WHAT IS A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT?
A Virtual Assistant (typically abbreviated to VA) is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients remotely from a home office.. Virtual Assistants usually work for other small businesses but can also support busy executives. A VA can help with any task or project that is usually handled by an on-site employee. A successful VA usually has multiple clients and is constantly updating their knowledge, skills, and using the latest in technology to deliver a superior service. VA’s are subcontractors that are only paid for the hours required to perform each task. Since we are not an employee, you do not pay for breaks, lunches, vacations and benefits. These are just some of the cost effective benefits of working with a Virtual Assistant.

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WHY DO I NEED A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT?
There are lots of reasons why people need a VA. Here are some examples:

  • Your admin is piling up and you don’t know where to begin
  • You want to spend your time on value-adding tasks
  • Your business is going well but you spend most evenings and weekends catching up on admin
  • You want to be more productive
  • You feel overwhelmed with your workload
  • You wish you had more time to spend with your family
  • You want to be less stressed
  • You don’t have time to arrange personal appointments
WHAT CAN THE VIRTUALINK VA DO FOR ME?
Advancing technology means that you don’t need to hire an administration professional to sit in your office. Below is a tiny list of tasks that The Virtualink can carry out for our clients:
  • Replying to your client’s enquiries via email;
  • Data entry and contacts management;
  • Updating your social media accounts and replying to your customers;
  • Taking incoming calls and scheduling bookings;
  • Calendar management;
  • Customer Service (Voice & Web)  
  • Post Event Followup
  • Online Research on places, products, services and subjects
  • Creation of manuals for Standard Operation Procedures
  • Set up and customization of a number of popular online applications such as CRMs (e.g. Zoho), Mail Chimp, Air BnB, Smugmug
WHY SHOULDN’T I JUST HIRE AN EMPLOYEE?
Hiring employees requires you to pay for benefits and taxes you wouldn’t have to worry about with a Virtual Assistant. You don’t have to have a suitable office space or equipment either. Also, hiring a VA is more flexible. If you don’t have any extra work, you don’t pay anyone. Or if you just need help with a big project, hire your VA for that one job. You can pay hourly or by the project or even work out a retainer plan. Cost-wise and convenience-wise, VA’s can accommodate your needs. ​
HOW LONG WOULD I WORK WITH A VA?
Answer to question 4
HOW LONG WOULD I WORK WITH A VA?
Just as there are assistants who have worked for the same person in the corporate world for many years, it's possible that could happen with your VA.
Part of the power in this dynamic relationship comes in the synergy which happens between the people working together. There's a flow, a spark, an ease of working with a VA which turns days to weeks, weeks to months, months to years, all before you know it.
WHO WOULD WORK WITH A VA?
VAs work with successful people of all kinds. Entrepreneurs, Consultants, Corporate Executives, Professionals,- anyone who wants to live a more balanced life with more free time to do the things he/she wants to do!
WHAT TOOLS DOES A VA USE TO GET THE JOB DONE?
We love living in this era of technology! There are so many tools available to us online to make working remotely easy for everyone. We love Dropbox and Google Drive for file sharing, we use Google Apps for our email, calendar and contacts, we use Skype for communicating – just to name a few. Of course, you may recommend new technologies that you use in your business and we are more than happy to use these also.
HOW DO WE SHARE FILES?
With the use of Dropbox you can share the files that you want to share with us, so that we work in real-time on the same documents. There is no need to send files via email and there will be no chance of duplicate documents. It works just like a normal server, just in the cloud. We also use Google Drive if that’s your preference. It’s up to you!
CAN A VA ANSWER MY TELEPHONE CALLS AND HOW DO YOU DO THIS?
Yes it’s possible for a VA to answer your phone calls. There are a number of ways to set up the technical side: by diverting your number through to us for instance, but we work that out after having a chat to you to find out what you need. And yes – we can do it from home and your clients won’t know the difference!
DO WE SIGN A NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENT?
We understand that client confidentiality is absolutely paramount in any organisation. We have no problem signing a client’s Non Disclosure Agreement. We operate our services with the highest level of professionalism, integrity and confidentiality. We would never disclose who we work for without your express permission.
HOW QUICKLY WILL MY PROJECT OR TASKS TO BE COMPLETED?
We are committed to delivering on deadline. Turnaround time can depend on the complexity and urgency of the project or tasks at hand. Our turnaround time is between 24 to 48 hours to complete most tasks. If your project is time sensitive, the deadline will be agreed upon before the work begins.
HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE FOR YOUR SERVICES?
This depends on what type of work you need done. Give us a call and we can discuss your requirements and go from there – our contact details can be found here.
WHAT IF I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I NEED? 
No problem! Our initial consult is free. We can chat about where your business is and where you want it to be and build a plan from there. Don’t be intimidated. Get in touch and we’ll get started!