1. VA General
Skills &
Tasks
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2. What Is A Virtual
Assistant?
A virtual assistant is a person who provides various services
to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location.
There are a lot of things that virtual assistants can do,
including:
• Social media management
• Event management
• Transaction Coordination
• Cold Calling/Appointment Setting
• Admin Tasks
• Simple digital marketing tasks
• A lot more!
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Administrative Work
• Diary management – Scheduling meetings and appointments
• Answering phone calls
• Basic data entry
• Organizing to-do list and calendar
• Booking travel arrangements

4. 4
Personal Tasks
• Organizing personal to-do list and calendar
• Booking travel arrangements for weekend trips or vacations.
• Helping you make purchases – gifts, books, stationary,
hardware and perhaps even clothes!
• They can maintain budgets, make purchases, and keep track
of your expenses to make your finances as transparent as
possible.

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Content Creation
• Content writing has propelled itself to the top of the digital
marketing ladder in recent years. There’s a reason why large
corporations put out blog posts often. It helps boost their
search engine optimization and drive traffic to their website.
 Improve Your Search Rankings (SEO)
 Maintain a Useful Blog
 Create Eye-Catching Infographics
• In addition to writing, there are a bunch of specific tasks like
research, finding and editing images, uploading articles to
your blog and so on.

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Social Media Management
• It’s important to have someone experienced here as managing a
company’s social media presence is complex. Social media
accounts need to be able to connect with people while staying
relevant.
• Keep track of what’s going viral
• Monitor interactions
• Creating content to share on social media accounts
• Scheduling posts
• Engaging with your followers
• Analyzing statistics and reports

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Research
• Keep track of competitors’
• Analyze trends
• Find formats for press releases
• Creating Comparable Market Analysis (CMA’s)
• Utilize a CRM Software to Keep Track of Clients
• Optimize Google Business Page
• Fine Tune Your Zillow Listings
• Design an Awesome Logo
• Create a Listings

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Email Management
• Draft the Perfect Subject Line
• Use Drip Email Marketing and Marketing Automation
• Do More with Email Signatures

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Phone Management
• Answering, Taking messages, Voicemails
• Appointment Setting
• Cold Calling
• Follow-up calls
• Feedback calls
• Calls to confirm
• Setting up Vendors
• Scheduling meetings
• Manage a contact list

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VA Essential Qualities

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 If a client calls you then you must ring them
back, if you get an email then you must reply! It
doesn’t have to be immediately, but you need to
do it the same DAY at least.
 The quality of being trustworthy or of
performing consistently well.
Reliability

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 Leading on from the first point, you need to let
the client know how their work is going, so,
establish how and when you should update
them when they become a client as well as
before you begin each new task.
 You should ascertain how your clients want to
be contacted and how often. If in doubt update
the client at the end of each day and if you’re
running behind schedule, then tell them asap.
 If a client is constantly having to chase you for
updates, then you’re not doing your job
properly.
Good Communication
Skills

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 Research apparently says you should focus on just
one thing and that it’s inefficient to multi-task, but
it’s kind of what we do for a living! Obviously, you
need to focus on the task at hand, but you’re also
going to be working with multiple clients who all
think they’re your only/most important client.
 You’ll probably have numerous things to do in a day
so plan ahead (leaving time for unplanned things to
drop in) and schedule tasks for when you’re at your
most efficient.
Time-management

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 You’re going to get asked to do a lot of things
you’ve never done before and you’re just going to
have to find out how to do them. VAs are required
to provide solutions and solve problems for
clients… that’s kind of the whole point of us.
 Clients don’t expect you to know everything either
(well unless it’s something in your specific
niche that you should know). Tell them you’ve never
done that particular thing before but you’re happy
to find out how to and will get back to them. As
long as you’re honest with a client about the extent
of your abilities then you’ll be fine.
Resourcefulness

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 You need to keep learning so watch YouTube
videos, do skills swaps with other VAs, ask
questions on VA forums – decide what things you
want to learn more about then investigate them.
 If you don’t have the ability to work around a
problem and find out how to do something,
then you won’t be a good VA.
Resourcefulness

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 You not only need to know your stuff, but you also
have to make sure the client knows that you do.
Often a client has never worked with a VA so if you
seem hesitant about what you can do and how it all
works, then they’re going to seriously doubt your
ability to help them.
 A new client will probably be looking to you to lead
them through the process, so you need to know
and explain how you work.
Managing expectations
and instilling
confidence

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 You may have to ‘fake it until you make it’
confidence-wise when dealing with a potential
client (they’re just another person and won’t bite
you), but you do need to have a certain level of self-
confidence in yourself when running your own
business because your success is totally down to
you – and you need to be accountable for that.
Managing expectations
and instilling
confidence

18. Other Qualities:
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 Resilient
 Confident
 Dependable
 Reliable
 Consistent
 Versatile
 Flexible
 Adaptable
 Confident
 Organized
 Understanding
 Empathetic
 Tolerant
 Patient
 Trustworthy
 Honest
 Professional
 Accessible
 Approachable
 Problem solver
 Self-
motivated
 Proactive

19. DOs and Don’ts of
Handling a Client
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• Don’t guess. If you have a question…ASK.
• Don’t wait for an answer. If your client isn’t responding, PICK UP THE PHONE.
If you can’t move forward without an answer from them, don’t just “put it on
hold,” timidity will not be your friend in these situations.
• Don’t go MIA. I’ve seen it happen with clients and VAs and to this day shake
my head on what they were thinking. If you’re going to be out or something
comes up that takes you away from your work, let your client know ASAP.
• Over communicate. I can’t stress this enough. The worst thing you
can ever do is to keep a client guessing on where you are or what
you’re doing. Being responsive to your clients is essential in
establishing a good relationship.

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• Be unprepared. Plan ahead for both you and your client.
• Blame others, the internet or Mercury in Retrograde. Your clients will
appreciate you owning the mistake (and fixing it).
• Charge them to fix your mistake. If you own, fix it, on your time.
• Be proactive instead of reactive. Always be on the lookout for
what’s coming up to stay ahead of the game for both you and your
client.
• Admit to mistakes. Whether it’s a typo or you booked someone on the wrong
flight, own it!

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• Try to wing – it with each client. You’ll miss important steps along the way
and become inconsistent. Creating checklists for each area or task you work
with clients on is helpful in keeping your work streamlined.
• Be organized. This goes for both you and your client, regardless of
what service you offer. You need to have systems and processes in
place for working together, for your sanity as well as your client’s.
You want to always make it easy for someone to work with you..
• Direct your concerns to your AS
• Enjoy your work