Opportunities Channel

As a growing, it can be quite difficult to keep on top of everyone’s individual (and naturally ever-changing) availability - both the hours you would like to work at Virtalent each month and those already taken up by clients. It can also be tricky to know exactly who is the very best person in the team to support each new client, with each of their very specific needs - this could be anything from an interest in yoga, to advanced skills in Excel, to years of experience doing something very specific in WordPress. There are endless possibilities!

Therefore, we have created a Slack channel - #opportunities - where we post briefs for any new clients looking to be matched with a Virtalent VA.

This brief will detail any key information you need to know, so you can decide whether the opportunity is for you or not.

Submitting Your Interest

To put yourself forward for consideration, you’ll need to fill in a short form. It takes just a few minutes. You’ll be asked to:

Provide your name and Virtalent email address (this is used by our internal system).
The “Opportunity ID number” which will appear in the brief.
Most importantly, give us the headlines on why you feel YOU are the very best choice for that client, based on who and what they are looking for. This doesn’t need to be more than a list of bullet points - just point us in the right direction!

We’ll leave the opportunity open until we feel a healthy number of people in the team have applied (we expect this to be 2-4 people). We expect to be able to leave it open until the next working day, but this will depend on how much interest is in each individual brief.

This is not “first come, first serve”. We would ask that you please submit your interest in a reasonable time frame so we can, in turn, make our recommendation to the client in a timely manner. But no priority is given to whoever happens to apply first.

As you know, this is not how we do things at Virtalent.

Our Client Engagement Manager will then make a decision on who - for that particular opportunity - is going to be put forward. We’ll let you know if you have been put forward, or if we would prefer to keep you available for another client. Once a decision has been made, we’ll close the opportunity and so delete it from the Slack channel.

We will consider everything from your skills and experience, your other clients at Virtalent, your availability, your personal interests, your personality, and so much more. If you are not selected, this is purely because someone else simply happens to be a better “match” for that particular client and the particular role they are looking for you to fill. Please do not take this personally - there will be many, many other opportunities, and, ultimately, this process will serve both you and any new clients better going forward.

If you are looking to work with a new client but aren’t already in the channel, please join it.

Simply click the (+) icon next to Channels -> Browse channels -> #opportunities.

If you ever decide you are ‘at capacity’, please leave the channel so you don’t feel pestered by the notifications. You can rejoin again any time!

Question 2

What tools should I use to communicate with my client?

Accepted Answer

You should communicate with each client, however works best for them (and you!).

There is no need to only use your Virtalent email account, if this doesn't work well for the client - in fact, most clients would prefer to set up a company email address for you to use in any case

The only 'rule' we have here is that you must never use a personal email account (or an email account for your own VA business) to communicate with a client - this risks breaching your insurance cover and your legally-binding contract with Virtalent, as we cannot guarantee that data is stored in your own email account is done so securely, and abides by GDPR guidelines.

Always communicate (and create user accounts for any software you use with the client) with your Virtalent email address or an email address provided to you.

Points To Consider

There are a lot of options out there! So, before picking a particular software platform to use, try to first think:

What tools does this client already use? - It's usually better to use tools that your client is already familiar with and has adopted, so long as they work well for them already.
What communication style do they have? - Some clients prefer short phone calls, whereas some prefer to write everything out in an SMS or email. Some prefer to fire out a WhatsApp voice note whilst they are walking the dog!
How do they like to delegate? - Again, are you sharing a to-do list in TickTick or other to-do list software, or is everything done in a set weekly meeting? The tool you choose to communicate should align nicely with this.

Our Recommendations

Zoom

Zoom is now widely-regarded as the 'go-to' video conferencing tool for smaller businesses and teams. Many remote businesses are now using Zoom for all their audio-only calls too!

Jitsu (free, open-source)

Jitsu is a a free (open-source) Zoom alternative.

Skype

One of the most established platforms, and a name most people will already recognise. Skype is free and easy to use. Meetings are limited to 50 attendees.

Microsoft Teams

MS Teams is geared more towards larger businesses (hence "Teams"), so you can accomodate up to 250 people in a meeting. It's asy to share files, screens and chat during meetings. It's also free and linked to Skype!

Google Hangouts

If your client also uses Gmail or G Suite, like we do at Virtalent, you can hop on a quick phone or video call or message each other (like Slack) within your Gmail inbox too. Take a look here.

Slack

We love using Slack internally to send quick notes. You can integrate G Drive and other software, so sharing files becomes very easy too. You can also use it for audio calls!

CloudApp

We also love CloudApp. CloudApp is free - it's a great way to share screenshots or record your screen (video or GIF), then annotate what you need to show!

Shift

If you are switching between several different inboxes and email addresses for clients, take a look at Shift. You can see everything in one place, and choose which account you want to reply from. It certainly makes the juggling a little bit easier!

The Phone!

Often a subject that would take a number emails to be resolved could be fixed with a quick phone call. It's often much more efficient than waiting for a reply!

How will I hear about new client opportunities?

What tools should I use to communicate with my client?

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