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101 Ways To Use A Virtual Office Assistant
Bookkeeping
- You need to pay your bills. You mail or fax them to the VA. The VA sets up a checking account with payment authorization
(or online bill payment services) for both of you. The VA prepares the payments and enters them into accounting software
that you can also view from your own computer. The VA notifies you how much money to deposit into the account and pays the bills,
or mails them back to you for signature and mailing.
- You need to keep track of your accounts payable and receivable. As bills are paid,
the VA enters the transactions into accounting software, reconciles bank statements, enters credit card transactions,
prepares invoices, makes and/or enters deposits, and prepares end of month reports.
- You need to invoice your clients. You send an email to the VA with the number of
hours to be billed to each client. The VA prepares and mails the invoices.
- Your association needs annual dues renewed. The VA prepares the invoices,
mails them according to schedule, receives payments, and deposits them into the association's account. All transactions
are recorded in accounting software and sent to the association via
email (zipped file), FTP transfer or CD.
- You have account receivables that are past due. The VA mails past due notices and follows up via
telephone to collect on past due invoices.
- You prefer to pay your own bills, but need monthly bank reconciliation. You mail the VA a copy of your
check register and bank statement; the VA enters data into accounting software and reconciles the account.
The accounting software report is sent back to you via zipped email attachment.
- You prefer to pay your own bills, but need reminders to pay in a timely manner. The VA reminds you by
email or telephone when due dates arrive.
Secretarial and Telephone Services
- You need to confirm weekly sales appointments. You
fax your list to the VA, who calls the appointments, notes who is
confirmed and who must be rescheduled, and faxes the list back to you.
- You need directions to a prospect's office. The VA
calls, gets directions, and emails them to you.
- You have routine paperwork to be filled out on a
daily basis (e.g.,
sales call re-caps). You call the VA with the information, who fills
out the form and faxes it to you.
- You have stacks of random paper documents on your
desk that you can't
figure out how to organize. You mail them in a big envelope to the VA,
who breaks them down into labeled manila folders, creates a master
list, and sends them back for you to place in your file cabinet,
category list in front.
- You want to make sure you have a backup of your
computer or a special
file. You mail or e-mail it to the VA for safekeeping. In the event of
a disaster, your files are located off premises.
- You travel frequently. The VA coordinates your air
travel, car rental and hotel reservations.
- You're going on vacation, or are frequently out of
the office, but need
to stay in touch with important business calls and not leave the phone
unattended. When you're unable to check your voice mail on a regular
basis, you use call forwarding feature to transfer calls to the VA, or
record on your voice mail that callers with urgent messages may contact
your assistant. The VA answers calls, responds to routine requests, and
contacts you with urgent messages. Or you check your voice mail
yourself and answer some calls personally while assigning others to the
VA. Or you obtain a separate phone line in the VA's office so that a
live human voice will answer with your company's name.
Writing, Editing & Proofreading
- You're preparing a brochure, website or manual and
need assistance with
the copy. The VA creates, edits, formats and/or proofreads drafts as
you go along.
Graphical Presentation
- You're preparing a seminar and need a PowerPoint
presentation. You fax sketches of diagrams and charts to the VA, who
prepares the PowerPoint slides and sends the document to back via email
attachment.
Database Management & Data Processing
- You fax the VA copies of business cards you've
gathered at a
presentation or during the course of the month. The VA enters the
information into a contact database, uses mail merge to produce a
follow-up letter and either scans your signature, uses a signature font
to sign your name, or mails them to you to sign, and sends out the
letters.
- You email new prospect leads to the VA, who enters
them into a contact database and uses a personalized mail merge to send
an introductory letter. The VA monitors the marketing follow-up
program, sending a pre-determined marketing piece every two weeks. Each
week the data is sent to you via email so you have a record of the
transactions. The prospect responds directly to you.
- You fax your clients' new policy information to the
VA, who enters the
information into a database and sends it to you via an email
attachment. The VA then prepares and mails a standard confirmation
letter to the policy owner, tracking the annual expiration date of the
policy and, on the due date, sends a reminder email to you.
- You want to send a direct mailing or fax broadcast
and need to verify
your prospects, some of which have missing fax numbers. You send your
prospect list to the VA via email attachment. The VA telephones each
name, verifies spelling, title and address, obtains missing fax
numbers, makes corrections, and returns the list to you via email
attachment.
- You need to change database software. The VA converts
the data and
walks you through installing and learning how to use the new software.
Word Processing
- You take notes at meetings and need them typed. You
mail or fax the notes to the VA, who types them and mails, faxes, or
emails them back.
- You need to send a series of letters. You fax
handwritten drafts or
dictate over the phone to the VA, who types the letters, faxes or
emails them to you for approval, prints them on your stationery, and
mails them.
- You need a manual typed. You mail a compilation of
old documents with
handwritten corrections to the VA, who consolidates them, types them up
and emails, or sends a diskette or CD, to you.
Desktop Publishing
- You need business cards or a tri-fold brochure. The
VA designs and prints them for you, using pre-designed paper stock,
clip art, or your own logo, either in conjunction with a printing
service or printing them for you in small amounts on an as-needed basis
so that you can update their content whenever appropriate.
- You need a price list, product list, or schedule
prepared. The VA designs, types and prepares flyers, calendars, and
lists using a color printer and clip art or your own design.
- You need certificates for participants completing a
seminar, getting an
award, or becoming a member of your organization. You fax a list to the
VA, who designs and prints certificates, including seals and ribbons.
The VA sends the completed certificates to you to issue or mails them
directly to each participant.
- You want to publish a quarterly newsletter. You
provide the content and
the mailing list to the VA, or the VA helps with articles. The VA
typesets and prepares the newsletter, prepares labels, and mails.
- You want to distribute CDs as part of a mailing and
want your company
logo on the labels. The VA designs and prints labels using art you
provided, attaches the labels and coordinates the mailing.
Research
- You sell business success tools and seminars. The VA
researches a target industry, prepares a list of companies, calls to
identify a contact individual, then prepares and mails introductory
material. After a specified time, the VA calls to verify information
has been received and to schedule a sales call.
- You need a hotel conference room for a seminar. The
VA contacts several hotels in the area to find availability of the
date, size, and specifics of the seminar, obtaining written quotes from
the hotels that can accommodate the request, compiling a comparison and
reporting the findings to you.
- You need CDs duplicated. The VA calls several vendors
and obtains
written quotes. Upon approval, the VA sends the original CD to the
vendor, designs and prints labels, receives the completed order,
attaches the labels and sends the package you.
- You're interested who your competition are and what
they're doing. The
VA does a search online and compiles a list of the appropriate websites
for you to look at.
- You're considering adding to your advertising. The VA
contacts possible
advertising resources from the Internet, magazines, periodicals,
newspapers, etc. and acquires information on pricing, publishing dates,
publishing deadlines, payment policies, etc. Information is compiled
into a report for you to review.
Mail & Email Services
- You want to fully utilize your email software program
(e.g., filters, auto-reply, signatures). The VA walks you through how
to set this up and teaches you how to use it.
- You travel frequently, usually returning to a stack
of mail, sometimes missing important correspondence. You have your mail
forwarded to a post office box near the VA, who retrieves and reviews
the mail, faxes or overnights to your hotel urgent items, responds to
routine matters, and forwards items to your office that can wait for
your return. To save on postage costs, some items may be scanned and
delivered via email attachment.
- You need fulfillment services for books, tapes or
other materials. As
orders come in, you email or fax the VA with the information, or the VA
collects the information from your website, then prepares packages and
mails.
- You can't keep up with your volume of email and are
missing important
messages. The VA sets up a general email account for you, such as
info@mycompany.com, then retrieves email, sorts, responds to routine
requests, and forwards items of importance to you at your personal
email account (myname@mycompany.com).
- You're going on vacation and don't want to miss
important messages. The
VA downloads your email, or you forward your email to the VA. The VA
notifies individuals that you're out of the office, contacting you with
urgent messages.
- You want a way to automatically respond to standard
requests to your
website. The VA creates an auto responder, monitoring and establishing
a database of who, and how many, are requesting information.
Marketing Support
- The VA helps you implement a marketing plan,
submitting ads by
deadline, tracking expiration dates, coordinating payment, and handling
correspondence with advertising vendors, continually updating the
advertising report and/or advertising budget report for your review.
- You issue a variety of sales brochures. You (or the
VA) mail postcards using the VA's contact info as the return address
and fax number. The VA mails the appropriate brochure upon receipt of
request, updating your database with name, address, date and type of
brochure requested.
- You want to monitor customer satisfaction. The VA
creates a customer
feedback questionnaire, mails to customers, receives the completed
questionnaire, summarizes the responses and issues you a report.
Transcription
- You need a telephone conversation (e.g., conference
call, tele-class)
recorded. The VA records the call and transcribes the tape for the
participants.
- You dictate letters and memos on a cassette tape, or
interview a
subject, and mail the cassette to the VA via overnight delivery. The VA
transcribes the tape, prints the letters on your stationery and mails
the following day, or emails you a copy of the verbatim interview.
Web Site & Related Internet Services
- You need a web presence but can't justify spending
thousands of dollars
to use a high-end web design company. A VA who is skilled in HTML
software can design, build, and maintain a professional website for you
and save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
- You need changes on your website. The VA edits or
uploads new information to your website, whether the site was created
by the VA or by someone else.
- You need to promote your website. The VA performs
keyword research,
optimizes your web site pages for search engine traffic and submits the
URL, key words and description to various online directories.
- You want to improve your website traffic with related
links. The VA
contacts similar websites and requests mutual link exchange.
- You don't have time to monitor your website for
errors or broken links.
The VA periodically reviews the website and verifies links.
- You don't have time to monitor website traffic. The
VA monitors traffic
reports and makes recommendations for adjustments to improve traffic.
- You send out an email mailing list/newsletter and
some bounce, due to
incorrect subscription requests or other email failures. You forward
related messages to the VA, who correctly processes the requests to
subscribe, unsubscribe or delete bounced messages. The VA manages the
email database, adding subscriptions, deleting those wanting to
unsubscribe, and posting announcements to the list.
- You want to increase the number of subscribers to
your electronic
newsletter. The VA lists the newsletter with a variety of online
directories, contacts other subject-related list owners to inquire
about mutual cross-promotion, and follows up to make sure the listings
are accurate.
- You want to promote your company online. The VA
writes articles on your
behalf, or submits articles written by you, to electronic newsletters.
Purchasing & Supply Procurement
- The VA sets up an online account on your behalf with
your suppliers.
The VA works with you or your accountant to set up lines of credit with
vendors and monitors keeping the credit information current and
accurate.
- On a pre-specified basis, the VA faxes you a list of
office supplies that you use on a regular basis. You check off what is
needed and fax back to the VA, who re-orders the supplies and has them
delivered directly you.
- You need to purchase new software, office equipment,
or a specialized
product. The VA researches makes, models and versions, using both the
Internet and inquiries to business networking groups. The VA calls
several vendors, obtains pricing information, ascertains that the
product meets your requirements, and reports the findings to you. The
VA then purchases the item on your behalf. If the item requires on-site
setup, the VA makes those arrangements as well as confirming with
dates/times and travel information.
Personnel & Human Resources
- You're looking to hire an employee. The VA writes a
help-wanted
advertisement, places the ad, receives and reviews the resumes,
conducts the initial phone interview, narrows the selection to three
individuals, and schedules an interview with you.
- You fax employment applications to the VA, who
verifies past
employment, calls the references, and reports the findings to you.
- When a new employee is due to arrive, the VA prepares
and sends a
welcome package.
- You need a reminder to provide annual performance
reviews for your
employee(s). The VA tracks the dates and sends you a reminder.
- You need assistance with payroll requirements. The VA
verifies that all
payroll requirements have been met, appropriate taxes paid and forms
filed.
- You want to make a career change. The VA prepares or
updates a resume
and cover letter for you, researches job openings, and submits resumes
to potential employers, tailoring each to the particular employer.
After an interview, the VA promptly mails out a thank-you follow-up
letter to the potential employer.
Real Estate Assistance
- You have a motivated seller and want to emphasize
that you're
organized, professional, and committed to their needs. The VA prepares
a pre-listing/pre-sale package, including your resume of past sales;
client testimonials; advice about pricing, selling time and staging;
and other important questions to think about. You send the VA the
seller's contact info and the VA prints and sends the package. This can
both give you an advantage for listing appointments and decrease the
length of appointments.
- You spend too much time scheduling showings and
reporting to clients, with many phone calls back and forth. The VA
keeps in touch with clients and does your scheduling for you, using a
calendar you can both access online with the touch of a button.
- You need a flyer designed for your newest listing.
You e-mail the VA
room descriptions and photos. Skilled in programs such as Publisher and
Real Estate Assistant, the VA enhances the photos and writes the text
to romance the listing. The VA then e-mails the flyer to your list of
buyers and interested agents.
- You send the VA new listings, changes to current
listings, price
reductions, etc. The VA enters them into the MLS and your potential
clients are e-mailed about the updates.
- You hope clients find your website-and keep coming
back. The VA
knowledge-able about Search Engine Optimization gets you well
positioned within search engines, makes updates on a regular basis to
keep your website from getting "stale," and checks regularly for broken
links.
- You need an edge over other real estate professionals
who don't yet
provide virtual tours of their properties. The VA arranges panoramic
visual tours of your homes for sale or creates a dynamic Web commercial
using your still photos.
- You'd like to show an attractive listing presentation
to your potential
clients. The VA skilled in using multimedia software creates a
presentation that you can show from your computer and creates a CD you
can leave with your clients.
- You want to thank those who have referred you clients
and make sure
your name stays at the top of their minds. The VA creates attractive
thank-you notes and birthday cards and sends them out on your behalf.
The VA also helps you choose and send custom closing gifts.
- You need someone who is already up to speed on
proprietary real estate software such as Yardi, Top Producer,
Quantum Mail, Impro, Guru, Agent Office, 360 Agent, SharperAgent,
Imprev, Agency Logic, Rain Maker, ENeighborhoods, or Visual Tour
Download a printable copy of "101 Ways To Use A
Virtual Office Assistant".
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