Category: virtual assistance

Efficiency at Work Should Be in Continuity

Efficiency at Work Should Be in Continuity

Working from home does not imply there is much difference with what the employers expect from you in terms of efficiency. Regardless of your location, office or your abode, you would still be required to be effective in carrying out your duties.

Nonetheless, similar to typical office workers, there are instances that virtual assistants tend to find boredom in their work as time passes, which should not be the case. It is highly possible that you may have a monotonous daily routine at your workplace. However, it does not warrant your performance or even your general outlook about your job being affected negatively.

If you let uninterestedness overcome you, this could lead to lack of focus. Apparently, when you lose concentration at work, you will end up failing in every task that you would carry out.

Should you find yourself in a situation that makes you think that you are stagnant, consider doing the following:

Reflect. You should reflect on yourself. Are you experiencing boredom because of the sameness of your daily work routine or there is more to it? For instance, you may not be content with your present situation.

There are times that you are simply insinuating that you are doing the same things repeatedly daily, but in fact, you are complaining about how you are not being given new roles in the organization. You simply have to be honest with yourself so you could tackle this problem head-on.

If you admit that the aforementioned truth is on hand, then you should consider opening this up to your superior. There are instances that you should step up and convey your concern. Be confident to say that you deserve to take on more responsibilities for the company’s growth. Know that an effective management would not keep you from challenging yourself, which would result in your development.

Gauge. Find out if you are indeed in your most efficient position as an employee with regards to the tasks you are assigned with. Since you are already finding yourself in boredom, this should signify that everything you do is plainly easy for you.

However, if you gauge your current performance and still find faults in it, such as missed deadlines, repeated mistakes, and poor coordination with the team, then your boredom should not be justified.

You are the one who is actually taking your work for granted in this case. Basically, you have to accept this before you can proceed into correcting yourself. Once you do, you would be able to improve not only your performance but your overall perception about your work.

Learn. If you find that you are not moving forward from your current situation at work, it may be the right time to explore other skills you may study about. If you are confident that you are at your best in the responsibilities given to you, then you should open yourself to finding out other fields you may also excel in.

For instance, you have been in the administrative field for long, then you should try learning other skills that interest you, such as marketing. By doing so, you may even jump from one department to another in the organization. You would never know for you may actually progress more in a different department.

Various materials and trainings are available on the web to make this plan happen. There are also cases that your company may provide you the opportunity if you simply inquire regarding it.

Maintaining efficiency at work may be difficult, but can be done. You simply have to be open to self-assessment all the time. Never stop tracking your progress and drawing your plans for your career.

Start considering the above mentioned tips and you will be able to pinpoint the main problem of your efficiency discontinuity. It is never too late to keep your work performance in check and have a better outlook on your career.

A Thanksgiving: What to Thank For in Having a Virtual Assistant

In line with the Thanksgiving holiday, which is being celebrated in a number of countries, it is a good thing to discuss what to thank for in having a virtual assistant. With the recent development in staffing, there is no refuting that more employers are appreciating how valuable it is to have remote workers. Instead of being skeptical about it, they are now welcoming a team creation out of virtual assistants.

There are various reasons why you should be well pleased for deciding to hire a virtual assistant. To give you a few, which will remind you that your gratitude is laudable, here are the following:

Utmost Convenience. There is no invalidating the fact that having a virtual assistant would provide you a high level of ease in different aspects. One good example is being assisted everywhere you will go. Even if you are someone who travels a lot, with your remote assistant available to communicate anytime and anywhere, you would not lose any needed help.

As long as you have the platforms to use, internet connection, and gadgets necessary, you can get in touch with your virtual assistant conveniently. This means if you need urgent appointments to set, travels to schedule, or rooms to book, you are all set.

Accessible Skill Diversity. A typical virtual assistant has various skills to offer. This is brought upon by his or her experiences that were obtained through open opportunities online. Unlike office-based work, most remote projects or positions are open to anyone willing to be trained. As a result, a virtual assistant can easily gain more knowledge and skills to offer as his or her years in remote industry increase.

Flexibility. Since a remote worker is usually based in his or her home, there is no problem if the work schedule has to be changed instantly, whenever necessary. This is regardless of the virtual assistant following a different timezone to that of the employer. 

Most virtual assistants can even work on a night shift basis to keep up with the operations of a company based in an area, which can be 12 hours behind.

High Level of Commitment. Since there is a high level of convenience on the end of the virtual assistant, he or she has no further reason to go on frequent leaves or absences. Being at home and near his or her family would make a remote worker more motivated to report for work. 

Productivity would certainly increase, as well, given the much-needed work and life balance can now be achieved by any virtual assistant. Imagine being able to take care of your loved ones just a few steps away from your office.

Small Business Friendliness. A virtual assistant could be the best answer for small businesses looking into gearing up for expansion without having to suffer from too much labor cost. For instance, by hiring a remote worker, you can already have customer service without having to deal with office space and lots of taxes.

The provided benefits of having a virtual assistant are unquestionable reasons for you to give thanks. With this development in the employment system, running your business is more trouble-free without having to compromise your much needed growth.

Simple Tips to Keep the Team Inspired to Work

Working remotely does not necessarily imply you would be distant to all of your co-workers. Though virtually, you should anticipate that you may work in a team. There are projects that cannot be accomplished individually but require several people of different skills. This is where teamwork is highly imperative.

Nonetheless, not all succeed in keeping a team inspired to work. There are instances that the spirit of encouragement is absent. Furthermore, conflicts may also arise over time due to differences in personalities, miscommunication, or even trivial matters.

Regardless of being the leader or a member, you can be the driving force to maintain the team’s inspiration to aim for triumph all the time. There are simple ways to sustain efficient teamwork, such as the following:

Keep everyone connected. Team buildings may be a good idea, but regular meetings would be best to maintain everyone’s connection with one another. Through a meeting, everyone could share each other’s ideas. Moreover, problems could be solved together. 

To be certain that meetings are used effectively, no one should be left out whenever a conversation is ongoing. Give each team member the opportunity to voice out their thoughts or concerns. 

By keeping everyone connected, lasting friendship may even be fostered over time.

Address issues immediately. Small problems become bigger when not solved right away. This can hamper good teamwork. If there are clashes among team members, it should be given resolution head-on. There must be a face-to-face discussion on how to solve everyone’s differences. 

There would definitely be dissimilarities to each member’s personality, but understanding should be everyone’s common ground. Teamwork should be instilled as a give-and-take relationship. If one makes a mistake, he or she should admit it and apologize. On the other hand, the one who was offended must be willing to forgive and make amends.

Mistakes should be regarded as learning points not only to those involved, but to everyone. 

Consider that seniority comes with the responsibility to guide the junior members. Being a pioneer in the team does not mean you will simply order the rest of your team members around. Be reminded that you are a pillar that they would depend on. Consider yourself as someone that would help them with the ropes in the operations and support their growth over time.

With senior and junior team members working harmoniously, things would definitely be much easier. This is despite the fact that the new members may go through an adjustment phase. When everyone is helping one another, there is no task that cannot be done.

Assign responsibilities based on each member’s strengths. Although it is also advisable to have every member learn each task involved in a project, nurturing their strengths would be most efficient. 

For instance, if one of your team members is most proficient in copywriting, then you should assign him or her in that area. Do not insist on putting him or her in a position that he or she may not even be motivated to work. With every functioning part of the team in the right place, you would never go wrong in carrying out things more quickly and productively.

Do not set fun activities aside. Everyone deserves a good rest. This is why you should not forget to schedule fun activities with the team. You do not have to make it grand all the time. You may simply invite them for lunch on a regular basis, which does not involve discussing work-related matters. Alternatively, you could schedule short trips, such as hikes, site visits, or any social outings, whenever the team accomplishes something valuable.

If the said activities are not possible given the team members’ locations, then try inviting them to hang out virtually. You can organize a short get-together via video conferencing with games and prizes just for fun.

This would motivate them more to do well and recharge them for future activities.

With the aforementioned simple tips, you would find it much easier to maintain a thriving team. It may be a rough road at first, but all it takes is perseverance to instate a harmonious relationship among members. Keep in mind that a team’s triumph is yours, as well, and the other way around.

Five Simple Social Media Management Mistakes to Avoid

Five Simple Social Media Management Mistakes to Avoid

Social media management would stay as one of the crucial activities businesses have to carry out in order to create more exposure. Without at least one social media account, you could actually consider a company nonexistent. There are also cases that customers’ trust in a business is largely dependent on its social media presence.

If you want to make the most out of social media management in offering your products or services, it is best to avoid mistakes apart from doing the right things. It may sound easy to open your business pages, but mistakes can surely break your marketing strategy. To prevent failure in social media management, here are errors you should avert:

More postings equals success. You should remember that your audience requires quality social media posts from your pages rather than continuous flow of content. You may have tons of things to share on your platforms, but it does not mean that people would benefit from it, leading them to consider doing business with you.

Instead of worrying about finding more content to share, it is best to concentrate on creating postings that will be useful, informative, or inspiring to your audience. The higher the quality of your posts are, the more chances for people to engage with your pages. This is regardless of lowering the quantity of your content.

Going astray in terms of niche. Always consider your niche when creating posts for your social media accounts. It can be fun to share random things, but it is a major danger to your brand.

If you are selling pet care products, for instance, it is best to focus on sharing information relevant to use of the said items. You may also discuss animal health problems and quick solutions for them, which may be indirectly related to your products. However, if you talk about how great the weather is out of the blue or share some news not pertinent to your niche, your audience may actually start clicking that unfollow button.

Automating everything. If you want to provide the best customer service, you should avoid making your clients feel like they are being served by bots. It has been a common mistake of companies to provide auto responses only on their social media accounts. What is worse, they respond after a day or two.

To nurture your clients and give a good impression to your prospects, it is best to assign a person or people to take care of your customer service via social media platforms. The more personalized your treatment to your clients is, the better your reputation would be.

Buying followers and likes. No matter how tempting it may be to show that your social media accounts have hundreds or thousands of followers, you cannot guarantee success by buying followers. This goes the same with likes for your content.

If you are looking into social media as a way to increase your profit or expand your reach, then growing your followers and likes organically is the best way for you. Out of all your fake followers, for certain, you would not have quality leads to convert into loyal customers.

It is best to have a smaller audience, but better chances of gaining more leads. With true and interactive followers, you may even have people to share your business with their connections.

Using all possible social media channels available. To maximize the benefits of social media, you should only use the platforms that would work best for your brand. If you are a small business, two to three social media networks are enough. The more platforms you use, the higher your chances of failing your strategies. Your focus would be divided and at times, you may concentrate on a channel that does not benefit your business the most.

You may try testing the waters in each platform as a start, but narrow down the networks that would best market your brand after some time.

By avoiding the aforementioned mistakes, you may reap more advantages with your social media strategies. If you want to undo the said errors, better review your plan again with your team and recreate one. At times, our mistakes are indiscernible because we are used to them. However, to avoid wasting your team’s efforts, there is nothing smarter than correcting them as soon as possible.

Eight Basic Tips to Make Video Conferencing More Effective

Eight Basic Tips to Make Video Conferencing More Effective

Video conferencing has been a major platform used by virtual assistants or remote workers to communicate with their clients more effectively. Since it provides a more personal feel compared to e-mail and mobile call, it has been used for meetings more frequently.

Besides the face-to-face communication experience video calls offer, there are also added features that many software applications have provided. Good examples are screen sharing, presentations, remote control, and meeting recording among others.

However, to make the most out of video conferencing, there are also tips you should follow. Here are a few that would give you benefits not only for getting the best video call experience but for work-related purposes, as well:

Schedule the call in consideration to every participant’s timezone. You should remember to check the timezone of every meeting participant before scheduling the call. Select the most convenient time for all to also guarantee that the conference would be done more effectively.

Be reminded that anyone would not be in the most stable state of mind if the call is set at a time that should have been his or her rest time. This is also a way of respecting every participant.

Ensure your internet connection is stable. Video conferencing consumes a lot of data whenever in use. This is why it is best to use a stable internet connection if you are joining a video call. Even if you believe your wireless internet is fast, it is safest to use a LAN cable during a video call.

Getting disconnected from the call may cause you and the participants inconvenience since the discussion may be disrupted. This goes the same with screen lagging and choppy or garbled audio, which are often due to internet issues.

Do not be late. You are just a click away from attending the video call. Hence, there should be no reason for you to be late given the convenience you have. Being on time is professionalism and showing concern for participants in the meeting, who may be delayed if you are tardy.

If you could join the call earlier than the scheduled time, it is much better. This is to ensure that if there are issues with the platform you are using or other matters, you can rectify it immediately. You may even position your camera well and check if your audio is working perfectly.

Make sure to look presentable. Your call is not a typical conversation with you and your loved ones. Video conferencing at work requires professionalism, which covers how you present yourself during the call.

If the meeting is with high priority people, it is best to wear semi-formal clothes, as much as possible. On the other hand, if the call would be with your team, smart casual clothes may already do. Avoid wearing pajamas, sweatshirts, or anything that is not appropriate in the workplace. This would give the call participants an impression of you not taking the call seriously. Be reminded that you are still working despite being at home.

This tip also includes checking your lighting before joining the call. It is best to test your video and see to it that you are visible to the participants. Using natural lighting is best, but if there is none, try setting up a lighting kit for your PC or laptop.

Use a noise-cancelling headset. Distraction may also stem out from the background noises heard during the call. If you do not want to put off the people you are speaking to, you should use a headset with a noise-cancelling feature. This would also make you sound more professional since your audio would be clearer while you are talking. It may even make you feel more confident to converse well.

Apart from using the aforementioned headset, you should also make it a habit to mute your end when you are not talking. This would completely avoid the participants hearing any background sounds from your end, such as sneezing, coughing, and typing among others.

Find a conducive space for the call. It is best to use an area that will not only look professional, but keep the participants from being distracted. Make sure that your background is free from clutter and less homey. If you could use a plain background, it will be much more efficient. Alternatively, you may blur your background instead, so you would be the focus of your frame.

A conducive space for video conferencing also means that it should be far from your loved ones’ access. This is for you to concentrate on the call better.

Make eye contact. Consider the video call as an actual in-person conversation. This implies that eye contact is highly necessary. Always try hard to give an impression that you are focused on the person you are talking to. Otherwise, you would appear less professional or probably not paying attention. It can be tempting to look at yourself in the smaller frame, but all it takes is practice.

Prevent multitasking. During a video call and whenever you are not required to speak, you would always have that urge to multitask. For instance, while listening, you would try to check your e-mails or messages. This should be avoided at all costs. If you do not want to disrespect the participants in the call, you should set aside others things while speaking with them.

Once you have scheduled a video conference, make sure to commit yourself to it. If you are not the speaker, listen and digest the information you are getting. This would help you exchange thoughts more competently.

Be reminded that most video conferences are being done to solve organization issues, improve operations, and nurture the team members. By following the aforementioned tips, you would be able to make every video conference successful and effective.