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.

How to Specialize as a Virtual Assistant and Why You Should

The virtual assistant business is booming. Businesses have realized the advantages of hiring someone to help them with their business tasks . As a virtual assistant you can either work to meet the needs of each and every client or you can specialize in one or two areas of business.

Have you heard the phrase, “Less is more”? It’s true when you are talking about virtual assistants. A general virtual assisting business lets you take in clients from all walks of life. That’s good if you like that, but sometimes the learning curve can be quite big with certain projects. When you specialize, the client gets the benefit of your accumulated knowledge on each and every project.

The reason you started your virtual assisting business in the first place was to go to work for yourself. Going into business as your own boss shouldn’t be an unhappy proposition. As the person in charge, you have the right to decide what work you do or do not do.

Take your virtual assistant business to the next level with niching. Niching involves tightening your business plan to include one main area of expertise. When you stick to one thing, you become good at it. You can even call yourself an expert in the field. Clients will pay a lot of money to work with someone who knows their stuff. You can be that person.

Specializing

How do you specialize? First, decide what services you enjoy doing for your client. It could be website design, social networking, handling personal matters or another area altogether. Many virtual assistants worked in the public or private sector before they became entrepreneurs. Use that knowledge to create a niche for your new business.

Reasons to Niche

The first reason is more money for your services . Because you provide the same services to all of your clients, you can ask for a higher rate . You can make the same profit that you did before with fewer clients.

Secondly, niching lets you work at something that you love to do. It is a proven fact that when you are happy, you work better. That goes for employees and business owners. You gladly answer questions for customers or take on a trying task.

Thirdly, you can keep your clients satisfied with great customer service and job integrity . Your clients get your best work always and will recommend you to others. You build a solid faithful client base.

Specializing as a virtual assistant is a way to increase your business. Clients get an expert in the field and you get to work a business that you love.

For example, my expertise is in proofreading and editing and this is also my most favorite kind of assignment to take on. I bring my former educational advantage in spelling, grammar, etc. to this niche and find doing these jobs to be fun and entertaining as well as adding to my own learning process.

My second most favorite assignment, and one I had a year of trade school training IN, is transcription work. I went to Rolla Technical Institute and took a year long course in Computerized Medical Office Technology to get computer skills and excelled in doing medical transcriptions, which are said to be the hardest category TO transcribe. My strengths in spelling really helped me in that course!

In summation, whether you want to specialize in a chosen niche or niches, or offer a wide range of services, there has not been a better time to embark on a career as a Virtual Assistant.

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

P.S. If you already have a Virtual Assistance business and find you are getting bogged down with doing the proofreading and editing assignments and this is NOT your niche or chosen chore, remember even Virtual Assistants can need and hire their own Virtual Assistants and I would LOVE to help you out with your overload!

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!