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4 Proven Steps to Become a VA

August 27, 2020 By Contributor Leave a Comment

With our previous article, we shared all about what a Virtual Assistant does, and why online jobs are the way to go.

Now that you understand what a Virtual Assistant is, and have decided to become one, what is the next step?

Let us go through the checklist of the things you need before embarking on being a Virtual Assistant.

1. Make Sure You Are Work-From-Home Ready

Just like when you prepare for regular office work, you have to make sure you have the right attire, are not late, and are familiar with the tools needed for the job. With work from home, it’s the same. You need to make sure that you are all set before starting your online career.

Here are the things you need to prepare to be work-from-home ready.

A computer/laptop.

We recommend getting a computer rather than a laptop if you are a first-timer. With desktops, you can update your system unit if a higher specification is needed or if you need to add peripherals to your computer set-up. They are also cheaper than laptops. If there is any downside, that is, it won’t be portable. However, you can easily upgrade to a laptop once you have stable employment.

A stable internet connection.

If you are to spend money on your new work-from-home set-up, we highly advise that you invest more in your internet connection (if at all possible). A fast and stable internet connection is a must if you plan to work from home. It helps with your productivity and saves you from the nightmare of a buffering internet when you need to attend online meetings or interviews.

Another tip is to get a reliable backup connection like a pocket-wifi – this is a lifesaver when your primary internet connection suddenly becomes unstable.

Noise-canceling headphones

There is hardly a zero-noise environment unless you are in a soundproof room. And most times, you need a quiet space to have a peaceful and focused conversation with your client or even when you are just working on your tasks. Investing in affordable but decent noise-canceling headphones will help you greatly when working.

2. Make Sure You Are Interview Ready

In one of our articles, we shared Five Ways To Impress Your Recruiter Even Before The Interview. Here is a summary of that article:

Have an organized resume that showcases your skills, talents, and employment history.
Have a prominent online presence and ensure that your social media accounts or online profiles have professional content (if public).
Research your prospective employer’s business. It is always a plus if you put a lot of effort into knowing the company you are applying for because this shows your future employer that you are interested in working with them.
Go through some possible questions and practice answering them.
Make sure your computer, headset, and video cam are working, and the internet is stable before the interview. If your internet is unstable, tell your interviewer or client and advise on how long it would take you to get back online or to reschedule it all together. Sometimes technical difficulties are unavoidable even if you made sure that everything is ready. With the right response to your interviewer or client, you might get a second interview or meeting.

3. Make Sure You Are Training Ready

It makes a good impression and shows commitment to being a Virtual Assistant if you have undergone Virtual Assistant training/courses.

There is a lot of free and paid training for Virtual Assistants that you can go through. However, if you can’t afford to buy training yet, you can probably use your existing skillset and leverage it.

In our article, “How To Make Money From What You Know,” we explained how your previous office-based experience could help you land a work-from-home job without an online course.

4. Make Sure You Are Payment Ready

With PhilTeamFinder, once we have placed our candidate with an employer, their trial period is already paid. It is in your best interest to set up a PayPal account, the most popular online payment platform used by overseas employers, to get paid without hassles.

Starting from scratch may be difficult, but remember that anything worth having will require some work. Do what’s needed, work smart, and stay focused on your end goal.

Now that you have more information about the steps to being a Virtual Assistant, are you ready to become one? Our team can help you get started here.

What does a Virtual Assistant actually do?

August 13, 2020 By Contributor Leave a Comment

Ever dreamt of working anywhere you want? Like your living room while in front of the TV in your PJs? Or, using your laptop at your dining room table while having breakfast with your kids? Or maybe you just don’t like working in an office?

Is this even possible?

You may have seen posts on social media and on various job posting sites about a job called “Virtual Assistant.” This may be new to you, but, Virtual Assistants or VAs have been a real thing for quite a while. It became highlighted with job hunters when the pandemic started because people are opting for a safer option.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

In case you are wondering, a virtual assistant is a self-employed worker who provides support or administrative services to businesses and entrepreneurs remotely (as in, not in the same physical location).

Virtual assistants are in HOT demand. This applies to small businesses and for big companies. Virtual Assistants can do many different tasks without the need to be in an office.

A Typical Virtual Assistant Job Description

Some tasks that a Virtual Assistant does might be:

Support Services, like customer support, email support, and chat support. They can handle simple customer inquiries through email or chat.
Bookkeeping, orders, and refunds.
Administrative Services like managing appointments, bookings, calendars, and contacts.
Content Creation Services are content creation, ghostwriting, editing, proofreading, transcription, content research.
Other services specific to your skill sets include website design, WordPress website maintenance, graphic design and layout, editing videos, digital marketing tasks, social media management, and lead generation.

As we shared in our previous article, How To Make Money From What You Know, these skills might be something you already know or have vast experience working in an office.

Why Become a Virtual Assistant?

So the next question is, why become a Virtual Assistant? It was covered in our article: Why Working from Home is Here to Stay, and to give you a summary, it is just more flexible and rewarding to work from home.

Work anywhere. This is a luxury most people dream of. Working anywhere you want might be working from a different zip code every week. Some would look at this as spending the whole day working at the comfort of their bed. Being a Virtual Assistant allows you to have the freedom to do things to make a living but still feel like you’re living.

A study showed that people with a comfortable working environment had increased work productivity. ² Experimental research conducted over the last 30 years has found anywhere between a 2.7% to an 8.6% increase in productivity.

Without the toxic commute and the pressure of office-settings, you can focus on working and performing.

Rewarding. Rewarding is getting satisfaction or gratification. If you ever feel dissatisfied or unhappy with your work because of pressure and not being appreciated enough for your work, being a Virtual Assistant might be for you. VA’s have the freedom to work and get satisfaction because they are not motivated by the pressures of an office-based environment. They are driven by comfort and convenience.

³ Another research by Flexjobs in 2019 found that 65% of professionals think they would be more productive working remotely than in a traditional office, with 49% saying they go to their home or home office when they really need to buckle down and get work done.

If you want a type of career that can rid yourself of safety concerns, the pressures of office-based work and the convenience of working from the comfort of your home, going for a VA job is possibly the best fit for you.

PhilTeamFinder can help you be the next Virtual Assistant HERE.

² The Comfy Team. “The Comfort Productivity Connection”

³ Emily Courtney. “The Benefits of Working From Home: Why The Pandemic Isn’t the Only Reason to Work Remotely”

The Secret To Landing Your Dream Online Job

July 28, 2020 By Contributor Leave a Comment

The Secret to landing your dream online job

The internet is an excellent place for job hunters and has massively changed the job-hunting game. In the old days, you would need to check the newspaper for job ads or directly walk-in to the company to check for job vacancies. The power of technology has made it easier and faster to check for job availability. But the competition is tight, so you need to have a gameplan to get a job online successfully.

Here are a few things to prepare to successfully get that online job:

1. Identify Your Career Goals

There are over a million job postings online, and going through them without any clue what kind of job you are looking for is going to be overwhelming. So before you start searching, find out what career path you want to pursue.

It helps to list down all your skills and credentials and then narrow down the possible career you can search for job listings online. It also helps to go through the categories on the job listing sites to have an idea of what kind of jobs are available online. Be sure to match the skill requirements for the job categories. This will help you leverage your resume once you build it.

2. Build Your Resume

Before you start searching for a job online, you also need to update your resume. Make sure to showcase your skills and experience to make your resume stand out so you can impress your recruiter even before the interview.

Have a cover letter ready and customized for each job application. You should always include a cover letter when applying for a job online.

It would also be best to create a LinkedIn profile. You can attach the link to your profile whenever you reach out to possible employers or see posts of job vacancies online.

3. Search Job Using Job Keywords or Hashtags

A keyword or hashtag is a word or phrase related to the type of job you are searching for. You can use this on Facebook or Instagram. Nowadays, companies and recruitment companies use social media to find possible employees.

For example, when you go to Facebook and are looking for a work-from-home job, you search for the phrase “Work From Home,” and all posts with this phrase will come up. Same goes for Instagram, just search using a hashtag like “#workfromhome” and all posts using that hashtag will come up.

Using keywords and hashtags will help you to find that online job that you specifically want effectively quickly.

4. Build a Network

Get connected to recruiters and headhunters online. Most of the time, headhunters and recruiters are related to not just one but several employers. Besides helping you prepare for the interview and a bit of the company background, they can get you connected to several job opportunities that cater to your skills.

Finding a successful job online will be easier with these pointers, but always remember that perseverance is the key to success. If you can’t find a successful career online in the first try, then keep on trying.

When you are ready to start your online career, Philteamfinder can help you get started.

How To Make Money From What You Know

July 14, 2020 By Contributor Leave a Comment

Perhaps you have asked yourself these questions:

How can I get extra income? What are other people doing that I’m not? Should I take more jobs?

Taking more jobs seems like an obvious option. However, you can only take on so much before you reach your limit.

How then can you earn more without sacrificing all your time or juggling so many things all at once? Are there other avenues you can look at? Are you missing something?

Instead of looking externally, consider looking at what you already have. Like your skillset, for example. What is your most valuable skill? Can you make an income out of it?

The answer is, you probably can. But the question then becomes, how?

“The world does not pay for what a person knows. But it pays for what a person does with what he knows.” – Lawrence Lee

In a Forbes article, studies show that in over 28 million small businesses, an estimated 22 million comprises a single operating member or solopreneurs.

And many of these businesses got started with nothing more than passion and skills to scale into something truly profitable.

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN PROFIT FROM YOUR PASSION:

People have talents that are so natural. They don’t realize it’s a skill. Here are questions you can ask yourself to help you identify your talents and abilities.

What are my strengths?
What do I read most about?
What kinds of activities am I interested in?
What do people ask me to teach them?
What do I love talking about the most?
What have I been paid for in the past?

Online skills that can be profitable

Programming and Coding. Having technical knowledge of coding and programming is highly valuable in this digital age. In 2020, businesses are expanding using websites and apps, and so there is a higher demand for programmers and app developers.

Writing. Writing is a highly valued and portable skill. Businesses are continually looking to hire someone for creating website articles, research documents, summaries, and presentations.

Graphic Design. Graphic design can help you make a profitable full-time career. You can design graphics for presentations, infographics, and graphics for websites.

Social Media Managing. If you can easily manage several of your social media accounts, you can turn this into a career by managing someone else’s social media account or a business’s social media account. Many small to medium-sized businesses are not social media savvy.

Do you have any of the skills mentioned above? If you do, then great for you as these skills are very in-demand online and offline.

However, if you don’t yet have these skills, yet you’re interested to learn, do the next step discussed below.

Upgrade your skills for scalability once you have identified your talents and skills. Josh Spector, in his article, Want To Make Money From Your Expertise? Start Here. wrote, “The more clear you are about your expertise, its value, and who it benefits, the easier it becomes to monetize it.”

Knowing the value of your skills can help you understand who will benefit from it. This will help you focus on the relevant groups or communities you can join to scale-out.

Here is a simple guide on how you can scale-out:

Upgrading your skills. There are free online programs and courses online that can enhance your knowledge.
Creating an online portfolio where you can showcase your knowledge and expertise can help you create a network with companies and businesses that can, later on, turn into employers/clients.
Follow or join communities on social media sites about the talent or skills you have.

Social Media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are excellent avenues for promoting your work. By keeping a consistent dose of daily posts can help you develop your work to possible clients.

There is a vast opportunity for you to make a considerable profit from what you are passionate about. Scale-out and discover the potential of doing what you love and have a profitable full-time career.

PhilTeamFinder has been helping talented individuals find good-paying, stable home-based employment with foreign employers. We can help you turn your passion into profit here.

Why Working from Home is Here to Stay

June 25, 2020 By Contributor Leave a Comment

Since the declaration of the pandemic in the early months of 2020, there has been a significant change in the workforce.

Businesses had to adjust their strategy and adapt quickly to survive. Most opted to offer their services online, and enterprises that rely heavily on human labor encouraged their employees to work remotely.

While there has been a significant increase in remote work worldwide over the last few years, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the WFH (Work From Home) movement to new levels. Based on US statistics analyzed by Flex.jobs and Global Workplace Analytics, there is a 44% increase in people opting to work from home in the last 5 years and 91% in the last 10.

Another study by Lenovo suggests that 87% of employees who either were encouraged or required to work remotely by their employers as a result of the pandemic, were already ready to make the shift to working from home.

Here are several factors why work from home is here to stay:

People who work from home have benefited a lot from avoiding stress brought about by daily commutes. There is no need to take the bus and get seated with someone who might be a bad egg. Forget about expensive cabs when public transport is unavailable. Say goodbye to penalties incurred by being late because of chaotic traffic.

Now you can spend what would have been that commute time with family or doing other things like improving your skills.

Apart from stress caused by traffic, another highlight that plays a big part in the switch in the working environment is office politics.

Sure, there are office politics, even in the online setting. However, it is more tolerable because workers won’t need to deal with overbearing co-workers in-person.

Introverts benefit a lot with this setting and find they are way more motivated and less anxious.

Also, without additional drama, employees are happier. And when employees are happy, they are less likely to get sick, which means reduced absences and higher productivity.

Working from home helps you save.

There will usually be initial setups to buy the required equipment to work from home, e.g., internet subscription, electric consumption, headset, a proper desk, chair, etc.

However, it is also good to keep in mind that these are initial investments, and most are not recurring expenses (apart from wear and tear in office equipment that may need occasional replacement).

Data from the Census Bureau in 2018 indicates the average work from home employees can earn an extra 10-20% per year more than a traditional office job when working for overseas business. With the savings on transportation and take out food, you can be in a position to save an extra 10-20% extra.

Add to that a life of less stress (longer travel time = less sleep, workplace politics, etc.), and the future looks bright.

Imagine spending more time with family and have rounded work-life balance.

The flexible work schedule makes it possible for remote employees to bond with their family members, friends, and do healthy activities like yoga, pilates, running, etc. There are no missing important events, and they have more control over their overall well being.

There are many benefits for people who want to work from home if they are serious about it. If there is a silver lining brought by the pandemic, one of them is, going/working online seems to be the way forward.

Are you planning on working from home? Philteamfinder can help you get started here

Traits Of Highly Effective Employees

June 10, 2020 By Contributor Leave a Comment

After impressing your recruiter, passing the interview, and getting hired, the next step is growing your career within the company.

And while having good credentials and technical skills are well and good, they are not enough to thrive in the workplace and become a high-performing employee.

Here are a few qualities that make a top employee:

Great employees don’t wait for instructions, they take action. They are motivated to propose ideas and seek out new challenges. They go beyond their job description and are not afraid to take risks and take on responsibilities because, for them, every opportunity is a learning experience.

Benjamin P. Hardy said that being successful requires being proactive and not waiting for life to come to you. Meaning, if an employee wants to flourish in their career, they should gravitate towards it and not sit idly.

Being the best employee means having a solid development plan. They assess their strengths and weaknesses to identify what things they need to work on and what they excel in. They strive to continuously improve their skill set by attending conferences and seminars or enrolling in online courses.

Self-directed employees don’t depend on others to help them reach their goals. Instead, they find the best ways to achieve them with minimal supervision from management.

Situations change all the time. And when circumstances change, great employees are able to adapt. They can readjust their expectations, and be quick to think on their feet. They are not afraid to step up and take on new responsibilities. They thrive by being flexible and perform their best in uncomfortable situations.

Problems are inevitable. And great employees don’t just bring them up, they also come up with possible resolutions. Those who are extraordinarily good at solving problems have a clear-cut advantage on their path to success. Problem solvers help set the atmosphere in the workplace by displaying passion and positive energy at work, which ultimately motivates everyone through the toughest challenges.

And though they may not always have the perfect answer, they will never let the higher-ups deal with the issues on their own. As S. Chris Edmonds would say, “Don’t just spot and point out problems. Solve them.”

Being a new employee can be tough and learning the ropes can take a while. Continuously invest in yourself and always strive to be the best. With the right mindset and good work etiquette, transitioning from newbie to top-tier employee status can happen fast.

Start your home-based career with help from PhilTeamFinder

Five Ways To Impress Your Recruiter Even Before The Interview

June 6, 2020 By Contributor Leave a Comment

Learn how to ace your next interview even before it starts | PhilTeamFinder

First impressions create a person’s mental image, so it is crucial to give your interviewer the best version of yourself. If you are one candidate in the pool of hundreds, how can you make sure that you stick out in that crowd?

Here, we share five ways you can wow your recruiter even before the interview starts.

1. HAVE AN ORGANIZED RESUME

Treat your resume as your identification card. This is your first introduction to your recruiter so ensure it is readable and informative.

Use one font for all text and make the document as straightforward as possible.

Ensure you have customized the application to exactly match the job you are applying for.

List your employment history in order, your skills and experiences, your interests, and your updated personal information. This will help your recruiter have the right information about you.

Have someone proofread your document for spelling errors. Attention to detail is one of the most important traits your recruiter looks for in a candidate.

2. HAVE A PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE

Consider your social media as your virtual resume. Your social media profile can say a lot about you. If your profile is public, ensure that they’re professional-looking, and your posts showcase your experience and interests. It is also good to look through your previous posts and filter those that might turn off a future employer.

3. BUILD A STRONG ONLINE PRESENCE

There is a big chance your recruiter will Google you before your interview, so checking your online footprint might be a good idea. You might have shared a link, commented on a post, or posted something controversial that you may want to remove. It is best to build a strong and reputable online presence you would be proud of.

Creating a LinkedIn account if you haven’t yet is a great start. Here, you can sell yourself by filling it up with your work experience and skills. Linking your previous companies and references to your account makes you more trustworthy.

4. BE COURTEOUS AND QUICK TO RESPOND

Your recruiter will contact you either via email or phone if they deem you a great fit. Make sure to respond quickly, politely, and professionally. Responding right away is ideal. And if you are replying via email, make sure to do a quick spell check before hitting the send button.

If they reached out to you via phone and are unavailable, make sure to call them back the minute you are free and explain why you were not able to receive their call. Being respectful can go a long way.

5. BE PUNCTUAL AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK

If you are invited to attend an interview schedule with your recruiter, be there on time or earlier. Make sure you are presentable whether it’s a face to face, video, or audio-only interview. Find a quiet place to conduct the call and make sure your background scene is tidy. Use the best internet connection and sound gear available to you,

Research the company that is recruiting you so that you understand who they are and what they are looking for. This will help you stand out over other candidates. Employers like it when you have cared enough to understand them.

Acing your interview is important. However, setting a positive impression even before the meeting will make your recruiter like you more. And it helps to get extra points.

As Andrew Carnegie says, “You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.” You can’t be a passive job seeker when the market is competitive. Recruiters are looking for passionate people who show initiative.

Have you nailed an interview lately? Comment your best practices below!