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You are here: Home / Archives for Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistant

May 19, 2014 By Virtual Assistant Leave a Comment

My Experiences and Expectations as a Full Time Virtual Assistant

by Honey
(May 19, 2014)

This blog post was written by Honey, a virtual assistant from the Philippines I have hired as full-time.

In this blog post, she shared her experiences and thoughts about the interview process and job position.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t work for me for a long time due to some unavoidable circumstances.

I am new to this virtual assistance service. However, I am challenged by the new skills I am about to learn and hone here.

I have been teaching English online for almost 10 years and for 14 years as an English teacher as a general.

Writing is also my passion. I always regard it as my first love. I started writing articles and editing too in a school paper where I became an Editor-in-Chief and received some awards. At the university, I did not focus on writing nor editing.

However, after I graduated, I gained the same position in a local newsletter for years. When I became the editor-in-chief, the newsletter profited three times more than before.

Nevertheless, aside from writing, working online became my new and most fervent passion. I decided to work online and I have been for 10 years now.

Though I was more exposed to teaching English online, I was also blogging, posting ads to sell my jewelry designs, and other things I can sell online! I did tasks that interest me, not knowing they were already some tasks a virtual assistant does.

Yet, I am not so familiar with office tools and other software used but I am determined to pursue this career.

I have this dream of one day starting my own virtual assistance company and what would be a better stepping stone than being one! I want to help my friends and other Filipinos by providing them extra income or more a job as a virtual assistant.

I love the thought of dealing and negotiating with clients looking for virtual assistants and at the same time, screening, interviewing and hiring people to work for them.

When I applied for this job, as for most jobs I applied to, I was crossing my fingers that soonest one of the employers would see my potential and would give me the opportunity to provide me room for improvements.

I must admit I applied to several job openings for home-based virtual assistance.

However, when I had the first chat with Francis’ main VA in Skype, I had the impression that these people were cordial. I must admit chatting with him gave me the sense that I would be keen about working with them. The further discussions provided me brighter attitude about this job.

He was warm, accommodating but still very professional in dealing with an applicant like me.

Awkwardly, we had to reschedule the interview twice because of some circumstances on my end.

The reschedules even presented me with the certainty that I will be working with sensible, patient, very professional, level-headed and reasonable people.
I made it a point that I would be available for the rescheduled interview and I was glad I made it.

Talking to Francis provided me an even more positive outlook on my dreams to build my own virtual assistance someday.

I am not only working for a boss, but I am encouraged that I am going to work with someone who will be a remarkable mentor.

I was anxious after the interview that they may not pick me over the other qualified candidates. I know I have my limits and I have rescheduled twice. I actually made myself ready to receive the news that I would be rejected.

Truthfully, the email I received was some of the best news I received this year.
I have been aspiring to this kind of job for a long time.

I am happy. This may be an understatement.

Filed Under: Tips on How to Become a Virtual Assistant

September 9, 2013 By Virtual Assistant Leave a Comment

What an Employer Expects from His Employees and Vice Versa

by Virtual Assistant

Background:


This post is a response from my virtual assistant about an interview between me and Stefan (An employer from Germany who lives in Thailand).

At a certain point we’re discussing about the cultural differences between eastern and western countries and I asked some feedback from my virtual assistant who is also from Asia.

I think Stefan is right and every employer thinks in the same way and expects a bit more from his employees (as every employee expects a bit more from his employer, it’s a human nature).

Being specific about Stefan’s cleaning lady case as I already said with due respect that in my opinion she was lying that she came at work, knocked the door and nobody responded and she went back.

Well, Stefan is not the only one who has faced this problem, even I who is living in Asia often face this kind of problem. As in Asia (particularly in South Asia), there is no concept of hourly jobs, hourly means you will get paid on how much you work, but if I told my maid that you’ll get paid on how much you will work, I think she would never agree upon this agreement and I will have to clean my home myself.

So we have to set a monthly fee with her and as she knows that in either way, she will get paid at the end of the month, she often didn’t come to work and upon asking, pleads her lame excuses. I know that these excuses are fake, but I can’t help it and I have to live with it because I can’t see myself cleaning my room every day.

On the other hand, If an employer expects his assistant to go out of the way, an assistant also expects the same from his employer. Money is not always everything. Of course everyone wants to get paid well, but there are many other things that you should keep into consideration when handling your virtual assistants.

Here I want to quote my personal experience: Some days ago, I wanted to replace my laptop and I decided to get an additional short-term contract on a higher price and I was fortunate enough that I found what I wanted.

My client was very aggressive, he always wanted me to get on Skype and I had to be there. So he wanted me to update him each and everything I worked on the same time and when I am not on Skype, I often get this sentence in my mailbox, “hey, where are you? I can’t see you working”
In the meanwhile I got sick and I didn’t work for him for 2 days, although I told him that I am sick and I can’t concentrate on work and therefore I will be off.

When after 3 days (followed by a Sunday), I came back to work and he asked me where I was and so many other questions that what happened to you, I told him I had fever, he said that what type of fever, I told him the type of the fever, then he asked ok this is not very serious, you can take this or that medicine and he also sent me some links that shows that the type of fever I was suffering is not so dangerous for health and curable.

Although I was already recovered, I don’t know he meant it or not, but what I assumed from his gesture that he wanted to convey me that my illness was not enough serious to get absent for three days.

Later, I handled the matter by working extra hours for him. Of course he was happy with my work and wanted to expand the cooperation which I refused.

So the crux of the story it that if you don’t care your employees, you don’t treat them well and don’t allow them to work freely and independently, no wonder how well you are paying to them, they will leave.

This is very similar to great organizations and companies, they all have a fair recruitment and retention policy for their employees, they offer them bonuses, holidays, medical and so many other fringe benefits to their employees so that they keep working for them.

I hope you understand what I mean. If not, I will love hear a counter argument from you.

Comments for What an Employer Expects from His Employees and Vice Versa

Sep 01, 2014 Teaching is my passion
by: Jomvie The reason why we are working is to gain financially. And, yes, no matter how generous are the offers, if the employee is not happy with how he/she is treated, there’s no reason to stick long for that kind of environment.I have years of experience in teaching in an institution, but things around the workplace is no longer worth my effort. And I can’t say it’s a stable job though they are offering fringe benefits and other perks because of “my effort is greater than what I am getting monthly”I love that job, but I am not happy with how things are going, so I quit.
Sep 03, 2014 Ever thought of using this passion elsewhere?
by: Francis Even as a VA you can continue to teach, Jomvie. If you like to show other how to gain a certain skill, this can be done through online seminars, recording how-to videos, or participating in forums to help others.If you could, how would you like to use your passion for teaching in the current position you have?It’s always about turning your passion in what you do – and then work is less hard to do.

I like teaching also, I enjoyed giving tutoring lessons in my time as a PhD student from time to time.

But most of all, I enjoyed the feeling of when my students “got it” 🙂

The payments have to be acceptable, of course. You need to make ends meet.

But the highest paying job is not always automatically the one who makes you happiest.

Filed Under: Opinions about ethics in outsourcing

September 11, 2012 By Virtual Assistant Leave a Comment

An Interesting Case Study about My oDesk Work Diary

by Virtual Assistant
(September 11, 2012)

Today I am going to showcase a very interesting case study. Perhaps most of the readers of this website already know that Francis (Owner of this website and also my Employer) uses screen recording software for providing me work instructions.

Video instructions work way better than the written instructions and now I hardly receive any email instructions from him. After quite a time working together, we both have devised such an automated system so that we don’t have to inform both of us with every little work update which saves a lot of time for both parties.

Today, he shared a video in which he showed me some parts of my work diary on a specific day where I continuously worked around seven hours with two short five minutes breaks.

I was also very surprised to see my productivity because normally I don’t work for such a long period at one sitting. So I reviewed my work diary to investigate about the case.

When I reviewed my work diary, I came to know that apparently it was not showing in my work diary but actually I did take two breaks for 25 minutes each.

480x181xodesk-work-diary-productivity.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Oapejjj85y

If you look at my work diary, you’ll probably not notice unless you pay a close attention to it. Look into the highlighted part of the above work diary, you’ll get to know that I took a 25 minute interval.

How?

xwork-diary-with-1-minute-activity.png.pagespeed.ic.rwZ6QxUexGEvery screenshot of the work diary represents 10 minutes and usually if you stop the tracking time at 6:50pm or at a similar rounded time and the team room application just captures and records this screenshot with a 1 minute activity.

For all oDesk Employers:

If you closely review the work diary of your workers, you’ll get to know that whenever he or she stops working on 3:50pm, 8:20 or likewise, a screenshot for 1 minute activity added to his work diary.

So my advice to all employers is not to consider this type of screenshots from your provider’s work diary. Also do not measure your virtual worker’s productivity from the first and last screenshot of his work diary.

But Still I admit that Francis’ observation was not wrong, because I actually worked for a long and unusual period. There are several reasons why I worked for such a long period.

  • Perhaps it was Monday and usually a worker is more productive and motivated on Monday toward the work.
  • I have had a scheduled vacation starting from the next week perhaps that was the reason why I wanted to work more and clear backlog as much as I can.

Comments for An Interesting Case Study about My oDesk Work Diary

Mar 19, 2013 How to Find out Your Most Productive Day
by: Francis

First I’d like to thanks my virtual assistant for doing all the great work all the time. One of his last observations in this post struck a chord with me.

Did you ever want to find out your most productive day in the week?

This is actually possible, you can simply use a great productivity software that we recommend elsewhere.

Jul 09, 2014 Incredible VA
by: Jomvie

You are just incredibly amazing. Do you even know how to “procrastinate” (just sometimes) ;D well, I am so amazed with you doing all that stuff. I do procrastinate but when I come to my senses and be productive—yours is just way amazing.

Filed Under: Experiences with oDesk

July 14, 2012 By Virtual Assistant Leave a Comment

Using a To-Do List Service for My Own Convenience

by Virtual Assistant
(July 14, 2012.)

Checking off items will increase your productivity

Checking off items will increase your productivity

“Being organized” is one of the key skills a virtual assistant must have and more importantly a skill every employer is looking for in his virtual worker at the time of hiring. If you can’t organize the mess of your employer’s desk, you cannot call yourself a successful VA.

Well, there are many tools which can help a virtual assistant to keep himself organized. But in my opinion an easy and simple to-do list program is an absolute must-have tool for any online worker.

It’s up to you what type of to-do list program you use. You can either use a complicated and advanced tool, which has a lot of functions, including setting up reminders and do-follow-up emails, or you can use a simple and easy application which you can use just like a normal assistant uses Post-It notes to remember different tasks.

I personally prefer a simple and easy program which do not overly disturb or distract you by sending a lot of reminders and follow up emails. I need a program that can only help but does not disturb me.

To get something like this, I did some internet research and found out many different results. As I mostly use Google Chrome for web surfing and browsing, I also researched the chrome web store for a suitable application and finally got a very decent one.

This helpful application is called “Quickrr Tasks To-Do“ and you can download it via Google Chrome web store for free.

By the way, Quickrr has tens of useful applications that can also help keeping yourself organized.

Don’t worry if you don’t use Chrome as your browser, you can easily get an alternate tool for Firefox.

This to-do list program is a very simple tool, but can be very helpful at the same time. After adding it to Google Chrome browser, a small icon appeared on the top of my browser.

Quickrr to-do list icon for google chrome extension

After clicking this icon, you will see a fairly simple list of your to-do tasks.

Showing open and completed tasks on my to-do list

To add a new task to the list, you just need to click “Add to-do item” and when the task is over and you click the check box and the text will become strikethrough with a single line.

If you are sure that this task is over and you don’t need this task in your to-do list, you can click “Clear Completed items” and all completed task will disappear from your to-do list.

Here is another similar tool which you can use for the same purpose:

  • http://monkeycalendar.com/

 

Comments for Using a To-Do List Service for My Own Convenience

Aug 30, 2012 Quickrr is pretty awesome
by: FrancisI was using Firefox all the time and got used to it. Now, I see the advantage of using Chrome, and Quickrr is one of them.Simple, easy, KISS (keep it simple, stupid ;))

Very much recommended to anyone who wants to get stuff done effectively.

Oct 22, 2012 Very Useful
by: Maria B.Having an organizer, either online or notebook, is the best way to put my work schedules and writing updates. This helps me in keeping myself on track and not miss out anything.I store an organizer application in my tablet and and make sure to keep it up-to-date before I sleep at night.
Jan 11, 2013 awesome – installed it immediately!
by: KittycatI just love to-do-lists!!They keep my live organized, especially as I tend to forget things I don’t write down. Sometimes good ideas keep spilling in my head and the best method to realizing them is using a to-do-list, that helps me to keep them in mind. =)

I immediately installed this chrome-list. I also work with google chrome and do a lot of computer work over the day, so this is perfect for me!

Jan 11, 2013 Glad you like it!
by: FrancisI’m always happy to help – but this time all credit goes to my Virtual Assistant who shared his working method and this nice To Do List app!It’s important to stay focused on one method that is working… for you!

This can be notes on paper or the latest computer program. As soon as you have found something that, at the end of the day, makes YOU perform faster – stick to this one method!

Feb 10, 2014 Thanks for the great suggestions!
by: DeniseI used to be pretty disorganized before. I cannot keep track of what I was supposed to do and when I was supposed to do it. Well, I did write down some of the things I used to do on sheets of paper but I lost them all the time. On the computer, I simply used the notepad — not even Microsoft Word, for godsakes.Fortunately, an old classmate introduced me to the Sticky Note gadget on Windows. I never knew about it since I didn’t use to explore the applications on my computer as often as I should. As I kept using that gadget, I became a little ‘addicted’ to keeping to-do lists on my desktop since I was on it almost all the time and I could never lose the things that I saved on it — unless I needed to reformat. However, I searched and tried a lot of applications but none of them really appealed to me much until I found the Wunderlist application on Google Play. It is on mobile which is great since I can check my to-do list even when I’m not on my computer. In addition, it also sends notifications to my email so I can see when there is something important that I need to do for the day.

As of the moment, I’m still using Wunderlist. But I’ll try Quickrr, too, since I wanted a to-do list on my desktop again. I downloaded it last week but only noticed that it was already on my browser just a moment ago when I was rereading this article. Haha! So far, I like it because of its simplicity and because it’s like the Sticky Notes I used to have — but better! And maybe I’ll check out the trial of the Monkey Mind Manager since its Calendar feature caught my eye.

Thanks for this very helpful article! Keep them coming! =)

Jun 22, 2014 Old-fashioned
by: JohnWow, that ‘KISS’ is quite a mind-blowing kind of idea. I like to write my notes using pen and paper—guess I love being the old-fashioned guy so just not to forget how to hold a pen J
Feb 20, 2015 To Do List With Pen and Paper Are Not Bad but They Are Hard To Track
by: FrancisI’m also very much fond of doing notes and doodles on paper. The disadvantage is that I have tons of papers flying around with smart and less smart ideas on them. No chance to get them organized either.There are a few possibilities to combine being old fashioned and keeping track of your To Do list online.

One is to master the use of Evernote, an online tool. You’ll also have to scan or photograph all your paper notes in order to truly get everything into the cloud. The concept of doing that is called Go Paperless.

The other way is to do the rough brainstorming on paper first. And then use any one of the many online To Do lists to actually track your work.

Doing all of these online is important for a virtual assistant. If you are the virtual assistant, keep doing notes on paper if you’d like.

Filed Under: Tips on How to Become a Virtual Assistant

July 13, 2012 By Virtual Assistant Leave a Comment

An Unethical Job Can Easily Turn Into a Criminal Act. Be Careful!

by Virtual Assistant
(July 13, 2012)

Today I am going to share one of my experiences that is closely connected to the ethics of outsourcing. This is a very interesting experience and I am still not sure about my decision, which I took at that time.

Once, I applied for a job on oDesk in which the employer asked me to post some answers on Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo Answers! is a unique and modern way of sharing your information and experiences where you can ask and answer any question and know the perspective of others from all over the world. In recent times this service is very useful for link-building and for promotion of your web-business.

Coming back to the oDesk job. That employer just wrote in his job description that he just needed someone to research and post material against questions related to his niche. It was a straightforward job for me and as I did this kind of job on a regular basis, therefore I applied for it without any hesitation.

The person interviewed me for a long period and then he hired me for this job on oDesk. After awarding me the contract, he simply mailed me an instruction manual in which he provided step-by-step instructions for this work.

Now its time to discuss the serious part of that job.

The employer was running a website which provides alternate medicines. This is a very profitable online business where you can research alternative medicines against your expensive prescribed medicine at a very low price.

My job was to research some of the keywords (these keywords were mostly related to different diseases and some medical terms) and then I had to suggest cheap alternative medicines in my answers.

Here I had a conflict with my conscience, I researched a further and found out that some of the medicines were lifesaving drugs. How can I suggest someone a lifesaving drug, especially when I know nothing about the prescribed medicine…?

So, keeping in view the whole scenario, I simply denied performing his job without logging any hours. The employer tried to retain me, but I apologized him that I am not an expert to suggest this type of advice to others, therefore I cannot continue this job.

Now here I have two questions:

  1. From an employer’s point of view: Is it ethical that you hire someone for such sensitive jobs which can take someone’s life?
  2. From a provider’s point of view: Is it ethical that you deny to work after getting selected and hired for a specific job?

I am not sure which argument is true and which false, but perhaps your comment can help me decide the final verdict.

So dive into the discussion and leave me a comment.

Comments for An Unethical Job Can Easily Turn Into a Criminal Act. Be Careful!

Jul 13, 2012 interesting – and frightening
by: Francis I would be surprised if posting such a job to an outsourcing company would even be legal.

An employer has to take a decision what sort of work he outsources.

Any medical job does not fall into this category, in my book.

If you as a provider decided to not take the job or this money, your decision was highly ethical.

Unfortunately, there probably quickly was someone to replace you for this task.

Perhaps it would have been possible to report this job.

But I doubt that odesk would have taken any action.

Jul 22, 2012 A friendly reminder to new contractors
by: Kz As a contractor, part of our responsibility is to know the detailed description of the job that we are applying for. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or clarifications and don’t ever hesitate to share your thoughts about something that is bothering you.

I agree that scenarios like this are inevitable, most especially in the world of freelancing/outsourcing.

I actually had the same experience when I applied for a job posting as a chat support (that’s what the job description says), only to find out in the interview that it was for an adult site and I needed to be naked! It was hilarious yet very disappointing.

So always be proactive, ask questions and never be afraid to say NO.

Jul 27, 2012 Ethics at Odesk – explained based on your experience.
by: Mohamed Rilwan Ethics, in my point of view, is a grey area. It differs from person to person in general. What is ethical to someone may not be ethical to others and vise versa.

However, in common, there are “unethical activities”, which means anything that causes damage to the public, the environment or other external factors.

Coming to the point, your client might have started running the business for various reasons. He might have a motive of promoting alternatives for the less-affordables, might have facilitated a cheap source of research to a target group and so many other good causes.

In this ground, he may have had an option of going for a freelancing to cover the cost as a cost effective mechanism. Besides these factors, he should lay an important role in choosing the appropriate candidate for a job of such a risky nature. Hence, should have laid some restrictions in his Job Description on the target group that he would consider hiring. This can be termed as a Careless Act if it had stopped from this point.

However, after so many questions with you, his decision to hire you was totally unethical from an employer’s point of view. Because it is inevitable to him that a wrong hire may lead to a risk of unethical behaviour, endangering a person’s life.

From a provider’s point of view, there is a distinction drawn to conclude with the decision of denying work after a selection process. It is the sole responsibility of the provider to understand the nature of the job by posing various questions to clients during the selection process. This maybe a troublesome activity under the hood of “Disturbance to opportunity for Earnings”. However, this is very important under ethics. Failing to do so, will result in giving inconvenience to the employer to perform an ineffective selection process.

When the provider strived his best to examine whether the job was ethical and fails to realize due to misinterpretation or lack of serious information from employer, it is evident that the denial is said to be purely ethical. This was the experience you had with your job.

In my opinion, I would say that it is not ethical to hire someone for a sensitive job of such nature with a mere intention of profit motive.

And also would say that it is ethical to deny working once it was realized at any point of time that it would lead to a Criminal Act.

Dec 13, 2013 Should you do a job whe you know nothing about it?
by: Anonymous First, the employer should got someone that knows that field. When you are dealing with people’s lifes, you should tell them about the job, always be upfront when you hire someone and don’t leave them in the cold.
Jun 22, 2014 Right decision
by: Jomvie Ethically, only doctors are allowed to recommend/refer drugs or medicines. And in your case, the employer asked you to post life-saving drugs which is not in your line of duty. You just did a great decision on putting it to a stop.

Filed Under: Opinions about ethics in outsourcing

June 27, 2012 By Virtual Assistant Leave a Comment

Seven Skills a Virtual Assistant Must Have

by Virtual Assistant
(June 27, 2012)

a young and proactive virtual assistant with thumbs up

Becoming a personal assistant is much easier than any other freelancing work. You do your work under the direct supervision of your boss and he can analyze your skills and performance straight away.

On the flip side, a “normal freelancer” does not necessarily enjoy these advantages. To become the top virtual assistant of your employer, you should be very proactive to show off all of your skills. If you want to become a virtual assistant here are seven top skills a VA must have.

1. Honesty is the best e-policy

The primary skill a virtual assistant should have is honesty. I am not talking about being honest to the rest of the world; I am talking to be honest with yourself. If you can’t be honest to yourself, you cannot be honest to any person in the world.

So, always analyze your performance and the services you are offering to any employer. Remember employers are not fools. In fact, they are often more educated than a virtual assistant, so they always know what you are up to and how much time a particular task would need.

2. Hard work:

Hard work is the key to success – whether you are working online or offline. I can say from my personal experience that hard work never goes unrewarded. It will definitely pay you at one time in your career. So, don’t be afraid to try your best even if you are hired at a very low price. I am sure that you will never regret my advice at some point of your career.

3. Smart work:

For me smart-work is more important than hard work. If you are a hard worker you will definitely be successful. But if you are also a smart worker you will be successful much sooner than a hard worker. Hard work is just one of the factors that you need for success.

4. Making Suggestions

As a virtual assistant it is one of your key skills if you are making productive suggestions and always willing to provide your honest feedback to your employer.

Some freelancers and virtual assistants hesitate to give a negative feedback to their employers just because they are afraid that their boss might not like anything negative regarding his business. In my opinion productive criticism is the base of improvement.

5. Communicativeness

Communication is another must have skill for a VA. If your communication skills are not good, you can never be a successful virtual assistant. But never feel dishearten, it’s something that you can be learn very easily.

6. “I can” attitude

a happy virtual assistant dancing on his success

Your attitude toward work must be positive and proactive. For me, your attitude covers 30% of your overall skills which may lead to success. An “I can” attitude is highly appreciated by the employer.

Always take responsibility and ownership of your work. Treat your employer’s business as your own business. Go extra mile for the betterment of the business and try to work under minimum supervision. Think positive and convert your positive attitude into productive work results.

7. Ability to learn

Last but not the least, your “ability to learn” is a thriving “hunger” you must have. Never say “NO, I don’t know how to do it” to any of your employers.

Tell them that if they can teach you, you can do anything. If you can’t learn new things you can’t survive as a virtual assistant.

If you think that you have these seven skills, what are you waiting for?

You already are perfect virtual assistant material who has a bright future in front of him.

And if you lack some of these skills, never get discouraged.

You just need the last skill “Ability to learn” – and I am sure that you will then develop all other skills very soon to become a successful virtual assistant.

  • Read Here How to Become a Virtual Assistant

 

Comments for Seven Skills a Virtual Assistant Must Have

Jun 27, 2012 Great observations!
by: FrancisI fully agree to that list of skills that are great to have for a VA. But most of them are also very useful to the “other side”, the employers!And one comment: the employers are not necessarily “more educated” than the VA. That’s a misconception in my opinion. They are richer and have a business or projects, nothing else.But we employers do check regularly on the work of a VA, no matter how long they may be working with us.
Not so much to keep track if the VA is not up to some procrastination.
But rather to follow along with the progress of the business at all times.

It’s for this sake that a VA should try to show as often as possible that they are also thinking about the business.

The business/project is likely the one thing the employer is most caring about.

So why not talk about it? It’s a win win situation for both sides!

Jul 22, 2012 I totally agree
by: KzBeing a virtual assistant is challenging but still a very rewarding job. Clients can be demanding at times.You always need to go the extra mile but keep this in mind:You can’t please everybody all the time.

Take criticisms in a positive way, gather helpful insights and learn from it.

Jul 28, 2012 Some additional skills
by: Mohamed RilwanI also do agree with the above skills listed, which are mostly important for a VA. Such skills are not only limited to VA, but for every employee as well.Further I would add;08. Patience: This is very important for a VA. The VA should be able to tolerate any criticisms faced. This will encourage him to do the job with a peaceful mindset and gives ability to overcome disputes very easily.

09. Motivation: This is the driving force for a VA to do the job at its best perfection. The VA should filter the positive sides of his job to motivate himself to do the job.

10. Control: Work may flow in different capacities at a given point of time. The VA should be able to manage the work in accordance to the priorities placed and be able to meet the stringent deadlines. He should also be matured enough to decide which task shall be done and which ones shall be rejected.

Mar 09, 2014 I agree!
by: DeineI agree that a willingness to learn is very important to those who want to be a successful virtual assistant. This is true because the tasks are never fixed (and sometimes you end up doing a random odd job) so you really need to study every now and then in order for you to be able to do them.If you are assigned a task that you don’t know how to do, try searching for video tutorials in YouTube. You’ll be amazed at the wide array of videos that can help you with your assignment.
Jun 04, 2014 Multi-tasking skill
by: JomvieOne thing or skill that I admire most about virtual assistants, is their incomparable ability in multi-tasking. Their attention can jump from one thing to the other–which I would like to have.
Feb 20, 2015 Multi-Tasking is Actually Not Efficient
by: FrancisOne thing I have learned from business schedules is that doing several tasks at the same time feels busy but it sure isn’t.For you as a virtual assistant if you have ten tasks on your plate, it is much better to focus on Task #1 until it is done or until a milestone is acheived. Then just let your employer know about the status. If there is time left, continue to Task #2.The most inefficient way to go about it is to try to tackle all ten tasks at once. And the worst case scenario switching from one task to the other, whenever you hit a road block, you get bored or tired. That way you will get nothing done but one ten different tasks. That’s the least efficient way especially if you are waiting for frequent feedback from your employer.

Filed Under: Tips on How to Become a Virtual Assistant

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Do you believe in building bridges between different people based on mutual trust and respect? Do you think doing this will allow both sides to draw the maximum from each other, and reach a win win situation? Where you win, and the other person - like a virtual assistant -also wins? If you do believe this, like I do, I think we should meet :)

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