Author Archives: Astrid S.

Jul29

What is Virtual Assistance?

Posted on by
What is Virtual Assistance?

Virtual Assistance is a booming service industry basically defined by the nature of its delivery that is via the Internet.

Practitioners or providers of the service are Virtual Assistants, operating as business entities doing administrative, financial, and technical tasks from a remote location.

Growing small businesses, shrinking incomes, and unemployment in certain commercial sectors contributed to the advance of the virtual assistance industry.

 

 

 

So what are virtual assistants?

Overall, virtual assistants are skillful administrative professionals whose long and varied experience give them solid footing in the workplace.  They are Microsoft office systems doyens, presentation experts, and Excel whizzes. Some of them have specialized abilities like paralegals and translators. Others are excellent personal assistants, SEO managers, and writers.  However, certain business traits are necessary to be considered a successful virtual assistant.

Open communication – Building The Help team from the ground up, communication played a major factor.  It meant and continues to mean active listening to the professional needs of clients.  It is also important to listen to the team’s ideas so that cooperation is nurtured. The Help is committed to its vision to enhance operational functions and boost the competitive edge of small to medium sized companies.  The goal makes sharing and initiating open, clear conversations with clients via email, Skype, and the telephone an ongoing activity at The Help. It is a best practice that has caused steady company growth.

Cooperation in a functioning group – The Help exists to assist another party, implying there is a common goal, which is completion of a given task.  For example a client would like a room reserved at hotel close to the beach. The client is informed via email of the hotel confirmation and upon arrival, the concierge registers him or her. Facilitated by The Help, the hotel and the client are satisfied by the service.  This is translated into prompt payment of The Help’s fees and the strong possibility of a future team up.

Commitment – The Help’s relationship with employers is a responsibility meaning the team can be depended upon to deliver contracted services. Elance ranks its members performance record accordingly; The Help is at Number 2, nationwide. Accountability is important and each team member is reliable, has initiative and is motivated to improve her/his skill set. There is too, the availability of a virtual assistant. Being on call 24/7 can be a distinct advantage, depending on the client’s contracted hours.

 

However, communication, cooperation, and commitment even availability do not guarantee success for a virtual assistant or team performing virtual assistance.  Underlying all businesses is the passion to move a company forward. The Help will talk about success next time.

 

Written by Yoli P.- The Help
Jul23

Five reasons The Help stays with Elance

Posted on by
Five reasons The Help stays with Elance

In this entrepreneurial age where lifelong employment is part of ancient history, everyone thinks e-commerce in both personal and professional lives.

Shrinking incomes and company downsizing put freelancing on center stage for one very important reason.  Freelancing stems the onslaught of despair when someone in the family is unemployed.  It provides a temporary solution for those looking to augment income.   There are several online platforms for freelancers but most of them stay with Elance, The Help included; here are five reasons why:

  1. Elance visibility is key. Registered freelancers are subscribed according to expertise ensuring that employers have access to the A-players in the talent pool.
  2. Freelancers are assured payment via the escrow and milestones that are integral to the contract eliminating anxiety for both client and provider.
  3. Feedback from clients insures continued improvement of quality of service fostering trust and growth in business relationships.
  4. The Elance platform is user friendly, which means even older freelancers quickly learn usage of its tools.
  5. Elance recently made $800,000,000, which means its members are getting great money for excellent delivery.

The Help, associated with Elance since its inception, grew by leaps and bounds.  It’s now Number 2, nationwide, and Number 12 (as of Feb 2013,) worldwide in the Administrative Assistance category.

 

Written by Yoli P.- The Help
Jun21

Quest for the Best: Do you have the courage to be part of us?

Posted on by
Quest for the Best: Do you have the courage to be part of us?

 

Welcome Summer! Not only are we excited for the warm weather and lots of sunshine you bring, we are ecstatic for the growing opportunities you’ve been blowing our way.

We’ve been very busy these past few weeks. The demand is soaring for virtual administrative assistance services. More companies and individuals (particularly those who run small to medium sized businesses) are convinced that setting up a virtual office through us help them save money on  office space, hiring, training, payrolls, pensions, and other employee benefits. Yet,   at the same time these companies  reap all the benefits of having a brick and mortar office with competent, reliable, and hard working workers.

The sentiment of The Help is brightening, as clients’ confidence improve and the company’s performance continues to rise. As higher demand for clients continues, we exert double effort in selecting new employees who are going to be an asset to us and our clients as well.

“Hiring someone simply because you need an “extra body” is foolish and inevitably results in poor performance, decreased productivity and decreased morale. So be sure to hire only someone who actually fits the job description you’ve created. In fact, shooting for the stars by knowingly increasing your standards to hire the best possible candidate–even it takes some time to find the right person–is well worth it.”

– DR. DAVIDG.JAVITCH

As a growing company, we consider workforce management as one of company’s most important tasks.  With that, we want to ensure that we have the right people — and the right number of people– to keep both our own and our client’s company running smoothly.

We are currently looking for our next superstar administrative assistant. Is it you? Let us know. E-mail us your resume and cover letter at admin@thehelpbyastrids.com. For more information, check our career page.

Jun13

“The Help” you’ve been waiting for!

Posted on by
“The Help” you’ve been waiting for!

The long wait is over!

The Help’s website is now up and running! We received our business cards in the mail and are ready for our  marketing campaigns. We are excited to reach more potential clients and interact with them directly. Right now, we are in the process of accepting more projects, meeting with clients on-line and face to face.   We are ready to work hard and grow with them, providing services for their professional and personal life.

Administrative assistance is the biggest service that we offer and provide to our clients. We cater to  clients from different parts of the world such as United States of America, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Administrative assistants  play an important role in keeping an office running smoothly. They provide office services by implementing administrative systems, policies and procedures, and monitoring administrative projects.  Excellent Administrative Assistance is what we offer! We place second in the USA among the 2,744 companies providing Administrative support in Elance. Our feedback and rating  can attest to that.

Services that we offer under  administrative assistance:

• Virtual Assistant – provides administrative, secretarial, technical, or creative services to businesses externally.

• Calendar Management – involves scheduling meetings, advising others of the manager’s availability for whatever reason, knowing where the manager is at any given time.

• Data Entry – Information you work with might be text-based or numerical that needs logging into spreadsheets or databases.

• E-mail Correspondence – compose letters or electronic correspondence in reply to requests for merchandise, damage claims, credit and other information, delinquent accounts, incorrect billings, or unsatisfactory services.

• Customer Service –answers people’s queries and generally help them to address any problems they’re having.

•  Bulk Mailing– perform any combination of tasks in a post office, such as receive letters and parcels; sell postage and revenue stamps, postal cards, and stamped envelopes; fill out and sell money orders; mailing large numbers of identical printed items. (snail mail , electronic mail)

• Beta Testing – comes after alpha testing, software and game applications needs to go through a series of test to make sure that it’s bug-free, before it gets approval for the official release.

 • Telephone Handling – To deliver an effective and competent level of accurate call handling for callers to the Out of hours service. To deliver an efficient appointments service for face to face consultations in accordance with agreed protocols.

• Word Processing –set up and prepare reports, letters, mailing labels, and other materials on a computer using a keyboard and word processing software. The word processor uses word processing commands to format the material and instruct the machine to correct spelling or grammar errors, number pages automatically, adjust the margins or line length, or perform a host of other functions.

• Research – Researchers are required to search, discover, interpret and develop systems to improve human knowledge in various matters. They are responsible for every new discovery related to scientific issues and other areas.

• Social-Media Maintenance – oversee social media campaigns which include but are not limited to: research, campaign & content creation. You will also create public relations opportunities for the company you represent.

• Website Maintenance – Website content manager will be responsible developing the voice for all aspects of the organization’s online presence. In addition to writing, editing, and proofreading site content, this person will also work closely with the technical team to maintain site standards with regard to new development. The website content manager will also be responsible for crafting site promotions, email newsletters, and online outreach campaigns.

• Billing and Accounting – Accountable for creating invoices and credit memos, correcting, completing, and processing claims of all payer codes.

There’s so much to tell, but for now just let us share to you this milestone!

Our team and the company are being showered by blessings.

If you have any inquiries, please feel free to complete our “contact form” on the right upper corner of our page or e-mail us at admin@thehelpbyastrids.com.

If you have too much in your plate today, call us! We’ll provide you the assistance you need so you can focus on the more important parts of your business. 

We are “The Help” you’ve been waiting for!