How to Find Virtual Assistants for IT Help

Have you ever thought about hiring a virtual assistant? Did you know that some virtual assistants can provide you with IT support? Primo Virtual Assistant LLC is a great example of a company that provides virtual administrative services for small to medium-sized business owners. The VA services offered by Primo Virtual Assistant include a variety of IT tasks, such as hardware consulting and troubleshooting. They work to find the best solutions for businesses to use their technology as efficiently as possible.

If you're just starting out or scaling up your small business, you may not be able to hire a full-time assistant, so VA services are a great way to only pay for the hours and services that you need. Primo Virtual Assistant has a particular focus on database management and data analysis. They can work with you to design databases to your specifications. Their data analysis services include designing different kinds of graphs and charts. You can also work with Primo Virtual Assistant for help with web design.

You may have noticed that a lot of VA services--especially tech-related ones--are based overseas, but Primo Virtual Assistant is based in the United States. It was founded by Martin Bartalsky, who holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Information Systems, as well as an MBA.

To learn more about the benefits of hiring a VA with IT experience, check out this recent article from the blog on the Primo Virtual Assistant site.

Meet Tiffany Haynes, Virtual Assistant

Tiffany Haynes is a virtual assistant and owner of Virtual Business Solutions. She has worked as a real estate broker's assistant where she taught herself marketing development and graphic / print design, and she created an in-house aerial printing shop to facilitate clients with large land listings and commercial sites. Tiffany went on to work in corporate banking, where she excelled in everything from appraisal support to managing all high-risk issues within foreclosure finance, claims, and bookloss. Throughout her professional career, she has developed a wide network of trusted contacts and leverages their expertise to enhance projects, solidifying why she is the hottest virtual assistant in today's market!

Keep up with Tiffany on Facebook and Twitter.

1. How did you first become interested in setting up your own business as a virtual assistant?

I naturally helped entrepreneurs prior to being paid for it. I remember wondering why people that barely knew me would ask me to look at their resume and see if there were any tips I could offer. Friends and family members starting a new business would ask my opinion about crucial decisions. I think that what I do now has always been my calling even before I was even aware of it. I happened to stumble across a description of the industry reading a book in the library and could not rest! I knew from the moment I read the description that not only could I do it; I would be successful at it. I begin to do my research on how I could make that business work for me, and the rest is history!

2. You offer a diversity of services, including specific services for people in real estate. How did you decide what services to offer to clients?

I started off offering anything I knew how to do! So I have an extensive background in the real estate field, and I knew that support in that field is something that I wanted to offer. I have background in project management, so I knew that I wanted to offer strategic and management support. As time passed, I begin to call on experts about things that I was not a subject matter expert in and pull them into my projects, and from there my company has evolved to what it is today.

3. What are some of the challenges of working with people remotely, and what are some tools and techniques you use to communicate/share effectively with clients?

Sometimes when you have a presentation, you want to walk someone through it in person. But it is the technology age, so by utilizing software like GoToMeeting and LogMeIn, I am able to have a very close comparison to an-in person meeting when I meet with my clients.

4. What are some common misconceptions you see about the costs, services, etc involved in hiring a virtual assistant?

Some people believe virtual assistants are too expensive. However, unlike temporary staff and employees, hiring virtual assistants does not incur traditional human resource expenses such as insurance, taxes, and vacation or sick leave. What's more, virtual assistants function independently, without the business owner having to provide an office, equipment, or relevant training. As for remuneration, virtual assistants are paid only in respect of the number of hours or projects for which the business owner requires their services. If you only need 15 hours of assistance a month, that is exactly what you pay for. In essence, you are removing the wasted costs of paying for idle time, which translates into 100 percent productivity!

5. If you were talking to someone who runs a small business--maybe even a solo project!--what advice would you offer in terms of how a virtual assistant could help their business grow?

Big business is successful for many reasons, but one of those reasons is because it has assigned departments and responsibilities: human resources, marketing, admin support, etc.

As a small business owner or entrepreneur, it is your job to be all these things, and if you are waking up and just reacting to deliverables instead of being proactive to the bigger picture, this can hinder your forward motion. Hiring a virtual assistant allows you to distribute tasks to ensure that you can handle all aspects of your endeavors and aspirations that are required to reach your maximum potential. If being tied up responding to calls and emails prevents you from marketing and/or training to learn new skills, you need to assign the calls and emails to someone else. You need a strategic mind to help with marketing; you need a trusted partner to research and find you the best training that is cost effective--this is where my company comes in and does it for a fraction of the cost of what most people think!

Thanks, Tiffany!

A Useful Blog for Indie Business Owners from Upscale Your Business

I think one of the big challenges for an entrepreneur is knowing when to seek some outside help to grow your business. For those of us who are solopreneurs or maybe work with a spouse or close friend, we get so used to running our business on our own that we may miss some opportunities to expand our reach and increase our financial success. I'm enjoying the posts on the blog at Upscale Your Business because there's a lot of food for thought on this topic.

Upscale Your Business is run by Jaimie Skultety, an experienced administrator and virtual assistant. Jaimie and her support team work with a variety of independent business owners on a range of tasks with the goal of taking care of those routine "to-do" items that have been bogging you down, so that you have more time to work on other areas of your business. Do you want to find and make contact with more prospects? Do you have a zillion files on your computer that need to be organized into a spreadsheet? Jaimie is ready to help you with these tasks and many more.

Jaimie has done a lot of work with business, life, and career coaches, but her skills apply solidly to any industry. On a personal note, I've been reading a lot about eBay businesses lately, and I know that some people in this field benefit greatly from the help of a virtual assistant. It's all about managing your time and your data effectively, and sometimes an "outside" perspective can give you a real boost.

For me, just reading Jaimie's blog gave me ideas about places where I could benefit from streamlining some of my business practices--her ideas are concrete and specific, and you can apply them yourself, or you can consider hiring a virtual assistant if you want to expand. Learn more about Upscale Your Business by clicking here.