How,become,Virtual,Assistant,w DIY How to become a Virtual Assistant while catering to Small Bu

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How to become a Virtual Assistant (Secretary) on the internet while catering to Small Business by Anna Mattingly The more we do our own clerical work independently forour small business, the more we see how great the needis for virtual assistants who can cater to the smallbusiness community on the web. We have also noticed atour employment site a great surge in internet trafficindicating another need for stay at home mother's andwomen in general to perform clerical duties in theirhomes. And what's really interesting is that men needthis work as well today. Many who pass through ourvirtual door simply want to start their own businessor to be hired as an administrative assistant of anexisting business. But for years we struggled with theanswer of how to do this successfully. Many said theytried to do this but just simply could not find work.Frustrating as it has been, we see a new frontieremerging. The Information Highway, as some call it, orthe internet has created a home for new home businessowner's. Over the past 3-5 years many entrepreneurshave been developing and establishing their own smallbusinesses just as we did. We see many store frontsthat are bringing in daily income for their ownerswhich in turn is creating more and more administrativework and a new opportunity for administrativeassistant's. Good news for the struggling stay at homesecretary. Although it will take a bit of ingenuityand hard work to get started it's no longer impossiblefor women to stay home and perform the same office andadministrative duties they used to performtraditionally in the office.Since small business is still in it's infancy via theinternet, a new VA has the added job of enlighteningsmall business owners of their need for strongadministrative support. We've taken the liberty hereof incorperating this process into the few simplesteps needed to get started.........Obviously you have a connection to the internet if youare reading this. If you have your small home officeset up and you have experience and you're ready towork at home here's all you will need to do.1. Decide which services you will provideVisit: http://www.abcsvcs.com/service.htm2. Decide what rates you will charge.Visit http://www.abcsvcs.com/rates.htm3. Find a nice home on the web for your new business.There are plenty of nice places to open a "VR"business. A simple one page website is more thansufficient.------Visit: http://www.hypermart.net for one exampleof a free virtual community that will assist you withjust about any need you have.4. Set your business up. Basically you would just beadvertising yourself to the small business communityon the web with your website.------Tell the small business owners why they needyou. You might want to mention how EXTREMELYreasonable your rates are.------Tell them who you are. (IE-I'm the answer toyour problem:)One paragraph on your website alerting the businessperson to all he needs to do while running an cyberbusiness and how you can solve that problem. Anexample of this is advertising, website maintenance,newsletter pre-preparation, etc------Elaborate on ALL the skills you have.(entrepreneurs never sleep and are really desperatefor someone like you) For example: Office support,correspondence, internet research, typing or writingtheir newsletter, database maintenance of customersand leads, web design, sales literature design, etc.------Give them your background and education.(Mention too how much energy you have and how fast youtype and advertise also.)------Provide a way for them to contact you. This isas simple as ending your webpage advertisement withyour name, an email link, your address and yourtelephone number.5. Advertise yourself in every way imaginable on theinternet.There are actual listings for virtual assistants whereyou can add your business and get support such as:http://www.abcsvcs.com/typists.htmhttp://www.staffcentrix.com/http://www.assistu.com/You can buy materials from these sites to help you todevelop your business and these places may even helpyou with setting up a website and advertising. Do asearch at alta vista search engine to find moredatabases like these.When you are advertising on your own we suggesttargeting the places small business people visit.Mainly these are comprised of small business forums,discussion lists and newsgroups. Take part in thediscussions and include a signature similar to the onewe added at the end of this article (Never blatantlyadvertise in newsgroups, forums or a discussion list).Here are the places you can look for "marketingdiscussions":for discussion lists: http://list-universe.com/ fornewsgroups: http://www.dejanews.com for forums:http://www.entrepreneur-web.com/index_1.shtmlWhen your business is developed you can research pressreleases and tell the world how you are helping thesmall businessman via the internet. This will help youa great deal with that and suppliment all theinformation above as well:http://www.techweb.com/smallbizhttp://prweb.comWhy wait another day, the opportunity has presenteditself. It's a wide open arena and a great need. Youcould be one of the first to create this new incomegenerating line of work on the internet and be up andrunning in no time. Many large staffing services maynot even realize this door of opportunity exists, getin now. As business owners realize you are availablemore and more will come to you for help. You could becreating a new family owned business at home beginningright now. There is even plenty of opportunity for anonline "VA temporary agency" or two which will caterto the online small business world. Food for thought.Seize the moment! Article Tags: Virtual Assistant, While Catering, Small Business, Business Owners