We know it’s a cliché, but when are you going to start working smarter, not harder? Because the way we see it, you need a remote assistant, fast.
Outsourcing remote professionals is the best new way to handle your endless to-do list. They can deliver astronomical benefits—from freeing your time to lightening your workload, helping you be more productive.
More and more business owners and professionals are choosing to work with remote assistants to grow their business. It’s about time you embrace this modern workforce and leverage their skills and experience to succeed.
What Is the Meaning of Remote Assistance?
A remote assistant is an online-based professional who offers business-related services to clients straight from the comforts of their homes.
From administrative to technical, this remote professional can perform a wide range of tasks, helping entrepreneurs and business owners to be more productive with their time.
What Is the Work of a Remote Office Assistant?
Remote assistants are the ideal staffing solution for many people because of their ability to handle many, many tasks.
So, what does a remote assistant do?
Manage Your Calendars
A remote assistant can manage your chaotic calendar. They have the organisational skills and the attentiveness to ensure your time is allocated efficiently— always on track with no overlaps.
Schedule Meetings
Besides keeping a sleek calendar, your remote assistant is also an expert in coordinating your goings for the day. They can arrange your meetings and ensure the time and date work for everyone, keeping your schedule streamlined.
Organise Your Email Inbox
Another important job of a remote assistant is maintaining a polished and updated email inbox. They can sort your emails and reduce clutter so that you can promptly address your urgent messages and avoid miscommunications.
Conduct Online Research and Collect Data
From market research to competitor analysis, you can rely on your remote assistant to handle your research needs. They have strong analytical skills to manage and interpret large sets of data and form cohesive information that you can use to make informed business decisions.
Create Engaging Presentations
Create an engaging and insightful presentation with a remote assistant. These versatile virtual workers are proficient in using computer and design tools to develop aesthetically pleasing and informative visual aids.
Manage Documents
Given your limited time to review and edit numerous documents, consider recruiting a remote assistant. They can organise and check your files for accuracy and compliance.
Handle Social Media Accounts
It’s hard to boost your online visibility if you’re not active on social media. You have to continually update your content and interact with your followers.
Fortunately, your remote assistant is here. They can oversee your social media management and keep a robust online presence.
Arrange Your Travel
If you plan to travel, then it’s a good thing you have a remote assistant under your wing. This remote professional can arrange your travel plans for you. This includes booking flights and recommending creative activities for you to try, making your journey a fun and hassle-free travel experience.
Support Customers
Your company is built around your customers. So, to ensure they have a lasting positive experience with your company, leverage a remote assistant. They can help cultivate loyal followers by addressing your client’s needs swiftly and staying in touch with them.
Streamline Business Processes
Armed with the right knowledge and tools, your online help can easily identify areas of improvement and propose actionable solutions to enhance performance.
By optimising your repetitive tasks, your remote assistant can maximise your productivity and efficiency.
Why Does Your Business Need a Remote Assistant?
As you can see, remote assistants are a huge help to manage your most time-consuming activities. But if that was not enough to convince you to work with them, perhaps the benefits online assistants bring to the table might.
A remote assistant saves money.
Remote assistants are probably the most cost-effective staffing solution you can find right now. You can onboard them without the employee-associated costs. Plus, you only need to pay for the time they spend working on your projects.
Remote assistants are scalable solutions.
Remote assistants offer flexible contracts. They are adaptable to your business needs, allowing you to scale operations as needed without having to commit for the long term.
Remote assistants offer reliable support.
With their diverse experience and knowledge from working in different industries, remote assistants are highly capable of delivering consistent, high-quality output. This means they can get more work done and ensure operations run like clockwork.
A remote assistant improves productivity.
By outsourcing routine tasks, you free up your time for more pressing matters and increase your effectiveness. As such, you can now focus on functions that only you can do and drive your business forward.
Remote assistants encourage a healthy work-life balance.
When you ask for help from a remote assistant, you give time for yourself and for the things you love to do. You can lighten your workload, scale your business and take control of your life.
Virtual Assistant vs. Executive Assistant Remote
Can a virtual assistant match up against an executive assistant? Well, let’s find out by comparing these two and weighing three important factors.
Skills and Experience
Executive assistants can tailor their service to support executives and busy bosses, thanks to their profound work experience and expertise in office management.
On the other hand, virtual assistants help your business grow in more than 10 different ways. Simply put, they’re a jack of all trades who can do anything and can adapt to your changing business needs.
Scope of Work
Executive assistants perform sophisticated tasks to support executives, such as helping oversee new team members and creating complex presentations.
Conversely, a virtual assistant provides different types of support. As we mentioned, they function according to current business demands, meaning they can be bookkeeping assistants one moment and data entry agents the next.
But generally speaking, VAs mainly provide administrative support.They don’t make critical decisions like EAs.
Availability and Responsiveness
Part of being an EA is to be highly responsive, so even on the weekend and at odd hours, they have to be reachable to you. They are so-called the “gatekeepers” of your time, so they have to be there whenever you need them.
Meanwhile, a virtual assistant is not strictly bound by a rigid schedule. They sometimes handle more than two or three clients at the same time, resulting in their inability to meet your needs quickly.
How to Be a Remote Personal Assistant?
What separates a good remote assistant from the amazing ones?
Before you commit to hiring, you should be able to tell quality remote workers from the regular bunch to add more value to your investment.
Here are the qualities that make an excellent online support:
- Organised
- Excellent at managing time
- Highly motivated
- Focused
- An effective communicator
- Proactive in asking questions
- Detailed oriented
- Not afraid to take initiative
Now, How Do You Connect with a Stellar Remote Assistant?
The most efficient way to connect with a remote assistant is through a virtual assistant agency like VAV. We meticulously screen and train our assistants so you don’t have to go through all the trouble. All you have to do is tell us what you’re looking for, and we deliver.
But if you want to try your luck in recruiting an online worker yourself, you can follow these steps:
Assess Your Needs
If you can successfully evaluate your needs, it’s much easier for you to identify the tasks you need help with and the type of assistant who can complete the job for you.
Make a Job Post
Write a clear and detailed job description, outlining the responsibilities, important qualifications and expectations.
This way, you can get the attention of the right candidates who have the skills and experience you’re looking for.
Interview and Assess Your Candidates
Conduct an interview and leverage an assessment test to thoroughly assess the capabilities and compatibility for the role.
Contact and Review References
By checking references, you earn valuable insight into how your remote assistant operates and how they cultivate relationships with others—crucial factors in building a healthy, productive working environment.
Choose the Right Person
Consider administering a trial period. It’s an important phase before making the final hiring decision to ensure your remote assistant is the perfect fit and avoid making long-term commitments.
Conclusion
Hiring a remote assistant is a strategic business move that you shouldn’t pass on. With them, you and your business can flourish—maximising productivity without compromising your resources.
Your remote assistant gives more meaning to your work—well, only if you can find the right one.
Partner with VAV, and we’ll make certain you get to work with a remote professional who thinks and works big.