Ask the Admin: Becoming a Virtual Assistant

I received this e-mail from Andrea:
On my personal day off, I’ve been thinking about leaving my cubicle assistant job–where I’m basically working as assistant for a bank via a real-estate holding company–and making it a start-up business for myself.  I want to become a virtual admin assistant with an added value of research assistant (so I can use my librarianship degree).

Any advice, such as your read of the market for such a business in this economic climate? Any insight is welcome!
Thanks for a very timely question, Andrea.

With the current economic crisis, many assistants are looking at becoming a Virtual [...] Continue Reading…

Ask the Admin – What More Do I Need?

I received this e-mail from Kathy:
I have a AA in Business Administration with a concentration in management, a bookkeeping diploma and a administrative assistant diploma and I still have a hard time getting an administrative assistant job. As for experience I would say i have the bear minimum because of where I live. What do I need to do in order to get an administrative assistant position?
It sounds to me that with your education you should be able to qualify for an entry level assistant position.  You’d qualify for more with more experience, probably.  The main problem at the [...] Continue Reading…

Ask the Admin: Staying in Touch While Traveling

Lisa sent me the following e-mail:
Do you have any tips or advice for communicating daily, weekly or priority items when traveling for weeks at a time.
Thanks for your e-mail, Lisa.  As it happens, I worked for 3 years for one boss who traveled almost 50% of his time, so I learned a great deal about how to keep in touch while he was traveling.
Make Sure You Have a Plan
If you have a boss who travels frequently, you need to have a plan in place to make sure the two of you stay in touch while he’s out of the [...] Continue Reading…

Gmail Now More Secure

I had a question last year about security on Gmail, Google’s e-mail system.  Previously, any mail you opened or sent was not sent securely, so it could be intercepted by a third party.  In 2008, Gmail added encryption for Gmail, but it wasn’t the default setting, so most folks were still sending mail unsecured.

The good news is that after China hacked many Google Gmail accounts earlier this month, Google decided that the benefits of keeping mail secure was more important than any slow down in opening and sending mail.  So Gmail now has encryption turned on by default.  If [...] Continue Reading…

Mentoring a Young Executive

At some point in your career, you are going to be working for someone who has never had an assistant before. One of the toughest, but most rewarding, jobs an Administrative or Executive Assistant can have is helping a young executive learn how to partner with an assistant.
Understanding the Need to Delegate
In my experience, new executives have two hurdles to cross.  First, they are used to doing everything themselves.  I’ve had several tell me that they didn’t really need an assistant, but their boss insisted they have one. They are used to managing their own e-mail, making their own [...] Continue Reading…

Weekly Links Round-up: January 15, 2010

Here’s the weekly round-up of the links I’ve tweeted recently for those who don’t follow me on Twitter:

9 Toxic Coworkers to Look Out For and How to Protect Yourself From Them
RT @CarlaYoung: Tip: end your workday by preparing for the next! Tidy your desk, inbox and plan your priorities for the next day!
RT @KarenFromTEA: Wkplace Admin Tip: When visitors can hear co-workers talking on speakerphones, discreetly shut their doors for them.
25 Design Freebies From Blogs You Should Read
How to Add Music to a PowerPoint Presentation
Office Insider : Sharpen up your spelling
Monitoring Social Media: What’s Being Said [...] Continue Reading…

How to Organize the Boss’s E-mail

Often as an administrative assistant (and very frequently as an executive assistant), you’ll have the job of monitoring and organizing your boss’s e-mail. This essentially entails reading through his new mail and either replying on his behalf, delegating the e-mail to one of her direct reports, or organizing e-mail that needs a response directly from the boss.

Microsoft Outlook gives you a number of ways to organize e-mail.

Folders – You can create folders for various categories of mail.  These can be based on who sent the e-mail, the project the e-mail is about, the department it deals with, or [...] Continue Reading…

Creating a Professional Voicemail Message

I think everyone can agree that first impressions are important.  But what happens when that first impression is your voicemail greeting?  We’ve all heard some of those greetings that sound like the person is eating while they talk.  The ones where they only have, “Please leave a message for…(in a woman’s voice), John Doe…(in a man’s voice), after the tone (in a woman’s voice).”  How much of an impression are you giving if you aren’t even willing to record an actual message?  So, let’s look at ways to make your voicemail greeting more professional.
What Needs To Be Said
First of [...] Continue Reading…

Have You Got Google Wave?

Google Wave is the newest application of the ever popular Google company.  They’ve taken a variety of IM and networking tools and made a truly unique collaboration interface.

You can, of course, communicate with others in Wave as if you were in an IM, but you can do so much more than that.  You can work on a document together, each typing at the same time, making changes as you go, attach documents, look things up on Google map, all within one screen.  As more developers create add-ons, it will become more and more versatile.  Even in it’s current beta [...] Continue Reading…

Saving Money on Office Supplies

One of the ubiquitous duties of administrative assistants everywhere is ordering office supplies.  In the current economic climate saving money on those supplies is more important than ever.  You’d be amazed at the amount of waste you can cut just through better control of office supplies.  You can attack this project of saving money from several different angles.
Compare Companies
Often when you start a new job, you already have an approved office supply vendor.  But unless you are in a very large company, you may still have leeway in who you use to buy office supplies.  Call several different companies [...] Continue Reading…