Good question. Small business owners, consultants, entrepreneurs and academics are increasingly outsourcing 'back office' tasks to a freelance admin specialist or, in other words, a virtual assistant (VA).
Services on offer vary from one VA to the next; we all have our own areas of expertise. For my part, my core services include:
Audio typing (transcription)
Copy typing
Document formatting
Data entry
Proofreading
Diary and email management
Lifestyle management (or 'life admin' as I like to call it!)
Telephone message service, and much more!
Please visit the services section of my website for further information.
In reality, much of what I do is 'general admin,' very much bespoke to my particular clients, the nature of their business and their own needs. There is no 'one size fits all.'
A virtual assistant can be hired for ad-hoc tasks as and when needed, or a set number of hours per month can be retained, so you are guaranteed time is set aside for your own admin support. Your VA is therefore available to you when needed, but you don't have to commit to a regular salary or the associated overheads (such as employer's National Insurance or pension contributions, holiday and sick pay and office space, equipment and subscriptions). Nor do you have the legislative burden of employment law or recruitment costs. Your VA is self-employed and simply generates an invoice according to your agreement.
So, who am I?
Well, I live on the Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire border, and I worked as a PA at Executive level for 13 years in a firm of Lincoln-based chartered surveyors, so my employment history has led to a number of clients in property-related industries. Drawing on my own experience as a landlord has also led to work with residential letting agents. So you will see that although I took the decision (in 2016) to go freelance, I have not lost my passion for the property industry!
However, many of these skills are transferable, and my clients come from a wide range of industries - which is what makes being a virtual assistant so great!
Technology has facilitated the growth of the VA industry. Instead of 'drowning' in their admin, small business owners increasingly delegate it to a professional virtual assistant, safe in the knowledge that tasks will be completed in a conscientious and timely manner, thereby freeing up their own time to concentrate on billable work.
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If you're working flat out and recognise the need to outsource some, or all, of your admin, I'd love to hear from you. I offer a one hour, free of charge consultation with no obligation. Let's have a chat and see where it takes us!
