Virtual Assistant – Generalist or Specialist
July 5, 2008 by yelena
Filed under Working with Virtual Assistant, blog
It seems like you can now find a virtual assistant to handle pretty much any task. Some of the VA websites I visited provide a page-long list of available services that nearly always ends with “and more…” Most of the services offered by VAs can be grouped into one of these categories:
Personal Assistance – running errands, scheduling appointments, even getting quotes for plumbing jobs.
General Administrative – data entry, word processing, e-mails, answering phones, managing contacts, etc.
Specialty Administrative – bookkeeping, transcription, real estate support, legal support.
Internet Marketing Assistance – including a wide range of services such as social networking assistance, blog maintenance, article marketing, e-mail marketing, affiliates research and maintenance, etc.
Project Management Assistance – in this case a VA serves as a “point person” for recruiting and managing vendors, monitoring project progress and even performing certain quality assurance tasks.
Each of these categories may include dozens of individual services, many requiring in-depth software knowledge as well as being current on the latest and greatest in web-based services. For example, one of the tasks performed by an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant might be article marketing. Just this one task requires a Virtual Assistant to be familiar with a couple of quality control tools and to know how to submit articles to about a dozen of the most popular and most appropriate sites.
I used to think that Virtual Assistants offering a wide range of services were jacks of all trades and masters of none. But then I started developing my own business and quickly found out that unless I outsource a lot of the daily tasks, I have to learn how to do them myself. These include blog set up and maintenance, copy writing, competitive research, web analytics, article marketing, bookkeeping, project management and many others. Additionally, I think that while it’s great to be an expert on a topic, to be a successful virtual assistant (as opposed to a strategist or a consultant) it is sufficient to be familiar with it and be able to follow client’s directions.
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Andrew on Mon, 14th Jul 2008 8:34 am
Virtual Assistants provide businesses with an opportunity to outsource administrative and other tasks such as bookkeeping, web design, event planning, etc. By utilizing a Virtual Assistant small business owners are afforded the opportunity to concentrate on what they do best allowing their business to grow and prosper.