Question 1

How do I make outbound calls for my client? What are the 'rules' here?

Accepted Answer

We believe it is important and helpful for all of the team to be happy making a reasonable, but limited amount of calls from your mobile, as part of your day-to-day work in supporting a client, providing that your phone contract has sufficient inclusive minutes. However:

• We don’t expect you to call internationally. You shouldn't be doing this from your mobile - be careful!

• We don’t expect you to make more than a few calls here and there. You shouldn't be making large volumes of calls from you mobile - we recommend you discuss the client taking out an account with a VOIP provider in this case.

• It’s important to remember that you aren’t supporting your client as their 'virtual receptionist', and so you shouldn’t be handling their incoming calls. Again, we can recommend providers here for you to work in tandem with.

Alternative Solutions

If you need to make international or high volumes of calls for your client, it's reasonable to discuss this in detail with them directly, particularly with regards to the costs involved (we don't want you to incur anything unreasonable here). You can always add an expense into the portal, once you agree on a better approach here.

If you do plan to recover any expense from a client, you must always agree how much you anticipate the call (or the solution more widely) costing, before the calls are made.

It is not fair on a client to make a long international call from your mobile, incur substantial call charges, and then expect to be reimbursed. We would instead ask you to think about this first, and come up with a better solution together.

Possible solutions:

• VOIP - for UK clients, we recommend Nimvelo, which we use internally. The client will receive £20 free credit if they use this referral link to create their account. You can make unlimited mobile and landline calls for just £15 per month - plus you are making calls from a 'professional-looking' landline number, rather than your own mobile phone. Your client might also have an existing VOIP account they can give you access to! This will allow you to make calls, with the call charges billed directly to the client and not yourself.

• Skype To Go - you can use Skype to call numbers anywhere. Your client could prepay for the credit, so there’s no hidden spend.

• Google Hangouts (the Google Hangouts Dialler app is essentially a VOIP phone call). Calls to an Australian landline are as little as 1p, for example.

• Zoom Phone is also a great option, with audio-only available too, if suitable.

Question 2

My client is struggling to delegate. Do you have any advice for me?

Accepted Answer

You can download our e-book 'The Art of Delegation' here.

Pushed for time? We have also summarised a few key points to keep in mind below.

Step 1 - Make Sure You're On The Same Page!

To understand what your client should delegate, it's useful to first understand what their objectives are. Why did they hire a Virtual Assistant to begin with?

Are they trying to free up more time, so they can simply get home earlier and spend less time working?
Do they want to free up more time to dedicate to clients, their team or other people in their business?
Are they looking to increase sales, and want to spend more time on value-adding marketing work needed to do this?
Do they want to lower their stress levels and achieve greater clarity, with fewer "plates to spin"?

Likewise, on a professional level, what are they hoping your support will achieve for their business?

Improve customer service response time?
Increase new account sign ups?
Grow their social media audience?
Implement new systems, to make existing processes more efficient (and effective!)?

Whatever goals they have in mind, do encourage your client to clearly communicate these with you. The more you know, the more you can help! Talk through why they need your help, and set your relationship together in a wider context.

We know you are highly capable and have helped support many, many people in their position before - be sure to let your client know they can lean on you!

This process also helps set clear priorities for the relationship - both for you and your client.

Step 2 - Define A Clear Role

Once you're working towards a common goal, the next step is to define exactly what you can do to get them there. What do you need to do?

Work together to create a list of repeatable and ad-hoc tasks that you are going to be responsible for (and make sure these tasks are clearly explained).

Not sure where to start? Suggest your client makes a list of everything they are working on this week - this is why a to-do list app like TickTick is useful, as you'll always have a note of what they are working on and what they've already completed - and then separate out those tasks. You may spot some ideas in there that your client hasn't even considered taking off their plate!

They can then look at their to do list and see what they should be doing out of those tasks and what they would prefer not to be focusing on.

First start with one-off tasks that require little explanation. This could be planning an event, reviewing a document for typos, researching X. Delegating these smaller tasks helps get the ball rolling - you'll start clearing their plate and get things moving for them. This gives space for them to think more clearly about a longer-term role. It's also very motivating as they will see things happening - and satisfying for you too!
Next, look at ad-hoc tasks. These are things that crop up from time to time. These require more explanation, sure, but the benefit is that, long-term, they'll always be taken care of. This could be making website updates, booking travel arrangements or creating content (e.g. an eBook). Once they explain the process behind these tasks, they can delegate them going forward.
The ultimate goal is to create a role based largely around recurring, day-to-day tasks. These are the things that take up most of their time and, therefore, need the most explanation and training, however will reap the most value by being delegated. This could be managing their inbox and diary, billing and onboarding customers, managing new enquiries, managing social media channels. These are the tasks that eat up their precious time. Once handed over to you, they can enjoy the benefit of having an uninterrupted day ahead to focus on what really matters to them!

We'd recommend you start with the quick wins, the 'low-hanging fruit', but the most important point is to not stop there. Focusing on one-off tasks requires them to continually explain a task, every single time they need help, and this will soon prove frustrating and probably delay things. Ensuring they make a concerted effort to delegate recurring tasks - the ones that require some upfront training, but then can be left to you to take care of every single day - is where the real magic starts to happen.

Step 3 - Define Your Expectations

As well as understanding the practical task instructions, it’s important to understand what the client's expectations are.

Do some of the tasks need to be completed in a certain way?
Is there a “house style” or best practice within the company or industry you should follow?
Are there key deadlines involved? Are these business critical or simply a preference?
What other tasks or projects does this task relate to?

Leaving out key information can lead to you making educated assumptions and, naturally, your client might not have made the same assumptions.

Taking an extra few minutes to carve out a better explanation now will save you both more time (and add more value) further on down the line.

Step 4 - Encourage New Ideas!

In most cases, they'll often know what they want to achieve on some level, but they might be unsure of the best way to get there (or even what the end result should look like exactly). Likewise, you will want to contribute in the most valuable and meaningful way to them and their business.

Step 5 - Communicate Consistently

Even if your client has allowed you to be incredibly self-sufficient, it's important that you "check in" with them from time to time.

On a practical level, it's always beneficial for you both to have a dedicated time (e.g. a weekly or monthly phone call) to communicate, ask each other questions and see how tasks are progressing.

But on a more strategic level, it's important to remember that the client and their business is not set in stone. Things change! Once you've been working together for some time, it's likely your goals have changed - perhaps they are now getting back to customers at lightning speed as they wanted to, and getting home from the office before 6pm is more common than not. But what next?

Make sure that you occasionally review what you are doing for your client, but also, most importantly, why.

Question 3

How should I share a to-do list and stay organised with my client?

Accepted Answer

Does your client already regularly use a digital to-do list app? If so, we would usually recommend that you join them there, and share their existing lists.

But if your client doesn't, then it could be worthwhile making a recommendation. These could include:

Asana is often better for more complex projects with milestones.
Trello is very versatile, but tends to be better for project-based work, rather than a daily to-do list. It is, however, much simpler to user than Asana.
Internally we love to use TickTick. You can create shared to-do lists with several people, complete with comment threads, tags, due dates and more.
Google Tasks - this is lesser-known option, but quite popular. This is often considered the simplest and therefore easiest option to use, in many respects!
Google Sheets - if you will be creating or managing content for your client, or completing a long list of tasks in 'batches', we’ve also found a G Sheet works well. You can create one using your Virtalent G Suite address.

Question 4

What tasks CAN Virtalent help my client with?

Accepted Answer

You can find a list of the service we generally provide to clients here, as well as an overview of the tasks we do NOT help with here.

To explain, team members at Virtalent generally fall into 3 'categories'.

Some of our team come from a PA or Executive Assistant background. They will have supported senior business leaders (CEOs, VPs etc) or have worked with the Director of a small business before.

As such, they can comfortably handle a variety of administrative support tasks, however complex! This could range from diary management to booking travel.

Others come from a marketing background. They will have usually worked in senior marketing roles (e.g. Marketing Manager) or as an independent Marketing Consultant before. Marketing VAs support clients with a range of (usually digital) marketing tasks and projects.

They could help a client by managing their social media, email marketing, content writing, relationship building and much more.

Others then fit into the “all-rounder” category. They have solid experience in both EA and marketing roles, and may also have additional skills in customer service (replying to customer enquiries, taking payments, etc.), financial admin, website maintenance and more.

These VAs usually come from a small business background and/or have run their own VA business, so are used to completing a wide range of tasks for a client.

You'll likely to know which category you fall into and the kind of tasks you enjoy the most, as well as where your skill set truly lies. If you can't help a client with something, does it fall into one of the categories above?

Perhaps you would consider yourself to be a PA, but your client needs help with social media, for example. In this case, the best option is to usually ask Virtalent to discuss this with the client with the view to adding an extra team member to their account.

If your client is asking you to do something on that you don't have the experience or skill to carry out to a high standard, please contact your Client Success Manager.

Question 5

What legal information and support is available through AssistYou?

Accepted Answer

AssistYou is provided by leading IAP provider, Health Assured.

Health Assured provides you with a 24/7 confidential helpline, portal and My Healthy Advantage app.

The programme also gives you access to legal information and guidance on a wide range of issues including personal, financial and legal matters of any reasonable kind.

The Health Assured in-house legal advisors are fully trained and have extensive experience in providing immediate support to individuals in their time of need. The Health Assured legal team will assist with a wide range of issues by providing information on legal processes, obligations and liabilities, enabling you to identify your next step and make informed decisions about the best way to resolve the issue at hand.

Read the full guide and a longer list of what Legal support is available confidentially from Health Assured here.

Question 6

Can I pay for things using my client's credit card?

Accepted Answer

Should you need to use your client's credit or debit card to make payments on their behalf, we recommend the client shares these details safely through a password vault. We like LastPass, but Passpack is also popular too.

If frequent expenses are likely to be encountered, we recommend arranging a prepaid debit card that the client can "top up" for you to use. Good examples of this are Pockit, Revolut, Google Pay and Soldo. Likewise, the client might prefer to ask their bank to issue with a card of your own (even if it has a spending cap on it).

Though we encourage clients to manage any costs or bills themselves, we do also offer the facility for you to log small expenses to their account if needed. We appreciate that in some circumstances, this may be the most convenient solution for both you and the client.

If you need to log an expense (e.g. postage costs) you should first estimate the cost for the client in advance and then seek your client's confirmation that they are happy to accommodate this. It will then be added onto the client's next bill from Virtalent (and you will add it to your next invoice to us). Read here for more information on logging expenses.

Your Client Success Manager will always be very happy to advise your client and yourself on the most appropriate solution.

Question 7

Can I use the Virtalent logo?

Accepted Answer

Naturally, it's important that the Virtalent brand is positioned correctly.

If you would like to use any of Virtalent's brand assets (e.g. logo) please first seek approval from your Client Success Manager, so we can better understand where the logo will appear and why you wish to use it.

Question 8

How should my client create a more defined role for me?

Accepted Answer

To help your client leverage your time as effectively as possible, we recommend working together to try to build out a clearly defined, ongoing long-term role for you, as time goes on.

Delegating piecemeal tasks to you here and there requires your client to stop and explain what help they require every single time they need your support.

As you will realise, this creates friction for both sides and can certainly feel frustrating for you!

But does you client realise what they are doing simply isn't sustainable and isn't the best way to use your support?

Most clients that leave Virtalent do so because they have struggled to delegate. Often, they simply never stopped to define a clear ongoing role and instead sporadically sent their VA small one-off tasks here and there.

This clash - an expectation of a smarter and more efficient way of working, versus the reality of how they actually use your support - leads them to conclude that working with a VA isn't valuable. The obstacle here, however, is often not their unrealistic expectations (working with a VA is a smarter way for them to work!), but rather that they simply haven't worked with their VA very effectively. We need to preemptively tackle that!

If we can help our clients to focus on delegating recurring, ongoing processes to you, you can take care of that task every single day and all with minimum input from them. This adds more value, saves them time and, importantly, contributes to a sustainable, productive working relationship.

Let's explore the three "categories" of tasks available for them to delegate to you at the start of your relationship together (and beyond!).

One-off Tasks

What one-off tasks are currently sitting on their to-do list?

This could include organising their next company event or workshop, replacing images on their website or researching a new CRM.

These one-off tasks are a great place to start working with you - they just need to add a little explanation and away you go!

Their busy to-do list will look a lot healthier in no time, helping them benefit from your support as soon as possible and giving them some headspace to think longer-term.

But the key is not to stop there and only take care of one-off tasks, as and when they arise.

Ad-hoc Responsibilities

Now we need to look at taking on a few recurring tasks. Your client might be slightly more reluctant to delegate this type of work, but it's important that they do!

This could include booking their travel from time to time, clearing their inbox once a day and flagging actions they need to take, or writing content (e.g. blogs) based on a content calendar.

These tasks are often easier for your client to explain than ongoing daily responsibilities, as they happen less frequently and once they have been explained once, they don't have to be re-explained again. This will help to start building out a more involved role for you.

Ongoing Processes

Finally, we want to look at the tasks that take up most of their time: the ongoing tasks that currently still take over their day, every day. These are the tasks your client is likely to have kept hold of so far... we need to try to change that!

These tasks should ideally form the core part of the role you manage within your client's business, if they want to leverage your time as well as possible.

Your role could include managing an inbox, responding to sales enquiries, handling client projects or scheduling the client's social media posts. The key here is "the whole inbox" or "all sales enquiries", not dealing with a specific email they forward on to you. The idea is to look after something regularly for them.

These will require your client to invest some time in training you to take care of these processes, but, long-term, this is a much more effective and sustainable approach to working together.

Struggling to get hold of your client?

As you'll understand, your client is an extremely busy business owner or executive. They are likely to feel stressed, overwhelmed and simply too busy. If your client seems 'too busy to delegate' and you struggle to get hold of them, don't be afraid to proactively book in a call with them into their diary. Get their attention, rather than reactively wait to be contacted.

Carve out time in their day to dedicate to putting a plan in place to how you can help support them. More often than not, the client will appreciate your proactivity and willingness to help. Don't forget, they wanted to work with you because they knew they needed help. Help them to help you!

Work with your client to build out a solid process for you to follow, ensure all steps have been explained clearly... and then help your client to enjoy the benefits of having a talented professional look after that process, every single day, so they don't have to!

Question 9

I want to change from being a self-employed VA to working as a Limited company - do I need to let Virtalent know?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if you plan on changing your trading status from being a self-employed VA to that of a Limited company it is very important that you let Virtalent know.

You will have originally signed your contract in your personal name and as such the contract in place is between Virtalent and you (as an individual).

If you plan to change to a Limited company we will need to ask you to sign a new contract in the name of the Limited company.

Alongside this, you will also have to do the following:

Provide a copy of your new insurance certificate including the Limited company name.
Send a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation issued by Companies House.
Confirm whether you will be VAT registered and if so, provide a copy of your VAT certificate.

Question 10

What is in the My Healthy Advantage app? (AssistYou)

Accepted Answer

AssistYou includes access to the My Healthy Advantage app. The app has been designed by experts to support your mental and physical health by offering a broad range of content and tools that cover a wealth of real life issues.

From mood trackers, step challenges and recipes through to podcasts, mini health checks and access to the Health Assured Support Team; there truly is something for everyone.

For a comprehensive overview of app features see the details here.

Or watch the My Healthy Advantage video here.

A guide to downloading and setting up the My Healthy Advantage App can also be found here.

Available for iOS and Android devices, you can gain access to My Healthy Advantage with the login credentials below.

Employer code: MHA218897