A Virtual Assistant can be a massive benefit for any small business – but what exactly do they do? And how do they do it?

There are many day-to-day tasks that can be delegated to a Virtual Assistant. For instance, simply forwarding all incoming telephone calls to your VA will allow him or her to filter out unwanted calls. This filtering is important when it comes to communications with your customers. Any assistant would be typically charged with taking calls and making bookings. A Virtual Assistant – thanks to the modern age of technology – is just as able.

You can give your VA access to your diary system and emails, enabling them to book meetings, reply to mail on your behalf, dig out that vital email from 6 months ago that you misfiled and even log reminders for you to complete particular tasks, as well as manage your contacts list.

It is important of course to hire a Virtual Assistant according to their skills. In a Real Estate business, a considerable amount of information will need to be recorded about each client and the properties involved. As such, a VA with database skills is very desirable. Similarly, if you’re delegating tasks such as bookkeeping and billing, spreadsheet and tax knowledge is important for your VA to possess.

These two examples would normally require the assistant to be available on your business premises, whether that is a dedicated office space or a box room. But thanks to software such as Symantec’s “PC Anywhere”, both you and your VA can work on the same document, stored either on your PC or your assistant’s. Meanwhile you could work with your assistant on a complicated piece of work utilizing this remote viewing software and an instant messaging (IM) application such as MSN, Yahoo or AIM in order to make suggestions.

A fax machine meanwhile can prove vital if you have all business mail filtered by your Virtual Assistant. Any documents that require signatures can be faxed from the VA’s fax machine to you and back again. Your VA really can be based ANYWHERE in the world!

You might want to conduct meetings with your VA over the telephone – or even business meetings with your Virtual Assistant present utilizing conference call facilities. Alternatively, a webcam system (again via an IM program) might be used for online conferencing or simply to illustrate information quickly.

These systems are successfully utilized in Real Estate and other businesses across the country in day to day business – don’t worry if your knowledge of how to implement them is weak, as your Virtual Assistant will know exactly how to get started!