Become a VA: Set Up Your Work Area

Want to be a virtual assistant (VA)? Why not? It's a legitimate profession that earns well and that you can do in the comfort of your own home. Perfect for an aspiring work-at-home-mom!

How do you start? First of all, you need to get an idea of what a virtual assistant is and the type of work you'd be dealing it. As its name implies, you would be assisting your client, typically by handling back-office administrative tasks remotely (i.e., you do not need to be physically present in their office, all you need is a computer and a reliable internet connection and you can work from anywhere in the world!). The tasks of a VA vary, but usually involves one or more (or all) of the following:

• research
• writing
• processing documents (converting from one format to another)
• entering data into spreadsheets
• assisting with emails and phone calls
• travel planning
• setting appointments
• creating presentations
• social media (update of Facebook, Wordpress, etc.)
• finding suppliers and placing orders
• and basically anything under the sun!

The key to being a good VA is to be ready for anything. Be flexible and reliable and always have the client's end goal in mind. You certainly don't need to know everything, you just have to be open to learning new things. And never, ever be afraid to ask questions when things aren't clear. 

Still interested and raring to go? You're halfway there. Your next step is to set up your work area. If you're working at home, you'll need to have a workspace where you can focus on your tasks. A place where the hubby and kids know that you're in the "zone" and are not to be disturbed. A desk that can hold your desktop or laptop, papers, and other work materials would work quite nicely, along with an ergonomic chair where you can toil comfortably (without breaking your back!).

Here are your essentials:

• a computer that can handle multi-tasking (you needn't have a souped up monster that gamers use, but one that wouldn't crash when you have Adobe Photoshop, Google, Skype, and an array of Microsoft Applications running at the same time would be ideal) while maintaining a reasonable speed.
• a RELIABLE DSL internet connection; at least 1mbps
• headset 
• email account (even a free gmail account would do)
• Skype (most clients still communicate via Skype)
• Microsoft Office (at least Word, PowerPoint, and Excel)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Dropbox account (for storing and easy sharing of large files)

Here are some nice-to-have's:

• scanner/printer
• Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or similar
• ABBYY or some other software that aids in converting from one file format to another
• Microsoft Outlook (some clients require this)
• smartphone
• plug-in USB internet (in case your reliable DSL connection fails you)

All set? Next up is landing that coveted VA job. More on that on my next post. Til then!