Businesses are all about the client and the product . There are files for clients and files for products. With so much paperwork, it is hard to keep everything organized. Businesses, especially smaller ones, need a virtual assistant database manager .

It would be nice for business owners if they could just talk about and sell their products or services all day long. Unfortunately there is more to it than that. Nowadays, businesses live and die on statistical analysis and other reports. In order to generate these reports you need the data to back them up.

Poorly organized data can weaken a company. For instance, how would a business ever know how their products are doing in certain areas of the country? What about customer feedback ?

The Market

Businesses capture data in order to grow. They would never discover their strong areas, weak areas or whether marketing campaigns were a success. Information is king in the business world.

To that end, it is important to manage data in an organized fashion. Customer names and information need to be logged, reports need to be generated about product demographic, customer surveys and profits to name just a few important areas.

Database management is another area that small business owners often don’t have time to look after. It takes time to organize this information and that takes away from the business of promoting and creating new products . It is a catch-22 that a virtual assistant can help with.

Do you have expertise in the area of setting up databases in different formats? You can assist online and offline businesses. Each business keeps records of customer names, demographic data, product inventory , monthly revenue and other vital information.

Virtual assistants, who specialize in database setup and management, provide such services as:

• Database design and maintenance
• Data entry of customer names and information
• Create data spreadsheets from compiled records
• Process new data
• Create reports for clients
• Create graphs and other visuals
• Tech support for clients using new databases

Databases allow your client’s employees to retrieve information that they need to do their jobs. With a little training by you, everyone can learn to access the databases that you create. The business of information gathering is streamlined for greater efficiency.

The basic infrastructure of the company’s records is in your hands. A small business can go from a desk full of loose papers with information to a well-organized database that can be updated in a few keystrokes thanks to you. Any information that the client needs right away, you can access with ease.

Businesses thrive on information and as a virtual assistant database manager; you are a major part of that winning equation. If you like working with data and are good at organization, this might be the niche for you.

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

p.s.

Due to excessive spam abuse, email providers and ISPs have gotten tough on blocking spam. But in their zeal to weed out spam, your support emails to your customers are being blocked! That’s why you need a customer support system hosted on your own web server.

There are countless ways a Virtual Assistant can be of service to you and your business. Just like an assistant in a brick and mortar office, your own
Virtual Assistant can be one of the best investments you can make FOR both your business and your own peace of mind!

Among the thousands, I am sure, services a Virtual Assistant can perform, here are just a few to give you an example and help you decide if a Virtual Assistant is right for you.

Although, of course, your Virtual Assistant can be either male or female, to keep from saying “he or she” and “his or her” for every task, I will write this in the SHE and HER mode.

Your own Virtual Assistant can:

Respond to customer e-mails and phone calls

Help out with some facets of your social networking
so you can spend more time SOCIALIZING!

Schedule appointments and interviews

Do the transcriptions of your interviews, podcasts, videos, etc.

Handle your Bookkeeping chores; for example:

invoicing clients, receiving and paying bills, balancing checkbooks
and reconciling bank statements, tracking expenses and tax records,etc.

Perform internet research for various facets of your business

Plan your travel and make necessary arrangements

Maintain your ezine and customer mailing lists, manage your ezine ad sales,
do research FOR ezine content and even write and/or compile it for you

Maintain your website, for example edit when needed, make changes and updates

take customer orders, create sales reports, ship orders and products

Submit your articles to other publishers and article sites

Update, edit and maintain your blog and research content for you to use on it

Proofread your documents, advertisements, web pages, etc.

Place advertisements in print or e-publications and on websites.

Format eBooks, create PDF files, send out printing jobs or do them herself.

Perform Data Back Ups so that all of your important information,
downloads, documents, etc. are safely duplicated in case of data loss

Research, list and maintain products for your online store, eBay store, etc.

( which is one of the duties MY own Virtual Assistant will have when I get one! )

and just about anything else your own in office assistant could do for you,
without the added expenses of a fully stocked office on your premises,
insurance and other benefits you would have to provide FOR
an in house employee AND she can keep the paperwork
overload in HER office instead of yours!

There are many ways you can unintentionally lose information on a computer. A child playing the keyboard like a piano, a power surge, lightning, floods. And sometimes equipment just fails.

If you regularly make backup copies of your files and keep them in a separate place, you can get some, if not all, of your information back in the event something happens to the originals on your computer.

Deciding what to back up is highly personal. Anything you cannot replace easily should be at the top of your list. Before you get started, make a checklist of files to back up. This will help you determine what to back up, and also give you a reference list in the event you need to retrieve a backed-up file. Here are some file suggestions to get you started:

• Bank records and other financial information
• Digital photographs
• Software you purchased and downloaded from the Internet
• Music you purchased and downloaded from the Internet
• Personal projects
• Your e-mail address book
• Your Microsoft Outlook calendar
• Your Internet Explorer bookmarks

If you haven’t already decided where you want to store your backup copies—external hard disk drive, CDs, DVDs, or some other storage format—and you want to know more about your options, you can read about the types of external storage available.
Check that out here .

After you’ve decided what you want to back up and where you’re going to back up, you’re ready to learn how to back up. Get that info by visiting here now.

* Note from Jan Tallent:

I am the Queen of lost data and know first-hand how devastating this can be! I have had a laptop struck by lightning, 8 years of downloads, info and documents destroyed by a virus the best virus checkers money can buy MISSED, accidentally overwritten files that should have been backed up and THEN updated, etc. and it is scary, confusing, humbling and ANNOYING to have this happen.

I have been a digital product junkie for going on ten years now and have over 100 cd’s of burned copies of those, plus at least monthly burn cd’s to have a safe copy of all of my documents, current work, etc. and highly recommend that you DO back up anything and everything that you cannot afford to lose.

thanks to MicroSoft for the great article!

Jan Tallent

P.S. Remember, one of the services I offer IS data back-up, not only of the assignments and projects I perform for you but also any you care to get TO me, via email or download or snail mail and can even keep a copy for emergencies if you like, after I send you your back up!