skills of a virtual assistant

Optimizing Your Time – Yan’s Journey with a Virtual Assistant (Part -1)

It is great to be back on the GetFriday blog circuit after a long time. And I take great pleasure in introducing Yan Knudtskov Nielsen, a GetFriday client and the Founder & CEO of Yan&Co in Copenhagen, Denmark. Yan & Co is a Danish web agency that specializes in WooCommerce & WordPress development for clients and provides them with ongoing maintenance and support. His goal is to work with companies that have history, warmth, a heart and soul and makes their dreams more accessible through his expertise. Yan began his professional career as an IT consultant and worked with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation for 5 years. So if you are in / visiting Denmark, chances are that you are perhaps using one of the applications or websites he helped create during his stint there. He became an Entrepreneur in 2012 to carry forward his vision and passion to help business clients with their web and software development. Besides business and software development he is passionate about philosophy, biomechanics and martial arts and has been an instructor in Practical Wing Chun Kung Fu since 2008. He has narrated his journey with virtual assistance in three parts. Here is the Part 1. – Sunder P CEO Journey Begins In a world that is becoming more and more interconnected, managing your time and prioritizing what you spend your time on has become a cornerstone not only in professional life but also in private life. Time. It could be argued that time is the most precious resource you have. The argument? You can use time to increase the amount of almost any other “thing” in your life: friends, money, health, wellbeing, real estate or laughter. It may require effort, of course, but it’s possible – due to Time. However, time will always be a decreasing resource. There only ever becomes less of it, and if we are being honest, you don’t even know how much you have left. This is not to get all gloomy and doomy, it’s just a statement of the facts. Coming to terms with it, at least in my experience, makes it easier to prioritize. Enter Vanessa One day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, Vanessa, and I was explaining how it felt to have a lot of tasks that I didn’t quite enjoy and how I could tell that there wouldn’t be less of them as my business grew. “Well, why don’t you try with a virtual assistant? I’ve been doing that for years and it really helped me.” she asked. I looked at her, with what I imagine was a sort of dumbfounded expression, not sure what to reply exactly.“Ehm.. Eh.. what’s that? Does that even work?” I asked. Vanessa went on to explain how some of the recurring processes were handled by her VA. It sounded like a unicorn, riding a rainbow, poofing glitter. It sounded pretty amazing and too good to be true! “Should I setup a meeting for you?” Vanessa asked. I panicked. Totally panicked. I had no idea why, at the time. “Ehm ehh.. I’ll give it a thought” I replied. The seconds you spend, drastically add up over a year One of the key aspects of my way of doing business today is that I make an effort to ask my self the question: ”Could this be done smarter or could it be automated somehow?” I’m definitely not the first person to ask a question like this. But there’s a reason why I give it a lot of thought. Let’s say you have a recurring task, which takes you 15 seconds to complete. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? How about performing it 30 times daily? Now we’re at 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Five times weekly? 37 minutes and 30 seconds. A year later of 50 work weeks? 1.875 minutes or the equivalent of 31 hours and 15 minutes. Does that sound very appealing if it’s something you don’t truly enjoy? Delegation is one of the keys to spending you time more meaningfully You have probably heard it about a 427 times before that you should learn to delegate. However only very few of those who utter this statement, actually dive into the topic of how to do it, the pitfalls and caveats of it. With this post, my aim is to give a bit more of a real approach to delegation by sharing some of my experiences and lessons learned. Spending Time on What You Enjoy Even before I started my career, I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about how this world of ours’ works. One thing that over the year became more and more important to me was the feeling of freedom and being able to choose what I spend my time on. As Yan&Co grew, so did the related tasks, some of which I wasn’t very fond of like taxes, accounting, and other administrative tasks. I could tell that they were very important to the business but they just zapped my energy. While they where no doubt critical and important, they also seemed like an entry barrier to doing what I truly love. And wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the entire workweek dedicated to doing something that feels meaningful? Importance vs. meaningfulness The feeling of meaningfulness does not necessarily imply something is or isn’t important. Importance is usually related to the severity of the consequences and how they would impact your life or others. The same applies to the fact that just because something doesn’t feel meaningful to you, doesn’t prevent it from being very meaningful to another person. A very real example from my everyday is bookkeeping. For the first couple of years, I did it because it was important (because well, the tax collecting agency seems to be quite set in stone on this part). However, I wasn’t particularly good at it, made lots of small errors and thus spent time trying to correct these errors – Sometimes just

Optimizing Your Time – Yan’s Journey with a Virtual Assistant (Part -1) Read More »

It is great to be back on the GetFriday blog circuit after a long time. And I take great pleasure in introducing Yan Knudtskov Nielsen, a GetFriday client and the Founder & CEO of Yan&Co in Copenhagen, Denmark. Yan & Co is a Danish web agency that specializes in WooCommerce & WordPress development for clients and provides them with ongoing maintenance and support. His goal is to work with companies that have history, warmth, a heart and soul and makes their dreams more accessible through his expertise. Yan began his professional career as an IT consultant and worked with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation for 5 years. So if you are in / visiting Denmark, chances are that you are perhaps using one of the applications or websites he helped create during his stint there. He became an Entrepreneur in 2012 to carry forward his vision and passion to help business clients with their web and software development. Besides business and software development he is passionate about philosophy, biomechanics and martial arts and has been an instructor in Practical Wing Chun Kung Fu since 2008. He has narrated his journey with virtual assistance in three parts. Here is the Part 1. – Sunder P CEO Journey Begins In a world that is becoming more and more interconnected, managing your time and prioritizing what you spend your time on has become a cornerstone not only in professional life but also in private life. Time. It could be argued that time is the most precious resource you have. The argument? You can use time to increase the amount of almost any other “thing” in your life: friends, money, health, wellbeing, real estate or laughter. It may require effort, of course, but it’s possible – due to Time. However, time will always be a decreasing resource. There only ever becomes less of it, and if we are being honest, you don’t even know how much you have left. This is not to get all gloomy and doomy, it’s just a statement of the facts. Coming to terms with it, at least in my experience, makes it easier to prioritize. Enter Vanessa One day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, Vanessa, and I was explaining how it felt to have a lot of tasks that I didn’t quite enjoy and how I could tell that there wouldn’t be less of them as my business grew. “Well, why don’t you try with a virtual assistant? I’ve been doing that for years and it really helped me.” she asked. I looked at her, with what I imagine was a sort of dumbfounded expression, not sure what to reply exactly.“Ehm.. Eh.. what’s that? Does that even work?” I asked. Vanessa went on to explain how some of the recurring processes were handled by her VA. It sounded like a unicorn, riding a rainbow, poofing glitter. It sounded pretty amazing and too good to be true! “Should I setup a meeting for you?” Vanessa asked. I panicked. Totally panicked. I had no idea why, at the time. “Ehm ehh.. I’ll give it a thought” I replied. The seconds you spend, drastically add up over a year One of the key aspects of my way of doing business today is that I make an effort to ask my self the question: ”Could this be done smarter or could it be automated somehow?” I’m definitely not the first person to ask a question like this. But there’s a reason why I give it a lot of thought. Let’s say you have a recurring task, which takes you 15 seconds to complete. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? How about performing it 30 times daily? Now we’re at 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Five times weekly? 37 minutes and 30 seconds. A year later of 50 work weeks? 1.875 minutes or the equivalent of 31 hours and 15 minutes. Does that sound very appealing if it’s something you don’t truly enjoy? Delegation is one of the keys to spending you time more meaningfully You have probably heard it about a 427 times before that you should learn to delegate. However only very few of those who utter this statement, actually dive into the topic of how to do it, the pitfalls and caveats of it. With this post, my aim is to give a bit more of a real approach to delegation by sharing some of my experiences and lessons learned. Spending Time on What You Enjoy Even before I started my career, I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about how this world of ours’ works. One thing that over the year became more and more important to me was the feeling of freedom and being able to choose what I spend my time on. As Yan&Co grew, so did the related tasks, some of which I wasn’t very fond of like taxes, accounting, and other administrative tasks. I could tell that they were very important to the business but they just zapped my energy. While they where no doubt critical and important, they also seemed like an entry barrier to doing what I truly love. And wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the entire workweek dedicated to doing something that feels meaningful? Importance vs. meaningfulness The feeling of meaningfulness does not necessarily imply something is or isn’t important. Importance is usually related to the severity of the consequences and how they would impact your life or others. The same applies to the fact that just because something doesn’t feel meaningful to you, doesn’t prevent it from being very meaningful to another person. A very real example from my everyday is bookkeeping. For the first couple of years, I did it because it was important (because well, the tax collecting agency seems to be quite set in stone on this part). However, I wasn’t particularly good at it, made lots of small errors and thus spent time trying to correct these errors – Sometimes just

8 Soft Skills to look for in a Virtual Assistant

Now that you have made up your mind towards hiring a virtual assistant, the next thing on your list is what to look for in an assistant that will make your life easier. This needs to be done with some consideration on your part on the kind of VA that will suit your business needs. You need to have a keen eye when looking at soft skills of your virtual employee. Soft skills are those character traits and interpersonal skills that a person comes with. Character traits tend to be ingrained unlike occupational or hard skills, which are learned and honed over time. This write-up looks at what specific soft skills you need to look at when selecting an assistant: Great Attention to Detail: A great assistant should be meticulous at all things. The attention to detail should be part and parcel of a normal day. They need to proud of the fact that they look into those details, which others tend to ignore. By approaching each of their tasks with meticulousness and urgency an assistant helps the manager or executive to achieve the often quoted work-life balance. They ensure that the errands are completed before the deadline and great care is taken on fast delivery of the tasks.       Presence of Mind: Despite all things being spoken about being attentive on the job, many assistants tend to miss the most obvious things. A good employee is known to fill in the gaps and demonstrate initiative. Even when incomplete ideas are given out by the executive or manager, an ever-present assistant is able to bring completeness to the ideas, keeping the executive informed and in approval all along the way. Great Listening Skills:  Listening leads to learning. While most people tend to ignore this fact on the course of life in general, a great assistant assimilates information quickly and boldly ask a question to fill in the gaps in understanding. By intently listening, a good assistant is able to understand the direction the boss is taking and the reason behind every strategy. This kind of work ethic will be able to bring an excellent working relationship to fruition. Relationship Builder: One of the quality traits of an assistant is being able to build rapport with people whether in person or on phone. Irrespective of the number of people he meets, he needs to have a knack for breaking the ice and able to forge relationships. This kind of personality would not only click anywhere but would be an asset to the manager or executive. Communication Skills: One of the key skills an assistant must possess is communication skills. There is nothing more valuable in business and in corporate circles than understanding and being understood. In a situation, when there is no face-to-face time between the client and the assistant, it is necessary to have appreciable communication skills to streamline your work. At times when the instructions are vague and ambiguous, it is the assistant who has to take the upper hand and straighten out the correspondence. Time Management Skills: A good assistant needs to do two things at the same time. Not only does he needs to be able to manage his own schedule, he also needs to prioritize his boss’s assignments and events. The employee carefully plans and organizes the boss’s schedule to ensure the executive is spending more time on long-term planning and goal setting. Project Management Skills: It is generally a known fact that the assistant helps the manager or the executive see the big picture. This big-picture thinking can come to life if the assistant helps him/ her in the endeavor. With each and every project coming with moving parts, it is necessary that the assistant is able to help the boss in being able to help with the moving parts. A great assistant is able to make the job easier by tackling things like comparing expenses on financial statements, analyzing client trends or even simply highlighting a budget. These things help in a huge way in growing the partnership between the executive and administrative assistant. Technology Skills: When looking for VA it would be a good judgment on your part to look for someone who is technologically well oriented. It can be as simple as MS office and as complex the latest CRM software. A good assistant would easily be able to assimilate the latest in technology with a little amount of training. This kind of ability in an administrative assistant would make it an ideal for to be taken in as your assistant. The article talks about the kind of skills a great assistant needs to possess for them to be hired by a first-timer, someone who is hiring a VA for the first time.

8 Soft Skills to look for in a Virtual Assistant Read More »

Now that you have made up your mind towards hiring a virtual assistant, the next thing on your list is what to look for in an assistant that will make your life easier. This needs to be done with some consideration on your part on the kind of VA that will suit your business needs. You need to have a keen eye when looking at soft skills of your virtual employee. Soft skills are those character traits and interpersonal skills that a person comes with. Character traits tend to be ingrained unlike occupational or hard skills, which are learned and honed over time. This write-up looks at what specific soft skills you need to look at when selecting an assistant: Great Attention to Detail: A great assistant should be meticulous at all things. The attention to detail should be part and parcel of a normal day. They need to proud of the fact that they look into those details, which others tend to ignore. By approaching each of their tasks with meticulousness and urgency an assistant helps the manager or executive to achieve the often quoted work-life balance. They ensure that the errands are completed before the deadline and great care is taken on fast delivery of the tasks.       Presence of Mind: Despite all things being spoken about being attentive on the job, many assistants tend to miss the most obvious things. A good employee is known to fill in the gaps and demonstrate initiative. Even when incomplete ideas are given out by the executive or manager, an ever-present assistant is able to bring completeness to the ideas, keeping the executive informed and in approval all along the way. Great Listening Skills:  Listening leads to learning. While most people tend to ignore this fact on the course of life in general, a great assistant assimilates information quickly and boldly ask a question to fill in the gaps in understanding. By intently listening, a good assistant is able to understand the direction the boss is taking and the reason behind every strategy. This kind of work ethic will be able to bring an excellent working relationship to fruition. Relationship Builder: One of the quality traits of an assistant is being able to build rapport with people whether in person or on phone. Irrespective of the number of people he meets, he needs to have a knack for breaking the ice and able to forge relationships. This kind of personality would not only click anywhere but would be an asset to the manager or executive. Communication Skills: One of the key skills an assistant must possess is communication skills. There is nothing more valuable in business and in corporate circles than understanding and being understood. In a situation, when there is no face-to-face time between the client and the assistant, it is necessary to have appreciable communication skills to streamline your work. At times when the instructions are vague and ambiguous, it is the assistant who has to take the upper hand and straighten out the correspondence. Time Management Skills: A good assistant needs to do two things at the same time. Not only does he needs to be able to manage his own schedule, he also needs to prioritize his boss’s assignments and events. The employee carefully plans and organizes the boss’s schedule to ensure the executive is spending more time on long-term planning and goal setting. Project Management Skills: It is generally a known fact that the assistant helps the manager or the executive see the big picture. This big-picture thinking can come to life if the assistant helps him/ her in the endeavor. With each and every project coming with moving parts, it is necessary that the assistant is able to help the boss in being able to help with the moving parts. A great assistant is able to make the job easier by tackling things like comparing expenses on financial statements, analyzing client trends or even simply highlighting a budget. These things help in a huge way in growing the partnership between the executive and administrative assistant. Technology Skills: When looking for VA it would be a good judgment on your part to look for someone who is technologically well oriented. It can be as simple as MS office and as complex the latest CRM software. A good assistant would easily be able to assimilate the latest in technology with a little amount of training. This kind of ability in an administrative assistant would make it an ideal for to be taken in as your assistant. The article talks about the kind of skills a great assistant needs to possess for them to be hired by a first-timer, someone who is hiring a VA for the first time.

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