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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a
Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual
Assistant (VA) is a small business owner who provides
administrative support to other small businesses.
What types
of services can a VA provide?
A VA can
provide all of the services that a normal Administrative or
Executive Assistant can provide. Traditionally, Assistants
provided services such as keeping the executive's calendar,
managing correspondence, typing, answering the executive's phone
and appropriately screening calls.
However, in
the last 10 years as executives have begun to do much of their
own typing and e-mail has replaced much of the traditional
correspondence, Administrative and Executive Assistants have
taken on more diverse duties. While they still provide the
traditional gatekeeping functions, they have been called upon to
produce databases and create custom queries and reports.
With the advent of HTML editors, they have taken on creating and
maintaining websites. They write and maintain blogs for
their executives and create extensive spreadsheets.
Like modern
Administrative and Executive Assistants, the
services provided by Virtual Assistants depend on the skills and expertise of
each individual VA. Some VAs specialize on one particular
area of administrative support, such as bookkeeping or web
support. Here at Administrative Arts, I provide a full
spectrum of administrative support services which I have learned
in my 20 years in the administrative support profession.
For a listing of just some of the services I can provide, click
here.
Do I need to
make a long term commitment?
Absolutely
not! While I hope the relationship with my clients will be
long term, I do not require a long term commitment. You
can contract with me for just a single project. Many
clients start out this way with a virtual assistant, to test the
waters and see if having a virtual assistant is a good fit for
them.
What about
confidentiality?
At
Administrative Arts, I understand your need to keep your
business data confidential. After all, I'm in business,
too. I provide a written Confidentiality Agreement to all
of the businesses with whom I contract, and I take client
confidentiality extremely seriously.
How do you
safeguard confidential files?
All client
files are encrypted for purposes of confidentiality.
Additionally, backups are run daily, so there is little to no
loss of data due to computer failure. The most recent
backup is kept offsite to ensure no loss of data due to fire or
other catastrophic event. All backup media are, of course,
encrypted as well.
Do you only
provide local support?
No, I can
provide most services to anyone regardless of location, any
where in the world. Obviously, some services such as
organizing your office will require that the client be local,
but the vast majority of my services can be provided using
e-mail and the postal service.
What
software do you use in your office?
Operating Systems
Software
Office
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Microsoft Word 2003 & 2007
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Microsoft Excel 2003 & 2007
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Microsoft Access 2003 & 2007
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Microsoft Publisher 2003 & 2007
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Microsoft Visio 2003 & 2007
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Microsoft Project 2003 & 2007
Blogging & Website
Graphics and Desktop Publishing
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