A virtual assistant can be an integral part of a team for any business. For a team to work smoothly, however, each member will need to know the role that they have to play and the tasks that they need to fulfill. Such is what we have discussed in a previous article.
There are as many virtual assistants as there are ways to kill a cat, so to speak. VAs simply vary in skill and area of expertise, and it is important that you first know the very place that the VA excels in before you have them sign up to your team. Naturally, listing all sorts of task that a virtual assistant can do will make this a very long list; with that in mind, let us settle for the tasks that you can possibly give to just about any virtual assistant.
Before we begin, know that there are two skills that are common to all virtual assistants: the skill to use a computer and the ability to utilize the Internet for their work. With that in mind, the general tasks that one can have their VAs working on is as follows:
- Email marketing. This, perhaps, is the most profitable task that you can let just about any virtual assistant handle. From composing the right emails to sending them to the right people and dealing with the follow ups, or simply watching over your autoresponder and making sure it works properly, outsourcing email marketing tasks to a VA is clearly a no-brainer.
- Administrative work. Anybody who can use a computer will find it reasonable to be given tasks such as transcription, bookkeeping, receiving online clients, making online purchases, keeping track of your to-do list, etc.; virtually any computer-related task that you are expected to give to a secretary or a personal assistant.
- Blogging. Blogging can easily sap your time and creative juices. The fact that it can be done by pretty much anyone else other than you but with your guidance means that this is yet another task that you can entrust to any virtual assistant.
- Organizational tasks. Minute organizational tasks such as making sure that your files are in the right place and the right information is keyed in to your spreadsheet—stuff that would take up time better spent on more productive tasks—are a welcome addition to any VA\’s to-do list.
- Emails. Not many other tasks will take up a lot of your time and pay as little dividend as checking a cluttered inbox. Virtual assistants can happily do this for you, allowing you to do other, more productive things.
These are tasks that you can safely outsource to any virtual assistant that you may meet. Some VAs, however, are more specialized and are best utilized for a particular set of tasks. You will need to identify these skills beforehand, and be sure that they are the right fit for your needs before hiring your VA prospect.
