Working as a Virtual Assistant In 2014

If you are planning to become a virtual personal assistant you should be prepared to provide services which range from providing administrative support to provide consultation through email, fax or phone. In other words, you are required to stream line the business of your clients while they need to concentrate on their regular business functions.

Qualifications and duties of a virtual personal assistant

To become virtual assistant, you do not just need to have typing skills. It is much more than that. A virtual personal assistant should possess the thinking of an entrepreneur for developing understanding of the business world, and then assisting other businessmen by providing them with the secretarial services. The duties which virtual personal assistants have to fulfill depend on the nature of the business he or she is working for. But there are some basic duties and skills which are required for the job are typing, transcribing, doing data entry, creation and management of databases, desktop publishing and creation and management of website blogs.

But above all, you need to put in your hard work and a motivation to learn and move ahead. The experience when combined with strong planning will help you to go a long way in the industry.

Salary range and planning

You need to contact with the local Chamber of Commerce, enterprise agency or regional start up business centers, who can guide you with the charges. They will provide you guidance with the basics such as how much you should charge to sustain a living. This will help you to plan and manage your charges.

Virtual personal assistants mostly charge on hourly basis and this per hour rate varies largely by the location and kind of services you are offering. Simple jobs such as data entry or processing are mostly low paid but you can earn higher by specializing and increasing your skill levels.

On average as a virtual personal assistant you can start with $ 12 per hour, if you have just the basic skill level. But if you have many different specialized skills and experience and can handle more complex jobs, then you can expect to be paid $ 45 per hour. The amount you earn depends on the number of hours you work per week.

Resources for finding job

It is very important to have patience while you are looking for the job of virtual personal assistance as it takes time to get a good job. Meanwhile you are trying to find good opportunities and developing your business as virtual assistant, you can try out these steps which might prove helpful;

• Do some research about virtual personal assistants and their responsibilities.
• Try to develop a professional name of your company.
• It is important to do develop business social network. You can join the local business associations or can also join networking websites.
• Subscribe to business magazines and read them as they will be helpful to develop your business insight.
• You can also take a business course for getting certification for your skills.

You can earn handsomely from the job of virtual personal assistant if you are well organized, have a sound business strategy and possess an understanding of streamlining business.