A Personal Virtual Assistant Can Make a Huge Difference to Your Productivity By Jenny M Whte At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

It is wonderful to have a personal assistant to take care of all your daily routine chores so that you can concentrate on nothing but your work. Of course, you have to be a very busy person like politicians, businessmen, executives and celebrities to justify employing a helper.

However, a helper is not just an errand boy. His job is to understand your routine, desires and expectations and cater to your needs without explicit and specific instructions at all times.

An assistant must be sharp enough to think ahead and anticipate your requirements. The very purpose of employing a personal assistant is to enable you to simply forget about some matters.

The job of the help is not just to do his or her duties but to do it in such a manner that the employer never has to worry about the assigned matters again.

Unless the work involves nothing but running errands, the assistant assumes the role of a friend, philosopher and guide of the employer. He is a reliable ally of his employer and shoulders the responsibility of helping the employer concentrate on his job.

The personal helper ensures this by taking care of all tasks- from important office tasks to menial chores. With such an important responsibility on the shoulders of the woker, it is but obvious that the person should be reliable and professional.

Duties of the Personal Assistant

The duties of the assistant include:

1. Maintaining the business, household and social calendar of his employer.
2. Maintaining a schedule of business, social and personal appointments of the employer
3. Taking care of all travel arrangements for domestic and international trips.
4. Handling all the events and functions of the employer.
5. Keeping a bird's eye view on all business, social, office and even home matters of the employer
6. Performing public relation tasks and media related chores for the employer.
7. Being in charge of all mails and correspondences of the employer.
8. Ensure prompt payment of bills, proper bookkeeping, proper maintenance of accounts.
9. Maintaining the personal and business files of the employer.
10. Being in charge of the contact database of the employer
11. Performing other chores like monitoring computer and office supplies and even sending out personal invitations, greeting cards and thank you notes.

Qualifications of a Personal Assistant

To effectively perform all duties, the assistant must:

a. Have an experience of at least two to three years as a personal assistant in an office.
b. Hold a Bachelor's degree in any stream
c. Be proficient in basic computer programs like MS Office, Internet Explorer, Outlook etc.
d. Have strong communication skills
e. Be good in organizing and handling people.
f. Have extensive knowledge of etiquette. This is a must when serving high profile persons.
g. A professional approach and high ethical standards.
h. Be very reliable and trustworthy.

It is said that an executive would rather give up his wife rather than give up a fully trained personal assistant. While there is no doubt that this statement is an exaggeration, it pretty much sums up the importance of the assistant.

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