What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant (VA) is someone who provides administrative or technical professional services. Because they work remotely (or virtually), they could be located anywhere in the world whether it’s the same city as you or another country across the globe.
What tasks does a virtual assistant do?
A virtual assistant can do a multitude of tasks for you including, but not limited to:
- Schedule appointments and meetings
- Plan events
- Make travel arrangements
- Organize your inbox
- Proofread business documents
- Conduct research
- Prep reports
- Invoice clients
- Update databases
- Create and update your social network profiles
- Write or update product descriptions on your e-commerce website
How to find and hire a virtual assistant?
The key to finding and hiring a great virtual assistant comes from understanding what you’ll be comfortable delegating to the right professional. This will be different for everyone. You’ll need to take the time and discover what current tasks are hindering your availability and ability to work efficiently. Once you’ve identified these tasks, it makes finding and hiring the perfect VA a lot easier.
Once you’ve defined what task, or tasks, your comfortable delegating, you should begin identifying top-rated virtual assistants on Upwork as potential candidates for your virtual assistant job.
After you’ve posted your job on Upwork, and have identified several candidates that you think would be a good fit, you should begin conducting interviews.
If you are unsure of what questions to ask during the interview, check out our sample virtual assistant interview questions to get you started.
There’s no substitute for a thorough interview process to try to get a better sense of each professional’s personality and how they handle things under pressure. Be sure to ask lots of questions throughout the interview process and schedule at least one video conference before making a final decision. This will help you get a much better feel for each VA and what it will be like working with them.
Why hire a virtual assistant
If you’re looking for ways to free up your time and be more efficient, a virtual assistant can help you tackle a host of sales, email, administrative, and other types of tasks. Talented virtual assistants on Upwork have excellent communication skills and in-depth knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint), Google Docs, and other programs. A VA can help you save time and be more efficient and organized.