With near 100% internet coverage in the UK and the proliferation of increasingly powerful computers in the home, perhaps it’s not surprising that people in secretarial and admin jobs have come to realise that much of their work could easily be done from home. A small number of these have taken the idea further and actually started working for themselves doing exactly that.

Witness the birth of both the VA (Virtual Assistant) and the term Virtual Office Services. It is still predominately the domain of women, with a large proportion of mums preferring this approach to working in an office. By equipping themselves at home with a fast internet connection, telephone, PC and printer they can easily provide a basic secretarial service: telephone work, diary management, typing and more. And, they have flexibility in how and when they work.

But who are these people who ask you to trust them with your business admin?

The Virtual Assistant

VAs are a special breed. It’s difficult enough just setting up on your own without also putting yourself in the firing line with demanding clients. So it’s not surprising that many give up. But those that stick with it are usually professional, resilient, resourceful and capable people who know their job inside out.

However, being a VA brings with it an array of challenges:

• The Boss is now a “client” … who can be just as demanding
• Their IT equipment is now their responsibility to manage and maintain
• They have to cope working alone and with flexibility comes the need for self-discipline

Most VAs are good communicators and have experience of handling demanding clients, but the conflicting priorities can be a headache and managing client expectations has to be a core skill.

The technology is another matter though. The VA needs IT support to keep the operation going. This is often provided on an ad hoc basis by a partner or a friend, which can leave them vulnerable It’s worth checking out their situation first, so you don’t find yourself stranded. If you need your VA to use your technology – ranging from Microsoft Exchange and Groove to iCAL and other online calendar or file sharing tools – then they’ll need to be IT-savvy enough to cope or have access to more professional support.

Working alone has its own set of issues. VAs will usually take steps to break their isolation and have moral support close at hand, but being the only person in the business can again leave them vulnerable to workload peaks and illness … not forgetting, everyone needs a holiday some time too.

My advice to someone looking at using a VA is to ask them about these issues and satisfy yourself that the trade-off in risks Vs benefits is acceptable to your business.

Virtual Office Services

This tends to describe the wider array of services provided by a business that’s more than just a individual VA, perhaps a business that’s grown with a few VAs or an organisation that has secretarial and admin staff providing chargeable VA services to clients. Typically, they will have better office facilities – this can be a physical office or a virtual office setup – and you can expect their IT systems to be superior to that of a VA. This enables them to deliver more sophisticated services just as if they were “within your organisation” but with all of the flexibility and cost benefits of a VA.

The types of IT you might expect to find them using includes:

• A website through which they take instructions, track work and manage clients
• A web office for document management, calendar sharing and time recording
• Collaboration tools such as instant messaging and tele/video/web conferencing
• VOIP telephony system for call handling and virtual internal extensions for VAs

Not many people like being forced to use someone else’s IT systems if they can help it. Most website applications will force a new way of working on clients that’s alien and burdensome, so look for someone who can also accommodate some of your more important working practices.

If you create large documents or use digital voice dictation, emailing large files will be impossible and you’ll need to use a file transfer service, a WebOffice or another collaboration tool. This is common so understanding the options for file transfer is important from the start.

The range of services that the Virtual Office Services provider can offer will be far greater than a VA largely because of their technology. You should also find that their IT knowledge and even their IT support people can be extremely useful in helping you to learn how to get the best from your own IT systems and may even help you to solve IT problems too.

Apart from making refreshment and welcoming guests, virtual office services can cover pretty well most of your office admin and secretarial activity. These can include:

• Virtual PA
• Virtual Receptionist
• Mail Handling & Scanning
• Digital Typing Services
• Transcription Services
• Database Management
• Marketing Admin Support
• Sourcing and Purchasing
• Book Keeping Services
• General Office Admin.

In fact, providing they have the right technology, the range of services is only limited by the skills of individual VAs. Surprisingly, virtual office services can extend into the most unexpected areas, such as tele-marketing, language translation and even property management as you will see from the following client examples.

Property Development

This property services business manages new build shopping centres and housing developments. The owner is frequently traveling and running site meetings, so he uses his VA mainly for typing services. He has a Digital Pocket Memo for dictating letters, minutes and reports, and also uses it to record live meetings. The voice files are downloaded to his laptop and then sent via email to his VA who emails the finished Microsoft Word documents the next working day.

Medico-Legal Professionals

A clinical psychiatrist specialising in childcare cases has a heavy case load which means she is constantly interviewing clients and preparing reports for solicitors and local authorities. She uses her own digital recorder to dictate multiple reports simultaneously and her VA uses templates to compile individual reports. Her VA also handles client calls and uses her preferred methods of working to track enquiries via a spreadsheet and book appointments online via iCAL.

Management Consultancy

This niche consultancy is an established virtual organisation, with everyone being home based to keep overheads low. It was therefore natural for the MD and other Director to look for a virtual PA to handle their calls and prepare reports. Reports are often large files with complex graphics and they rely on their VA to compile these and resolve technical issues in Word, Excel and Adobe. Initially, they used their VA’s WebOffice for file transfer before realising that it was ideal solution for their virtual organisation – now their VA uses the company’s own WebOffice.

Property Management

A successful property developer whose busy life was limiting the number of deals he could manage turned to a VA for help. The VA deals with a lot of personal and routine office admin, as well as handling telephone calls, which releases time enough to double his deal rate. He soon realised that his VA was capable of more. She now manages a small property portfolio of 10 flats for less than the cost of a property management company, which involves managing lettings, deposits, rents, VAT reporting and making decisions on day-to-day management issues with tenants and tradesmen.

Help is Here

In addition to the above, I would like to advise that I provide office assistance, on a virtual platform, here, at the Virtual Secretariat. I am happy to help in all areas of your business, and look forward to discussing options with you.

As I tell all my clients, I am about solving your problem.

Sometimes, you can be so engrossed in your business, that you do not see easily outside the box.  Talk to me, and let me help you today!

In addition, to enhance your overall success, I encourage you to look at the Six Minute System per day, as well as the Self Improvement Bookstore. We are the sum of our reading and the people we meet.

To your success.

Martin Cohn

With the rise of Virtual Assistance and increasing workforce trends that allow workers flexibility of time and being with one’s family when needed, the growth of remote/online workers have increased steadily throughout the years. People who used to think that a good job necessitates reporting to an office and staying in your cubicle the whole day, meeting set goals at the end of the day and being paid well for it are now realizing that this simply is not the only option. One CAN get a good job without being stuck in an office the whole day, get the job done and move on to other jobs and get good compensation – AND you can even spend time with your loved ones or take a break as often as you like without being called a slacker by your employers.

Virtual Assistants (VAs) appreciate this and are reaping the benefits of having regular work and having time to enjoy its rewards in the present.

What exactly are the top qualities a VA must have in order to be well-recommended to clients?

First-off, having great administrative, communication and cyber skills are really important. Most of the tasks taken on by VAs are administrative in nature (whether it be on the professional or personal level of the clientele). Therefore, it helps when the VA has the organizational skills to manage the various administrative tasks in order to give the desired output to the client.

Being able to communicate well one’s ideas and in the language of the clientele is of course conducive to better partnerships. There is less room for misunderstandings which may lead to dissatisfaction in the working relationship. VAs should also be quick in getting whatever the client is driving at. They must be intuitive and have the ability to read / hear what is both said and unsaid.

Cyber skills, of course, is a given considering that you are doing virtual work and the assumption goes that you have a fast and reliable internet connection. One must know how to utilize various internet offerings (such as emailing – knowing how to attach finished work and in what format, chatting for regular updates, etc.) in order to accomplish the task. Being computer-literate in terms of software usage (knowing which software to use) is important but even more so is the ability to command verifiable data from the internet. A VA who flounders around in researching and data-mining wastes valuable time.

Secondly, the VA must be a person who genuinely loves being of service to his clientele. Especially if the administrative work one does involves the personal life of the client, this quality is a premium. What the VA does is not just work but is a service to his client so that the client can concentrate on other things that are more important. The VA allows the client to balance his life priorities and rely on others so that he can relax and pursue more urgent things. If the VA considers his work as a service, he gets to appreciate his value and contributes better in the partnership. Thus, the VA must be pro-active and address whatever needs to be addressed as soon as possible. The client will appreciate the extra touch. It communicates concern.

Thirdly, the VA should be good in collaborative work. VAs may not possess all the skills needed in a particular task and they must be ready to accommodate others who may help them complete the task. Or their help may be requested by other VAs, therefore, they must be ready to build on what has previously been done before. VAs who work as teams are better able to handle bigger or more tasks and may counter-check one another to provide a more thorough output for the client. They can also get the job done faster and even jump in during busy periods.

The ability to collaborate is not just between VAs but also between the VA and his client. The relationship between the VA and his client is defined by collaborative support for the busy life of the client. This support transforms the VA to a resource that the client can often utilize to put order into the various aspects of his life.

Fourthly, the VA is also a continuing learner. In order to expand one’s functions, the VA is continually looking for better ways, better software, and more skills to accomplish an increasing variation of tasks. This necessitates flexibility, openness to new things, and thoroughness in order to acquire expertise.

Increasing one’s abilities cultivates a more lasting relationship that adjusts to the needs of clients. After all, this is a dynamic partnership. Ultimately, the goal of the VA is to help the client meet his goal.

Lastly, a VA is someone who is driven by a vision – of being able to do work that one loves, being compensated well for it, being respected for the service given and having time for a personal life as well. VAs should be proud of the work that they do, it is not just for stay-at-home people who choose to work when they need money or not when they don’t need it. VAs are highly-skilled, focused, efficient professionals who have opted out of the rat race in order to enjoy a productive and balanced life.