Personal Assistant Resources

For people who wanted to start anew or shift to a new career, perhaps a job as a personal assistant could be your option. As this profession requires you to be competent in a couple of areas such as project management, time scheduling, task prioritization, interpersonal skills, and even computer-technical skills, it is always a good strategy to first go about your skills list.

The work of a personal assistant can be as tedious and demanding as other jobs and it is pertinent that you are prepared to handle anything. May it be to respond to your superior’s needs, manage schedules, and arrange collaterals, being up-to-speed is almost always necessary.

To help you check if you have what it takes to be a skilled and proficient personal assistant, here are simple guidelines that you can follow.

Make an Intensive Skills Assessment

A very basic yet effective way in identifying your skills set is to simply write it down. Take time to reflect on what you can do and then list down all your strengths in a sheet of paper. Be as intensive as you can get. Here are some guidelines:

• Reflect with what you have done and worked on during your previous employment. It is always best to look up for your previous job descriptions and see which of those have you performed.
• Organize your skills and place each according to appropriate headings or categories as necessary. For instance, a broad category of technical skills may be broken down into sub-categories such as “computer skills”, “internet skills”, “software development”, “graphics design”, etc. This way, your skills aren’t mixed up, and it will be easier for you to identify which areas are you highly proficient, or otherwise.
• For a more comprehensive leveling of skills, mark each depending on how adept or proficient you are. For instance, you may rank them depending on your level of competency or years of experience.
• Remember to only include in the list skills that you are confident you can perform. Do not include skills or activities that you have only done once. The goal of this skills assessment is to know the things you can do. Do not attempt to make it longer by including items that are irrelevant.
• Do not forget to associate experiences, events, or activities corresponding to each skill. This is important so you will be able to share this with your employer as you go through your interview.

Also, it is always best to keep open communication with these professionals so that you can have an accessible support system should the need arises.

Set your Goals

After completion for your skills inventory, not only you are aware now of what areas you are good at. It also tells you which gray areas you need improvement.

What you can do for a start is to check on those weaknesses or skills with low expertise. Then, take extra efforts to train yourself to become adept at those. You can enroll in short courses that will teach you how to do it. You may also do a little research and take time to learn by yourself. In the long run, this will definitely benefit you.

Short online courses are always readily available for language training, computer skills development, and many others. In addition to that, there are institutions and offices that offer classroom training in many technical areas. All you need to do is look it up and enroll yourself.

However, you need not enroll in all courses you find. Not only is that impractical, but it is impossible for you to simultaneously cram all those skills into your head. Only select skills training that you think will be vital to your career as a personal assistant. This will ensure that you keep yourself up-to-date and up-to-speed.

Every new business has it’s challenges. As the economy has been slumping, fewer and fewer businesses and families have turned to the services of Personal Assistants and Personal Concierges.

Does this mean you shouldn’t pursue building your business? Absolutely not. The biggest challenge is figuring out where to focus your efforts to maximize your investment. Whether that’s an investment of time or an investment of money.

Are You new to the Personal Assistant business?

Don’t be discourage if you’re new to this line of work and finding it challenging to get ahead. Maybe you’re just getting your business started and aren’t sure of the exact steps. Don’t worry, everyone has been in that situation before.

It’s just a matter of simple focus and knowing where to start. If you’re fortunate enough to speak with someone that is experienced in the business you can also save tons of time and cut down on the learning curve.

What’s your biggest challenge?

Have some questions? We have some answers. Take a look at this survey and find out where your real challenges are. Chances are, others are in the same position and the answers are on their way.

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Find your challenges as a personal assistant right now

This will take less then 5 minutes to review and we will be posting the results for everyone to see.

It’s no secret that households are spending less on their “wants” and preparing for the worst. Everyone is watching their budget. So how can a Personal Assistant win more clients when many view their services as a want instead of a need?

Start with  understanding what your clients time is worth. Unfortunately, many people view their time as being “free”. The truth is, everyone’s time is valuable. If your client were to take time away from work or a vacation day to run errands, what would that cost them? Their home time is simliar. Help them understand that by allowing you to complete a task, they may very well be saving extra money and gaining time.

As a personal assistant, you would be handling errands and running around town for your client. Doing so will save them the expense of Gas, wear and tear on their car and time sitting in traffic. All of this adds up. Saving your client time puts money back in their pocket as well. It allows your client to spend more time with family, work or doing something else they didn’t have time to complete before.

Keep a running tally of the time you have saved for clients. While this isn’t an exact science or formula, I have found it’s a nice way to help sell the your service. Typically I will bundle the amount of time into categories and put “driving time” in it’s own category. I can them present a weary client with number that show for a given month I saved my XX clients 7 hours of driving time, 3 hours of shopping time, 3 hours of time standing in lines etc. Numbers help clients put things into perspective. Attach a dollar value and you can see quickly see how much time really costs.

Work/Life Balance is Just Good Business!

It would be nice to think that the companies on the leading edge of work/life balance programs are simply being good citizens and doing the right thing!  But, the fact is that these programs make good business sense.

In addition to increased productivity and employee satisfaction, companies can retain valuable employees in a competitive environment, and attract new employees with these programs. 

Every generation in the workforce today reports that work and life balance is one of the top issues for them and that they want to work in a company that supports their desire to have more balance in their life. 

Whatever the reason for the movement, we should be glad it is upon us. 

Who are the companies with programs, what do the programs look like and what results have they achieved?

You might be surprised to know that these companies cut across all industries in the private and the public sector.  Here are some examples of program components:

Ø      Elder care programs consisting of resources directories, counseling, elder care services and educational services

Ø      Expanded telecommuting and ‘telework’ programs that allow employees to work from home or other locations

Ø      Part-time and job sharing positions for employees come off disability or recovering from health problems, or for parents who wish to spend time at home with their children or with aging parents

Ø      Fully accredited child care centers in or near the workplace

Ø      Babies in the Workplace programs that allow a child to remain with a parent in the workplace until the age of six months or whenever the child starts to crawl

Ø      Alternative work schedules and FlexTime work schedules that allow employees to work hours other than 9:00 to 5:00 in order to better meet their personal needs

Ø      Family Advocacy Programs held at lunch-time on managing personal finances, parenting, stress management, anger management and elder care issues

Ø      Outdoor recreation, walking paths and fitness equipment for employee use during and after work.  Some companies even provide grills, row boats and other equipment for employee family use.

Ø      Support groups for elder care, new fathers, holistic health, spousal abuse, single parents,  adoptive parents, parents of teenagers parents of blended or merged families, caregivers, and grandparents raising grandchildren alone.

Ø      Nursing Mother Rooms for breastfeeding moms

Ø      Enforced scheduling and use of vacation and personal days to ensure that the employees takes time off from work

Ø      Cross-training in positions to ensure coverage so that employees can take time off without the company suffering

These are just some of the examples of programs in government agencies, hotels, banks, corporations and union environments around the country. 

Human Resource Management companies and universities study the effects of these programs and publish reports to support and encourage their growth.  And the really dedicated companies keep finding new ways to encourage balance. 

In many cases, this effort still has to trickle down into the company.  Older managers or those supervisors who feel they are being shortchanged on work may frown upon these initiatives and studies find that programs put in place without adequate manager and employee training rarely have the same impact as a program that includes communication via seminars, training, written manuals and frequent follow-up. 

Work/Life Programs benefit the company by increasing productivity and focus on the job, reducing job turnover and increasing employee satisfaction.  Employees will miss less time from work, because they will not be sick as often. 

Families will be more supportive of the employee’s job and company choice because they know the company supports the employee’s personal needs, and their efforts to sustain good health and to manage stress. 

Instead, a company will run better and will find it easier to attract and retain good employees.  Companies will get a lot of support and good press from employees and managers, alike – and the company may even end up in one of those University Case Studies.  A role model for others to follow!

In your efforts to attract new clients as a personal assistant, don’t rule out business whether small or large. Armed with the information I’ve provided above, you can put together a simple marketing plan that will attract businesses and keep their employees happy.

Start simple. If the company is apprehensive about using your services, offer a trial. Give them 2 weeks to try your services at a discounted rate. At the end of 2 weeks, have the employees that used your service provide feedback to you and report those comments to the company. Happy employees will help sell you to the company.

First and foremost, I want to thank all of our readers that provide valuable feedback each month and ask some really great questions. It’s been a pleasure to help each of you that are striving to open your own personal assistant business or personal concierege service.

I have some really good news that I just couldn’t hold back any longer. Personal Assistant Resources is growing and in the upcoming weeks we are going to be adding some very special features. Plan and simple, we are going to begin providing a wealth of informatin, tips, tools and tricks that will help you grow your personal assistant business like never before.

Want to learn more? Simply signup for our Getting Starting as a Personal Assistant Guide. You may not be getting started, but instead growing. This guide will help you, but even moreso, it will help us tell you when the huge makeover is taking place. It’s something you will not want to miss.

I encourage all readers to signup soon because updates will be going out within the next few weeks and will not be initially posted on the site. Only the insiders will know about everything that is coming up.

See you there…