VAs provide administrative and personal support, across the board, to their clients. So all your needs can be handled by your VA; she can personally do what you need, or she can make it happen. The beauty of this work is that the only things that can’t be done are things which actually need to be touched in your office, such as paper filing (and even that’s possible if you’re creative!). Otherwise, you and your VA are only bound by imagination, need, skills and desire.
Tip: Ultimately, if you are doing your own administrative tasks, you are costing yourself a lot more than you would be paying to have a VA handle the same things.
Here are the kinds of basic “back office” tasks a VA would likely handle for a client:
- Handle email or US mail, handling most and forwarding to you just those which need your attention
- Make appointments, keep a schedule
- Personal/business paperwork
- Make/receive phone calls/inquiries
- Send/receive faxes
- Research of all sorts
- Plan meetings and events
- Plan parties (business and personal), weddings, reunions
- Make travel arrangements – business and personal
- Renewing passports
- Dining reservations (local and while traveling)
- Golf tee time reservations
- Theme park tickets
- Site seeing tours
- Worldwide weather information
- Turn-by-turn driving directions
- Handle reservations for seminars given by clients
- Light/basic writing
- Light proof reading
- Basic copy editing
- Desktop publishing
- Newsletter publishing (print and internet)
- Canceling, creating, renewing subscriptions
- Coordination of web design/hosting
- Mailings
- Buy/send gifts/cards for customers of clients
- Addressing holiday cards
- Reminder service
- Transcription and Dictation
- Bill paying
- Advocate for billing disputes
- Complaint handling
- Create/maintain databases
- Relocation services help and research
On another note: Some VAs have specialized skills they can bring to the table for your benefit. In addition to the administrative and personal support they offer you, some VAs may also offer you:
- Corporate Intelligence
- Advertising
- Personnel Management
- Business Planning
- Quality Control
- Space Planning
- Safety Consulting
- Ghost Writing
- Position clients as experts in a given field/Publicity
- Virtual Office Management
- Web Design
Some VAs have also developed niches – specializing in working with certain kinds of professionals. Some of those professional groups are:
- Personal and Business Coaches
- Speakers
- Authors/Writers
- Real Estate Brokers/Agents
- Real Estate Appraisers
- Financial Professionals
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