Personal Assistant

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Hiring Your First Business Personal Assistant: Some Guidelines for Successful Hiring

Hiring the first personal business assistant is an exciting time for new business owners. It means that the business is doing well enough that the business owner can no longer keep up effectively with the demands of the new business. Sales are exploding, and time becomes of the utmost importance. Scheduling of business chores and personal chores can become very demanding and complex. This is the time new business owners often find themselves considering a personal business assistant.

A personal business assistant differs from a clerical worker or secretary, as the duties are more diverse for a personal assistant. A personal assistant will do whatever is needed to make the business run smoothly and will do whatever is necessary to make the business owner's life run smoothly also. Although a personal assistant usually also performs clerical and secretarial duties, a personal assistant is more a "jack of all trades" than any other type of employee and the duties may include personal chores done on behalf of the employer.

The choice of a personal assistant therefore should be given the utmost of consideration. Here is a list of possible qualities to look for when choosing a personal assistant:

Flexibility of Schedule: the hours a personal assistant works can be very varied, depending upon the needs of the business owner. These hours can include some nights and weekends when social activities and business meetings may occur.
Flexibility of Personality: a good personal assistant needs a flexible, easy going personality, as the demands of the job can be quite stressful, as well as diverse.
Ability to Multi-Task: since the tasks are diverse, multi-tasking abilities are an absolute necessity.
Ability to Bond and Work Well with Others: the personal assistant will be exposed to everyone involved in many ways within the business, as well as the business owner and clients. An ability to establish relationships easily with others is mandatory.
Ability to Learn Quickly and Effectively: a personal assistant will need to come into a business and learn every duty quite quickly and effectively. There may be a large learning curve, depending upon the business and the needs of the business owner.
Knowledge of Office Procedures and Other Procedures Associated with the Business: without some prior knowledge of office procedures and routine procedures that are unique to the business hiring the assistant, problems usually occur.
A Good Work History: having a personal assistant that reports to work sporadically or is frequently late, with many absences, will only cause frustration overall for the business owner and create more work, not diminish the workload.
The Ability to Use Judgment and Work with Little Supervision: a good personal assistant will need to be self-motivated, making many of their own judgment calls concerning the business.
Leadership Qualities: there will be duties required and chores given the personal assistant which will require taking charge of others at times, and accomplishing goals.
Organizational Skills: with the amount of chores and diversity of chores required of a personal assistant, a good one will have high end organizational skills, will be able to prioritize effectively, and will not suffer from "analysis paralysis", but will be able to make decisions quickly and efficiently.
Self Confidence: a good personal assistant will need to be aware of their own needs and the needs of others, and will have to stand by decisions without backing down, therefore confidence in themselves and their decisions is necessary.
Customer Service Skills: many of the chores that a personal assistant performs will bring the assistant into direct contact with clients, therefore great customer service skills are also mandatory.

A business owner seeking to hire a personal assistant should look for the qualities above and also use their own intuition about an individual applying for this position. The business owner should also seek to hire someone whose personality and goals meshes with their own, as the personal assistant and the business owner will spend many hours each day together, and will need to be of the "same mind" about major issues.

It is also important when hiring a personal assistant to determine how much the business can afford to pay a personal assistant, and also to be realistic about the costs of a "quality personal assistant". Many personal assistants will work for reasonable rates, depending upon the country in which the business owner and assistant reside. This usually doesn't translate into "minimum wage requirements", however, as the diversity of the job itself would require a higher pay scale in order to attract more talented applicants for the position. A good rule of thumb, is to pay as "high as possible" while still staying within the budget of the business.

After all, in a situation such as the search for a qualified, reliable, energetic personal assistant, "cheap is not always better".

Article Source:http://www.articles321.com

Vishal P. Rao is the owner of http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com - One of Internet's leading website dedicated to starting, managing and marketing a home based business.

The Qualities of a Personal Assistant

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People who are always on the go need someone to watch their back. In business, we call that individual a personal assistant. But this job is not for everyone which is why there are certain qualities that you have to look out for when you are hiring one.

First, that person should be a jack of all trades. This means he or she is used to multi-tasking. The successful candidate must have a flexible work schedule that goes beyond the nine to five job. You can call them up at anytime, be able to work on weekends, holidays or even overnight if necessary. If this person is not able to do that, then you better hire someone else.

The personal assistant should be internet savvy and computer literate so certain projects can be typed up, research can be done and a presentation can be made. If you are using some programs that the personal assistant is not familiar with, then this person has to learn it quickly in order to adapt to your needs.

When you hire a personal assistant, it is best to get someone with experience so more or less they know what to do in the position. You just have to brief them on how things are done where you work.

The candidate has to be very dependable especially when you are not around because he or she represents you. If a judgment calls needs to be made, the personal assistant has to step up and do what needs to be done. Having such a quality shows this person is self-confident and has the leadership potential to handle more responsibility in the future.

They should show that they are trust worthy so everything you say that is concerned with the business does not leak out of the office.

What does a personal assistant want in return for what you expect from them? Simply put, fair pay because no one is going to work beyond 8 hours everyday and only get paid minimum wage. If you have to travel and you need this person, be prepared to shell out their travel and living expenses.

From time to time, give them tickets to a party or a show if you are not around. As you can see, money is not the only thing that a personal assistant looks for when looking for a job.

How do you look for a personal assistant? By putting down on paper what is their job description and then posting an advertisement saying that you are in need of one. If your company is quite big, you can announce for an opening first within the organization before opening this for outsiders.

Once you have a list of potential candidates, you can now go through the screening process. Those who pass the initial interview and exam can be scheduled to meet you. To help you decide which candidate you think is best, have someone from the company interview this person with you.

If you want to see them in action, let them do something and if you are happy, keep them on a probationary basis first before you decide to regularize them.

At the end of the day, the personal assistant is another employee. If this person does not perform as you expect, they can easily be replaced.