If you are a virtual assistant and have been looking for ways to make more money, below are 23 tasks that clients are always looking to outsource.
1: Email Management/Filtering
Email management approaches email handling in a systematic way to maximise efficiency.
If a virtual assistant is given the task of email filtering, he will use the tools on the email system to filter spam and only allow through the most important emails.
This increases your client’s productivity, which translates into more money for the VA.
2: Setting up Autoresponders
Setting autoresponders on emailing systems such as Aweber and MailChimp is important because these systems are used for email marketing.
A marketing email can be sent to over 10,000 recipients. Obviously, you will not be able to respond to all of these people.
You’ll definitely need a system that can help you reply to them automatically. Setting autoresponders helps you to tackle this problem.
3: Booking appointments with clients
A virtual assistant can help a busy business executive to book appointments with clients. They will also be responsible for following up with the client to find out if the meeting is still on.
4: Following up with clients/customers
It is good manners to follow up with a client or customer who has bought a product or service from you. A virtual assistant may help the client to send thank you notes or email reminders about products or services.
5: Receptionist Duties
The receptionist duties include handling inbound and outbound calls and emails. A virtual assistant hired for receptionist duties may be called upon by the client to also handle their calendar.
6: Calendar Management
Calendar management involves handling a senior executive’s itinerary so that they can concentrate on more complex issues in the company. If you are hired as a VA to handle calendar management, you are expected to know how to use a few systems that handle calendars.
A good example of a system that a VA you can use to handle calendar management is Google Calendar.
7: File Management
File management involves organising a company’s file in a system such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
A VA doing this job is expected to handle large volumes of files, maintain confidentiality, and organise the files in such a way that anyone new will be able to go through them.
8: Database Building
If you are asked to create a database, you will be expected to know how to use simple systems such as Microsoft Access. You can, for example, be asked to update an email list on your CRM.
In such a case, you will create an Excel sheet with all the fields required and then export these sheet into your CRM.
9: Research
If you’re asked to research, you will be doing this on behalf of somebody who will create content for newsletters, blog posts, and website content. You are expected to be thorough to bring information that is credible and informative.
10: Personal Errands
You may be hired to run personal errands such as selecting birthday gifts for loved ones, chatting with family members online etc.
11: Hotel and Flight Booking
Senior business executives do not have time to research which hotels are nearest to the offices that they will be visiting or which flights they should book.
If they hire you as a VA, you need to research the hotels and flights and book them accordingly. You are also expected to follow up with them if there are any cancellations.
12: Transcription
Virtual assistants can be hired as transcribers where they translate voicemail, audio, video, or podcast into text. You are expected to create an error-free text format media.
13: Taking Down Minutes in Meetings
There are many webinars and online meetings going on nowadays. Unfortunately, senior managers are the ones who conduct them and they do not have time to take down the notes when the meeting is ongoing.
A virtual assistant is hired to break down the major highlights of the meetings so that the manager can act on them.
14: Creating Basic Reports
If an executive is too busy, he/she might require a virtual assistant to prepare his weekly report. This report will include such as total sales during the week, deliverables, or weekly tasks.
15: Preparing Slideshows
Slideshows are usually used by consultants to explain a point, pick a customer, or train.
If you are asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation, you are expected to do some research and then create a presentation that clearly illustrates what the consultant wants to present to his audience.
16: Liaison VA
If you are hired as the go-between by a team leader, you are expected to be very good with communication – both written and verbal.
You are expected to get information from the team leader to the team members in a way that is simple, concise, and clear.
17:Recruitment
Virtual assistants are hired by companies to help them with recruiting team members such as programmers, writers, graphic artist etc. They are expected to do due diligence on the applicants and only let through those who are properly qualified.
Nowadays businesses have social media profiles on all the major channels. You might be asked to create social media accounts on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You will also be tasked with managing and updating the content on social media pages to reflect the company business, culture, and trends.
20: Manage blog
For you to be able to manage somebody’s blog, you need basic WordPress skills. You’ll also need to be good at researching and creating content.
Sometimes the client will already have set up the blog and just needs you to keep publishing content created by other writers on their blog. In such a situation, you are expected to put the content into a format that is accepted by WordPress.
Another task that may fall under blog management is filtering and replying to comments on a blog. In such a situation, you are expected to get rid of comments that do not reflect the culture and ethics of the company and reply to questions that are posted on the blog.
21: Answering support tickets
The virtual assistants that are hired to use a system such as Zendesk to answer a support ticket are also referred to as customer service executives. These are required to handle customer queries and solve technical issues.
22: Blog Commenting
Sometimes a virtual assistant can be hired to comment on blogs that are related to the clients. These are used to increase the links to the client’s blog.
23: Participating in Discussion Forums or Message Boards
If you’re hired to participate in forums and message boards for promotional purposes, you are the brand ambassador of the company or individual who hired you.
In such a situation, you are supposed to promote his products or services on message boards in order to increase the number of new customers.
There are probably hundreds of other ways that you can earn money as a virtual assistant, and Small Revolution is here to help.
