How To Become An Online Executive Assistant

Fully digital or remote jobs have been increasingly popular in recent years. While the work-from-home or work-from-anywhere trend was further bolstered during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more business owners are choosing to stick with such a setup and keep their operations mostly online. Thus, the demand for remote workers is also at an all-time high.

Online executive assistants or virtual assistants are one of the most popular and in-demand positions. According to the latest reports, virtual assistant jobs rose by 41% in 2020, and this is expected to continuously increase over the next few years. On average, online executive assistants can earn anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand per month.

With that in mind, more and more people are interested in becoming online executive assistants. But how do you exactly become an online executive assistant? Whether you’re shifting careers or just starting your journey, it’s important you are well-equipped in order to get hired. To help you with this, here’s a brief introduction and guide to becoming a quality online executive assistant. 

 

What Is An Online Executive Assistant?

An online executive assistant is one of the many virtual assistant jobs businesses sought for. This type of virtual assistant is someone focused on providing necessary administrative, clerical, and at times personal assistance services to high business executives and identities. Online executive assistants are typically hired to handle time-consuming day-to-day tasks such as managing emails and scheduling meetings and appointments. Generally, their responsibilities revolve around organizing the executive’s business ordeals. Online executive assistants also handle and manage digital communication such as small inquiries, client phone calls, business memos, and more. In this position, the online executive assistant acts as the primary and preliminary spokesperson before anyone reaches the high executive. 

 

Responsibilities of An Online Executive Assistant

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Before anyone thinks about becoming an online executive assistant, it’s important to have a good grasp and understanding of the different tasks and responsibilities this position entails. With that here are some of the most common tasks delegated to online executive assistants around the world:

 

Email Management

Email is undoubtedly one of the most common forms of communication in the professional and business worlds. Taking this into account, it is safe to say that business executives would receive a ton of emails about their work in their inboxes. 

As an online executive assistant, it would be your responsibility to manage and organize your client’s emails accordingly. Identify those that are important and need immediate attention while also determining those that don’t concern your client at all. Doing this allows your client to direct their focus on urgent tasks without getting distracted by other incoming emails. 

 

Schedule and Calendar Management

High business executives need to manage their time properly in order to get the most work done within the day. Online executive assistants would be the ones to organize their client’s schedules and calendars starting from their day-to-day responsibilities to their set appointments and meetings. 

Properly organizing your client’s calendar helps them keep track of their responsibilities and future engagements. Aside from that, it also provides them with the bigger picture in terms of work deadlines, urgent matters, and important events. 

 

Project Management

On some occasions, your client would ask you to help manage their team of employees. Since a high executive would have a lot more responsibilities, it can be hard to spare some time in team meetings just to get updates. 

To help with this, the online executive assistant can stand in lieu of their client and hold the meetings themselves while taking important notes of the team’s progress. The online executive assistant would also be responsible for presenting these notes properly for the clients to provide accurate and necessary feedback.

 

Helpful Tips To Become An Online Executive Assistant

Much like any job opportunity, it’s crucial for an aspiring online executive assistant to know what it takes in order to be considered a quality online assistant for high-profile clients. Knowing the different skills, qualities, and characteristics of a good online assistant would allow those to develop aspects they feel they are lacking. With that, here are some tips on how to become a top-rated online executive assistant:

 

Polish your written and verbal communication skills

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Communication is an integral part of any remote working setup. Since online executive assistants and their clients lack face-to-face communication and interaction, it’s important that they are able to communicate properly, effectively, and efficiently. 

Aside from being fluent in the language your client speaks, it’s much more important to know how to communicate using simple and easily understood terms. Doing so will make conversations between you and your client seamless as it prevents misunderstandings, miscommunications, or misinterpretations.

Other than communicating with your client, good written and verbal communication skills are also essential in executing the day-to-day tasks of an online executive assistant.  If your client asks you to respond to their emails, handle customer inquiries, or accommodate important partners, it’s crucial that you are able to communicate with them whether written or verbal. 

 

Establish good time management strategies

As an online executive assistant, it’s highly likely that you would be delegated several tasks that you need to accomplish within a given timeframe. On other occasions, you would be given more urgent tasks that you need to complete as soon as possible on top of your assignments. Taking this into consideration, good time management skills and the ability to work under pressure are something that an online executive assistant should have or develop. 

Good time management skills are also a testament to your capability to be productive and efficient with your time. Since you would be working from home and your clients would be undoubtedly busy, learning how to properly manage your time will give your client’s the trust and confidence that you are able to do your job even with little to no supervision.

 

Develop organization and management skills

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Organizing and managing a wide range of details and information is one of the primary tasks of an online executive assistant. As you strive to streamline your client’s business responsibilities, you should be able to handle large amounts of information and organize and present them accordingly. Develop a foolproof organization system that you can use on different projects such as email management, calendar management, finance tracking, and more. 

 

Bottomline

Although the demand for online executive assistants is on the rise, aspiring executive virtual assistants should not forget the importance of preparing for their dream position. The first step is to understand what exactly it means to be an online executive assistant. Find out what projects or assignments are you going to handle and how to best conduct yourself as a reliable executive assistant. Ensuring that you have the essential skills and qualities will help boost the likelihood of employment and the longevity of your career. 

For business owners, a crucial element of hiring a virtual assistant such as an online executive assistant is effective delegation. While it can be easy to find and hire an online executive assistant, it’s equally important for you to know how to properly manage a remote employee. When you learn how to delegate tasks effectively, you can get more efficiency and productivity from your reliable virtual assistant. 

 

Want to know more about hiring virtual assistants for your business? Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Get a free ebook and learn more about how we can help you by signing up for our newsletter. We also offer a free 30-minute consultation if you prefer something more personal.