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The term “virtual assistant” may
be new to you, but chances are, you may already
be very qualified for this work at home
position. A virtual assistant, also known as a
VA, is someone who helps a business owner with
the administrative tasks of running their
business – only they do it from home, rather
than in their employer’s office.
There is no specific job description for a VA,
as the tasks they may choose to handle range
from general tasks such as answering email, data
entry, transcription, and website maintenance to
specialized tasks such as writing, marketing,
and affiliate management.
A virtual assistant who chooses to specialize in
a specific task, such as the specialized tasks
listed above may choose to devote their time
solely to those tasks and not take on any of the
generalized tasks. They may not actually call
their selves a VA, either.
However, it is common to find VA’s who list all
of those tasks and more on their websites. That
is why it is hard to narrow down a specific
definition or job description. There really is a
lot of variance and just about anyone can find a
VA-related task that they could develop a
business out of.
Again, because there are so many job options in
this field, it is almost impossible to list the
skills needed to be a VA. Thos skills will vary,
depending on the type of work a VA chooses to
do. In general, a VA will need good language
skills, be able to type accurately at a
reasonable pace, and have a basic administrative
background.
In order to be successful as a virtual
assistant, you will need a basic home office set
up, including a computer, high speed internet,
and a phone. Most people use Microsoft products,
and in order to be compatible, you will want to
have Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and Access).
If you choose to specialize in an area such as
website design, website maintenance, or
transcription, additional software would be
needed. If you are advertising these services,
the person hiring you will expect you to already
have these programs. However, if you have
developed a relationship with a client and they
ask you to take over one of these tasks they may
purchase the software for you.
The amount of money a virtual assistant can
expect to earn will again vary, depending on how
much experience they have and what type of tasks
they are performing. Someone who is performing
basic tasks and is new to virtual assistance can
expect to start out at $8 - $10 per hour.
However, someone with experience who is also
specializing in a certain area can expect to
earn upwards of $20 or $30 per hour.
It is important to note that as a virtual
assistant, you will not typically receive 40
hours of work per week from the same client. You
will most likely have to balance several clients
in order to make up a 20, 30, or 40 hour work
week each week of the month.
VA jobs can be found posted in online job
boards, such as
monster.com and
justonlinejobs.com. You may also find these
type of jobs on
craigslist.com as well as forums and
websites dedicated to the work at home
community. You can also post your services on
these sites. There are also websites such as
elance.com and
guru.com that allow
people to post openings they have, and as the
service provider you can post how much money you
would charge for the service.
Virtual assistance can be a great way to earn
money from home. There really is a specialty for
people of all experience levels and
personalities.
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