A day at the office…

A day at the office…

People often look at my profile on LinkedIn and then ask ‘what do you do exactly?’  Although the title ‘Virtual Assistant’ is becoming more familiar in the Irish business space, small business owners often don’t know what a Virtual Assistant is all about.  So, I decided to write a short blog describing my day at the office!  I should point out that other VA’s can specialize in specific areas of work depending on their own professional background, which means their days can differ from mine.

My services include administration and marketing support.  I work Tuesdays to Fridays from 10 am to 4 pm, that means that I am available to handle work for clients during those timeframes.  At 10 am I switch on my laptop and switch off my out of office message and check my inbox.  I also look through my daily schedule (to-do list) to see what work I have planned for the day.  If any additional tasks have come in by email, I add them to the schedule.  I then work through the various business tasks per client and record the time spent on those tasks in Toggl.com.  Tasks vary each day but could include:

Sourcing images and content for social media posts, creating graphics, creating & updating social media calendar, scheduling social media content, drafting and creating newsletter, responding to client emails, taking client calls, updating client customer data in excel/google drive, Dropbox, sending and receiving emails from client’s customers, creating email filters and monitoring client inbox, archiving and de-cluttering client’s inbox and Dropbox folders, sourcing information online about upcoming events, making enquiries on behalf of clients, creating and editing MS Office files…and so the list goes on.

As all of these activities can be managed online, I can work remotely without any need to meet with the client.  Regular contact by email and phone is all that is required to get things done.  Working remotely means that I can work with clients in Ireland and from the rest of Europe, once we are in a similar time zone and speak a common language.

I can drink as much coffee as I want and of course, take a lunch break when convenient.  If I have a gap in my schedule, I usually work on my own business admin or social media so I can keep on top of things or I might just put on a wash!

At 4 pm, I switch my out of office message back on and update my work schedule for the next day.  I log out and enjoy my personal time during the evening.

And that’s it!  It’s a perfect life for me and a great service for small business owners who need stuff done.  If you would like to arrange a half-hour free consultation by phone, drop me an email at gillianb.va@gmail.com.