virtual assistant tips – Philippians Virtual Assistance Services

How Documents Reflect the Type of VA You Are

January 27, 2020June 12, 2020Leave a comment

Documents will be part of a virtual assistant’s life. These serve as means for clients to provide their requirements, whereas VAs use documents to submit their output. Regardless of the format, documents will represent whatever accomplishment you had for the day. This is the reason why one should not neglect the proper presentation of documents, no matter how comfortable you are with your client.

Primarily, documents show how organized you are a virtual assistant. You could begin with the formatting. A simple act of ensuring that the font type or font size of the texts in your document is not varying from one section to another is already a way of showing how coordinated you are. There are virtual assistants, who fail to do this. As a result, they present a clutter instead.

Moreover, you have to consider the preferred formatting of your client. There are those, who could be very keen in detail. Thus, discussing this prior to the accomplishment of a document is a necessity. If they did not provide any specifics, then you have the green light to format the spacing, font size, font type, and sections of your document at your notion.

Did you know that even the naming of your document matters? If you do not want to be tagged as an unorganized employee, avoid file names that are way too complicated. Make sure that the document name specifies its contents clearly. If including a date will make it more helpful for your client’s file management, then add it accordingly.

In preparing documents, as well, you have to select the correct format to present depending on what is required. If your client simply needs a research work with excerpts from various books, then a simple text document would work. On the other hand, if figures are involved, it is best to at least present your document in Excel or sheets.

By keeping the pointers provided, you will be able to show that being a virtual assistant does not make you less of an effective employee; that you can still offer high-quality output regardless of how simple the requirement is.

Overconfidence Can Ruin Your Reputation as a VA

October 21, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

There are virtual assistants, who are way too confident about what they can do, that they did not notice that this trait of theirs keep clients at bay. Why? This is due to the fact clients are not impressed by what you say but by what you do. You cannot state that you can perform well and make him or her believe right away. Most of the time, an employer would tell you to prove it first through works, then he or she will see if you are stating a fact.

This is when trial comes in the scene. Have you ever wondered why clients request for a trial period? Be reminded that they are aware that they cannot surmise the performance of an employee by depending on his or her background, previous experience, and interview.

Virtual assistants should remember that no matter how good they think they are, staying mum is the best option to do. It is more impressive to make your performance speak for itself. Indeed, during the interview, you must share what you can do and what you have accomplished previously, but this can be done without a tinge of being improperly surefooted. You can simply say you have experience in this skill number one and number two. You do not have to say that you are the best the client could find out of all the applicants simply due to what you believe in.

Take note that clients steer away from forwardness. They would rather work with someone, who is obviously accepting the fact that he or she is not perfect and there is a lot of growth to reap out there.

Overconfidence should also be avoided at all costs in the instance of accomplishing a certain task. If you keep this trait, you may end up overestimating what you can do. One good example is when you provide a tentative date of completing a certain work. There are virtual assistants, who miscalculate their productivity due to their extreme reliance on their skills. Be reminded that during the process of finishing an activity, requirement changes may be on the way. Always consider, as well, that you may commit mistakes, resulting to repeating the work. Stay on the safe side and provide a workable end date of your project.

A client will be more disappointed if you have not met your guaranteed accomplished date of the task. On the other hand, he or she would find you admirable if you have given a feasible end date and you have submitted the work earlier than the said period.

Keep your feet on the ground and you will positively influence what your client thinks about you. It is simply normal to aim for your employer’s approval, but this can be done in the right way without ruining your reputation.

Keeping Your Mind Sharp the Easy Way

July 15, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

As a virtual assistant, you have to be updated with the skills that most clients worldwide require. Apart from such, there is a great need for freelancers, who are effective in what they do. This implies that you are not simply someone, who is delivering an output when required, but someone that they could rely on producing results with low to no supervision. In order to become one, your mind should also be kept sharp.

No, you do not have to purchase expensive supplements to make this happen. There is an easy way to do so, which is to resort to natural ways that do not necessitate spending a lot of money.

Given below are a few that could help you maintain a sharp brain at any age:

Read a book. This tip has long been advised to people, who want to ensure their cognitive functions will remain the same despite aging. There are lots of benefits that could be obtained by reading a book, which include making your brain versatile since it creates connections within it. This occurs when you take in the information from the book.

Eat right. There are tons of food choices that will ensure your brain is protected from wear and tear. You could begin with vegetables and fruits, which are rich in antioxidants. Furthermore, try adding extra-virgin olive oil to your cuisine in order to reduce inflammation of the brain. It is also said by a study conducted in Spain that having four tablespoons of the oil could improve abstract thinking, comprehension, and attention.

Do not stop learning. While you keep your brain active, you tend to keep your memory strong at the same time. As long as you carry out mental exercise, you will have no problem with maintaining and stimulating communication among your brain cells. Solving crosswords as a pastime could be a good start for you.

Add music to your day. Music has an effective means of making your brain function effectively. A study in music’s relationship to the mental health of a person showed that it can reduce depression, problem behaviors, and even agitation. If you have a strong enthusiasm to making music, then you can anticipate more benefits, such as activating the brain’s area, cerebellum, which is responsible for controlling movement and balance.

Get adequate sleep. If you want to keep a sharp mind and good memory, getting enough sleep is highly important. Without following normal sleep pattern, you may suffer from irritability, memory loss, and depression.

Remember, if you will let yourself suffer from cognitive decline, your work will likely be compromised as well. In order to ensure an outstanding performance at work, start following the aforementioned tips for a sharper and fitter brain.

Top 5 Research Tips That Every VA Should Learn

April 22, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

Both newbies and experienced virtual assistants are often required to carry out a research task for their clients once in a while, if not, always. This is due to the fact that clients save a lot of time handling their responsibilities when they have all the information necessitated. Relatively, you are aware that research has a lot of advantages for business people, such as in formulating a new marketing strategy, analyzing competitors, and improving products or services.

If you want to step up your game in doing research, you should learn the top five tips to apply when doing the task.

1. Focus on authoritative sites. Always remember that when you say “authoritative,” these are sites that have a good reputation, particularly in releasing facts on their platform. To make it easier for you to identify them, keep in mind that they are often found on the first page of results when searching. There is a typical reason why they are in their positions – their websites are gaining a high level of traffic, which is synonymous to having a lot of visitors.

Avoid using references that are written by random people. For instance, if you are looking for information on health-related topics, it is best to settle with what physicians have to say.

2. Never limit your research into a written output. Your client would prefer that your research is easily readable. Indeed, you may shorten or summarize the topic, but it does not mean that you cannot explore other media in presenting your research. For instance, if you want to show the statistics on the feasibility of developing a real estate business in a certain country, infographics could be a good choice of presentation.

Alternatively, if your client requires assistance in navigating a software application, a video tutorial works best.

3. Do not make yourself a copy-paste researcher. You should never, ever taint your reputation as a good researcher by copying all information from the web. Be reminded that as a virtual assistant, you must be fully aware that it is your responsibility to make your work as concise as possible.

Include the most important facts only and do not put too many examples (which can be a typical thing in some articles). For instance, you need to list the tips in keeping your credit score on track, you may only include the ones that are often advised in most of the articles you found. This only means that such tips are the best ones to follow.

Remember, your client has very limited time to read everything you have researched. In the said short amount of time, he or she should already learn from your output.

4. Always choose up-to-date references. You will encounter various sources online, which are written years before. As much as possible, you select references that are published in your current year. This must be strictly observed if your research involves topics that are constantly being studied by professionals. A good example is the stock market trend, which may change due to the behavior of the players over time and other external factors.

5. Presentation should never be disregarded at all costs. You may have presented your facts right with your research, but all could go downhill if your presentation makes it hard to read. Be reminded that your client values how you present your output.

Ensure that your document is formatted accordingly with the same font style, font size, font color, and spacing all throughout. If you need to use images, ensure that each has a considerable resolution and is resized properly.

With the aforementioned tips, you would have easier means of accomplishing your common task at work. Remember that even if research is a typically manageable activity, it should not be taken lightly. Know that even the busiest clients will see what type of employee you are with your simple research work.

Why Reporting Your Daily Accomplishments Matters

April 2, 2019June 12, 2020Leave a comment

Communication has always been an essential part of taking the role of a virtual assistant. However, it is not simply a single entity, but is composed of various factors that should be identified individually. One of the essential components of effective communication in virtual assistance is updating the client of your daily accomplishments.

Various virtual assistants tend to make the mistake of not even giving their clients report on the things that were finished for the day. As a result, problems arise. For instance, clients would need to spend extra time simply to check if you have done your work for the day. This will definitely be a bother, especially if he or she is often caught up with tons of appointments daily. Remember, you are a virtual assistant for various reasons, one of which is to lighten the burden of your client.

Moreover, there is a possibility that your client may even doubt if you have done anything for the day. This is normalcy, especially if the virtual assistant simply logs in and leaves work without even considering to update his or her client. This has been experienced surely by a handful of VAs already. The end scenario is always that he or she has to defend his or her end. This is an event that could have been prevented in the first place.

By updating your client, you will also help in keeping him or her aware if he or she is still supplying you tasks as necessary. There are clients, who depend on what you report prior to delegating further activities on your end.

There are various ways to keep your client aware of your daily accomplishments. One good example is to maintain a habit of updating him or her every time you have done an activity. This is regardless of not receiving any response from your client often. As long as you are certain he or she is able to read your updates, this could already work.

On the other hand, you may report at the end of your work day instead. Simply ensure that your report is concise enough, which will keep your client from reaching out to you and clarify things out. Otherwise, this would just make the whole idea of updating him or her useless.

As a virtual assistant, updating your client could also be your opportunity to keep open communication between you two. This is also your chance to ask questions and even propose better means of executing certain activities for him or her. Alternatively, as you exchange words regarding your tasks, you can even learn from your client as he or she shares how things should be done more effectively.

Always keep in mind that even though you are a virtual assistant, this does not imply that you have to alter your work ethics altogether and adopt robotlike manners. Even if you are working home-based, you should still preserve human touch while reporting to your client. You may not be physically present, but you can appear to be such with the way you work.

Communicate continually.