10 Key Skills of Virtual Assistants

by

An image of a woman

There is a growing number of skilled freelance virtual assistants to help business owners run their business.

With the increasingly competitive landscape, virtual assistants with general administrative, operational or marketing skills have been honing their skills further.  This works to the advantage of entrepreneurs.

Choosing which virtual assistant skill or skill set is essential, to support business owners reach their measurable goals.

an image of a woman holding the mouse of a laptop

When outsourcing, here are 10 key skills you can look out for in a virtual assistant:

  1. DATABASE ENTRY AND UPDATING
    A virtual assistant will gather, consolidate and update relevant information you will need for easy reference and operational efficiency, such as

    • Client, Supplier, Prospect Name, Location, Contact Numbers, Website URL, Email Address, Facebook, IG, etc
    • Key Dates
    • Employee Names and Data
    • Product Listings and Price Points
    • Distribution Points
    • Competitors Data
    • Government or Industry Requirements for Documentation
  1. SCHEDULING
    For the busy and mobile entrepreneur, having a freelance virtual assistant handle your appointment calendar real time takes the worry out of the mundane but important tasks like:

    • Daily/Weekly/Monthly appointments
    • Daily/Weekly/Monthly To Do List
    • Agenda and Contact Persons for Scheduled Meetings
    • Reminder System for important dates (including personal) and financial matters
  1. EMAIL MANAGEMENT
    Virtual assistants can be assigned to receive, send and reply to specific business email messages for the business owners. There are virtual assistants also skilled in authoring effective email messages for the SEO or marketing requirements of a business.  
  1. SOCIAL TASKS
    Lucky is the entrepreneur who has a virtual assistant, who is also capable of managing your social calendar.  You do not have to worry about missing out on important dates, writing thank you notes, sending out invitations or even recommending and sourcing a gift for a client or a loved one.
  1. TRAVEL RESEARCH AND ARRANGEMENTS
    Whenever frequent travelling is part of a business, a virtual assistant can help with executive travel such as researching, booking and handling:

    • Airfare and land transfers
    • Hotel accommodations
    • Passport and visa requirements
    • Itineraries (per time zone)
    • Factoring in possible side trips for personal reasons
    • Package Tours and Destinations
  1. ONLINE RESEARCH
    Virtual assistants can be tasked to do research, gather information and create a comprehensive report that can be utilized by business owners for business development and marketing strategies:

    • Websites of clients or competitors
    • New and Trending Products per Industry
    • Background Check on business contacts, suppliers and even contacts
    • Popular and effective apps
    • Trending blogsites
  1. INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETITIVE MONITORING
    Critical to entrepreneurs is to be on top of current industry development, information, future trends and even monitoring competition.  Current and relevant information gathered and verified by virtual assistants can be used as material for briefs, reports, email to clients and prospects and even social media posts or blogs in websites.
  1. DATA PRESENTATION
    Presenting effective reports and winning proposals to clients and prospects are vital to a successful business.Virtual assistants can help business owners by preparing content to be used for Power Point or Audio/Visual presentations or proposals:

    • Encoded Data in excel tables
    • Converted tables into graphs
    • Meeting, speech notes or bullet points
    • Eye catching Visuals
    • Audio/Visual Clips
  1. FINDING NEW BUSINESS
    Virtual assistants can be tasked to find new products or services that can profitable to offer, sell, re-package or re-sell online.  Most business owners are always on the lookout for new or potential business opportunities but don’t have the time to do the nitty gritty of asking around and finding out what is in demand in the market.  Having a virtual assistant handle this is a real time-saver.
  1. BOOKKEEPING
    A virtual assistant who handles administrative work and is also skilled in bookkeeping is a cost saver right there.  Hire a trustworthy virtual assistant to handle your bills payment, client billing, invoicing, collection, recording and grant controlled access to bank accounts.

Great Work Online is where you can outsource effective, skilled and trustworthy Virtual Assistants.