Changes in business and improvements in technology have paved the way for new employment opportunities, such as being a virtual assistant.

If you have great organizational and administrative skills, you could excel at helping entrepreneurs and small businesses reach their full potential. To make the most of your own potential, there are certain qualities you’ll need to possess and refine as a virtual assistant.

Juggle Different Tasks at Once

Whether you have several clients or several tasks for a single client, you need to be able to tackle several different tasks to get everything done and remain on schedule. Rather than look at this as multitasking, which isn’t always as efficient as you may believe, it’s better to see yourself as keeping several balls in the air at the same time. With the right amount of organization and scheduling, you can put yourself in a position to where you’re waiting on someone else rather than have someone waiting on you to take care of a task on your end.

Remain Reliable

As a virtual assistant, you want to make it so that your clients don’t have to worry about whether you’ll get the job done. They simply drop a task into your inbox and move on with the confidence you’ve got everything handled. When clients have to constantly check on you to ensure the wheels are in motion, they may seek out someone they can truly trust with their business.

Check Your Work

Before submitting any work, proofread it first. There are several different online editors you can use for free, in addition to relying on your word processor’s spell check. Clients rely on you to make their lives easier. When they constantly point out simple grammar mistakes on emails, reports, and the like, you’re likely to lose that client.

What’s more is there’s a chance you can develop a bad reputation in the virtual assistant community, cutting you off from potential new clients. Be sure your work is beyond reproach to keep clients happy and coming back.

Have Great Communication Skills

The people you work with need to feel like you’re on the same page with them and understand what they’re saying. If there’s anything you do not understand, you have to ask questions, no matter how minor the confusion may be. Have clients break things down into minor steps to head off unnecessary disaster.

Additionally, repeat steps back to the client in your own words to make sure you both have the same vision for the final results. Neglecting this step can easily result in lost time and higher costs.

Maintain Your Integrity

Besides being reliable, you also want to become known as a virtual assistant with a high degree of integrity. This means not cutting corners on the work you do, even if you know the client won’t be able to tell the difference otherwise. It’s also a good idea to under promise and over deliver.

That means that if you know you can have something done by Wednesday, tell the client you’ll have it to them on Thursday. That way, if anything goes wrong, you’ll have some extra time to resolve the issue without submitting late work. If everything goes according to plan, your clients are sure to be pleased to receive work earlier than promised.

If you sense a setback brewing, communicate that ASAP to let clients know what’s going on, what you’re doing about it, and when they can expect their work.

Have A Good Attitude

Even if you’re one of the best virtual assistants available, people will likely be hesitant to work with you if you have a terrible personality or aren’t friendly.

This isn’t to say you have to be sugary sweet and bubbly with every correspondence, just that you want to do what you can to develop a great rapport with your clients.

Because you probably won’t see the people you work with face-to-face every day, it can become difficult to develop a rapport without relying on body language. Do what you can to infuse a bit of friendliness and positivity into your emails, text messages, and the like.

Once you get your momentum built up and going, you can become an unstoppable virtual assistant. Keep these traits in mind at all times, and you’re sure to experience success. Best of luck!