Orange Hub, Author at Xyrva

Confessions Of A Virtual Assistant

5 years ago

Receiving an email for a week’s task can be both exciting and overwhelming. There are weeks when one longs for tasks and work while there are days when one just wants to enjoy going online without the pressure of an unfinished task.

For virtual assistants, checking our online social media accounts would make us wonder whether a page that we are managing is attracting the audience that we would like to have on the page. For virtual assistants, checking our mail would cause our heart to skip a beat as we wonder whether clients email to end a project or to proceed with the given tasks. Aside from all these wonderings and pressure, staying off the grid is impossible for us to do as clients would need us to send a feedback or to reply to an email in an instant and in whoever’s time. It is not like we like to be online 24/7 but it something that we have to do for our living. As a virtual assistant, there are times when you wonder whether a client is legit or not.

Being a virtual assistant can be challenging, there are some issues that has to be addressed but overall, it is something that some people are still choosing to do no matter what. There are times when you question if all these things that you are doing will really pay off. But despite all those doubts and questions, we still do what we were asked to do not because we have to but because we love doing what we are doing.

Being virtual assistant is not always about the flexible working hours that allows us to travel while working or not even the salary that we are getting. Being a VA is about helping clients get tasks done so that they can impact more people. We do not just work for the money but virtual assistants work for passion. It is our joy to see a happy client because a website is launched or because the money earned is properly balanced and is accounted for.

If I get asked whether or not I will continue on to become a VA, I would immediately say yes and I’ll probably have the same answer when you ask me again years from now.

Lifehack 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Becoming the World’s Best Virtual Assistant

5 years ago

You have a job that demands you to be in the office for eight hours, after that you leave the office and go home. You probably have friends to meet but right after that you are free. You have some spare time and you learn about this new booming career referred to as “virtual assistants.” You become interested and you decide to venture on it. But before doing anything, you try to learn the new career path that you would like to take.

Becoming a virtual assistant is not a piece of cake, you need to make time for the tasks that you have. However, if you persevere and continue to do your best, you will surely become the most sought after VA.

When signing up with a client, you need to evaluate beforehand if you are ready for the commitment. You need to make sure that you give the client the best service and output that you can come up with. Next, you have to know whether or not you are willing to learn and do the tasks given. Being a virtual assistant allows you to learn different new things. Technology is innovating overnight so you have to study these new developments. As people say, virtual assistants learn by doing; it is unavoidable to make mistakes so one just has to learn from those errors and use these learnings for future references. Another tip, time management is necessary to be the best in the field. The perks of flexible time may be convenient for you but it can also cause you to be lenient and complacent at what you do. You must learn to schedule your tasks and stick to it so you don’t have to cram on a given task.

Becoming the world’s best virtual assistant is not difficult, you just have to do the best you can and make sure that you give your clients the best service and output that you can. Also, it does not hurt to ask for help and assistance from friends or colleagues!

Tale of A Filipino Virtual Assistant: The Challenges They Face

5 years ago

Taking the career as a virtual assistant is challenging as this requires focus and attention. This job is not an easy track to take yet there are people who would like to take the challenge and work as a virtual assistant. As much as it is a difficult career to take, there are other challenges that may seem as out of your control and beyond your reach to solve.

In a country like the Philippines, working as a virtual assistant is extra challenging because of the internet connection. Since we are a third-world country, the internet connection is limited and is controlled by big telecommunication companies that charge as much or even more than the companies in other countries that have better connection than we do. Internet connects us to other parts of the world and with the slow connection, it becomes difficult for us to do video calls or even send large files to our associates. This limits our capabilities to the extent of doing just much of what we have since we literally have no control over these things.

The recent challenge that some VAs are facing is the power outages that are happening in the provinces affected by the earthquakes. These power outages limit the number of hours that the VAs can work since laptops and computers have limited power supply and these virtual assistants cannot do their tasks without these gadgets and electronic devices. These power outages can bring delays and backlogs in the side of the worker since there are limitations as to how much can be done at a span of time.

Another challenge that VAs encounter while doing their job is the lack of resources and materials that are available in the country or whenever these resources are available, it usually cost more than what they actually cost. There are some educational and university resources that are expensive for the VAs so reading these materials and reviews can incur additional cost on their side. Other than these resources, some gadgets or devices also cost more in the country thus it becomes difficult for them to acquire these things.

However, even with these challenges and difficulties, we believe that Filipino virtual assistants are resourceful and wise enough to know how to deal with these problems. While these things are given, these VAs will thrive to make the most out what they have just to deliver what is needed to their client. While there are limitations, they work around it and think of creative ways on how they can still accomplish the given tasks.