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| A virtual assistant must have certain qualities |
The virtual assistant industry is growing fast and more and more people are leaning towards
working as a virtual assistant either as a part time job or a full time career. A big reason for this trend is that there are a great number of people, especially the small business owners and entrepreneurs, choosing to partner up with virtual assistants because they find it more practical and economical than hiring a real employee. Hiring virtual assistants allows them to focus on more important business transactions thus making their business progressive and attract more customers and clients. And to make this possible, here are 7 points that a virtual assistant must have.
1. Reliable. Usually, a virtual assistant is a person either living offshore or remotely near your location and your only means of communication is through emails, VOIP tools like Skype or Yahoo Messenger or calling them on their mobile phone. A virtual assistant is someone who you can count on. They have to be always online and on time during working hours (sometimes even on their day offs) and be reliable enough to give you reports about the progress of their work.
2. Honest. A virtual assistant is someone that you must trust. Trusting a person when you first meet them is kind of a difficult pill to swallow, what more if you’ve never even seen that person. The virtual assistant must be honest enough to tell you that he/she is not available to work or that he or she is not familiar with what the task at hand is about. You wouldn’t want to fix a mishap made by a virtual assistant who goes on a “disappearing act”, would you?
3. Passionate. A virtual assistant must have the heart to work not just to get paid but to make the best out of the tasks that is assigned. A passionate virtual assistant will take that extra mile to get things done even if it means working during the weekends or holidays to meet the client’s satisfaction.
4. Resourceful. A virtual assistant must learn how to be resourceful when things get demanding. They must remember to have a backup storage device for important files using tools like flash drives, external hard drives and cloud storage devices like DropBox, Google Cloud Storage and Apple’s iCloud. Also, since virtual assistants significantly need to use the internet and computer every day, they must have a dependable internet connection and must have a backup plan when there is a power outage.
5. Courageous. Every virtual assistant has a certain niche or category that he or she excels in. But it doesn’t mean that it has to stop there. A virtual assistant must not be afraid to learn new things and update himself with the latest breakthroughs in the industry of virtual assistance. For example, a programmer can set his sights in web design and online startups since his coding skills can be very beneficial in this field.
6. Good communicator. Virtual assistants must be able to communicate and contribute ideas to the team that will make things work smoothly like a well-oiled machine. For instance, when a certain virtual assistant has concerns regarding the task assigned he/she must voice it out to the client to clarify and avoid making guesses which can be detrimental to the outcome of the project.
7. Organized. A virtual assistant can be assigned multiple tasks at one time and must be able to organize these tasks well to avoid mistakes. An organized virtual assistant can work more productively when their workplace, tools and projects are kept systematic.
Hiring a virtual assistant is not that simple. Sometimes it can be quite stressful and frightening particularly if it’s your first time. You have to choose very carefully. It’s like looking for the right person you’re going to marry. He or she can have a pretty face but soon you find out that you have no chemistry at all and the partnership ends in a divorce. The same goes with hiring a virtual assistant because you have to be in sync and have a give and take relationship to make your business ventures profitable.
