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What Makes You Stand Out as a Virtual Assistant

What Makes You Stand Out as a Virtual Assistant

Everyone has more opportunities to become a virtual assistant nowadays. With the right experience and skills, you will be able to catch a client’s eye during recruitment. Even if you have no sufficient background in a certain field, as long as the employer allows neophytes, then you may be employed, as well.

That being said, if you want to stand out, you must possess qualities that will make up your irrefutable reliability, which your client will hold onto for a long time. It is not that difficult to become a virtual assistant that an employer would want to have a long business relationship with. You simply have to consider the following when developing your personality as a VA:

Having a sense of relentless loyalty. No one can deny the fact that most clients always opt for someone that would be committed to them all throughout their tenure. Apparently, it will always be a disappointment for an employer to have a remote worker, who is simply looking for connections or contacts to work with in the future (which can be partners or customers of the employer). 

Be reminded that once you signed a service agreement or even verbally agreed upon a work setup with a client, you should dedicate your loyalty to him or her wholly. It will never be wrong to be loyal to a person, who has given you an opportunity to work. Even if you are eyeing another job in the future, it is best to finish what you have been entrusted with prior to making another step.

If it is also included in your service agreement to avoid being connected professionally to your employer’s partners after some time following your departure, then you should comply with it. Some may think it will no longer matter once you leave, but remember, you still have signed the contract. The way you disregard it will reflect how feeble your commitment to anyone can be.

Considering professionalism all the time. Even if you become fast friends with your employer, it is always advisable to maintain your professionalism. One good example is considering his or her day off or holiday. No matter how urgent your concern is, unless instructed to bypass his or her day off or holiday, you should cut your communication during the said times. 

Furthermore, be reminded that even if you have an open communication with your client, avoid asking personal questions no matter how curious you are. Always consider topics that would not go beyond the boundary of your client-virtual assistant relationship.

Welcoming opportunities to learn more. If you want to stand out as a virtual assistant, you should never deny an opportunity to learn more, particularly in terms of skills you can offer to your clients.

One good example is when your employer offers you a chance to train for a new task, which may be something he or she may assign to you sooner or later. Denying this, regardless of the fact that your workload would still be fair once this task is added, shows that you are stagnant. It is fine to be content but most clients prefer remote workers, who would be open to gaining more responsibilities to ease their burden.

Be reminded that your client is not the sole benefactor of your training for new skills. Instead, you may also be able to utilize this new learning to your future work commitments. You may even make your profile more promising as time passes. It would be much easier for you to grab an opportunity, whenever you need a new one.

Keeping one’s team members supported. Despite working from home, it does not mean that you are working independently all the time. If you want to be a reliable virtual assistant, never forget that you have team members working with you. Whenever someone new comes in, it is always best to lend a helping hand with his or her adjustment. Keep in mind that you have been a newbie once, as well.

On the other hand, whenever working with a team, you should consider that your sluggish behavior or poor productivity could affect everyone. Thus, it is always best to monitor your performance and avoid pulling your team members with you towards failure.

Never forgetting the basics. No matter how skillful you are, at times, the smallest things could prevent your employer from keeping you. One good example is being on time. This may be given consideration for a few times, but if it becomes a habit, then you would never gain the favor of your client. Your tardiness could mean delayed output, customer service failure, missed opportunity with an interested lead, etc.

Moreover, if you cannot abide by the simple rules of the organization, such as by requesting for leaves at least a couple of weeks before, then, it could also be a sign you are failing at standing out as an effective VA. There are exceptions, of course, such as emergencies, but if it becomes a norm without due reason, then it shows you are not respecting the rules anymore. Be reminded that these are made to maintain discipline and order in a company.

It is not yet late to improve your personality as a remote worker. By considering the aforementioned facts, you can start moving forward with a different perspective on how to stand out as a virtual assistant. It takes practice but it is definitely a change that would be most beneficial for you in the future.

Tips on Better Etiquette of Rescheduling Meetings

Meetings are often scheduled in advance. However, changes in the participants’ commitments may change over time. This may be due to an emergency. On the other hand, it could be caused by alterations with the agenda for the meeting itself. Regardless of the reason, rescheduling a meeting can be a headache if not done properly.

Hence, a better etiquette in doing so should be followed. This would not simply reduce your problems ahead but ensure professionalism is sustained while dealing with the meeting participants.

To provide you tips to start with, given below are the following:

Make sure to write a correspondence. It is not proper to simply reschedule the meeting via the calendar application. This would appear discourteous and downright improper in a professional setting. On the other hand, sending an e-mail shows your sincerity in apologizing for the rescheduling matter. 

You simply need to keep it short but concise. This would be much easier for the participants to absorb. From this e-mail, you would be able to convey the reason more effectively. State it plainly and respectfully.

Avoid letting your assistant write the e-mail for apology and rescheduling. If you are the cause of the meeting changes, it is much better to send the correspondence yourself. This is how you would be able to exhibit your care for the meeting attendees, which may be your employees, as well. It is a sign of courtesy regardless of one’s position.

Use a forthright subject. Not all people are fans of using e-mails frequently. Hence, it is necessary to catch the attention of the recipients just by the subject you will use. Try using words, such as “MEETING CANCELLATION” or “RESCHEDULE MEETING.”

By doing so, you would be able to notify the participants accordingly and make them read your correspondence right away. They would know how important it is to check it given it involves their commitments.

Do the rescheduling as soon as possible. Though some emergency situations do not allow, whenever you can, reschedule the meeting as soon as possible. In other words, make changes with sufficient time for the attendees to allocate a slot for the new schedule. This would also be easier for you to check and coordinate every participant’s availability.

Provide different date and time options. Given you have caused the inconvenience to the participants, it is best to provide them options for the rescheduling. More choices would give them comfort out of the adjustment that would affect their calendars.

With the provided tips, you would be able to ensure that despite the meeting changes, you would save yourself and the participants from further inconvenience. It may be difficult to modify one’s calendar, especially one that is often filled, but if done with utmost care, all will work out accordingly.

Five Simple Tips to Create Compelling Articles

Five Simple Tips to Create Compelling Articles

Do you want to make your website informative and attractive to your visitors? Adding articles to your site is an infallible solution. Articles are meant to provide your audience or target market more information not only about your products or services, but your industry, as well. Keep in mind that imparting knowledge to your potential buyers and clients is one way of catering to their needs aside from selling what you offer.

If you have the necessary background in content creation and you have the time to write articles, it will be much easier for you to supply information to your audience. Moreover, there are simple tips you can follow in order to ensure you will create compelling articles, such as these:

Discuss a topic in your unique way. It is useful to check other similar sites’ content to find inspiration and research what they usually discuss. However, it is not advisable to emulate what they have written. 

For instance, if you would be discussing the advantages of using artificial turf in your home, you may add information based on your actual clients’ experiences. This would give your audience a distinctive take on the topic.

Check forums for people’s thoughts and concerns. If you are lacking ideas on what to write about on your website, it is best to study what people talk about in forums. Forums are places where your clients and potential customers initiate honest discourses. If the topics are their consternation, at the very least, you will be able to write about possible solutions for them.

If your business is concentrated on supplying computer-related products, then checking out people’s concerns over usual hardware or software problems could give you ideas on articles to create.

Pack a punch in the beginning. Your headline and introductory paragraph are highly crucial if you want to keep your audience reading your article. If you can ask questions that your readers would likely ask themselves in the beginning, it could be a good approach.

Moreover, giving them reason to read the article’s body further in the beginning should be your goal. For instance, if you are promising them quick solutions to their lack of website traffic, then you should indicate that you will be listing out search engine optimization-related answers they could follow.

Discuss a tapered topic. Do not create content with a broader perspective. If you can narrow a topic down, it would be much more useful to your audience. 

One good example is when you discuss how to start selling products online. You would help your audience more if you could tackle platforms they could choose from for product selling. On the other hand, it could be a great help if you could give them tips on optimizing their product information for more exposure to buyers. For instance, adding keywords to the product description for higher chances of appearing on top search pages.

Make it short but worthwhile. Digital content is no longer about providing long blogs. Your articles would be more effective in short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and straightforward substance.

Most people would not take time to read several pages of an article. This could increase the possibility of them leaving it unfinished. If you could create content that could address the topic in a few minutes, the better it is.

With the aforementioned simple tips in creating compelling articles, you could practice the right ways of making your website more informative to the audience. It may take time but it would certainly be rewarding to your business.

Five Simple Ways to Manage Documents More Effectively

Five Simple Ways to Manage Documents More Effectively

Ensuring your documents are organized properly is making sure that you would not have any problem taking out references from time to time. Be reminded that files, either paper-based or cloud-based, are imperative during operations round the clock. If everything is cluttered, you would likely waste a lot of time simply by finding a reference for your task.

Did you know that according to a study, a worker adds around 50 percent to their job’s total time just by simply searching for a document?

This is why as a virtual assistant, document management is one crucial skill you should concentrate on if you want to carry out your work more smoothly, resulting in boosted productivity. 

Fortunately, there are simple ways to manage your files more effectively, such as the following:

Create a single storage for all your files. Whether you are managing your files or your client’s, it is always best to store the documents in one place. For instance, a shared drive where you and your co-workers can access. This would save you a lot of time in finding any file since clutter has been cut short.

Saving some files in your desktop and the rest in an online storage may cause issues in the long run. For instance, being outdoors means that you would find it difficult to obtain your desktop files if you are just carrying a mobile phone or tablet.

As a remote worker, there is nothing better than using an online shared drive since it can be accessed anywhere regardless of the gadget you use.

Name files in a descriptive manner. If you want to find files easily, its names should also be concise and comprehensive enough. Moreover, the documents should be named in a way that it is in order, whenever necessary. Dates and times should be used if there are large files to be organized. 

Make sure to create sub-folders. You should not store all documents without creating folders for files with similar categories. For instance, documents for ‘suppliers’ should have a separate folder from those for ‘partners.’ Moreover, under the ‘suppliers’ folder, you should also create a dedicated folder for every supplier you are working with. This goes the same for the ‘partners’ folder.

Sub-folders would not only organize your files but keep you from looking all throughout your storage for a single document every time. 

Set permissions to your storage. If you are working in a team, it is best to limit the access of every member based on the activities he or she is assigned to work on. By doing so, you would also be able to keep them from scouring through folders that they do not have permission to look into. Most importantly, this will save them time and keep them from unintentionally disrupting the organization of files you have already set, such as adding or deleting files unnecessarily.

Delete unnecessary files. Over time, old files would need to be disposed of. Otherwise, these would eat much of the storage space and add to the clutter. Take note that an organization, either big or small, would definitely pile up files if the storage is not cleaned up regularly.

It is best to schedule periodic scanning of outdated files, which can be deleted. This will not simply organize your storage but keep the team members from accessing corrupted documents.

In a remote workplace, accessing documents is a constant activity. Document management can either speed up or slow down the workflow in a company. Hence, without proper management of files, you will not simply hamper your own productivity but affect your team members’ adeptness, as well. Always remember that access to documents is not enough. There should be a system in place that would turn this access into a key to everyone’s efficiency.

Preparing Against Power Outage, Remote Workers' Greatest Foe

Preparing Against Power Outage, Remote Workers’ Greatest Foe

Working remotely is highly convenient not only for the remote workers, but for the employers at the same time. Instead of setting up big office spaces, you no longer have to worry about delaying your operations as long as your virtual assistants are set. You simply have to ensure your company’s files and applications are accessible in any unit regardless of location. 

However, the aforementioned convenience can be disrupted by many problems, such as power outages. When blackout hits, it is common that virtual assistants tend to leave work early or miss their entire shift. 

Fortunately, there are ways for remote workers to prepare against power outages. All it takes is following these simple tips:

Keep yourself updated to the power maintenance schedule. At present, electricity providers use various platforms to keep their customers notified when power maintenance will be done. You should take advantage of this, such as by following their social media pages. You may also request for updates via e-mail or SMS.

Make sure your devices are charged after use. You should make it a habit to charge your devices after use. For instance, following your daily shift, ensure that you charge your laptop and mobile phone. At the very least, you can be certain that the next day you utilize these devices, they are fully functional despite the possibility of power outage affecting your area.

It became a practice for most remote workers to only charge their equipment whenever the battery is low. This should be avoided, regardless of whether your location is prone to blackouts or the contrary.

Prepare a backup internet always. Besides charging your devices, you should also have an alternative internet connection. Power outage implies your wired internet will no longer work. 

Apart from saving credit for mobile data, if you are using a wireless internet device, you should also make certain that this is fully charged always.

It is also helpful if you are near an area, such as a restaurant or café, which offers free internet connection. This could be an option if you ran out of solutions for the backup internet.

Nonetheless, this tip goes hand in hand with the second one. Even if you have a way out from your internet issue, but your PC or laptop has no power backup, you still would not be able to work.

Maintain your generator properly. If you have a portable generator at home, it is imperative you follow the procedures in maintaining it. Aside from keeping a stock of fuel, you should also see to it that it undergoes periodic inspection for issues. Moreover, you should consider oil change, battery power check, and battery cleaning among others. By doing so, you would not have any issue using it in times of blackouts.

Set a go-to place as an alternative home office. There is a possibility that power outages may last for days, particularly if the damage is due to natural disasters. In this instance, it is advisable to find a place that you could set as your home office temporarily. For instance, an available co-working space you could rent for a short period or a friend’s house that you would be welcome to stay in for a while.

With the given tips above, you would be able to report as normally as you could despite power outages. Simply keep in mind that missing work due to blackout could mean a lot of things, such as missed deadline, attendance issue, delayed team members’ work due to your late input, and overall poor performance record. These could be prevented by being proactive in dealing with power outages.