virtual assistance – Page 5 – Philippians Virtual Assistance Services

Seamless Reporting: Possible Reasons Why Some Virtual Assistants Fail at It

March 11, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

Freelancing or working remotely has become the foundation of a convenient job. There is no denying that one of the biggest reasons why people switch to gigs online due to their freedom to earn money without necessarily having to leave home. Even if you are in your pajamas, this is not an issue to your employer. All you have to do is ensure you submit the deliverables needed at the right time.

However, there are cases that some virtual assistants tend to let comfort take over them. As a result, they take advantage of skipping work whenever they want to. Simply imagine having the freedom to ask your client for leaves without the apprehension of seeing a displeased reaction. Even if your client says no, the intensity of pressure on you would not be as high when you are facing the person himself or herself. This should not be practiced as a virtual assistant.

Note that sick leaves are exceptions. You do not choose when to get ill and no one would ever want to suffer from health failure.

One possible factor that leads to some virtual assistants to leave for work without taking into consideration their clients’ businesses or pending tasks, to be specific, is having the thought that you, as an employee, is different from the ones in the office. This is totally wrong. You must remind yourself that your location is the only discrepancy. Act as someone that may require validation from your superiors. Do not simply work but challenge yourself to become a better member of the organization, as well.

Moreover, some VAs may often be not present at work if they stick to the idea that they will be able to find replacement work right away. Again, this is not right. There are more people becoming interested in online freelancing. In other words, the competition is getting tough. You do not want to get caught in this, do you? If you do not, treat your job as if it is the last you could find.

However, a virtual assistant’s absence may also stem out from the client’s side. There are VAs, who tend to lose interest with their job for they are being treated unfairly. For instance, they are often asked to carry out too many tasks in a very limited time. On the other hand, they may not find any enthusiasm to work for they are not being guided accordingly. Yes, this happens, such as when the client does not provide good training or offer a helping hand when the specifics of a task or project require clarifications.

From the given facts above, one thing is certain — virtual assistance is a two-way relationship. A virtual assistant should offer efficient service to a client (which should cover being present at all times, as much as possible, to cater to his or her routine and ad hoc tasks) and the latter should also nurture the employee.

Understanding the Relationship of Time and Professionalism

February 26, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

As a virtual assistant, you are expected to act like a professional staff or employee. Be reminded that being a home-based worker does not exempt you from behaving like a typical member of an organization. You should consider that you are only dissimilar in the aspect of your workspace.

One of the ways to maintain professionalism as a virtual assistant is to take into consideration time in various matters of your career. To explain further, given below are top pointers for you:

Meeting Deadlines. Apparently, the top thing you should consider in terms of relating time and professionalism is meeting deadlines. If you want to create a good impression to your client or employer, do not make it a habit to procrastinate. Ensure that prior to beginning a project, you have planned out the small activities relative to it without conflicts with your other activities.

Setting Appropriate Schedules. You will encounter clients, who would ask you about the best schedule for you to work. If you want the best results with regards to your performance, you should at least be available during the normal operating hours of your client’s company. This will allow for seamless coordination.

Indeed, there are already virtual assistants today that work on a flexible time, but this does not mean that this is always feasible. If your primary task is to assist your client or carry out activities alongside members of the organization, you should at least follow their schedule.

Many clients also prefer a schedule following their timezone so that they will not have a hard time reaching out to you, especially in cases of urgency.

Coordinating Professionally. If you have to touch base regarding your work or outstanding project, you should also consider time and professionalism simultaneously. How? You may do so by checking first if you could actually reach out to your employer and not just assail him or her with e-mails and messages. Always think over his or her possible commitment at the present time. For instance, you observed that every 9 A.M., he is often in a briefing with his top management members.

In the aforementioned situation, it is best to wait at least an hour or so prior to communicating with your client. Yes, leaving a message could work, but it would somehow be distracting to him. Most executives today keep their communication lines open even in meetings, but it is your professionalism that should tell you not to go overboard and take advantage of it.

Calling Respectfully. You and your client may have differences in terms of timezone, but this does not imply you can call him or her at an appropriate time on your end but the contrary on his or her end. A good example of this is calling your client during your morning hours despite knowing these are evening hours on his or her end. This is total disrespect.

There is, of course, an exemption regarding this. If your client is the one who called you first, then there is no reason for you to worry. Simply do not disturb your employer’s supposed out-of-office hours, which should at least be dedicated to his or her own or family time.

Estimating Completion Time of Tasks. As a professional virtual assistant, you should also be transparent enough when estimating the time you need to execute a certain task or project. Always provide a realistic time frame to avoid disappointments in the end. This will also help you carry out the activities more effectively. As anticipated, when things are rushed, the end result is not always considerable. Being professional does not mean you always have to impress despite being uncertain of your capacity.

With the given facts, you would already have a deeper understanding of time and professionalism. Use them efficiently when working and you will definitely not fail to maintain a good reputation as a virtual assistant.

Patience Is a Key to Establishing Good Client Relationship

February 1, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

As a virtual assistant, it is understood that you will come across various types of clients during your home-based career. There will be ones, who you can describe as the best people to work with. However, there will be cases that you would describe your client as exacting or someone that gives you much pressure with regards to work.

Moreover, there will be ones that are very new to virtual assistance. As a result, they commit mistakes that will test your patience expectedly. Indeed, even virtual assistants have to cope with a client’s shortcoming.

One good example is when a client is not aware that he or she cannot simply call or reach out to you whenever he or she pleases. Lots of virtual assistants could attest that this somehow happened to them one way or the other. Nonetheless, you should remember that it is all about speaking up. There is no disrespect if you want to put a boundary between your personal and professional space. If there is an established schedule for you, then you do not have to worry at all, given you can simply state to your client that you are only available during those times.

Another good instance is when a client thinks he or she does not have to elaborate things for the tasks to be done. There will be ones, who would expect a lot relative to your output without even considering the need to explain what they really need. This is common in graphic design projects. Still, as a virtual assistant, patience is a virtue in this situation.

Once again, it is all about voicing out your concern. Prior to starting your work, you should complete your requirements. Otherwise, it will be your peril provided that you are at risk of repeating your work or making mistakes. If you are paid by the hour, you would never want this to transpire.

Speak up by explicating that your viewpoint will not meet his or hers if some parts of the project are explained vaguely. It will also be a problem for your client if repetitive work will arise; to be specific, missing deadline is highly probable to happen.

If you will analyze the aforementioned situations, you could practice patience by working your way to establishing a good communication ground between you and your client. As noted, you should not lose faith in settling things out. It is your loss if you will simply leave your job or project, more so your client, due to such instances. Everyone makes mistakes and there will be misunderstandings if one is new to something.

Start making forbearance a part of you, and you will definitely sustain harmonious relationships with your clients or employers.

Your Virtual Assistance Career Is More Than Convenience

January 31, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

You should remember that if you are a virtual assistant, this does not mean that the clients will not anticipate you to work as a typical office-based employee. Simply because you work at home, this does not imply that you have the power to everything, such as your schedule. Take note that it is best that you work alongside your client. Thus, you should follow his or her preferred schedule or the company hours. In such way, you could coordinate well with him or her while carrying out the necessary tasks daily.

Flexibility may have become common nowadays among remote workers, but it is not as friendly as it seems. Simply imagine not being able to connect with your client. Be reminded that a harmonious relationship with your employer is best done through communicating consistently. Furthermore, flexibility entails that your client will not always have that opportunity to catch up with you for urgent tasks.

If you are working as a virtual assistant, you should keep in mind that even your attendance should not be influenced by your convenience to ask for absence approval. Truth to be told, it is much easier to ask permission to leave work through written SMS or message, isn’t it? However, this does not mean that you should abuse it. Treat your work with respect and consider the requirements of your clients always.

Provided your client appointed you to work as his or her virtual assistant with a set of tasks akin to executive assistance, this only signifies that you should be present as always as possible. Why? This is due to the fact you would always coordinate in behalf of your client.

The aforementioned facts do not mean that you cannot take leaves at all. There are exceptions, for certain, such as in times of emergencies. The point of the matter is that you should never let the convenience of virtual assistance take over you.

There is growth in virtual assistance work. You should remember that if you want to grow as a better professional worker, you should act like one. Perform your duties with relentless commitment and do not ever think that a job is easily replaceable. If you will show your client that somehow, you are way too comfortable and dilly-dallying, he or she will have a concrete reason to let you go.

Do you know that even clients who hire remote workers look forward to a long-term relationship? Yes, they do, for trust is difficult to build. If you will successfully establish a good reliance from your client to your person, you could secure a stable work.

Never Miss a Deadline Anymore With These Simple Tips

January 29, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

Deadlines are always present. Sometimes, it can be daunting if a big project is concerned, while at times, it could be disregarded easily. Why? This is due to the fact you do not even notice that you are facing a deadline since the task concerned is small. An e-mail that has to be sent within the day is already subjected to a deadline.

There are many reasons why you could have missed a deadline. As a virtual assistant, you tend to take care of a handful of tasks simultaneously. This results to you making poor decisions on which activity to prioritize. Another reason could be incomplete instructions, leading to incorrect output. Thus, you have to repeat the work.

Of course, the ever common reason for missing a deadline is lacking reminders. Virtual assistants may be known to be organized and well-versed in calendar management, but they are not resistant to mistakes. Thus, they could also be overwhelmed with work on hand, giving them the reason to plan things out poorly for themselves.

If you are a virtual assistant, there are so many ways (which are totally simple), that could keep you from missing a deadline aside from the conventional planning of your daily routine. Here are a few that could help:

Use your calendar. This is a pretty simple solution. Your calendar could be anywhere – your PC or laptop, your e-mail server, or even your smartphone. Use any of them or even all of those calendar applications you got to schedule whatever has to be done within a day or for the entire week. Set the notifications not only through pop-ups (which are easy to miss), but activate the e-mail reminders as well.

Task list may not be that friendly for a forgetful person. Yes, there could be task list feature on your calendar applications, but it will not be that useful all along. Scheduling your tasks with date and time is best done if you do not want to miss anything. Task list requires you to check a certain activity that is not done or the contrary every now and then. This will only take much of your time.

Sticky notes are still powerful. “Medieval” as it may seem, but sticky notes could still be helpful for you to keep deadlines met. The sticky notes pertained here are not the ones on your PC, but the papers itself. You can use these to keep yourself posted on what to do next. Put them near your eyesight or on your computer monitor.

Set those alarms. There will be days that you will not know what should be done next due to the influx of things to accomplish. This is when you will likely obliterate that even your calendar reminders would not be noticeable on your end, causing you to overlook them. Alarms are not simply deterrents to missed deadlines but wake-up calls as well, especially if you are on a night shift work. In truth, due to fatigue, one could easily snooze when working.

Keep double-checking a habit. If you do not want to repeat your work, double-check it. You should not rush into submitting an output unless you are certain there are no errors. There may be cases that you would still commit a mistake, but checking your work more than once will make it minimal and easy to rectify.

By following the mentioned tips, you would now have a better reason to become better at work. You do not have to attend a performance training to get the hang of your work without missing a deadline. Most of the time, it is about disciplining yourself using the resources available, such as what has been explained above.