that the outcome results will be exactly what they want. It is just as important to me that I give what I say, so I too can enjoy, smile and feel the accomplishment that my client feels at the end of the day.
So whether you are in need of personal concierge and online business services you are looking for assistance in any other area, you should always do your homework first. Please go to my Web site for a free sample list of the right questions to ask your potential virtual assistant, http://VAsolutionsNOW.com/Questions .
Life is too short to spread yourself too thin by doing all the tedious work yourself, if you have further questions about virtual assistance I’m only a click away. Feel free to send any questions to Sica@VAsolutionsNOW.com.
Quote Of the Day by Conrad Hilton
June 8, 2010
“To some degree, you control your life by controlling your time. ” ~Conrad Hilton
How do you control your time? What things could you enjoy if you delegated your tasks to a professional, think of the possibilities! Happy Tuesday to all!
Inquisitive Thursday: Today’s mind boggling question
May 27, 2010
Googlelicious Chomping Pac-Man Fun
May 21, 2010
It’s Friday, why not take a quick pit stop and travel back into the 80’s for a quick game of Pac-Man! Google has turned its logo into a fully playable game to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. Come honor the birth of Pac-Man by taking a moment out of your day to play with Pinky, Inky, Blinky, and Clyde.
Facebook Retracts Their Claws on Custom Landing Pages
May 20, 2010
Strike that, reverse it! Facebook seems to have listened to everyone’s opposition of the changes that were implemented yesterday regarding custom landing tabs for fan pages. For now things are back to normal. In the event they do decide to go forward with their original plan make sure to check out yesterday’s post and see ways you can go around not having your Welcome Page seen first.
Snoopy Dance Time!
Never Put Off a Task Until Tomorrow if You Can Delegate it Today.
May 20, 2010
“Never put off a task until tomorrow if you can delegate it today.” -Helen Reynolds
I’ve chatted with a few people before about how they have hired a virtual assistant in the past and just never knew what to do with him/ her. They knew they had too much on their plate, they understood the importance of delegating their overload, they just didn’t know what they could toss in their lap. One of the most common questions I get asked is “Well, how can you help me virtually?”…
I’m fairly positive that if a handful of people has this question, there’s bound to be dozens. So here we go folks, I introduce to you an extensive list of tasks that you can assign your VA to and different ways you can utilize your Virtual Assistant better, two great articles I came across last night.
101 Ways to Use a VA by Notary Eagle Professionals
30 Creative Ways You Can Use a Virtual Assistant by Donna Eliassen
Enjoy!
